Many excellent Math students after leaving universities more than 10 years forget 90% of math they learned, save some primary school arithmetics – few could do Singapore PSLE Modelling Math or solve quadratic equations.
The “Story-Telling” memory technique via “Signposts” can be used to reconstruct math from first principles:
https://medium.com/@fjmubeen/how-not-to-memorise-mathematics-98fef71aefcf
Note: Lewis Carroll: the author of “Alice in wonderland”
Cambridge Professor Tim Gowers (Fields Medalist) suggested the similar pedagogy of “Memorise by First Principles”.