I cannot do math. The only way I passed 8th grade Algebra was by going to extra help every day. I did take Calculus as a senior, but these days when I add 2 and 2, I’m likely to get 5. It’s like I have no common sense in the area of numbers.
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365 true things about me
why this daily practice
I always say I am a word girl. I hate working with numbers.
A word girl–I like that!
Now this reads like your kinda math… 🙂
Good mathematics is not about how many answers you know ..
It’s how you behave when you don’t know. -Author Unknown
http://amandagiarrizzo.weebly.com/math-quotes.html
ha
I wonder if there’s a specific type of dyslexia that’s for numbers? hmmm…
I was OK with the basic stuff. In fact, I worked for a couple months for Prudential (back in the late 70s) and some math test I had to take when I was first hired indicated I could be a programmer so they put me in another test session only there was math I’d never seen…probably calculus? Don’t know! Glad I didn’t pass lol
Donna, I’m not sure I would recognize Calculus if I saw it…
lol…well, I sure didn’t ’cause I still don’t know what kind of math I was looking at back then! I got through Algebra and slept a lot during Geometry (regretfully ’cause it would’ve come in handy with all the measuring and calculating I’ve had to do for some artwork). School wasn’t my “thing” as a teenager : /
Yes there is, it is called DYSCALCULUS and I was SO pleased when I discovered that! I always called myself numerically dyslexic!
Lynne, ha, thanks for the heads up. I’m sure Donna will be happy to know this. And welcome to Catching Days. Hope to see you again.
Wow, and I was just guessing! Thanks for the info 🙂
Embarrassing but true: I lose track whenever I add simple numbers these days. The sight of them makes my mind skip ahead to other things. I had to take statistics twice in b-school and I remember all the concepts but none of the details when it comes to basic calculus. Concepts. That’s where I’m stronger. Details? When it involves numbers, not so much.
Betsy, I don’t remember concepts or details. All I remember is something about x and y… and a plane flying in one direction and the bird in the other… And I did remember the name of my 8th grade math teacher–Ms. Wade. With numbers, I always check and recheck, but I’m not sure what good it does. I can do some of the harder stuff, but I just don’t have any kind of sense about it–nothing that raises a flag if the result I get makes no sense.
I loved all the basic stuff and used to race the cashier when I went with my mom to the grocery store, adding up prices and then calculating tax. I liked algebra b/c it was so regular, and I liked geometry b/c of the proofs. Then I hit pre-calc and my whole body rejected the concept of the imaginary i. It was like a window dropped or a door slammed. It’s not that I couldn’t work whatever problem was at hand–I could b/c I could follow directions. But the imaginary i thing just wouldn’t settle. I kept poking at it and it would ripple at the touch, then solidify again, looking exactly the same, revealing nothing. And that was it. I never wanted to touch or think about a number again. And I’m still like that. When I’m shopping I’ll do quick math to know how much I’ve spent, when I’m adapting recipes or doubling or tripling them, I have to mess with all the fractions and how many teaspoons make a tablespoon, Ada yada. But if you start talking real math with me, my mind literally refuses to engage. Which is a shame, b/c I hear imaginary i is quite the character.
Wow, Claire, I don’t even remember the imaginary i, nor the proofs in geometry…I never connected at all. Loved reading this comment.
About this season of Downton Abbey, Joe Heim writes: “Daisy decides to take a math course and then confides to Ms. Patmore that she was always rubbish at math. ‘All the best people are rubbish at numbers in school,’ says Ms. Patmore. Reassuringly, my wife confirms to me that this is true.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2015/01/04/downton-abbey-recap-change-is-in-the-air/