Trouble With Math?

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This has been bugging me for awhile.

I've seen and heard stereotypes that aspies are great at math, but for some reason, it's extremely hard and difficult for me. I try my best to understand the concept, but no matter what, I always fail my tests and quizzes. However, I am very forgetful, but I am afraid about telling my math teachers this because I'm afraid they might not buy it and take it as an excuse. My classmates don't buy it either, and there's one person in my class who shoots me dirty and skeptical looks evry time I finish my work before anyone else, or when I get something wrong.

My parents have also been on my case about this, nagging me about how I excel in every class except math.

Can someone please help me understand why I might be so bad at math?

Dyscalculia is sometimes present with autism. Perhaps you could see your doctor about an evaluation? Alternatively, you maths might just not be your strong point. Everyone is different.

Some people are just better at certain things than other things. You might have dyscalculia, in which case there are ways to get help. Either way, it's not a bad idea to get tutoring. It could be that you're just not an auditory learner, so try reading the textbooks, or practice your note-taking and studying skills.

hi! I have dyscalculia and on top of that math does not come easy to me. It's partly because of my own lack of understanding but also I think because of the way it is taught. it doesn't account for different ways of understanding information and it asks for too much memorization compared to synthesization. what helped me in high school is a tutor who would draw concepts out for me in graphs and tables and shapes. that was really helpful. she was a genius. maybe you could try a tutor who can teach you in a different way than your teacher does?

I'm really scared to take a math class this summer to graduate from college :/ I wish there was a math class that was more applicable to my major and less difficult to grasp

math is one of those subjects i find fascinating, and have more appreciation for it as i grow up, but never have been too good at it academically.

i'm more creative and theoretical, it is difficult for me to memorize formulas but i appreciate math's objectivity.

I tested into the equivalent of pre-algebra during my first year of college.

i got intermediate algebra. (or as they call it here, math 107).

I could never understand math even if I tried. I had to substitute it for something else so that I could at least get it out of the way and stay in school.

Was never diagnosed, but I am pretty sure I have a mild form of dyscalculia. I did have a tutor at one point in high school, depending on the tutor it can help a lot. Sometimes having someone explain out a formula for you really helps.

That being said, I only ever made it to introductory statistics. Definitely can't handle calculus.

Anything beyond EXTREMELY simple algebra (the concept of a variable, like the X value on a Fireball in Magic: The Gathering) is a challenge for me. Hell, even relatively simple mental calculations take me longer to do than most people, and I often end up resorting to using a calculator whenever I have access to one.

I hated elementary and middle school math because they put so much of an emphasis on mental math and estimation, and I'm the kind of guy who likes to get exact answers for things. I was thankful when they FINALLY started allowing us to use calculators in class some time around 8th or 9th grade... it may have been some time sooner, could've even been 6th grade, but my memory's a bit hazy. Whatever the case, I remember refusing to do class assignments (or "busywork" as I termed them) that weren't directly worth marks quite often, and whenever I ended up actually working on assignments or quizzes or tests, I would end up scrawling calculations all over the place and drawing groups of things to represent numbers, just trying to figure out workarounds for all these bizarre concepts they tried teaching us that I couldn't figure out how to do the "normal" way. I also had a tendency to easily forget concepts that I had learned previously, particularly how to rearrange algebraic equations. And don't get me started on long division either, it has all sorts of strange rules and I don't see the point of doing it unless you REALLY don't have access to a machine capable of floating point math, like a computer or calculator or smartphone.

They say math is all about logic, and I can do logic to a degree, but math is often quite illogical to me. I'd say I'm better with basic arithmatic now than I was when I was younger, but good luck trying to get me to do anything beyond that.

Interestingly, even though I largely hated doing math in school, I'll admit that I sometimes got a kick out of figuring out questions I actually somewhat understood the concepts to, and even if I didn't fully understand the concepts but I somehow managed to find a workaround, it still gave me a sense of satisfaction. Sometimes I like a good challenge.

Thinking about it now, I feel like I sort of have a mathematical brain, I just tend to think a lot more slowly than other people, and I have trouble understanding illogical or pseudo-logical concepts, like what they try teaching in school.

^ how do you feel about topology?

with the help of a patient and articulate tutor, i actually became quite profifient at long division in elementary school.

after that though, in 5th or 6th grade i remember blowing off all the math assignments because they were too hard...because i never bothered to pay attention. my grade plummeted, though thankfully i didn't have to repeat the grade. in 6th, the teacher met me fool around with his macbook in class, so i never learned anything about math. too busy admiring the decorations on my desk in the back of the room and playing browser games.

when they were discussing slope ali could do was stare at the board in confusion, and that is probably why i was still taking intermediate algebra as a senior in HS.

In a speech way back in 2007, Temple Grandin said there are three types of Aspies, as last as far as our preferred intellect style:

1) math abstract,

2) story / narrative, and

3) visual thinking.

from CSULB - Temple Grandin - Focus on Autism and Asperger's Syndrome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgEAhMEgGOQ
see 21 minutes into talk

Each style has it's strengths and minuses. You might want a tutor who's comfortable explaining math in different ways. So, don't try harder at math. Try diagonally!

For example, I did a recent post in which I said there's at least two ways to learn math:

Learning the theory first and then the procedure. This is the quote-unquote 'normal' way.

Or, learning the procedure first and then the theory. This might be more the pattern recognition, feel-and-texture approach. And these are skills we as human beings are quite good at.

And there are probably more ways besides. My point being, there is no one "right" way to learn math.

About classmates being jealous and giving dirty looks. Try to ignore without making a big deal out of ignoring, and I know this can be easier said than done. If you go through the test fast, that's fine. Maybe just slow down as you go through and check it without being painfully slow to you. Again, easier said than done. You do want the skill of proof-reading and double-checking for college or for various independent projects of your own choosing. again, without overdoing it or making a particularly big deal about it.

It depends on what kind of math you're bad at. Are you bad at all math, or just at some specific kinds of math ?
For example, I'm not bad at math and I'm sure I don't have dyscalculia. I'm very bad at algebra and only formal math in general, because is sort of tries to make math verbal and I don't see the connexion as I'm an almost exclusively visual thinker, I feel like I'm blind. Teachers don't teach logic in this kind of math, they just want their students to repeat their methods like parrots (and don't you dare being creative and use other methods no matter how valid they are, innovation can't be tolerated !) and pretend that's what logic is On the contrary, topology, statistics and graphical math in general, it's like day and night

Topology? I don't recall ever studying it. I never got far in high school math, in fact I've never even gotten past 10-1 (aka 10 pure) level stuff.

I don't see the point of long division because you don't even get the same results that you get with normal division. I'm glad I no longer have to do it, though I recall a couple of times in recent memory where I was tested without the assistance of a calculator, and I had to resort to it. Ugh.

If you were old enough you may have been "socially promoted", I have a feeling this is what happened to me in 7th grade since I was a year older than everyone. Well, a year older, but definitely NOT more mature than the younger kids I was with.

All I remember is that slope = rise/run. Seems fairly simple, rise is the vertical height of an inclined surface, and run is the horizontal length. Assuming you have a straight incline, you can picture it as a right triangle, where the incline itself is the hypotenuse. Where it gets really fucky is when you're missing two of the measurements, and you have to figure it out using only one measurement and the slope value. God, it's been a while since I've done this stuff. I feel like I've kind of had this stuff drilled into me more than the average person since I've struggled with it and done it over and over.

I was bad at math until I got to college. There I realized although I could do the calculus part of problems, I had not learned algebra or geometry well, so after class I would write out every algebraic step of the problems and look up similar problems until I understood. A weak foundation might be what is giving you trouble.

I struggle with math too (and mostly the "easy" concepts, while the "difficult" concepts are easier for me ).

I found getting a tutor really helped. I hate it when teachers immediately jump to the conclusion that a failing student is lazy. Don't get me wrong, some students ARE truly lazy. But some have learning disabilities, health issues (physical AND mental) and even just something that is going on in their life (like death of a family member) that can cause failure as well. And sometimes, the student just doesn't understand the concept for whatever reason.