Thanks Andrey! To answer your question, it was not easy. I pretty much did three things:

1. Nonstop financial models and mastering all the shortcuts - also learning to rebuild things from the ground-up to ensure I understood them conceptually and wasn't just going through the motions or memorizing a series of steps

2. Reading up on industry news and trying to understand the deal environment in the industries we worked on (my first office did mostly healthcare, automotive, and industrials deals, but I also wanted to get more experience with tech and real estate deals, so I studied this as well, which proved helpful at the subsequent firm, where I got staffed on biotech and real estate deals from the get-go).

3. I studied the deals, models, and decks my colleagues were working on (I had access to the shared folders or would ask them to send me more complex models they were in), so I could get the benefit of seeing inside the most complex of deals and financial structures, even without being staffed on them.

And mostly, a lot of hours reading, googling, and maxing out my brain. I think that's required to master a learning curve on your own - or at least it was for me.