Troubles with Maths and Physics

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I suppose one of my many oddities has always been my obsession with maths and Physics. They are both incredibly interesting and i always just sort of saw myself doing both as long as i remained in education.

But alas, the world has a way of reminding you that things are never gonna go the way you want, especially not when i play out every scenario in my life a million times in my head

Problem is, while im good at both, i cant do anything under pressure. causes that sensory overload thing in my head and means i cant do even the simplest maths sum, exams are the way you are tested on how potent you are in certain fields of learning. I cant do maths exams, and because of the increasingly maths-y nature of physics, physics exams as well.

So im at a loss as to what to do, should i devote my resources and efforts into trying to increase my maths and Physics potency, which may never matter if i cant add 2 single digit numbers if i get too stressed out, or do i have to find some other things to follow in my academic pursuits, and by extension my future career? Figured id attempt to find what fellow aspies thought about this

I dont rly mind if what you reply isnt upbeat or what i want to hear, so long as its true its gold to me

Well, from someone who was a nuclear engineer and went back to school afterward to double major in mathematics and physics, I think I can give you my point of view on it. You may enjoy aspects of mathematics and physics and you can certainly read plenty of books that are available on them. But if you have a difficult time with mathematics and with doing it in a pressure environment, I think you should rethink that as a career. Honestly mathematics and physics become basically indistinguishable at the higher levels of both. Physicists have to create the mathematics they need in order to express what they are theorizing or observing, and mathematics uses what physicists are probing to come up with new theoretical mathematical models and methods. They get married very tightly. And you will have a very long period of needing to take a ton of tests that will all have very complex mathematics on them, and that won't change much after you graduate and need to write research papers. It will likely make you happier to read those disciplines for fun, there is a lot of great literature on math/physics these days and I have bookshelves full of them, and go into a career that comes naturally to you. I definitely would cheer you on for trying to be whatever you want to be, but that is my advice on this.

Some schools will have separate testing, or non-stress testing. Depends upon the district.

Oh, how I wish I understood math(s). It's nearly-indecipherable to me, which is a shame because I love Astronomy.

Whatever career you have, it is likely to involve some stress and definite pressure. You might as well learn how to deal with these, and exam anxiety etc are great situations to start in. I gather the engineering field will have pressure because an engineering firm is paid a lot of money to do critical work on expensive projects under deadline (just my impression), so there is much more to it than just dealing with the pressure in exams at a given school. You need to learn to manage your emotions and distressing situations, so you might as well go for it unless you want to circumscribe your life and hide from its challenges. You might as well give it some very good effort. Many people have overcome this before you, so there is much out there to learn from.

I know the feeling. I couldn't work out 75/3 once when under pressure, and was only let off when one of my neighbours told me the answer. My mind just went totally kaput. Good luck!