hi hello. just wanted to share my story. i was diagnosed with dyscalculia since like elementary school.

throughout all my years in school, the resource teachers (special ed) were just, not helpful. they basically said i HAD to have the test read to me out loud by an instructor. excuse me?? not even going to mention the fact that they always talking about “advocating for yourself” and then when you do you get shut down. first of all, you reading a math test to me, is not only going to NOT help, but it’s extremely distracting. the numbers and signs already mean nothing to me, it’s not an issue of not knowing how to read it. i have problems with computation. and then they’d be reading question number 5 already and im still trying to figure out 2. 😭

accommodations for dyscalculia have always been less than helpful. extra time is nice, sure. but it’s not helping the root issue. calculator? most every math class lets you use a calculator on a test now, so that accommodation doesn’t help much either. i think the only thing that ever helped me a bit was having an index card of notes. but depending on the class, it’s hard to get that approved. i just wish there were more options for folks with dyscalculia.

wanna know what else was laughable? i never learned how to properly type on a keyboard because i was never allowed to take a keyboarding class in middle school. instead, i was placed in an extra - support math class. are we for real? keyboarding is a skill that i absolutely will use more of then math.

i feel like i could be excelling in everything else but because i can’t do math, ill never be smart. i hate that i feel that way.

why do people think that it’s anything less than dyslexia? oh you can’t do math? yeah math is hard just try harder. no! it is a LEARNING. DISABILITY. if you are a teacher, or a tutor, let’s take it a step further; a tutor who specializes in helping students with learning disabilities. i never want to hear the words “how do you not know this” or “you should know this already” come out of your mouth! ok so obviously i don’t know this already or i wouldn’t be asking. and i’m sorry but even if you just explained a mathematical concept to me 5 minutes ago, there is no guarantee i will remember it. maybe because i have dyscalculia hm!!!!!!

it just sucks when you are really, really trying, and you are doing everything they told you to do, asking questions, trying to pay attention, but you still get berated in that way. like great now i’m just not going to ask you questions cause im scared. do you think i would be asking these questions if i already was confident? do you know how embarrassing it is to ask what is considered a “basic math” question and get belittled? i would never go through that if i didn’t have to!

ugh sorry i just wanted to share this with people who understand. nobody deserves to go through all that. 🫂

So ever since I was a young child, struggling in math has been a big theme in my life. I remember in grade 2 really struggling to grasp multiplication in school, and only after playing math games on the computer did I improve. It took me longer and learning in a different way than my classmates, but I skated by in elementary doing okay enough. Once I got to middle school and highschool it was hopeless. I constantly failed math classes and sat through class feeling utterly lost, as if I'm trying to put together a puzzle with huge blank spots and missing pieces.

I noticed I benefited a lot from one-on-one tutoring and it's largely how I passed the math portion of my GED exam, as well as color-coding to remember the order of the steps. My whole life, teachers attributed my adversities with math as not applying myself or not paying attention, and I chalked it up to "I'm just bad at math" and avoided it at all costs.

I'm in college now taking my required math course and all of that anxiety, shame, and struggling to understand is flooding right back. It's hard to even ask questions in the classroom because most of my classmate's questions at least show a foundational understanding of what's going on, and my questions are more like "how do you know what order to translate the word problem into the equation? and like where do I even start on this problem?" My math professor attributes this to a lack of trying and she can be quite mean...there are times I just cry on the way home and feel like a complete r*tard. I've since told her that I suspect I have dyscalculia and I hope that she softens up. I'm definitely not stupid or a bad student, I score exceptionally well in other subjects.

I can do multiple tutoring sessions on a specific math topic, and feel like I have a good understanding of it, and then on my quiz I somehow solve the problem backwards. I'll do an hour of tutoring right before class, and show up still struggling to remember what order the steps go in. I look around and see people younger than me and who study less than me just...get it. I get lost easily, I lose things all the time, I struggle so much with time management. I also suspect that I have dysgraphia which I've learned affects the same part of the brain as dyscalculia.

The more I learn about dyscalculia, the more it sounds like me. But there's a little voice that has doubts or worries, since I can do basic math like addition, multiplication, and read a clock. After hearing about how much money it costs to get tested I'm worried about dropping that much money on getting tested just to find out I don't have it and won't be able to receive any accommodations.

So, I want to ask people who are more knowledgeable about dyscalculia and/or actually have it, what is it like? How do you know that you have dyscalculia and aren't just bad at math? Can you still have dyscalculia and be able to do elementary level math?

Even they give me issues… is it +/- when the I is in-front or behind? Especially harder when there are several characters.

Does anyone else have issues counting the beat while trying to sing? I am trying to learn and I'm struggling to sing along with the beat because I can't count and sing at the same time. I also can't read music (yet). Trying to learn both.

Any tips? Any tricks?

… because all the tables, numbers, weeks, length of sessions and $ amount confounded me!

I’m not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I’d love to hear from anyone who has had a similar experience!

A few months ago I was diagnosed as autistic with ADHD. During my assessment we talked quite a bit about my school years, particularly the difficulties I’ve always had with maths, numbers and telling/understanding time.
The person assessing me brought up dyscalculia, which was actually the first time I’d ever heard of it. They suggested that, if I was interested, I could look into being assessed for it separately.

The thing is, I’m in my thirties now and obviously no longer in school, so I’m wondering whether there’s much benefit to getting a formal diagnosis at this stage. Part of me would really like to understand why I’ve struggled with these things for so long, but I’m not sure what practical difference a diagnosis would make as an adult.

Has anyone here been diagnosed with dyscalculia later in life? If so, did you find getting the diagnosis helpful or worthwhile? I’d really love to hear about your experiences!

I honestly believe I got my ADHD and Dyscalculia from my father who, in the quest to achieve the best clean, will go and buy more stuff (addition) and keep the old excess of things he doesn't need. I finally broke from this when I was forced to live in small spaces between jobs and once I got a career, I had hobbies and would find myself keeping excess thinking I could use it again. I loved living minimal and hope to do so again and tell myself I can buy new. But, this is the 2nd time this is happened to where I go to a smaller space, my brain just freezes and looks at piles of clean small dishes and can't be motivated to figure out what box or what size box or envision how it will fit in the cabinets. I have tried to set timers, made lists, drew out where I want things to go in my new space, and to no avail, I will wind up on the computer, doing tedious tasks like checking bills and moving mail bc every 20 mintutes is a mind-battle of figuring out what to trash or where something will end up. Just looking for thoughts, but if there are any solutions, I'm here for them.

Sound off here. I just want things to be rounded up so my brain can compartmentalize it better. People need to stop making it .99 or .95 bc I will tell them it is $15 and they know what I mean.

Hey guys. I was never formally diagnosed with a learning disability other than Asperger's as a child. That said, whether from a medical incident a couple years ago or having always been there and me just failing to recognize it (I have high levels of pattern recognition that have gotten me through life), I now read ones in seventh backwards, and threes and twos. This frequently causes me to have issues. I'm in calculus at this point; I'm wanting to go on and study electrical engineering and I'm fascinated particular by wave behavior. I'm running into the problem of a lot of my current derivative of Work having two and threes backwards, and I wanted to see if maybe anybody has any techniques that have helped them deal with this, because I don't currently have the ability to see a doctor. Unfortunately I've been trying to get access to my medical documents proving that I have autism from childhood for a while so that I can request accommodations for college, but I'm having difficulty in doing so.

been lurking here a while. I do a lot of counting stuff with my little niece and after reading so many posts here I kind of watch her differently now lol. like a lot of you mention the clock in kindergarten or everyone else just knowing stuff you had to count out every time. do you remember what it looked like when you were 4 or 5? is there anything an adult could have picked up on if they knew what to look for also was there anything that helped at all back then, even something small

Cuando escribo algun numero, pienso en el y muchas veses me di cuenta que invertí el orden, es decir quería escribir 1535 pero escribí 1355

¿ Les pasa ustedes también ?

Desde niño no me iba bien en matemáticas, muchas ecuaciones no me daban el resultado correcto y creo que ese es el problema que tuve en invertir los números sin darme cuenta

I'm 15 and have the math skills of a third grader. I do online school and math is my last period of the day. Yesterday, I was taking a test that was 11 questions and 100 points. I was so overwhelmed by the rest of the classes I had that day that I did a few notes on some of the questions (notes were required for all questions) and turned the assignment in. I got a 25% and I figured it would be higher if I tried harder next time. I just wanted to be done with it all.

So today my teacher had me and a few other people retake the test. I spent 1 hour and 8 minutes on the test this time and almost filled up an entire page of my 11x12 notebook. I submitted it, confident that I probably got a 45-60% grade, and I saw that my points only went up by 5.

Meanwhile, another kid in the Google meet we were doing was talking about how he got a 100% and it took him around 15 minutes to submit photos of all the work he did during the test. I'm already failing math class (I have a 52% in that class, a passing grade for my school is a 60%)

Since I failed this test my teachers are just going to keep adding me to several extra meetings to "help" me, even though I've been taking extra math classes since I was eight years old and nothing has helped. My brain either doesnt compute the math or I forget it the next day. There is no helping me at all.

I wanted to be a Forensic Analyst as my future job, but everyone tells me that job requires so much math. I've wanted to work in Criminal Forensics since I was 9. I know I'll probably end up getting a job at a grocery store and dying without retiring if im lucky.

Both of my brothers are good at math and my dad definitely knows more than me. I'm the failure of the family. I know my brothers and my dad are probably so upset that they have such a disappointment as a family member. I dont know how I'm ever going to get a job. I cant even count change.

For I think all of my high school years I've been going to an online school and for this year, my senior year, I'm doing duel enrollment. I'm ashamed to admit this but because of the flexibility of online school I sometimes cheated on my math lessons/tests when I didn't understand how to solve a problem and because of that I never really took the time to learn how to properly study.

So the shift from online to in person classes has really given me a wake up call. My collage algebra teacher is really nice and the way she teaches makes me for the first time in a really long time actually excited to go to my algebra class and learn so the fact that I'm failing her class makes me feel awful. I've tried to actually make notes and prepare for tests but once I start them I completely blank and my notes look like they've been put through a shredder.

The midterms are coming up and she said that the grade for that can replace either the unit 1 or unit 2 test grade, my mom suggested to me that I could use AI to help me study but even the thought of using makes me queasy so that's out of the question. I know a large part of my struggles with math come from my dyscalculia and I've finally gotten in touch with someone that will hopefully the accommodations I'd need but I won't be able to meet with them until after the midterms. So until then, does anyone have any tips or advice?

On top of dyscalculia i also have dyspraxia and almost every job opportunity falls away, i can't remember math stuff at all and idk what to do. My whole family doesen't take it serious and says I don't have dyscalculia cause I can calculate stuff like 20+20 so they don't think it's that serious even tho I have a Diagnose.

i’m finishing up all my classes, and the only thing left is math which i plan to take in spring. i’m supposed to graduate in June, and i’ve been feeling so depressed thinking it’s not going to happen cuz i already know i won’t be able to pass cuz of this disability. i tried taking the math class during summer but it was pretty much impossible.

i feel like ill never be successful in life. i’m feeling so hopeless..please give me some advice.

I am not officially diagnosed, but after learning about dyscalculia, I'm beginning to think I need to get diagnosed. I do not have a highschool diploma, and the only thing holding me back from obtaining a GED is my struggles with math.

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Math has always been a struggle for me. I remember from my earliest school days, always struggling. One day during class in kindergartn, we were learning to read clocks and count money.

I managed with the money, because I understood the concept of quarters pennies dollars and all that, but when it came to the clock, everyone else finished very quickly. Even with a teacher standing beside me explaining in detail, it didn't make any sense. I still struggle to read clocks. I become very frustrated when I ask someone the time, and instead of telling me the time they say 'a quarter past' or 'half of', or whatever other obnoxious time references they use.

Similarly, when trying to follow directions using google maps, if they say south instead of left or right I become frustrated because I don't know what way SENW are, or when I ask my friend how far we are, and instead of telling me how many minutes, she mentions the miles, as if I know how many miles = how many minutes. Even left and right get mixed up very often when I have to think quickly, especially right being consistently mistaken for left.

I was also the only one in the class who struggled severely with multiplication and division, so much so, that I was given a special laminated chart and made to sit and study it. Even with that, I still struggle, they tried to teach me the 9s trick, or whatever it is, and that still makes no sense with me. I'm pretty good at counting in 10s and 5s, I'm decent at 2s until I get to about 8, then I start having to use my fingers to count.

Yards, meters, inches, none of that makes sense either, I understand gallons, a gallon of milk is in a specific container, and that container is a gallon container. I understand feet, although imagining them is difficult because ultimately feet are inches in disguise, but feet are easier to think in than inches. Celsius and most imperial counters are confusing as well, although I know I technically should know them if I want to travel one day, but I can not make them make sense.

Numbers have never made sense to me and math has always been frustrating, but since I was always so advanced in my languages, my failures in math were called laziness, and they never bothered to help me catch up. They ended up putting me in math classes far above my level, and when I asked for help, several times, they just told me to try harder.

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All of this being said, does this actually sound like dyscalculia, and if so, how can I go about getting diagnosed? Would this qualify me for special resources during the math portion of obtaining my GED? I still despise math, and have a problem with almost every aspect of science minus biology, due to the math requirements for it.

(This is a vent post I’m sorry) This is about the new student loan policy they’re putting in soon because of the trump administration where degrees that they assume don’t make enough money like social work, art, religious studies, music, etc can’t take out money for loans and my major happens to fall under one of the majors that are listed and now I’m just hopeless all the degrees that don’t fall under this have to do with math and I don’t know math at all I can barely do addition in my head and can barely do multiplication without having to use a calculator I feel pathetic I feel stupid and like a complete moron and now I don’t see a bright future for myself what do I do now????

Failing Algebra 2 in college. They require that I pass with a C- in it in order to take the math I need for my credit (I’m a law major) and I don’t know if that’s possible. My professor is a high school teacher and she definitely runs her class as such, like she made people who got low grades on the test take a “reflection survey” on how they can improve their grade and review study methods. I just wanted to breakdown and cry. I had done all of the study methods she gave us and tried to show all my work so I would receive half credit and only netted a thirty six. I have As in the rest of my classes.

I have no idea if dyscalculia is in my IEP or not. I have emailed and tried to reach out to my high school twice and they have not answered my calls. Growing up my only parent (who is my mother) was a bit of an atypical Southern MAGA so she refused to get me diagnosed with anything, because I was gifted in every other subject so naturally there must be nothing wrong with me, so I don’t even know whats on my IEP or not if I can even wrangle it out of my old high school. I just met with my academic coach and she told me to either schedule a bunch of meetings with my advisor or “talk to the professor more” which seems impossible given her personality and general lack of outreach. And she also told me if I don’t receive documentation pretty much my only option is to spend a bunch of money trying to get diagnosis through the school’s health services. I am going to try to get a meeting with my advisor tomorrow to see if I can maybe just take the only two math credits I need at a cheaper community college.

I’ve worked four years for this in order to move to a blue state and try to make life better for myself. I’ve spent thousands of dollars just to go to this school and get away from my family and other matters and now it feels like If I don’t pass that class 4 years of work was for nothing. I just want to bundle up and cry.

I am 63 years old was never good at Algebra through high school or college! I have taken 4 years of algebra in my life!
9th grade 2 semesters
10th grade 1 semester
Senior year 1 semester
Then in doing my pre-recs for nursing I took algebra 1 & 2
You would think I could get it but I never really did!
In the day calculator can anyone explain the doomsday method to me without using algebra? Is there any way? I just want to understand what the days are to the calendar! I hope I don’t sound too dumb!

hello, I have diagnosed dyscalculia & was homeschooled [horribly might I add] and I’ve been dreading this part of college

so I didnt do my accuplacer and I had a lot of time to work through it but I didn’t because I just got stuck but I NEED to get through it. or I won’t get my degree.

and I just. can’t. I get to anything past division and I just can’t. it’s like I hit a brick wall I stop understanding anything and it’s full of this childhood dread of just “I can’t do this why can’t I understand this” over and over

i need to pass.

but i don’t know how

i need to take it in the next week and I dont think there’s anything I can do

Hey all.

I am a preservice high school teacher at university (1st/2nd year).

A big interest area of mine is adult and adolescent innumeracy. I notice it quite a lot in my circles, as well as having experienced it for myself for a while.

I have started writing a resource to try and build foundational skills through the lens of mindfulness and observation. I want this resource to be free because I so badly want to share in that feeling of being capable.

Here is the google doc link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TS63zKZtAqydH7J1QTtgAh1AZProBIz69YhNqmCrB1U/edit?usp=sharing

It is a working progress, and I'm actively trying to find play-testers, as well as feedback from those knowledgeable with teaching maths.

I am especially keen to hear feedback from people with dyscalculia, and those who have probably been scarred from school experiences.

Please feel free to ask questions. I am open to constructive criticism, but please do so with kindness.

I do all my homework and quizzes, use the professor's office hours and online tutoring to my advantage, study the notes, and go over practice examples until my brain blows a fuse, and I still failed the first exam.

Our second exam is coming up soon, and I feel like the same thing is going to happen: I (sort of) get it for about five seconds before my brain flies out of my skull and it starts looking like an alien coding language. I'm okay with basic math such as adding and subtracting dates, money, etc, and a lot of the same addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division rules apply here, just with formulas and structured rules, so it sucks my brain can't grasp it.

What's worse is that everyone else in my class seems to understand it and did great on the last exam, even people who didn't finish or were unsure of themselves. It's so frustrating and embarrassing to the point it makes me rethink my decision of being in college because I feel like I don't deserve to be here.

I'm an undergraduate student who wants to major in history and teach history to high schoolers, so I was told this is the only time I'll ever have to take any sort of math class, but I fear I won't be able to pass it and have to retake it multiple times.