Symptoms of AS but not math/science oriented

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My strong subjects were English, history, and foreign languages. I was only average in math. I don't do well with the technical aspect of computers at all. I use the computer for e-mail and the Internet.

I struggled to get Cs in Algebra, and most of it I learned from science classes. Logarithms are just mumbledy-gook in Algebra class, but when doing pH calculations and serial dilutions, it all made sense.

Geometry was much more intuitive for me - I could see what was going on.

I think there are different reasons people aren't good at math.

I'll admit that I am more gifted at math than most, but I don't think it's due to brain power alone. I love the feeling I get when everything "clicks" and so I tend to labor over math more than anyone else I know has the patience for. I always go for complete understanding even if it means I have to spend 4 hours (or even 8 hours) agonizing over some concept in my head. I notice people who aren't as interested in the subject don't like to spend the time thinking and would rather just get everything from the lecture. If they don't understand they just memorize formulas so they can pass the test. It's impossible for me to do this as I'm too stubborn and never give up until I understand. I've failed to complete homework assignments in time because I was more interested in understanding concepts than going through exercises where you just follow formal rules. Still, it doesn't matter that I get penalized for not finishing the homework on time because I have a better understanding and fare better on the tests than everyone else.

I also never found that I got much from lectures. It's nearly impossible for me to understand what a teacher/prof is talking about and/or writing on the board while I am simultaneously taking notes. I don't expect to learn anything from the teacher/prof while in the class. They usually go way to fast for me and anything that isn't totally review goes right past me. I find the best strategy is to just concentrate on getting everything down in terms of notes and then try to go through it for understanding later. This means I have to spend a large amount of time re-reading and re-writing my notes for understanding. I can't imagine being motivated to do this if the subject didn't interest me.

I guess my main point is that a lot of how well we do in subjects has to do with the amount of interest we have in the subject. I think higher level math like algebra and calculus are just difficult subjects for almost anyone at first (except natural geniuses which are only like 1/1000). If I didn't enjoy math I probably wouldn't do well because I wouldn't be able to put the energy into thinking about it and laboring over it in my head.

I think you may be right. I always scored high in subjects like History, English, Psychology, and Sociology, because I found them interesting. Math always felt like a dirty chore.

It's the stereotypes that get to us eh? I am so tired of them.

I am not into math or science. I can't even do algebra. My doctor told me it's bullcrap that someone not being good at math and isn't into tech stuff isn't an aspie. She diagnosed me with it too.

I love word searches, and hate crossword puzzles, for example. I sometimes have trouble finding the words because the other letters distract me or i find words that are not in the search list. but thats because i have a sneaky suspicion that i may have high hypractivity issues. i writhe sometimes from lack of what to do and the inability to think in a straight line long enough to get up and get on the move, or because im scared of the overloads, so on an such.

Although I loved physics at school and have a great interest in the latest scientific developments, I don't appear to have an affinity for it.
Having said that, I can do well in biology if I put my mind to it. But mostly, I am more of a word expert and can fly through crosswords with little thought time.

I agree, it's a steretype that all AS people have to be technically/mathematically minded. There is also another stereotype, a completely different one, which appears to have been started by Temple Grandin - that all AS/AU people have a propensity towards purely visual thinking which is very concrete and oriented at palpable, visible detail. Granted, there is a large number of people on the spectrum who excel at math, and an equally large number of those who think in pictures, are good at various practical jobs requiring visual skill (such as different practical jobs with animals, veterinary, observation etc., crafts that involve making something with one's hands, visual arts and so on) and have a lot of difficulty with abstract subjects. But there are many others who fall into neither of these two categories and have other types of thinking, too.

I personally am in the visual thinker category (though with a greater degree of abstract thought than, say, Temple Grandin). I have always been very bad at math. The only thing I can do is memorize the rules of solving a problem on a purely technical level, so that when I do stereotypical problems which all fall into a certain pattern I can actually be quite quick and give the impression of being good at the whole thing. I can also reason out the patterns in which the figures are organized, if that makes any sense, and the different ways of juggling them, without actually understanding what it is all about. I cannot comprehend what the figures themselves really are; when it comes to that, I don't fully understand ordinary numbers unless I imagine the way they would be represented in real life (as in "two plus two" - pictures two apples being placed beside two other apples on her desk - "makes four" - pictures all the four apples together - "not five" - pictures one more apple being put on the desk to illustrate the difference, then being removed, then put back again, etc.).

From what little I remember, calculus was difficult for me and I was really slow at figuring out the problems. My mother lost her patience with me on a daily basis because of the sluggish pace at which I would solve them, if I did at all; it seemed to her that I was acting almost ret*d, and, since she is excellent at math herself, it was difficult for her to understand how on earth one could be so slow when doing tasks that seemed so simple to her. It was a daily pattern - we would start the morning with doing math (it was one of the several subjects that required my mother's supervision because I couldn't do it on my own, so we had to do it together every day), things would go well for a while, then I would get stuck on a problem. My mother would wait for a few minutes, then get impatient, then annoyed, then would start shouting at me and telling me what an idiot I was. I would start crying. It usually ended with my mother leaving and shutting the door, me crying for a while, then coming after her, and then we would embrace and apologise to one another and make up. Now she admits that she wasn't very good at relating to me back then, and that it was stupid of her to get angry every time I failed to solve a problem. But back then this made me hate the math lessons; I remember waking up every morning and wishing that something prevented us from doing math - that my mother had to leave urgently or something, or, if nothing of the sort happened, I would at least try and put it off for as long as possible.

Algebra in middleschool grades was easier. It was probably the only branch of math I did fairly well at. There were many mechanical rules that were easy to remember and follow; they had few exceptions and made sense from the point of view of ordinary basic logic. So I was fairly quick at figuring out the patterns of solving problems and applying them. Whether I understood the subject or not is another issue. When one comes to think of it, the letters used in algebra are even more mind-boggling than numbers - up to this day, I still don't really understand what they represent. They have no real-life equivalents I could compare them to.

Higher math was a disaster, especially when integrals and probability theory began in grade 12. There was nothing in it I could understand. It was illogical and much too complicated, and the abstractness of it was absolutely beyond me. I could still do some problems fairly successfully by memorizing the pattern and applying it mechanically to identical tasks, but it was more difficult and there were some things I simply couldn't grasp, because I failed to understand how they worked in the first place.

Higher math was one of the reasons why I quit studying psychology - we had too much of it and on too high a level, and even people who were far better at it than me would fail and require to resit the exam several times just to get a positive mark. The tutor would write these meter-long formulae on the blackboard and I sat there like an idiot, understanding *nothing* whatsoever (it didn't help that the tutor was a quiet, shy man who talked to the blackboard rather than the students and didn't stop to explain the more complicated aspects). When solving the problems, I felt like stumbling blindly through some impenetrable jungle. I remember taking the exam and just doing whatever, hoping that at least a few of the problems will turn out to be solved correctly and I can get a 5 (the lowest positive mark in our system). After failing the exam repeatedly, first getting a 7 when I took it again, then just barely managing a 5, I understood this wasn't for me.

It's roughly the same for me.
For me with English as a foreign language i did great.
I fully spoke English when most people my age only knew Yes and No.
However this wasn't the same with other languages i wasn't interested in.
With German i did great as well.
However i sucked at French, and never even cared about being able to speak it.
Let's face it, the only time you need French is when you go on Holiday to France or Walloon.

I've also always been verry interested in History.
Especially all the wars that happened in our history and how it changed Europe.
For instance if some wars had ended a little differently i might have ended up German, French, or even Spanish.

With regards to computers i am not a typical AS person.
I use them for my past time and only that.
I prefer working jobs where i don't sit all day.
I also admit that i am not verry good with computers.
Most things i learned about it. were from my brother who knows a great deal about it.