I've tutored high school math for seven years, and I've noticed that most students who struggle with algebra aren't bad at calculations—they just never developed number sense. Memorizing formulas without understanding why they work is like learning a language's grammar without vocabulary; you can conjugate verbs but can't speak. I think we should replace about half of our repetitive drill exercises with puzzles and estimation games that build intuitive number sense. But maybe I'm wrong—do those drills actually build the automaticity that frees up working memory for harder problems?