Any other Aspies struggle math?

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QFT+!
in washington state, there are exurban or semi-rural areas where a person could survive alone [without roomates to pad out the monthly rent on an efficiency apt in a poor area] on our state minimum wage of $9.04 an hour. plus we have no income tax here [yet]. our sales tax is pretty high as are our property taxes, but if you are a renter and don't buy much beyond staple food items, it won't affect you that much, compared to paying another 5-10% of your income in state income taxes. just a thought.

I've struggled with math, receiving a college degree despite that fact.

You just learn to compensate in a different way, using your verbal IQ strengths in whatever capacity you can manage; utilizing tutors, Math labs on campus, and self-advocating for yourself with student support services available for people with AS.

IQ doesn't mean anything if you can't apply it. People don't deserve anything, they work for it, despite their limitations. I got diagnosed after I struggled getting my 2 year degree. You gotta bleed to succeed.

I had to take pre calculus to graduate from uni as one class of math was required for graduation. Hated it so much. Luckily my professor was very cool and his teaching method was relatively easier to understand compared to others. I was also fortunate enough to have a cool teaching assistant who was very helpful and cute. Somehow managed to pull off an A and lots of energy drinks were consumed and frequent headaches occurred. Never studied that hard in my life. I'd rather take a language course than math. I've always struggled with math, chemistry, and physics. But for some reason, I always did well in Biology.

the problem with that being, and I dunno about the normal consensus around here.. but I don't drive. Can't Drive. So thats part of my whole problem here. I could live on a minimum wage job (not comfortably) in Georgia, I just can't get to any of them because I live 10 miles from the nearest town. But if I move to Athens or Atlanta (the only towns with anything resembling public transit) I'd have to make double minimum wage just to live in a on the edge of the transit zones in Athens, or in a dangerous area in Atlanta... I'd never purposefully move to a Suburban, Exburban or Rural area.... I've had my fill of that.. and by the time I get out of this hellhole I will have lost 30+ years of my life to it's sucking maw.

I just have to point out, that our Norwegian friend, is being really unkind in his responses. Just because a person isn't good at math doesn't mean they should be forced to be a janitor. Those jobs are for the people who struggle at everything. The thing to keep in mind is, it really isn't that important what your degree is in. So long as you have one. It's the equivalent of a toll in the US. If you don't have a Degree, of some sort, there are a lot of jobs you cannot even apply for, that for all intents and purposes, are unskilled jobs.

I am completely useless when it comes to math for some reason. I am able to to the four basics (addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication) well enough, I mean, I'm not the fastest ever, but it's acceptable. Then I hit algebra...I am in college now and my brain still fizzles and shorts out at the prospect of algebra, I am awful at it. However, I can do geometry really well, I passed with A's and B's in my geometry classes in high school...maybe because it's more visual?

there are zillions of little towns across america similar to the glorified wide spot in the road that is sheltonville, washington, which is at the limit of biking distance from where i live out in the sticks. there are $400 efficiency apts and old trailers in parks for a similar amount, within [long] walking distance of the various unskilled jobs one is likely to find in such places, such as at the ubiquitous wallyworld or such. i could not survive in any big city, too much complexity and too rich a cost of living there. so i had to lower my expectations to handle living in hooterville.



there are a lot of people who lack empathy, for sure- people who just can't put themselves in another's shoes to save their own lives.

im an aspie and im terrible at algebra and horrible in biology

i'm pretty decent at it, i felt like i really understood geometry easily, but algebra is a pain in the ass. it's not so much that i'm bad at it, it's just that i absolutely hate doing it and my brain just shuts off when i have to do a lot of it.

I have ALWAYS struggled with math. I'm the only one in the family who can't understand it. I even get a buttload of help doing it, and still have to get handed my math credit -- or worse, have to recover it AND take summer school, like I did for my grade 11 math. (I didn't realize I didn't need my grade 11 and 12 math in the end, I could have taken Anthropology and a drafting-type course and done my grade 12 english in summer school instead of my failed math.)

So yeah, I feel your pain. Math is greek to me. I understand some concepts after they're thoroughly pounded into my head to the point of being beyond need, but that's just how my brain works. Math and history are my downfall, I actually had to take lower-level history to get my credit ("applied" / College since it was grade 10). The creative classes and music classes I flourished in, (minus grade 12 guitar, but on a general scale I basically failed half of that year anyways) humanities and creative writing were my strong points. Anyone else here taken a parenting or human development type of course in school here? I find them the most mind-numbingly easy things on the planet.

May I say something?

Dear Math,
Solve your own problems, I have mine!

Many times I thought I was stupid because I didn't understand things.

Then someone came along claiming I was intelligent. I didn't believe him.

After two IQ tests both showing I belong to the 1% smartest people in my country, I am starting to believe.

But what REALLY helped was, when I started to ASK and KEPT ASKING when there was something I didn't understand.

Then it wasn't that I was too stupid to grasp it. It was either because I lacked some little detail to understand, or because there was something wrong in the explanation altogether.

The essence: ASK. The right explanation will get you through. The right teacher. Right teaching method etc. (some for instance need more visuals for understanding math...!)

Ask. Ask. Ask.

I've tried all of that. Unfortunately it doesn't matter how many times something mathematical is explained to me or in which way, I've tried videos, visuals, personal one-on-one instruction, I can generally get the hang of single function problems, but I just seem to plateau when it comes to using more than 2 functions in a single problem. Stuff like Order of Operations, Foiling, even quadratic equations I can do. I can sort of do more complex stuff when some one is sitting beside me to reinforce it or give me hints, but if I'm left to my own devices and my TI-84 can't do it, then it just isn't going to get done. I know I'm not stupid, all of my other classes are high A's, I simply lack an aptitude or an interest in mathematics beyond the most basic levels.

Factoring however has a special place in hell waiting for it. It is the bane of my existence, my entire being rebels at the idea of taking a Solution and creating a problem out of it. I exist to bring order to chaos, I cannot stand the idea of creating chaos by un-solving a problem which has been solved. Factoring creates an existential crisis for me. In the same way that purposefully mis-shelving a book would or purposefully ruining my own routines.

I like your blog though.

It does suck but most college degrees require a bit of math, I can't get past remedial so no matter how well I do in any other classes it wouldn't matter another reason why I dropped out.

I hate math. Used to have quiet meltdowns while doing it all the time.

I took an Algebra test last night. Didn't break down while taking it, but I beat the hell from my pillow afterwards. I ended up getting 65.

I actually managed to get a 68 on my last test.. I was all excited and then my teacher called on me to answer something.

I choke even when it's something that I know backwards and forwards. let alone when the stuff she wanted me to do, I did in 4th grade.. 17 years ago. I told her I couldn't do it and pick some one else.. so she decided to make an example out of me in class and went on a tirade about how I needed to go to the tutoring center.

I nearly had a meltdown in class and wound up having to leave the class room.. I have my problems logged on file at the schools disability center.. i plan to file a complaint against her.. since part of the reason for telling the school of my problems is so the teachers know of my problems. Clearly though since the Public Speaking teacher last semester simply chose to ignore them, since "They aren't real" and "are all in your head", It's clear the teachers just don't care.

You could look at it as 'unsolving' a solved problem, but you could also look at it as solving an unsolved problem and look at FOILing as unsolving a solved problem. Which one is the problem and which one is the solution depends on how you look at it. They're really just two different formats for the same thing, and some things are easier with one than the other.

The factored format lets you figure out the roots (values of x that make the whole thing zero) by basically just looking at it, which you just can't do in the other format.

When I first saw factoring in school I hated it, despite being good at math, so I certainly can't blame you for not liking it either. I don't think schools do a very good job of teaching math in general.