Heres the situation
>be me
>18 years old
>skipped math classes literally all the time in highschool
>graduated hs without knowing even order of operations
>didn't go to college because neet
>started self studying math
>use jerome kaufman's algebra for college student for a year now.
>my performance is alright, i am at ease throughout the whole book, ace the practice excercises throughout the whole book.
>have one problem: struggling at problem solving

Holy shit..Give me any function, I can easily find its' difference quotient, graph, x and y intercepts, minimum value. Give me any polynomial and I can easily factor it, and enjoy the long process involving fractions with radicals and shit Basically, I am good at paper but struggle at applying the concepts I have learned in word problems and struggle also at setting up proper equations, variables etc.

How did you become good at solving word problems? Books you used, techniques, etc will be appreciated.