What I meant by learning syntax is that you have to think more about syntax when you're writing it on paper. When you're typing C++, you're not really thinking about where all the semicolons and braces go, it's all pretty automatic. If you want to learn to "think like a programmer" that means being able to forget about the syntax and focus on your problem.

That said, I have to agree that bench testing is an invaluable skill. I was able to impress a lot of my classmates by simply glancing at a program listing and pointing out the bug.