I have a general learning question about higher-level abstract math. I don't know if this question belongs here, but I can't find anywhere else on the website to ask it. Is there a productive way to learn higher-lever math studying independently from books without getting bogged down trying to answer everything in the problem sets? I'm always surprised, when I take an abstract math course, how few problems we're asked to do from the book's problem sets - so having a professor is helpful because he or she knows which problems are key problems and which ones aren't. I'd like to hear others' insights about this aspect of independent studying.