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.

There’s loads online from various exam boards, just google gcse past papers.

If it makes you feel better I haven't the faintest idea what subnetting is 🤣 it SOUNDS like when I have 50 gazillion 'sub' tabs open in my phone browser at any time.

Maths is always simple once you understand it.

A bit like cryptic crosswords!

Is it worth exploring a therapeutic way of tackling your anxiety around maths? It seems you are capable of doing it, but just need someone to help you unlock your potential.

Rather than formulas, try creating your own method of understanding the problem.

I'm a data analyst but will still sometimes draw out simplified examples of what I'm trying to achieve so that I can figure out the logic first.

Sometimes it helps to remove the 0s first to make the problem smaller (and remember to add them back in later!). E.g 32 tigers may feel less daunting.

Or you could use household objects like pasta to do a practical version of the problem - e.g. pour out a pack of pasta and count the pieces. Set some of them to the side (as they've died out), now you have your remaining tiger population. You noticed that you had to subtract (remove) the pasta to get the remaining percentage.

Try and divide your pasta up into same size batches - e.g. 5 in each "batch". This is similar to a % system. If you have 1 batch of the left hand side of your table and 19 on the other side you can see how your 1 batch amounts to 1/20th of the whole. So we need to multiply 1 batch size by 20 to get the full population.

You can test your answer by moving the calculated number of pasta shapes from right to left. So now we know that we can multiply to get our answer (which is less daunting than dividing) by using the number at the bottom of a fraction (5 × 20 is the same as 5 ÷ ¹⁄₂₀).

The above may not help, but if you're finding book learning or classroom learning tricky it might be that you are a more hands on or practical learner and perhaps you're better off working out how the maths works from first principles yourself rather than through rote learning

If I know what the answer is meant to be, I can then work backwards to understand the methods that lead to it. This approach helps me break down complex problems into manageable steps, making it easier to grasp the underlying logic. I find that seeing the final outcome first gives me a clear direction, allowing me to piece together the reasoning in a structured way.

I like maths because it has a sense of order and certainty there’s always a logical path to follow, even if it takes time to uncover. There’s something satisfying about finding the right solution, knowing that everything fits together like a puzzle.

However, I do need a lot of focus to work through problems, especially when they require multiple steps or abstract thinking. If I lose concentration, it’s easy to get stuck or make small mistakes, so I often need to take my time and approach problems methodically.

I don't like maths either I think I have a bit of dyscalculia going on as my mental arithmetic is useless but I have noticed that it improves if I practice a lot. Still probably worse than a lot of people but better than it was.

I did find in the later questions that re-writing the questions and breaking the info down helped me work out what it was asking. When I attempted the tigers one I was just focused on whether it was asking me to work a percentage increase or decrease, or a percentage change, so I could then apply the relevant formula.

Once I re-wrote the questions, what I needed to do to figure out the answer was a bit simpler.

I generally do learn by doing rather than reading, which is fine in computer things. I can create labs, accidentally delete an entire domain controller, and then work out to re-instate it from the back-up and learn that way (if anyone works with AD/servers, I do not recommend deleting your domain controller).

Breaking things in labs is how I have learned most of what I know.

What does it say about me that I thought you were doing the price of a TV one...

Honestly, I thought you were talking either senior advanced level maths not used in the real world unless you are becoming an astrophysicist, or uni maths. The question about tigers though is what my kids would have done in Yr7/8 with my ‘advanced maths’ ones being extended in Yr6.

Maybe you are young and had shitty teaching strategies at school. I found this when my kids started going through. School seemed to teach them the most complicated and redundant ways to do maths. So, I said forget it, I’ll teach you how I was taught and they found that much easier/quicker and excelled. Two simple ways to do that. The obvious would be in your head via the way a pp put it. It’s 5%, so just double it in your head (easy) then add a zero to take it to 100%. The other way is a X strategy with x being the answer. It’s a cross over multiplication and then division based on X (hard to explain, but so super simple, better by diagram and can’t be arsed). That takes 2 seconds on a piece of paper if you can’t do it in your head based on the concept.

Maybe you are young and had shitty teaching strategies at school

I wasn't taught maths in school. I am of an age where if you struggled with maths, they gave up on you and sent you to a different room to play with shapes in a fishtank.

I can tell you whether a sphere will float or sink, but I cannot tell you what 7 x 7 is because I was never taught. Once I got to secondary school, I didn't have the foundations that everyone else had to build on, so I fell even further behind.

I love maths. I come from a maths loving family. I used to do maths problems for fun, still do in fact. Don't know what else to say except I am very sad for you. I will try to find some cherry Pepsi to drop off for you. X

I'm just here to give some maths ❤️. I'm sorry that you hate the subject that I teach but I totally understand where you are coming from having taught many students who have the same feeling about it that you do. A lot of it is about confidence and belief that you can do it. I'm sure those of us on here who don't mind the subject can help you with stuff if you ask.

I can't help with the Cherry Pepsi though. Nasty tasting stuff that!

If it makes you feel better, I am determined to overcome my maths fear. I keep telling myself that if I can learn Python and various other programming languages and how to build a PC and work out which parts are compatible, then I can learn maths.

I've tried a few times previously but always started with subnetting and binary maths, which is stupid because, as I said, I did not learn Python by starting with coding massive games, I started with print("Hello World") and moved up from there.

I need to do the same with maths, stop stressing about the maths I need for my computer exam, and go back to basics.

I have a whole maths plan, starting with level 2 functional skills and ending with me being a math genius. It might take the rest of my life to achieve my goal, but I will get there.

I didn't get a maths GCSE. I lost interest, my teacher lost interest, I didn't complete my coursework and knowing this I didn't bother trying in the exam. Official result was a U but I didn't follow it up.

I've always worked in design and front end development. Knowing maths is useful and I know more than I thought I did, but as others have said, calculators and now chat GPT exist, sometimes it's more important to know how to apply the maths than work it out.

I am in awe of people who work in computing OP. I may have Maths A level but could never do what you are doing.

I really hope Maths will not stop you from doing what you want to do. You write very well by the way and are clearly literate with a sense of humour.

I think being good at maths has become synonymous with being ‘clever’. Now in my mid 50s, I can see now that there are so many ways of being clever. Being good at maths is just one of them. I have two adult kids, both at opposite ends of the maths ability spectrum. Meet them both socially, and you would think the non-Mathsy one was the cleverer one!

Good luck OP. I reckon you can crack this

Your maths plan is now sounding a lot more positive than your original plan to live in the park 🤣

That sounds unusual. I am in my 60s and no one was allowed to give up maths (bog standard comprehensive school in the 1970s).

My grandmother was once sent home with a note saying that she no longer needed to do arithmetic because it upset her. But she was born in the 19th century!

DD would love you.
She did her older brother's SATs practice papers in lockdown (she was y3, he was Y6) and is now doing his GCSE practice papers (Y8 and Y11 respectively).

I’m with you OP, maths can do one and I’ve thought this for decades.

Microsoft were arseholes with subnetting too when I did my MCSE (Windows NT 4) years ago and made you do it by hand in the exams. Why???? In the real world we aren’t going to sit with a notepad and pen pissing around with bit patterns!!!!

I had to subnet this week and just used an online calculator, 2 minutes work, job done, move on to the next job.

Always remember my maths teacher at school saying “you have to be really good at maths to be a programmer”. Oh really matey??? I’ve written more code in multiple different languages than he’s had hot dinners. Being shit at maths didn’t stop me doing that.

With percentages questions drawing a bar to show 100% then drawing what % they have told you can help visually with what calculation you need to do.

Definitely just build up slowly starting with areas you are more confident in. I think it’s almost impossible to learn when feeling anxious so initially concentrate on having fun and get really good at one small area before expanding your skills. You can definitely do this with time.

I hated maths a school. It was very much a 'boys subject' and I don't think girls were particularly expected to enjoy it or be good at it.

I'm now a primary teacher and maths is my favorite subject to teach! (And get the girls to love!)

My biggest issue is that girls still come in with a 'maths is for boys' or "I'm no good at maths," attitude which I have to break through and the number of parents who come to parents evening and say, "Well, I always hated maths," or "I was no good at maths," as though I can just say, "Oh well that explains it then!" And write off their children... well, daughters really. I still don't hear it from parents of sons. Parents of sons always want their sons to be good at it regardless of how they felt about it.

Maths is taught better now (generally!)

I know this isn't what the thread is about but I just want to take the opportunity to request that, even if you hated maths and felt you weren't any good at it, please don't pass that on to your children!

I was in primary school in the 80s. Maybe I just went to a really shitty school. They did it to my sister too, I asked in the family group if anyone else who went to that school wasn't taught maths, and my mum admitted none of us where and she knew we weren't but she believed the teachers when they said we couldn't do it because she was bad at maths.

My sisters didn't play with shapes and water. They played snakes and ladders with parent volunteers because it helped them learn to count

I mean, maybe it did, but counting up and back from 6 was never going to prepare them for secondary school maths, was it?

And I don't think I know a single network engineer who has ever subnetted by hand outside of an exam, even the ones with degrees in maths, because why would you? Even if you are Einstein, doing it by hand is going to take longer than punching the numbers into a calculator.

I did say this to my maths teacher last week, who asked what we would do if the internet was down and we had to do it by hand! If the entire network in the whole building is down, including the wifi, we have bigger issues than which client is on which subnet

I'm in my chosen profession now but, what happens is my contract ends or I'm made redundant, and I can't get back in at the same level even though I have experience because I don't have the certs. A lot of the time, my CV doesn't even get past the AI scanner. So I take a job at the next level down and work my way back up, and then the same happens again. I'm not getting any further ahead because I keep having to start again from the beginning, if that makes sense?

@Frequency

The thing is, as we know, having a certification doesn’t mean the person can do the job, it means they can retain the information to pass the exam. Once they’ve done that, they flounder. There is no shortcut to experience.

I’m currently doing Azure certifications as we are finding we need to now include this on tender responses simply because the product we provide is hosted in Azure, my team implements the software, not the Azure side of things, but as we are the Consultants, we need to have it.

I’ll do it, it’s not overly difficult, but the 30+ years of diverse experience I have apparently doesn’t trump a certificate.

I remember struggling with maths homework way back in primary school and my mum wasn’t able to help me as she didn’t know how. My dad explained it the way he learned it instead and that made more sense to me.

I think having that support back then meant I was never afraid of maths the way some people are, and I was always one of the best in my class at high school. I didn’t like it though, I think I was just more willing to put in the work on my own than some of my classmates, especially in GCSE year when we had terrible teachers due to usual teacher going on maternity leave.

I think this was me. Afraid of maths.

I moved primary school in year 2. So I'd have been around 7, and I didn't quite feel like I fit in there yet. I hadn't found a place in the class.
Then a male teacher, who covered our maths lesson, shouted at me in a booming voice, "Why don't you get it?! It's not that hard!" I cried with shame.

Maths has been my nemesis ever since. I never really felt like the penny dropped.
I did OK in maths gcse, scraped a B, but I always found it so much harder than other subjects.

And I still do. We always say in our house that my husband is the Maths and I'm the Words. Our children know who to come to with the relevant subjects.