Worst subjects for you?

Post Reply New Topic

Math has always been difficult. I got through school by memorizing formulas and plugging numbers in, but today's more applied math makes my head spin. Gym wasn't fun either, but the hardest part was having to change in the locker room vs the sports themselves.

Until I was about 14/15, it was straight As for me. We didn't really get graded in PE, but I was good at it too, although I didn't enjoy team sports.

The only thing I struggled with before then was reading on demand. For example, when I was about 13/14, every 2 weeks, we had to read a novel at home. I'm such a slow reader, that if I had to do this, I had no time to do anything else. I can read very well, I'm not dyslexic, I just struggle to keep my focus and regularly have to re-read pages, as my eyes have done the motions, but my brain hasn't taken in a thing (it's thinking about something else more stimulating). This was a recurring problem throughout my school years and neither I not the teachers understood it. I'm sure the teachers just thought I couldn't be bothered, even though I was a good student with everything else that was required of me.

But, from about 15, things got a little harder for me. As the work got harder, I could no longer rely on my memory to get top grades, I now needed to study and I couldn't study (probably for the same reasons that I couldn't read a book). I started to struggle with higher level maths more than anything, although I did manage to pass. I also found English quite hard, not the language part, but the literature, especially Shakespeare. There's too much multi-tasking involved in reading a Shakespeare play. But, I did pass this too.

Reading was by far my worst subject and made mostly Fs. But it isn't that I can't read, because I can and retain information. I found reading very boring and uninteresting because I was being made to read stories that the teacher was wanting me to read and not stories that I wanted to read. The 2nd is math. Made straight D's.

I didn't learn much of anything in school except for those subjects that I like such as Art, English, History and Science. It's when I got out of school that I began to do much better in math and reading because I was able to learn at my pace and way.

Russian as foreign language, followed by Hungarian (literature).

English literature. I passed the exam though I had no talent at writing essays and couldn't analyse poetry to save my life, I passed it by learning by rote what the teacher said. I found it so boring that I spent most of the time staring out the window daydreaming and wishing the bell would hurry up and ring. I've always preferred to read SciFi anyway.

PE & Biology

Team sports were not for me either. In primary school and middle school I stayed away from playing soccer. In high school I struggled with playing volleyball and basketball. The most hated part of PE for me was taking directions and moving my body the way I was supposed to. It was hard to do. Once I got slapped in my face for disobedience / misbehavior so that literally the door frame gave me the other.

My worst subjects are the stereotypical best subjects of ASDers: math and science. Although lovers of these subjects MIGHT disagree, they are WAY too abstract for me to grasp. I do fine at basic math, but when you get into the more complex and abstract algebra and geometry, I am completely perplexed. Science is equally as confusing, especially when you delve into abstract concepts found in Chemistry and Physics. Other sciences like biology and geology, for example, are largely factual, and can be easily explained (very little abstractness) and remembered.... but because I don't find most of these things interesting, I have trouble paying attention to and retaining the information.

A lot of people with ASDs have a hard time with learning languages. I am actually quite good at this (not the COMMUNICATING part, but grapsing and remembering the nuances of language). All it is is a list of rules to be remembered. That is easy for me to do. My favourite subjects though, have to do with Theology (which is NOT abstract for me). That is what I study in grad school right now, and that is my special interest.

My abilities are completely and totally skewed. I absolutely suck at maths (failed my remedial college maths course the first time around) because I can never remember the stupid formulas or which problems require which formulas (though I am a little better at basic geometry as I have a relatively good visual memory). I also suck at physics and chemistry because of all the math involved, pretty good at biology though. I have always been fantastic at writing. I got a 29 on my English SAT and took AP English in 11th grade. I really love reading, and still get together with my high school English teacher (the one I took AP with) to talk about books.

English, Drama and History.

Anything that required me to speak in front of the class.

1. Math.

2. PE.

3. Any class with a "hands-on" component like shop class. I'd do fine at the "book stuff," but my bird houses tended to look like apartment complexes in the ghetto.

My strengths and weaknesses tend to follow the NVLD pattern.

Drama. Luckily it was no longer compulsory after the first two years of school.

Math, gym, and Special ed and/or English. I'll go into each one below.

Gym: Everyone is a hulking people who beat up all the kids who haven't reached puberty or flirt with girls. Gym teachers love "TEAM BUILDING" and I have a meltdown every time it comes to that.

Math: I was diagnosed with dyscalculia and numbers like to float around and change shape for me. Letter variables make everything worse because I think I'm supposed to be reading them. EVERY TIME. I have never scored higher than a C on a math exam.

Special ed +English: I'm smart enough already. If I can get a C on a math exam and still get an A-, you'd think they'd know I don't need this kind of help. NOPE. According to the school's guidance counselor, "the fact that you're autistic means you need help." That told me that schools unions have gotten everything messed up. English was a subject I'm always strong in, but they think there's a problem with my writing and I need "help." I don't even listen to their advice and still succeed, but they still push their "tactics" anyway. I have a conspiracy theory they want all the autistic students to fail.

In highschool, it was English. I kinda sucked at it from 7th till 11th grade. I hated writing at the time, always had writers block. Have bad grammer and spelling. Grammar never made a whole lot of sense to me. I mastered it enough to write. But hey I am in the sciences so my lack of spelling and grammar skills doesnt matter as much. You just get someone to edit your work and that's it.

In college foreign language and physics. With foreign language, I tried to take Spanish and it was a fail. Teacher recogmended that I drop the course so I did. Then I went in for an assessment, got diagnosed with a learning disability. Got exempted from foreign language.

As for physics, I was forced into calculus based physics due to my major and I just failed at it. It was too hard. I had to take both physics courses 2x. I might have faired ok (sub-par) in non-calc based but calc based you gotta derive all these formulas, just cant wrap my mind around it. Right now I am trying to refresh on some physics because I am gonna start grad school soon and I am doing ok with non-calc based but calc based, I dont think I will ever understand it! I hope I never have to.

English Literature, History, Religious Education and any team sports were awful for me. In fact I got a bad report for my R.E. classes a few times, because I kept writing my atheist views as my answers to the questions. Team sports I have always been awful at because not only am I dyspraxic, I also have a visual processing disorder and I cannot cope with physical contact.

I was really good at cross-country running though.

I have always been great at mathematics and science topics. Now I am studying pharmacology, which works out well.