I always jumped to new chapters without doing the exercises. A basic problem took me days to solve, and that changed my view. Do you make yourself finish all the practice stuff?
Chapter 5 on data structures, I blew past the linked list problems. Big mistake, always grind the practice. Thought I got the idea, but building one from scratch had me stuck for hours... Those small drills wire your brain for the real stuff. Now I do every single one, even if boring. It saves time later when you hit a wall.