Does anyone else have a learning disability in math?

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Sweetleaf
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11 Jan 2026, 4:22 am

Like I am 36 and I can barely even do basic multiplication in my head, I mostly have to count on fingers or use a calculator.

With specific notes on how to do a problem by hand I can sometimes get the right answer, showing my work is a nightmare though and I'd get graded badly because the 'work' I showed didn't make any sense to them so even if I got the answer right with my insane show of work I'd still get marked down for the work being wrong.

But yeah, that is the only subject I ever really struggled in I guess I didn't do as well for some parts of science class that involved math, though I mostly enjoyed science class even if I could only earn a C grade there. I usually got As and Bs for like social studies, history, and reading/writing. though from time to time I felt hopeless and had no motivation so I'd fall behind and get worse grades in all my classes.

But math was the worst, the one class that made me feel really stupid, like I tried spending more time studying it at home, I'd stay for after school help with teachers to try and learn it to do better on tests but it never helped. If I have extensive notes on how to do the problem, I can sometimes get the right answer but kind of hard to make notes that extensive that doesn't just look like cheat notes. But without any notes all I can do is stare stupidly at the test and not know how to solve any of the problems....so I will look for all the simplist problems and start there while showing my stupid work that in no way resembles how most people show their work, so far fetched that even if I get the right answer they don't like how I got there but then also when time is up for the test I have not finished it.

Idk even though I know it is not my fault my brain refuses to comprehend math, it still makes me feel stupid so can anyone relate to that?


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Texasmoneyman300
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11 Jan 2026, 3:10 pm

for some reason I am a math savant at basic math and number sense but when it came to algebra abstract higher-level math I was so horrible.



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12 Jan 2026, 5:59 am

Maybe? I've always been bad at math and had to re-take a test or two as a teenager as well. That never happened with subjects that didn't involve counting.



ArcticVixen
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12 Jan 2026, 10:42 pm

For sure. I was put in special ed math classes and always struggled remembering and understanding math.

Circa 4th grade, my teacher did something called "rocket math multiplication" where we were timed on our multiplication tables. There was like some sort of scoreboard on who finished their worksheet quickly. I definitely didn't make it in the big leagues.

As crazy as it sounds, I am considering on becoming an engineer. Could care less on what the naysayers think about of my aspiration. I will eventually take online community college classes for algebra and calculus.



Carbonhalo
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13 Jan 2026, 2:53 am

Texasmoneyman300 wrote:
for some reason I am a math savant at basic math and number sense but when it came to algebra abstract higher-level math I was so horrible.

I got an A for applied mathematics but an E for pure.
I had to repeat math3 for electronics.
I was castigated often for showing little or inadequate working for the correct answers.

And that was back when I was firing on all cylinders.



Tamaya
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13 Jan 2026, 6:26 am

Yes, and it isn't just about adding and subtracting. Numbers in general have a habit of jumping around the page and confusing me, and my brain just shuts down whenever I'm trying to focus on working something out that involves dates (probably because of weeks having 7 days, I think 7 is the most unfriendliest number to those of us who struggle with math). Yet I can remember people's birth dates like a pro.

I can't really say I'm dyslexic though, because I am very good at spelling and writing and punctuation and all that. I'm not so good at reading, because often I'll see small words (like ''the'', ''and'', etc) that aren't there, or miss out those types of words. I'm fine with writing though, I don't miss out words really, not as often as I do when reading. I think it's to do with my brain working too fast, a common thing with ADHD brains.


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13 Jan 2026, 6:33 am

I used to think I was good at maths until I had to do economics in uni
Luckily for me the exam was multiple choice answers and I literally winged it. Just scraped through

It was like "pin the tail on the donkey". I couldn't have done worse if I'd have been blindfolded for the exam


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TesrickTheDog
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14 Jan 2026, 8:42 am

I did relatively well on Calc I and II; my math teacher (Japanese) commented on it. But god frick me if I can do formal mathematical proofs. The most I have attempted are the most basic, algebraic-manipulation minded, [[inductive]] proofs. Like oh if 1 is true and if k is true then k+1 is true then for 1 to any k is true yada yada.

I tried reading the proof for how all positive integers can be decomposed into (at most) four integer squares. (e.g. 368 = 18^2 + 6^2 + 2^2 + 2^2). That was a huge waste of time. I would've'd better luck grinding down sintered tungsten fricking carbide with 2-B pencil lead.


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Arabian_Ivy
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14 Jan 2026, 9:31 am

You don’t need it in real life. Basics are enough.



y-pod
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16 Jan 2026, 4:18 pm

For years I thought I was bad at math, because my teachers said so. It's all relative. The rest of my family and my friends were all better than I was at math. This continued until grade 9 when they started doing calculus, then I got hopelessly bad at it. My poor little brain just wasn't developed enough for the aggressive Chinese math curriculum. I was a late bloomer physically.

At 15 I chose "arts" as my study path so I didn't have to deal with all those math and physics and stuff. However when I turned 18 and stopped growing in height, suddenly calculus made sense and everything was so easy. I aced in all my university math and science classes. I imagine things like that happen with a lot of kids, especially late bloomers.


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Tamaya
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17 Jan 2026, 6:59 am

Arabian_Ivy wrote:
You don’t need it in real life. Basics are enough.


I even struggle with the basics. I can get completely thrown when approached by numbers, sort of like a dyslexia thing, except I don't have dyslexia because my writing and spelling is too good. Even having a calculator or a computer do the mathematical thinking for me can still send me into a state of confusion.


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babybird
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17 Jan 2026, 7:42 am

You can have dyscalculia

I don't know if it's worth getting tested for though


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Arabian_Ivy
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17 Jan 2026, 8:04 am

Tamaya wrote:
Arabian_Ivy wrote:
You don’t need it in real life. Basics are enough.


I even struggle with the basics. I can get completely thrown when approached by numbers, sort of like a dyslexia thing, except I don't have dyslexia because my writing and spelling is too good. Even having a calculator or a computer do the mathematical thinking for me can still send me into a state of confusion.

Would math puzzles help?

Years ago, I started losing my memory, and my math skills deteriorated with it. I had difficulty with basic math. I tried Sudoku and got stuck at medium difficulty. It took years to solve hard levels. Then, as my memory strengthened, it got easier. I solved extreme levels in two minutes or less. I tested 12x12 grids and realized I was back to normal when I solved it in minutes on the first try.



Tamaya
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18 Jan 2026, 12:53 am

I've never known how to do sudokus. I mean I know what the rules are and everything but each time I tried to complete one I wondered which number you put in each row first. For example one row could have the numbers 2, 6 and 9, and going down could have the numbers 1 and 4, so which numbers out of the remaining numbers that aren't there are you to know what to put first?


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Arabian_Ivy
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18 Jan 2026, 10:02 am

As long as it doesn't interfere with daily life, it's not worth worrying about.



Tamaya
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18 Jan 2026, 11:33 am

Arabian_Ivy wrote:
As long as it doesn't interfere with daily life, it's not worth worrying about.

It does a little.


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