Studying mathematics: Is proving things yourself worth the time? When studying mathematics, is proving things yourself (before reading the proof given in the text) worth the time? This approach takes significantly longer than simply trying to follow along, but you understand everything better and learn to come up with mathematical tricks when they're needed.
Compare to the following alternative: first read the proof, and then reconstruct it later. You will still understand the structure of the proof, why the conditions in the hypothesis are needed, etc., but you have the benefit of knowing any tricks that are needed beforehand. Is coming up with these tricks yourself worth the time?

It depends on what type of math appeals to you.
If you want to apply math, you want to be able to apply propositions to real world problems. In that case knowledge of the propositions is more important than the proofs behind them.
If you want to understand math and possibly come up with new propositions, you will need to learn how to prove propositions.
