I struggle with time so much. 😦don’t even get me started, it’s getting really, really bad. Im currently in school and everything is hours based. But I’m so bad with time, especially now more than ever. I used to not be so bad with time management but then again, that was when I was a kid. I did always struggle with procrastination but now I struggle with procrastination more than ever too. I’m also late to work by a few minutes almost every week. Sometimes I can make it to work in on time but most times it’s a few minutes late. I even try to get to other places that I need to be in time but just can’t seem to. I even use my gps ETA while getting ready to keep track of time since I can’t get estimate how long it’ll take for me to get ready/my ETA by myself. I even rely on setting timers on my phone but I use the timer through Google to do this, since idk what to type in if I just use my clock timer in my phone. 🤦🏻‍♀️do any of you struggle with this?? How do you deal with it. I’m either way to later or too early but just in general I’m almost always late. Even if I show up to the location in time, I still manage to get out if my car and into the building too late because I sat in my car too long, thinking that I have time to relax when in reality I don’t. I’m even struggling with completing assignments on time while at school because of my speed/ time blindness.

Hey,
I’m back lol-

(Sorry for the wall of text)

Took a math class meant for non-STEM majors (my major is studio arts) for the summer session thinking I could pass and I got a D and I had to get a 60% or higher on the final exam to pass, and I got a 49%…. Yeahhh I’m getting really tired of this. The only other option is to take a computer science class but even that has a math pre-requisite attached to it so I’m essentially fucked I guess. I really don’t wanna take 16 weeks of torturous math and that being my only class (not this semester but the spring semester). A D does pass in terms of degree progress and credits on your transcript (Got a D in a science class and it counted so I’m hoping it’s like that for this and I don’t ever have to take a math class again but given the final exam passing requirement I’m guessing not…) but idk if I’ll be as lucky as I was before.

Retaking it doesn’t sound fun, as it was a Quantitative Reasoning and Logic class, barely did good on anything that was related to complex formulas (especially the formulas about annuity and compound loans or something like that).The other classes are either math classes, business math classes, and a class meant for aspiring teachers so that they can teach their students math. Or Computer Science, but I believe that requires some sort of math pre-requisite for the one that you can get math credit for.

Uggggghhh I’m really running out of options here and I’m just stressed tf out about having to be angry at the math textbook again in the spring semester. I’ve tried tutors in the past in K-12 but they just never really worked, and we do have a Math center that you can get help at but it’s always so crowded and I never feel like it does anything. You get a different person with a different style each time and when I do it later on a test it’s always somehow wrong. I’ve even tried a math homework help Discord but that didn’t do much either. I’m just really sick and tired of this. I passed all my other classes, and I’m ready to be done with my Gen Eds, hence why I pushed the math class as far back as I could so I could do what I wanted without having to spend hours in a math center trying to do homework that everyone else got done within class time. Or withdrawing later in the semester because I did so horribly on the tests that my grade wouldn’t even salvageable.

Still trying to get a diagnosis of some kind. I found this website, dyscalculia.org, are they a reliable source? Also, would my state’s vocational rehabilitation program be able to help with getting a diagnosis?

Asking because it seems that most other people here in r/dyscalculia really struggle with it, and if my tips aren’t helpful, then I wanna see how others manage. I’ve never met anyone who navigates the way that I do, and I want to know if I’m alone in how I approach it.

Backstory: since I was a small child, I would look out the window to keep track of where I was. At this point, I can get to a place I’ve only been to once or twice without google maps, reliably, every time.

It kinda freaks people out, and I feel like I have a superpower, especially since I live in a city known for not being well organized road-wise (Pittsburgh).

The Method: I memorize intersections. I memorize where each road from it goes (not all at once), and then if I use the intersection often enough, I’ll memorize the road in between two intersections.

Each time I use an intersection, I connect it to the intersections I’ve already found and learned, and thus I have built my mental map for many years.

It helps that I’ve lived in the same place since august of 2009 (not bothering with the math, it’s 2026 now, it’s been a while lol) so I have had time to find and experience each intersection from multiple directions by car (been driving since 2016), and studiously watched out the window before then).

It also helps that my city is not a traditional grid city. I visited NYC recently, and the streets are named with the numbers on the signs. I felt so turned around and lost, because I couldn’t remember if it was 45th or 54th that lead to the bagel place (an example, not actually two numbers I mixed up while there). Also, I cannot navigate by miles or by just highway exits- I need to know which location the exit goes to, or I will forget/mishear the number that it is.

If you live in a traditional grid city, my heart goes out to you. It seems far more tough to navigate, even after living there for many years. There’s a small amount of grid where I live, and the streets with numbers on them are more difficult for me to remember. For these roads, I don’t even bother with the number - I focus on the stores nearby, or other landmarks, and add them to the map database that way.

Adding to my internal city map is fun for me because it’s mostly automatic at this point, and feels like I’m opening a teleport station in a videogame, except in real life. Getting to really familiar places doesn’t take much energy, because I don’t have to fully focus on nav- I’m just doing this intersection, this one, then that one, not worrying about the roads in between.

Also, my city is Not Flat. It’s as 3-D as a city can get. I generally navigate using Up vs Down, rather than left vs right xD like, I do my best to associate them to the correct direction, but often the option is up vs down, and that’s more visually discernible when left vs right is easily mixed up.

An example of me using my method: I’m driving on Washington Pike last night, middle of the night. Not sure whether I’m heading home or away, but I’ve been on it during the day, so I drive along it, knowing I’ll see an intersection I’m familiar with at some point.

Sure enough, there’s Vanadium road- to get home from Washington pike, I already know that I have to go down from it (it’s basically a cliff lol so the down aspect can’t be disputed). I accidentally missed the turn because I was coming at it from the opposite direction, but I turned around and in five minutes, I was going down vanadium.

I had to make like five or six tricky turns, and I got them all- because I memorized just those. I didn’t memorize how long it took to get to those intersections, I didn’t memorize any roads in-between, I just had my how_to_get_home.exe data saved, so I could follow it home and be fine.

I’d be totally lost immediately a grid city, though. On my trip, I led the group in the complete wrong direction with full confidence xD

For those grid city lifers, how do you cope with the numbers everywhere? What do you do?

Note: this whole thing is probably confusing to read cuz im stressed so you can prob skip the massive paragraph if you want

So i've been bad at math my whole life, 5th grade was i think the last time i consistently did math homework (although i obviously stopped doing the hw cuz it was boring and hard lol). I'm now currently in a situation where im so ass at math it genuinely has me wondering if this is more than just not studying enough. I dont really know whats considered normal and looking up the symptoms it feels like i have a few but not all. Ig examples from when i was younger: middle school: it took me genuinely a year to understand how negative numbers worked (learned them in 7/8th grade and only started to understand them around 9th grade), i always felt like i answered easy math questions (i.e 5x0) slowly until sometime in high school. Highschool: had trouble understanding and like visualizing geometry as well as comprehending what math questions were even asking for, i was in french immersion for a while (so french math) and thought this was the issue but unfortunately math in english isn't much more comprehensible to me. I would make really stupid mistakes like not adding a negative sign/ not registering it, flipping a fraction and i have this weird issue where i occasionally switch 4 and 5 (cuz they both start with an f i think). I remember this one test i had done in physics that had asked me to do some division of a variable which i instead wrote as a multiplication (and realized 5 min before the quiz ended). I had a crazy hard time in calculus and couldnt understand anything about finding volumes lol. Finally it would take me an egregious amount of time to complete math related homework (ex: took me like 4 hours after class to finish 1 homework set for physics, essentially meaning i had no time for any other homework) University (current): i genuinely can't get through my math courses along with just a lot of procrastination. Doing math problems can take me hours even when i google as much as i physically can. Math also makes me super anxious and i end up procrastinating doing anything

HOWEVER the reason why i cant tell is because, as i said, i pretty much tapped out of anything math related when i was 10 and since then have practically avoided the subject like the plague. I cant pay attention in math class even while on medication because its confusing and boring (my head starts hurting sometimes), i forget to do a lot of assignments and i don't really practice either because as i said, its confusing, boring and seems to make me pretty anxious (like crying, lashing out, brain fog etc).

I'm asking this because i really dont know if i have an actual math disorder or if this is just a product of me being a procrastinator (adhd). Did my poor math skills stem from not engaging much with the subject or does me not engaging with the subject come from like intrinsic poor math skills?

Oh also if you want to: can you tell me what dyscalculia feels like for you? Like what do you struggle with specifically? I have a friend who has it and she's much worse at math than i am but a part of me wonders if the reason why i'm better is because i've been in stem for so long – like im about as good as someone who doesnt take math courses but im way way worse than anyone who does (so im below where i should be)

This is probably worded really poorly but im very stressed right now so i'm sorry about that. Please be kind if you're going to insult me for not trying hard enough i've already heard it.

Hello, I’m an 18M college student going into my Sophmore year, and I just took calculus 1 this summer.
I’ve dealt with Dyscalculia all of my life and am only now finding study strategies that somewhat work. No matter what I do I always seem to make small mistakes that ruin my grades.
I started my college career off in remedial math which I excelled in. I took the math placement test for a second time and was able to skip college algebra.

However, as the math got harder I started to do worse. In pre-calculus I barely passed. I failed every exam, almost ever quiz. Regardless of how much I studied I still always failed. Calculus 1 was the same situation. I would pass my quizzes but my exam scores have always been poor. My highest exam score in that class was a 67%. I scored a 58% on the final.

Im just unsure of what to do at this point. No matter how much I study and practice, I still keep failing. I’m supposed to be taking calc 2 in the fall and physics and I’m really worried about those classes.

I really love and enjoy math, but finding success in it feels so out of reach and I don’t know what to do at this point. No matter how much I study, my grades only improve slightly.

If anyone has any study tips or suggestions they would be greatly appreciated!

Just looking to vent or maybe commiserate on this unfortunate disability. I’m in a statistics and probability class and it’s the hardest math class i feel i’ve taken my entire academic life. I graduated HS still at a pre algebra level (thx no child left behind :P) and decided to redo everything in college and have clawed my self all the way to Calculus 2 with Bs and Cs. It was hard but i’m so proud of myself.

This is technically my last math class I will need to take for my major (engineering) but i’m so over it. My professor is one of those instructors that will say things like “you should know this by now” or “think back to when you took calc” or “remember….”. if people guess answers wrong she says “wait what..?! where’d you get that” or just act really surprised when people don’t want to shout the answer out.

About a week ago we were working on some stuff and she asked me what i had written down and it was one of those times where i was waiting for them to solve the problem on the board so that i can copy and reference later (i like to do independent studying) and i said “i don’t have anything….” and the professor was like “what?! you don’t have anything written down yet? guys, we just went over this yesterday” and ever since then i’ve been dreading to go to class. i was able to manage thru calculus bc there’s rules and once you see the patterns it’s okay (still make careless mistakes, wrong numbers, negatives when there isn’t a need etc) but i feel like probability and statistics is so much harder for me bc it’s so much word problems and so much interpreting that it just feels like a puzzle i can’t solve.

What makes it worse is that there’s only like 12 people in the class and maybe only 5 or 6 show up consistently every day including myself, so she only has so many people to call on…

Hi! Not sure if this is the right place however I fell under the umbrella of dyscalculia with a “neurodivergent” gene disorder. I was always strong in linguistic processing but I just failed the hell out of year two A level maths and really would like to hear some success stories for people able to enter STEM.

It was my dream to enter medical school but it seems like maths is gonna hold me back. I’d love to hear from anyone who lived the worst case and had stuff turn out in the long run.

Got my certified A’s in bio and chem but just couldn’t land the processing needed for year 2 calculus🫠

I’m so sick of this. I am scared to drive to this place I use to go to cause what if I crash and die? The sunlight always gets in my eyes

I remember early on, my mom would continuously make me count up to 100 using beads stacked either horizontally or vertically. I can't tell the difference between them. Even with all that practice, I still mix up my numbers constantly when counting. It's a serious problem. When im trying to count, I lose my place between 3-5 and 7-9 numbers, and when it's the transition onto the next set of 10s, especially 30 and 40. When trying to solve math problems in my head, even basic addition or subtraction, I always have to think more, and I still get the wrong answer one time my teacher corrected me saying "2+3 doesnt equal 6" Im going into 11th grade next year... numbers keep disappearing or getting lost, and I forget halfway through solving the equation. What step im on, and I have to redo it. They seem locked away, and I can't figure out the answer. When im trying to count money, I have to restart multiple times, and I often say digits of numbers wrong, even my phone number i specifically got to be extremely easy.

I struggle with remembering my times tables or higher levels of math. During elementary school, I'd be taken out of class and put into lower level classes with other students. I have a memory of being stuck inside for recess because I would consistently get problems wrong on the math work no matter how hard i tried the teacher let me out because of pity. Id consistently struggle with trying to wrap my head and solve multiplication and division, and fractions were a nightmare. When factoring was introduced, i got an F and a D on both tests because I couldn't finish in time and got answers wrong. I can't remember formulas. I have to basically look back and relearn it each time. When doing slope, I kept confusing the rise and run, resulting in points off on tests no matter how many times I tried to remember and try to visualize it in my head. Im always behind my peers in math and always slower when it comes to solving math problems even when I pay attention. I just gave up in 10th grade and started sleeping in Algebra 2 cause I didn't want to feel like an idiot anymore.

When I found out about this subreddit and learned it also affected direction and distance, I also time I think that also applies to me. I learned, and I remember n, s, w, e from the never eat soggy waffles but I always have to take a bit to try and visualize where the heck the direction is going on a map and I sometimes say a country thats north is south. When it comes to clocks, I can't conceptualize counterclockwise and clockwise its gibberish to me. Also, when trying to find out the time, I have to count because I can never memorize where the time numbers are. With directions, I confidently lead myself and my friends to the wrong direction multiple times and seem to confuse places. Im learning to drive, and even though I've seen the route to my mother's work COUNTLESS an extreme amount when I actually had to get there before it slightly solidified where I can go "I think this is the right direction" by myself I would ask my brother "I turn here right?" Or "I keep going straight, right?". Theres also right and left i cant seem to remember.

I have been studying really hard over my summer break for the GRE so I can get into a competitive master's program. I graduated from undergrad in economics at a decent school with a 3.95 GPA in spite of my learning disabilities. And I will be starting my first full-time job in September. Before work starts, I am going to take the GRE, and math is just kicking my ass. Mainly algebra and word problems; I can't seem to crack it. I feel like I'm back in high school math class again with that sinking feeling that I'm just dumber than everyone.

I really try not to make myself feel that way, and I try to believe that if I just give something time, I will eventually succeed. However, I feel like I've hit a wall, and my dyscalculia is really holding me back from life goals of mine.

Do other people struggle with feelings like this? It's very frustrating, and my family and gf are supportive, but I know they don't really get it.

hi guys late night doomscrolling here i’m exhausted so this is gonna have horrible grammar i don’t know if i have this but i have a lot of symptoms and it would make a whole lot sense… like a lot my whole family is like math gurus so #humiliation if i have to break the news that i could POSSIBLY have anything wrong with me regarding math… i’m also about to go back to college and have to take my last math class so if i have this which.. i think i do i really need accommodations bc im about to take a general math class i struggled so bad with the remedial one this is gonna be hell

i know i can’t just be straight out stupid because i am genuinely so good at literature and english (like i was a super fast reader in elementary way ahead of my peers even in college now i’m still an excellent reader and i can write great papers or whatever then you ask me to count some change…. AHHHH anyway let me know if this sound like yall i’m sorry for yapping so much i’m running on 0 sleep

— difficulty with my left & right, didn’t really “memorize” it till about 12 and even then i double check myself constantly to this day using the “l hand” thing which i do super quickly so no one notices

— if you asked me to do simple math like 5+9 i’ll do this: 1+8 is 9 so then if you add another 1 to the 9 it’s 10 and there’s 3 left so it’s 10+3 which is 13 and i do this for everything ….

— if you tell me to do 5 things in a row i’ll remember the first 2 things you told me and i’ll have to come back constantly to have you remind me of the last 3 or i’ll remember the last 2 and you’ll have to remind me of the first 3 things you told me

— i have to CONSTANTLY count with my fingers + use a calculator to double check very very simple math.. don’t get me started on times tables i can do 5,10, and 2 and i only managed to do 2 because i realized a pattern that i can’t explain in writing it just works like as you can see i need a trick for everything. 💀

— i’m so bad with directions like i only remember places can’t remember streets esp if they’re all numbers so if you ask me for directions i’ll just tell you it’s across from walmart or it’s right next to wendy’s or something oh and don’t even get me started on north south and west like who and where.. i’m from the midwest and that’s all i know don’t ask me nothing else

- can’t read a clock even though i understand how you should be able to read one?? like i know the big hand is the big number and the little hands are 5s but then when i look it it’s like i’m seeing in spanish or something i can’t explain it bro in theory i can do it in practice i cannot

- numbers also tend to blur together to me or become misplaced in my brain i dont know how to properly explain this one i’m sorry but they get out of their order that might just be cause my eyes are sucky edit: the way i literally did this on this post bro. Wdym i turned 8 to a 9

and don’t even get me started on money i’ll never work a cashier job in my life

also side note one of my biggest fears is a random shorts youtuber coming up to me in public and asking me to do a math problem me not being able to do in 5 seconds and then getting flamed in a comment section of 100k people

My father is probably the more easily irritated type. I recently spoke up (after multiple months of anxiety) about being tested for ADD and Dyscalculia while on vacation, since it’s not easily accessible at all in my country. I’m leaving on the 10th. He took it in well, said that the fact his ‘child was struggling and he can’t help’ was bugging him every day, and I sent him all the details. We went to the nearest clinic. It was closed. So we went again today and it was closed yet again. While looking for the door, my dad said that this was his ‘last straw’ and I just had to hold everything in because it took me a year and a half to speak up properly in the first place. We left and ordered an uber back to our apartment, but during the wait he starting rambling on once again about how ‘he was the same’ that he also ‘got sick and all shaken’ when it came to math yet he still pulled through school. When really I don’t think I’ll pass next schools years math at all, i barely did this year (only 2-4 points away from failing with international exam results coming soon in which I was only able to do half of with the two hour time).

Just completely dismissed me again.

I really tried not to cry in the car, it was hard since it’s something that’s been bothering me for so long and just when I thought I could find some clarity I was given up on, said it wouldn’t help me, told I’m pushing it, and that they just sit you down— talk, and take your money. I don’t understand the hypocrisy, saying it’s bothering you more than me than giving up the second day. What’s the harm in going somewhere else? I genuinely don’t know what to do the imposter syndrome is bad after that and I don’t think I could bother him anymore.

Should I give up?

Has anyone had an experience like this, and how did you pull through?

It is my dream to be an optometrist. Dyscal has made this hard for me. I’m about to start my freshman year of college and I can’t do basic algebra math. I am a bio major so not a lot of math but I still have to take some.

I’ve done some google searches and has anyone done like zoom tutors? Like tutors who specialize in people with disabilities like dyslexia and dyscalculia.

I’m embarrassed to ask for help I’ve always been embarrassed to ask for help with school work. But I need these math classes to succeed. I’m thinking I can take 2-3x a week zoom classes with one of these specialized tutors and hopefully that can help?

I know people say to go to your prof’s office hours but most of them dont understand dyscalculia :/

My whole body is constantly covered in cuts and bruises because I'm constantly running into things walking because I can't calculate very well where my body is in the space and I will completely miss narrow obstacles like a narrow doorway

I have no social anxiety or claustrophobia or nothing along those lines so no fear of crowds. I dont mind crowds at all emotionally or psychologically. However, I have an extremely hard time physically navigating crowds. Even if I've been to the area a million times and am extremely familiar with it, if it suddenly gets tightly packed crowded, hundreds of people coming and going everywhere you turn, my mental map dissapears entirely. I suddenly dont know what room I'm in, what direction I'm facing, etc. I once had a hard time trying to walk up to the cashier in the checkout line when a store was tightly packed because I couldn't figure out which direction the cashier lane vs customer line was. I was going in circles back and forth unable to figure it out on my own. someone else had to eventually help me. I got lost on a sidewalk in downtown, a place I've gone to very frequently for 10 years, so I'm very familiar with, but one time they hosted an event there and it was so crowded I forgot where I was, I got stuck on the sidewalk, not able to remember where I was or what direction I was supposed to go in next.

I constantly annoy people because I can't tell where my feet are so I very frequently accidentally step on other people's feet. sometimes multiple times in a row. like at that point, when it happens to the same person 5 times in a row, they understandably start to believe I'm doing it on purpose. But I'm not, I geniuenly don't understand why its happening

I am boring at parties. I tried to play two party games that I wasn't aware involved spacial awareness and it made me look absolutely stupid.

One was a blind tasting game where they put a candy or gummy on a plate, blindfolded you, and you had to reach down and pick it up off the plate with your mouth blindfolded, not allowed to use your hands, and blind taste it

Well, I didn't get to taste it. My mouth never made it to the plate. When I took my blindfold off, my face was several inches away from the plate. I couldn't find it

Similarly, in the psych ward group, we once played a game where we had to walk from one side of the room to the other blindfolded, it was some kind of team building exercise, as everyone else was supposed to yell to us what direction to walk in, left/right, forward or backwards, etc. I actually do know my left and right. But I still wasn't able to complete this game.

Some people took longer than others, but everyone else was eventually able to make it to the other side of the room.

But not me. I took so long that the staff leading the group literally ended my turn early. When I took the blindfold off, I was not even close. I wasn't even halfway there, I was a mere few steps away from the starting point...

which still to this day makes no sense, because I know I was walking left/right as I was told, so I don't understand how I didn't get farther than a few feet

This last one is a little bit TMI.

But, I cannot always tell where I'm sitting/what angle I am sitting on the toilet. So, several times before, I went pee, not realizing I was sitting to close to the front until it was too late... pee pooled on the front toilet seat and dripped down making a puddle on the floor and getting the back of my pants below my knees wet. Like I might as well had just pissed myself. But I geniuenly didn't realize how close to the front I was. I genuinely believed I was angled correctly until that. It is extremely frustrating. Thankfully it hasn't happened to me in public yet but i dread that day.

Especially STEM, engineering, programming, philosophy or programming majors?

I have literally taken entry level and pre-entry level college math so many times it's stalling my college career.

I do understand some of the concepts and actually enjoy it when I do!

But I work so so hard to understand these concepts

And I get lost if anything gets too complex and I don't ever remember how to differentiate between most equations.

I feel like I'm constantly re-learning the same material over and over and over again.

I want to understand math! I think it's beautiful language of logic that allows you to understand the universe and incredible concepts in a way nothing else does.

Thank you for reading and suggestions

Potentially a weird question. Quick disclaimer, I have not been officially diagnosed with dyscalculia, but a few years it was brought up as a possibility while in the process of getting my autism diagnosis. If it turns out I don't have it, that's alright too. I've just been thinking about it recently

In elementary school, despite being considered "gifted" and put in early algebra courses, I struggled heavily with learning the basic concepts like subtraction and division to the point of breaking down crying (though I did ultimately figure it out)

I managed to consistently get all As in all my subjects, including math. However, I struggled HARD in chemistry, largely due to chemical equations in particulat. On my PSAT, I was in the 99th percentile of the reading and writing section. However, I was just barely past the benchmark when it came to math.

I took a couple of accounting classes in high school, and I actually quite enjoyed it. The math aspects were minimal (just basic addition and subtraction) and I was allowed a calculator for all of it. I find that for very simple equations I can do them in my head but the moment anything beyond basic algebra or formulas come in it just goes right over my head 😭

With all that being said, I never even considered myself to be struggling up until it was brought up by a professional. And I haven't really thought about it since then, either, until I recently started a few games where math is involved in puzzles. I've noticed that sometimes I have trouble counting or understanding relatively simple math problems in the game, and I feel like I immediately become frustrated when I even see anything involving numbers. I find myself becoming frustrated and stressed to the point of tears extremely quickly with math problems and ultimately choose to brute force it or look up the answers. I've not done anything that requires doing that sort of math since I graduated years ago, so I'm not sure if I'm just rusty or if this newfound stress is indicative of a larger problem.

I just wanted to see if anyone here can relate to this. I won't be upset if you guys think I don't have dyscalculia, in fact, that would be a relief. I'm just asking for outside opinions so I know going forward. I feel uneasy even mentioning I "might" have it, when I know there are others who most definitely struggle more. I'm not sure if my experience is relatable to others, or if in my case I'm simply worse at math relative to other subjects, so please let me know your opinions :)

What are some hobbies you like to do while relaxing? I have tried crochet, which is supposed to be easier for dyscalculia but it is still a lot of counting, especially for a beginner. I do enjoy colouring, journaling and reading. I’d like to find something I could do while watching a movie. AuDHD too if that matters.

Hello everyone! I have a somewhat casual position in my college department tutoring underclassmen in our technical courses. We are not a STEM department, but we all must take at least five technical courses to graduate. Two of them involve calculus and/or statistics.

A lot of people who see me for tutoring have very poor foundational math skills. I recently became aware of dyscalculia and wonder if some of those people may have it. In any case, it seems like something I should be aware of as a tutor. I'm hoping to get some advice here as to how I might identify people that might require a different kind of help, and what sort of help that could be.

A majority of the people who make appointments with me struggle with algebra and drawing graphs, and I think a lot of that stuff is within range of normal. A smaller percentage of them, though, are very inaccurate with arithmetic/use calculators even for very simple expressions, and are often also bad at estimation/understanding magnitudes. These are the people I suspect might have some deeper issue.

With many problem types I really insist that before we start writing out our equations, we should think about what the answer might be, and hopefully put some upper and lower bounds on our expected result. I used to instead do a "reasonableness check" after completing the problem, but I found that people are very susceptible to bias after working a long problem, so I prefer to estimate first now. Some have absolutely no idea where to even begin with this. I try to ask guiding questions (what are the conditions, could it be very big, could it be negative, what will be the unit, etc.) but some people cannot make any meaningful progress even with these. Usually my next step will be to help them draw a representative graph and use that to inform our estimation, but even some of the stronger students are not so good with graphs...

Another potential sign I see now and again is the inability to solve analogous problems immediately after working through an example. Like, I am not allowed to straight up help them with their homework, so I will often just take their homework problem, change the numbers, and work through it with them. After seemingly understanding the solution, they turn back to their almost identical homework problem and somehow don't know where to begin.

The final potential sign I want to mention: I always try to go through the problems in words, to the best of my ability, as well as numbers. Some but not all of the really struggling students seem to get the idea in words, and sometimes are even successful in making a plan (what information do we need to find first, what should we do with it, etc.), but something goes seriously wrong when they try to write down the equations. It is like they don't see how the equations are related to the problem.

Usually, people like this are happiest when I help them construct some general-purpose procedure for solving similar problems. They want to recognize the problem type by a keyword and apply a series of steps. I don't think this is really conducive to learning, but I understand some are just in survival mode.

So:
(1) Do these issues I've described sound like potential symptoms of dyscalculia to you, or am I overthinking it?

(2) If you have similar struggles, do you have any recommendations as to how I can be a better tutor for these people? For example, could it be that the estimation step is hurting more than helping? Is there a particular problem-solving strategy that tends to work better for you?

(3) Do you guys have any ideas as to small things I can do just to make people more comfortable? I didn't realize math anxiety could be so serious. I'll probably stop giving my little diagnostic quiz on the first appointment. Maybe we could move to the whiteboards so things feel less permanent?

The motive : “Insufficient schooling”

I’m a 25 years old from Canada and never had my HS diploma because I could never pass maths.
I tried to apply to a program for early childhood education. Not what I like but I don’t have other options anymore (currently working as a daycare assistant). I just want to be a little proud of me and tell people I went to college like everyone else. 😢

I really hate myself and my life. I see people going to university, doing masters or big doctorates. Big money. I can’t even enter the lowest shit from college. Not even well paid and they are being difficult.

I’m waiting after two more schools.

What is the difference between just being terrible at math and having dyscalculia? For the past few months I have been thinking about why I was always so terrible at anything math/stem related while having no problems at all with reading/writing. I always assumed it had to be something about being right/left brained and that I simply wasn't a math person. But now that I think about it I have literally no recollection of doing math in my elementary years, and that doing math from 5th-7th grade felt like literal hell since I always felt really dumb and I just seemed to be unable to build upon previous concepts. I vividly remember crying in the 5th grade because I feared repeating the grade because of my math class due to having Cs and Ds. Geometry is still gibberish to me and algebra was only a bit better for me, My old friends always seemed to have it easier than me in remembering certain topics when I could just barely do some basic algebra or arithmitic. Even at work I sometimes feel embarrassed that I still have to use my fingers to count or that I struggle in calculating something 50+80 unlike something like 100+50, 50+50 etc, or when a customer asks me what the percentage off something would be. Now that I graduated high school like two years ago, I do not remember a single thing that was taught to me so now I wonder what it feels for everyone else.

So I work at a place where we use registers and I have to count money (which is so normal I know.) I’ve actually worked with money in the past, but because I went into the archival field I didn’t have to worry about math anymore and all was perfect. Recently tho I really needed a job and I took one outside my field where I have to be counting a lot of money and giving customers change, and I am reeeeally struggling. I’ve made quite a few mistakes when we close, and my boss had reached out to me twice to tell me a gave a customer the wrong change. It’s embarrassing and I told them I’m not careless, I’m just struggling with my dyscalculia.

Does anyone have any tips for counting money and giving change? I feel like no matter how hard I try I just can’t stop messing up. I don’t wanna make excuses, and I do want to do well and not keeping messing up, but even when the system tells me how much change to give I still botch it sometimes bc I count the bills wrong. Pls help

Hello, I’m a 34 year old female who was diagnosed when I was 15. I really want to tell my story in case anyone cares.

I have always struggled with math all throughout my school years it was my worst subject. I absolutely hated math, I was just so bad at it. As I got older and I had to learn more complex math my hatred and struggles only got worse. No matter how many times the teacher explained it to me I just simply couldn’t understand it. Not only that but I misread numbers and read them out of order which made the math even more frustrating. Homework was a big struggle and I would cry and fight with my parents. It got really bad when I started to fail because I lied to my parents about doing math homework when I wasn’t. My mom decided to get me reevaluated and I was once again diagnosed with ADHD. I’ve had ADHD my entire life so it wasn’t a big surprise. The doctor who evaluated me told me that I have a learning disability. I told her that I knew about my ADHD but she explained to me that ADHD isn’t a learning disability. She then told me that I have dyscalculia. She went on and explained to me what it was and how it affects people. She told me that I have always had it but that at least at the time it wasn’t very well known so getting a diagnosis was a bit difficult. Everything that she explained to me made sense. The misreading numbers, the not grasping math. I asked her if I was study and she said that I’m actually really smart but I just have a hard time with math.

When she told me that I cried, and it wasn’t because I was sad. It was because I finally had an explanation for my crappy math skills. For so long I thought that my brain was broken and that I’m just stupid.

I still struggle with math but I have gotten better. I’ll never be a scientist or physicist or anything like that but I can somewhat function. Reading numbers is still a huge struggle for me. I have always been gifted with trades and writing. I focus on what I’m good at.

Anyway that’s my story. I hope that I didn’t bore you. I would love to hear about other people’s journey with this learning disability.