Math

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What kind of high school requires multi-variable calculus and group theory to graduate? I took multi-variable calculus in high school because I wanted to, but I was very lucky it was even offered (forget about group theory). I bet my school was the only one in my area that offers that class, and even there my class had only 5 students (out of a school with about 100 students per grade). My high school was also somewhat unusual in that it required any calculus at all to graduate.

I was like jnet in that I hated math when it was just memorizing arithmetic facts, but when algebra came along I started to really like it. I'm a visual learner like a lot of you, and I actually found multi-variable calculus to be relatively easy. Because I actually visualized the divergence as a sort of flow radiating outward and the curl as a rotation (aside from just abstract formulas), the fact that the former is related to surface integrals and the latter to integrals around a loop was perfectly intuitive to me--the formal proofs seemed almost superfluous and I could have never seen myself mixing them up.

Unlike jnet, though, I really liked geometry (in fact much more than algebra). My high school was also fortunate enough to offer a class in non-Euclidean geometry, which was full of proofs.

That's how I've gotten by all of these years- my photographic memory. I have little to no comprehension of why I'm actually doing the problem or what it means. I just memorize it, and it looks like I sort of know what I'm talking about. I don't, though. Algebra is the only math that I ever understood what it meant, for the most part, although I had to memorize some things in there, too, mostly in the beginning (like the rules of exponents). I have a feeling that I'm so good in algebra because it's mostly memorization. It takes me a year of math to fully understand things. I'm always months behind others. I'll finally understand something some day that others have mastered months before. It doesn't matter how long I practice or how much I go for help. I literally can't see it, so I memorize.
-OddDuckNash99-

I did well in my math homework, but would get nervous at test time. I still managed to get a B or a C overall, because I did well in the homework.

My son has a major problem with math he is 16, and it is so goood to hear that others have problems too.

Yes. I have dyscalculia. Take a look at these pages and see how much of it fits you:

http://www.dyscalculia.org/calc.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyscalculia

I have a diagnosed " generalized learning disabilty in mathematics". Does that count as dyscalculia, or would I also have to have problems with basic arithmetic (which I excelled at in grades 1-3)?

I don't think being good at basic arithmetic negates a diagnosis of dyscalculia; I also was adequate at basic addition, subtraction and multiplication. I began having trouble at division, and it just got worse from there on. My dyscalculia has most obviously manifested itself in my complete "time-blindness". I have an extremely poor sense of time. I also didn't learn to read an analog clock-face until very late, and still have to refer to my hands to name "left" and "right". I have to physically rotate a map in order to follow a route that changes direction. I have no money concept. I cannot do mental calculations above 2 single-digit numbers; anything else must be written down. I was never able to learn how to read music. There are many other signs, too. But certainly someone with dyscalculia can learn to master the most basic arithmetic (although this may be "luck of the draw" in terms of getting the right kind of teacher to make that possible).

yes i was terrible in math, i even have problems with long division unless it is explained to me, it took me 3 times in high school to pass pre-algebra, ive taken tests that have put me at a 5th grade level in math.

Haha, no problems with math here. The lowest grade I had ever gotten in a math class before now (calculus) was an 89.7%. I have a bad grade in Calculus, because I do rotten on all the tests...I don't like the way my teacher words them/sets them up .

Math is my evil nemesis of evilness.

I do fine with algebra, since it's more a matter of knowing how to handle the functions; my brain seems to have some kind of permanent block against understanding and being able to visualize numbers, though.

I have no problems with maths whatsoever, and find it on the whole to be quite easy.