Simple math operations and Asperger's?

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I can't do any but the most rudimentary math to save my life. I count on my fingers, and if necessary, I use a calculator. But, for instance, my wife pays when we are at a restaurant, because I have no idea how to figure out what 20% of the price is, to leave as a tip.

Want to hear something strange? When I was in Grade 8, we were doing decimals and short division and learning about the metric system. On my first day of math in Grade 9, I walked into the classroom to find the blackboards on three walls chock full of algebraic notation. The teacher said "Do this." My reaction was "Do what? What is this? I've never seen it before. What am I supposed to do with it?" He didn't bother to explain to us what it was or how to work with it. I got zero on all my tests and my report card all year. At the end of it, the teacher gave me a 51 so I would pass and not have to take it again the next year. I still have no idea what algebra is, or what it's for. I wish somebody would tell me the value of n. I've always wanted to know.

I tried to take electronics and drafting, but the teachers of those classes advised me to drop them, because I didn't have the slightest grasp of the math required to work in those subjects, and apparently I don't know how to read a ruler.

I do have other areas where I know a lot about them and do very well with them. But math? Forget it!

Math is strange. I had trouble with simple number arithmics, yet when they passed that stage, I was always among the best students and got the highest scores. I'm not good at mental math, but I did learn the addition and multiplication tables by extreme route-learing as I got interested in solving square-roots with many decimals. I could multiply 50x50 digit numbers on paper, and mostly get everything accurate, and this was before the age of calculators.

I'm also bad at "verbal math", that is math problems described as real-world situations with words. I suspect this is related to my prior problems with dyslexia. I also was disinterested in all the "proofs" that were presented at university. I always wanted my own schema of remembering or calculating formulas that didn't match ordinary students preferences.