Bad at Math, Good at English?

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I've always been absolutely terrible at math of all sorts. I failed algebra 1 twice! It affected my confidence in mathematics to the point where I get nervous just trying to do simple arithmetic in my everyday life, like working out tips on a check or figuring out prices at the grocery store.

Now, geometry was excellent because I'm a visual thinker. Trigonometry was a bit challenging at times but I still did very well. Calculus...that was just a hopeless endeavor.

For English and literature, I took AP classes throughout school, got perfect English & Reading scores on the ACT and SAT, got a perfect English score on the COMPASS test, and so on. English teachers loved me. I still love reading and writing as hobbies and do both quite often.

However this doesn't seem to be the norm among fellow Aspies that I've met. They are commonly engineers, physicists, IT professionals, etc. who all took advanced mathematics in college and went on to careers that require them to use higher math on a daily basis.

Is this uncommon? Anyone else love English but hate math?

In the complete guide to Asperger's it says that you find more individuals in the extremes of math skills among high functioning autistic. So more people than you would expect is really good at it, and more people suck at it. But since it is become a stereotype to be really good at it that's the one you hear about I guess.

I think it is sort of the same with language (though we supposedly are generally worse at it) since A LOT of Hyperlexic children are on the spectrum.

I am hyperlexic, and was always good at English. (I even got special permission in high school to take 'advanced' - grade 11 & 12 - English courses in grade 9.) I was also good at math, but hated it. And was much better at geometry than algebra, which I could do, but with more struggle. Math is like putting my mind into a straitjacket. Even if you can figure out how to get in there, why would you bother?

I was good at English and terrible at Math, though my HS algebra teacher admired my math 'vocabulary'...my Middle School guidance counselor could not understand the discrepancy. This was in the dark ages before anything was known about learning differences etc.

I recently learned that when there is a huge discrepancy between the two subjects it can mean a learning disability...I no longer care about it though.

I was extremely happy to leave math behind after Algebra II. On the other hand, my son was shocked to know I never took trig or calculus...He is a Math wizard.

I'm the same as you. I suck at math, but I was always great at English, and I love Lit. I think different people are wired different ways, so some are good at math and some aren't. It applies to those on the spectrum as well.

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For me, it's the same problem, but I'm diagnosed NVLD. NVLD is an IQ split, and usually it's a result of right side of the brain being damaged or irregular. For me, the IQ split is 130 verbal IQ, and about 80 nonverbal IQ, nonverbal IQ encompasses social cues, emotions, but also visual-spatial, and visual spatial affects math. Some people with Aspergers are actually visual thinkers, and visual learners, whereas NVLD is pretty much the opposite extreme. A quick way to check for NVLD without a professional would be, take a verbal IQ test online, and a nonverbal IQ test, like shape sequence or whatever, and see if there's a large gap between them. Mild NVLD is considered about...20 point gap, probably a lot of people got 20 point gaps, really, but extreme cases like mine are the 40-50 point gaps.

As far as NVLD goes, extreme cases manifest as Aspergers basically, as in, you get most of the same problems, but it's not from the same "tree" as Aspergers, if that makes any sense.

I don't know, could be something you wanna look into, but it won't terribly help much, as people care significantly less about NVLD than Aspergers, and the diagnostic rate of NVLD is 1/1000, whereas Aspergers is 1/100.

I know what you mean. I've never had any problems with English. I was a hyperlexic kid. My mam still tells the story of me being three, and asking if we had 'all the correct ingredients' to bake cupcakes, and I had read the words out of the cookbook having never been taught to read before. On the other hand, I manage maths, and I understand it when I'm taught it by a teacher who knows how I think, because I don't tend to understand when I hear it the way it's told to the NT group of the class. When I have a bad teacher, yes, I hate maths, but when I'm taught right and understand I love it, but it's not exactly my natural thing.

I'm very poor at maths, but average at english. The only thing I'm really good at in english is spelling. I am good at spelling, I always have been.

I know how to spell 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' without copying it from anywhere.

I have previously stated that the superior-at-math sterotype is THE one Aspie (supposed) trait I do NOT share. I sucked at math! Partly because my parents & teachers put so much emotion into their efforts to "help Me" that I started to shut down, refused to do it, and developed a terrible phobia about it. Eventually I broke the phobis and learned my basic courses in it. I should have been a whizz at geometry but the year I took that, I was suffering from the worst depression I have ever experienced. Almost failed my Senior year in HS!
I was almost hyperlexic, on the other hand. I did have speech difficulties early on, but Reading, English, Creative Writing were (with History) some of my BEST subjects in High Shool.
I think more of us are better at reading than 'Rithmetic. Maybe just slightly. I knew I could speed read by the 4th Grade myself. Science textbooks were also a breeze.

Sincerely,
Matthew

I've always been bad at math. I just don't "get it". Something about it just won't click in my brain.

But English, on the other hand... I've been told many times by different people that I have a natural talent for writing. Writing comes as easily to me as breathing. My mom even encourages me to make a career out of it, but I'm not entirely sure that I want to do that yet.