> because they couldn't remember it were all bad at EE and bad at math.

> If you can't remember the pieces making up a concept, how are you going to remember the concept?

You touch upon the different levels of knowing it. Yes, having to carry a card with the formulas on it shows no knowledge. But, if you have to memorize the formulas, your knowledge is still not adequate. You're just regurgitating a formula that you memorized so you can plug in numbers. You don't understand the "why" of Ohm's law. Of course voltage is equal to current times resistance, it's obvious by what these things are! It should be as self-evident as "Of course distance is equal to speed times time!"

Another example: You can have the Lorentz transformation formulas memorized but still not really understand the "why" of Special Relativity.