> I tie my poor mental arithmetic skills partly to never properly learning multiplication tables
I thought this too.
When you're young the multiplication table seems like a daunting thing to memorize, but after graduating university, it doesn't seem so bad.
So I went back and memorized my times tables using Anki. It was pretty easy, but ultimately changed very little and I easily forget them if I stop practicing.
I've come to realize that not mastering the times tables were a symptom, not a cause, of my learning difficulties.
I thought this too.
When you're young the multiplication table seems like a daunting thing to memorize, but after graduating university, it doesn't seem so bad.
So I went back and memorized my times tables using Anki. It was pretty easy, but ultimately changed very little and I easily forget them if I stop practicing.
I've come to realize that not mastering the times tables were a symptom, not a cause, of my learning difficulties.