How weak are you at maths?

OneArt · 17-03-2012 07:33AM

Disgustingly awful. I got diagnosed with discalculia as well. Now the only maths I do is calculating my taxes. With a calculator.

ilovesleep · 17-03-2012 10:09AM

I liked maths in school. I came second in the class in a maths quiz in second year in secondary school. Unfortunately I went downhill in third year with a change of maths teacher and turned rubbish. I couldn't understand a lot in maths and found it very difficult. A change in maths teacher for repeating the leaving cert and I improved at maths, not greatly but I improved.

I liked maths and working out the problems until I came to the right answer. Just this week I thought some sort of a maths course would be cool but will probably just make do with suduko instead.

sunflower27 · 17-03-2012 10:37AM

I hated maths in school. It was by far my worst subject. I was really good at English and history, but I could never master maths.

I remember in exams just writing sin = cos/tan to get a half mark for a 10-point question. I tried but it made no sense to me and still doesn't.

I had a tutor in the end and I think even he got fed up with me looking perplexed all the time.

I got 60% in my final maths exam, which brough down my average of my other subjects and I remember throwing all my maths notes in the bin after it. That was a truly momentous moment!

bleg · 17-03-2012 11:00AM

A1 in the leaving! Suck it dumb dumbs!

boobar · 17-03-2012 11:13AM

I get by.

44leto · 17-03-2012 11:20AM

A, B in honours maths in the days when it was possible to fail exams.

I always thought maths is wrongly thought, there is a beauty and creativity to maths, it really is a language expressing concepts and understanding. Its one of the most powerful reasoning tools we have, this machine is a mathematical machine, one of which we can never see the physical workings of, but understand them and manipulate them with maths and science. And science is expressed and progressed with maths.

Its safe to say maths is one of the most important ability of humans in this modern world, maths created it. I draw this analogy. In 1976 NASA launched 2 probes voyager 1 and 2 to liaise with 6 planets in our solar system and some of the moons. The calculations for the navigation of these crafts had to be so accurate that it was equivalent to firing a thread into the eye of a needle 25 miles away. To get the course they used mathematics from ancient Egypt to then. The mission went flawlessly and who could forget all those thrilling and amazing images.

Maths is beautiful and creative, it is art. It is also from where the written word evolved, the first records kept was about billing, accounting, quantities, in other words numbers and maths and then as these systems became more elaborate a written word evolved to accompany them. Maths is older then the written word.

Quazzie · 17-03-2012 11:27AM

Napper Hawkins wrote: »

I have a BS in Astrophysics.

Do ya want fries with that?

DB21 · 17-03-2012 11:30AM

eyescreamcone wrote: »

There are 10 types of people in the world!

Those that understand the binary system ...

... And those that don't !!!

There are ten types of people in this world; Those that recognise trinary, and those that confuse it with binary.

cloud493 · 17-03-2012 11:40AM

I'm so bad at maths, I failed in at leaving cert at foundation level.

snickerpuss · 17-03-2012 11:44AM

I have dyscalculia so pretty rubbish. I have trouble calling out a phone number in the right order never mind doing maths. Words are more my thing. Never stopped me in college but a pain sometimes in life!

Ishmael · 17-03-2012 11:58AM

Would say i am alright at maths. I can understand most of the mathematics in the engineering Journals i read. Some stuff still wrecks my head though.

I'm fairly bad at mental arithmetic though. I blame calculators, i was perfectly good at it when i was a child. I can't even add two 3 digit numbers without a good bit of concentration.

FanadMan · 17-03-2012 12:07PM

Was quite good at maths at school but give me a exam paper now and I wouldn't have a clue....

mawk · 17-03-2012 12:21PM

my arithmetic is only ok, but I can estimate like a mofo.

my maths in general is quite good, I've used calculus on things in real life out if idle curiosity, so I guess my understanding its slightly beyond rote memory.

but its very hard to remerber methods and formulae unless you are using them frequently. I can poop out laplace and Ztransforms for second order differentials, but just this week I tried to help someone with their homework and couldn't remember the chain rule or quotient rule off my head. frustrating

Wibbs · 17-03-2012 12:22PM

Ohmigod I'm sooooo bad at maths. I mean really bad.

Kohl · 17-03-2012 12:24PM

I did a degree in Physics with the O.U. and I have started a postgraduate maths course with them. I quite enjoy maths. But I didn't do that well in the Leaving Cert. I got a C3 at honours level. The Open University have a great way of teaching maths and make it accessible to all.

Great thread OP! I'll be following this one with interest.

44leto · 17-03-2012 12:30PM

Wibbs wrote: »

Ohmigod I'm sooooo bad at maths. I mean really bad.

LOL I wouldn't have thought that, you seem as nerdy as I am, well nerdy in an interesting way.

forfuxsake · 17-03-2012 12:31PM

y2 = x (x − ap)(x + bp)

with x representing my ability in maths.

Panrich · 17-03-2012 12:43PM

Always my best subject in school. Would have loved the opportunity to study pure maths in college but couldn't find a course at the time. Ironically my wife is doing a Maths degree at the moment with OU and it makes me realise that I'm too lazy to do it myself.

17-03-2012 01:16PM

Managed a B1 at HL LC maths so would say I'm pretty good at Maths. Can do mental arithmetic very quickly too.

TeddyTedson · 17-03-2012 02:02PM

policarp wrote: »

So, to sum it all up, mathematics causes amnesia. . .

That's pretty much the jist of it alright

Teyla Emmagan · 17-03-2012 02:09PM

I passed 2 maths exams in the whole of secondary school. My inter and my leaving. And I did try, I just couldn't work out an equation to save my life. My really basic math is okay, but it stops there. And it really frustrates me, percentages and that throw up a complete mental blank at times. It honestly all stems back to this wagon of a teacher I had in primary. She made me feel so useless at maths, I just believed I was rubbish. And once I hit a problem, I would instantly panic and go blank. Still happens. Thankfully I am good at other things.

Does annoy me though.

looksee · 17-03-2012 02:21PM

Maths - off the bottom of the scale. Arithmatic - not too bad, I can add up a list of numbers fairly fast (though I do it my own way, not just adding one number to the next), I can figure how much change I am owed if I buy a few items. As a child I was required to be able to multiply £ s d in my head, (I can't even figure how to do it on paper now!) Nightmare, standing in class aged about 9, being asked what would I be charged if I bought three items at £1 17s 9d each...

Logical Fallacy · 17-03-2012 02:21PM

I'm pretty good at Maths. Not my strongest point but I wouldn't struggle with it either except for the complex end of differential equations and such...so I guess kind of middle of the road?

I am the Bryan Adams of Maths.

Vizzy · 17-03-2012 02:32PM

Bad Panda wrote: »

When I applied myself I was decent enough at maths, when I didn't, I was appalling.

I don't have a natural aptitude for it.

You were good at applied maths then ??

17-03-2012 02:32PM

grand at it

stovelid · 17-03-2012 02:34PM

Average to poor.

LemonPledge · 17-03-2012 02:42PM

I'm terrible at maths! We had a desperate maths teacher for the leaving cert which didn't help the matter! Scraped a pass in ordinary maths!

DEFTLEFTHAND · 17-03-2012 03:01PM

I'm a man of the Arts, Maths and Physics or anything rationale like that is a foreign concept to me.

Fiona · 17-03-2012 03:04PM

Not great, did foundation maths for my leaving cert, oddly enough I have worked in finance for the last 11 years.

bleg · 17-03-2012 03:10PM

mrs crilly wrote: »

Not great, did foundation maths for my leaving cert, oddly enough I have worked in finance for the last 11 years.

Is that you Patrick Honohan?

Anyway, for me, Maths was like another language. When you want to be good at French, I mean really good, you have to start thinking in French, same with Maths, for me anyway.

How weak are you at maths?

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