To hate maths?

[Frequency]

I know I am not BU.

Maths hurts my brain. I have decided I no longer want a job. Jobs mean maths. I am going to pack my belongings into a binliner, acquire a large box, and live in the park. People can bring me chocolate and peanut butter protein bars, and Cherry Pepsi to sustain me. I won't know how many they are bringing because I am never doing maths again, but as long as there are some, it will be fine. In my new life, some is the only number that exists.

I dislike maths OP, but I don’t mind counting and percentages (with a calculator) - they look nice - 97% - beautiful. I have a soft spot for the 9 times table but the rest can do some and I’ll take ‘some’ of what you are having.

Hating it is probably a bit strong.

Maths may underpin a lot of bad things in the world, but a lot of good things as well. Without maths we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

Plenty of jobs that don’t need maths,

get one of those.

Computers don't exist in my non-math world, so this is true.

Computers are what I am trying and failing to learn, subnetting to be specific. We also don't have Python, Python also means maths.

You see, I understand subnetting, I know why we subnet, I know how to subnet. I can divide a network into subnets with a calculator or with python or one of the many, many subnetting calculators available online but Cisco are arseholes and believe you need to know how to subnet with only a whiteboard and dry eraser.

Without Cisco certs, I can only get so far in my career and don't even get considered for most jobs that match my experience level, therefore, I do not want a job. I want a box to live in, in the park.

What I find amazing is how many jobs want GCSE/functional skills maths at a certain level, but don't actually require anywhere near as much maths knowledge as getting a GCSE. It's used as a sort of shorthand if they need employees to be able to do basic sums and things like understanding graphs and percentages, yet involves so much more.

I hate maths too, I really struggle with it. Most jobs like you say require you to have both English & Maths these days. I would love to train as a veterinary nurse but you have to have maths to be accepted onto the course, the annoying thing is I’m halfway qualified and despite my current qualification not requiring maths and proving you are capable of using the correct formulations to use calculate drugs dosages I still can’t do the full qualification because i don’t formally have a separate maths qualification. I’ve tried and failed 3 times now to get my maths, the way questions are worded doesn’t always make it clear what they want. Its crap!

I dislike maths too. My job doesn't really involve any though. I'm a teacher (but don't teach maths or science!).

I hate it too.
I’be always struggled with it since I was at school. I can do basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, but use a calculator for most things just to be sure! I barely scraped a D in GCSE maths and scraped a pass by the skin of my teeth when I did adult functional skills maths in the Army 🫣🫣
If the DCs need help with maths homework, that’s a DH job. I could barely get my head around the methods I was taught 20 years ago, let alone these new methods kids are being taught these days!

Yabvu. Maths is lovely. However I have zero idea what subnetting is.

You need functional numeracy to get by in life, but there’s very little in either life or most workplaces that requires maths as such. What jobs have you done in the past? What were you good at? You need to find something that plays to those strengths.

I love maths.

I do GCSE and A-Level past papers for fun.

My DH thinks I’m weird but I don’t care.

I'm good at computer science because in the real world I can use a calculator or write a programme in Python or ask ChatGPT to work out the subnet for me if I need to. Or use one of the many, many subnetting calculators available online.

It is not subnetting I am trying to work out at the moment. It is functional skills level 2. I decided to resolve my issue by building my confidence in maths via functional skills.

It is not working. I hate this more than I hate subnetting by hand. At least I can subnet by hand. It takes me longer than I need to pass an exam, and it stresses me out but I can do it. What I cannot do is wrap my brain around this simple sum

YABVVVVVVU - maths is wonderful!

Although before seeing your second post I did wonder if you work in accounts (it’s Year End)…

There’s lots of ways you can learn whatever maths you need. I think primary schools put a lot of people off maths which is a crying shame.

Maths isn’t just about numbers, it’s about learning to think logically - you only need to look at a lot of the current world leaders to understand why learning logic is desirable.

In 1910 the number of tigers was 100% of the population figure.

Then 95% of tigers were taken away, leaving 5%, which is 3,200.

3,200 / 5 x 100 gives the original number of tigers.

This will be 64,000 tigers.

If the population has decreased by 95%, it is now 5% what it was in 1910.

5% = 3200
10% = 6400
100% = 64,000

I think I love you.

I have been watching YouTube videos for the last hour. None of them made it that simple.

That also makes sense to my brain.

My issue could be this stupid website rather than maths

https://passfunctionalskills.co.uk/functional-skills-maths-level-2/functional-skills-percentages/

Trying to work out which of their formula I should use made my brain bleed.

I get it. I love maths, its my degree subject. I love algebra. I love calculus.
I HATE trigonometry and it makes me feel stupid.

If it's any help, I researched how to get good at maths. I enjoy reading scientific papers because I'm weird and we have no TV.

Research has proven that there is no such thing as a maths brain and a non-maths brain. It all comes down to confidence and prior learning. Anyone can get good at maths. Most people who can't do maths have math anxiety (it is a real thing), and that anxiety prevents them from learning.

I'm desperately clinging to that research at the moment and trying to convince myself I can do this. And I can crack subnetting an entire network in the time Cisco wants me to. I just need to keep trying and maybe take a few steps back and try maths level one if I keep struggling.

I did not learn Python by sitting down and re-coding the Sims 4. I started with Hello World. Maths is no different from Python.

I don't fully believe this, btw, but if I tell myself it often enough something might change in my poor, long suffering brain

Nothing wrong with not liking it, but it is necessary. Especially when it comes to money and managing it.

You’re for sure over thinking it. Try breaking the VAT question down like someone broke the Tiger question down. Explain it back to us on here like they did and see if you get a different answer.

Stop trying to find the right formula, just problem solve the problem and then overlay the calculations.

Edit: Reading this back it sounds like your VAT answer was wrong, it wasn’t! I more meant it as a sense check!

Where do you get the papers from?

Love maths❤. Please don't pass on Maths anxiety to your kids, give them positive thoughts about it then it is not perpetuated through the family.

I panicked then

What you're saying makes sense, though. Maths genuinely does make me anxious. When I sit down to work out a maths problem, I actually feel legitimate fear, and I do think that causes me to overthink. And the more stressed I get about a problem, the less sense it starts to make.

Google "Pass functional skills maths" a website(free) with lots of topics, videos to demonstrate, worksheets, answers and videos demonstrating all the answers. I use it to teach and think it's very useful.