Well, I finally figured out that I almost certainly have dyscalculia because I was looking online for help with video games. I can’t tell left from right so constantly press the wrong buttons and get super confused by numbers. I just assumed I was just weirdly dumb my whole life. I had never bothered to look up the symptoms to dyscalculia- I’d never even heard of it- but I have EVERY. SINGLE. SYMPTOM.

Anyway, back to the issue at hand, anyone have any recommendations for how to play video games with complete left right confusion and 0 working memory for numbers and no capacity for mental math. I want to play stardew valley, Minecraft and Dave the diver and was struggling with all 3.

What accommodations have you been able to request to support a PhD that requires statistical analysis and advanced computational concepts?

I am up to the analysis of my datasets and I am using social network analysis (SNA) and graph theory. I have found papers that support what I want to do, I have found software, and I use Claude to help write python code for me, but I am worried that I can't grasp some of the concepts or the outputs because I can't understand numbers. I like SNA because it is visual but I am worried I am not understanding the outputs accurately. My Supervisors are worried that I am not moving beyond the basics into something that would make a contribution to my field of computational behvioural science.

Idk if this is a Dyscalculia thing or NVLD thing (diagnosed with the former, fairly certain of the latter), but I really struggle with getting the jist of tables and graphs. As a Linguistics major, this is a problem. I asked my group partner for help in understanding and she did so, but now that we've moved on to individual projects, I'm really worried about messing up my data. To the Dyscalculics in Social Sciences/STEM, what are some tips for graphing?

Hello, a short lived dream of mine was to become an anasthesian assistant. Sadly it has to do with lots of numbers like heart rate and precise messuring so now i had to let go.

Are there any of you who have a job where numbers play a big part? I want to know if its possible to do one despite it.

I know we all have different amounts of discalculia, but generally speaking i wonder if there are people doing the job of ,for example a carpenter despite the discalculia..

I have a friend with many challenges including dyscalculia, and he seems to have trouble understanding the magnitude of certain situations. For example, we might have big plans to go somewhere, and he might ask to reschedule the day of​, not understanding that it was a big trip that took extensive planning. Or he might pay bus fare with cash instead of his Presto card (Canadian here) to "save money" even though I have explained to him that Presto is actually cheaper. He also seems to misjudge time, will do things like arrive late at an event because he took an hour to do some errands, or stop at home instead of going directly from work, or mention stopping at a convenience store or a bar when there is virtually no time to do so.

I have never had experience with dyscalculia before but​ he apparently has it so I was wondering if there is a correlation. I did once work with someone who had no sense of time or numbers, and similar judgment blocks as well.

I just got a new job as a cashier at a grocery store and I'm really struggling. It's hard for me to count numbers normally and I get really stuck with large amounts. When I start to count an amount I literally just forget what number I'm on and have to do it again. I've been making so many errors, for example I accidently count from 69 to 80 and once I thought two fives added up to 20 instead of 10 and the lady got really mad at me. Does anyone have any tips? Anything would be helpful. I really need this job.

I strongly suspect that I have dyscalculia. I’m 26 I can’t do math to save my life.
In college my major was cs. I struggled to learn any programming language. The minute I see numbers, my brain shuts off. The same thing happened when I was trying to learn guitar. I just can’t seem to learn no matter how hard I try. Music theory goes over my head.

I suppose I am just dumb… I hope to get better. Math was the one subject I always flunked in. I have inattentive adhd, so maybe that has something to do with it? Irdk. I did above-average in the sciences (until math came in, so all the theory I could understand) and I excelled in language and humanities.
Anyone else have the same/similar issue? I feel so alone. I’m trying to get better. Started learning math from the 2nd grade level on khan academy. I even read ‘A Mind for Numbers’ by Barbara Oakley.

Anyone have any tips on how to get better at math? Thanks in advance.

i literally measured when cutting the cardboard for this diy lid i made but at the end it still didn’t fit exactly and i do this when baking too like i somehow put the wrong amount and i lowkey fuck up the recipe and idk how i got the measurements somehow incorrectly despite measuring 😭

I'm really struggling with studying, I tried to ask my teachers but the resources they recommended are hard for me to understand because the teachers from there sometimes skip over thoroughly what they calculated (i suppose it's easy for others but not me) and I get so confused. It takes me hours to complete one type of question. I'd really appreciate if anyone gave a site or YouTube guide on Algebraic fractions that thoroughly explains the process. Also if in addition anyone has anything for Indices, Algebraic brackets or/and anything to do with algebra really :( Please let me know

I'm in Australia and I don't know if I should ask my GP about it? or if there's a better way

REPOST WITH MORE DESCRIPTION:

I was scrolling through Instagram reels around 11PM and I came across a video (https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdF0YVSMbUO/?dlrf=cW95eGswa2pteWZj) which showed the viewers the “new way kids learn math.”

I came across this one comment which said “This is just way more complicated. No wonder kids cant simply add in their heads.” I, of course, replied with “I can't do it in my head even with the old way. I need to use my fingers or use paper and a pencil.”

I mean, yeah…easy addition? No problem. After that…subtraction was added. I’m typically one to ask A LOT of questions (yeah, teacher would get annoyed but I asked my math professor and he doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, I would like to say that more people started asking more questions since I started asking. 😅).

Every. Single. IEP. Meeting…At least ONE teacher would say “They ask a lot of questions!” That should normally be a good thing, but it felt like I was questioning authority, if I’m going to be honest.

Back to the subtraction issue…I was thinking “How would I do this without fingers?” Luckily, some older kid taught me at afterschool daycare (at the school) to not start from the biggest number and go down from there, but to start at the smallest and count up. Whatever the difference is between the two will be the answer. (I’m not explaining this very well…) I also learned that anything multiplied (and later, divided) by 0 is…you guessed it, 0! All due to this person. Thank you!

However, it also made me think about how I would always (and still do) count with my fingers or with a pencil and paper by writing everything out. I’m more a visual learner, that might be why…yet my mom did also teach me how to count when I put olives on my fingers and then ate them to subtract (I was 5…I know it’s gross, but I was 5).

Last year, my senior year of high school, I realized that everybody else answered faster than me when answering math questions. I always noticed it, but that class..: it was obvious.

If I ever tried to do it in my head (I could barely visualize any number, I needed to physically touch or point to something…strange because I used to daydream vividly A LOT) It just felt like I was reaching for something that was air, could be evaporated.

I’ve gotten a bit better but I feel so ashamed when this guy blurts out the answer in 0.1 seconds. Why should I even try blurting it out when other people say it immediately? How do they do it so fast?! Whenever I ask a teacher/professor for advice/clarification on an assignment, most of the time, they try to do an example then ask me: “What is 61+87” and it feels like I’m being timed. I look over at my fingers and they just end up responding with “It’s __.”

Why did you ask me then? I’ll take 1 minute on this. Want me to put it into a calculator? Why not ask somebody else who could do it for you in a snap? Another person is more useful to these situations anyways, I just feel slow.

Another example would be in Total Roblox Drama. If you don’t know, it involves obstacle courses and challenges. It’s a fan-made game of Total Drama Island, which is a parody off of game shows/survival shows for a prize. One of the challenges in the game is to complete math equations. 10 of them, to be exact, in order to win safety (being safe from getting voting out for that round) and it’s timed. I freak out and somehow somebody beats it immediately. If I do it in my head, I always have to double check again because I’m either counting too fast or over-counted (OCD…).

“I got through 5,” “I got through all of them,” and I got through 1-4, congratulations (no, seriously. That was fast). How do people do this? If a number is too big my mind freezes and I just lose motivation. I just use the calculator for that challenge—technically cheating I guess (at least it’s in a game, I’ve never once cheated in school or anything! I was always classified as one of those “good kids who never breaks the rules,” cough, OCD, ENORMOUS COUGH), which I am ashamed to admit (although a lot of people do that as well).

Yeah, I know a few tricks like 9, 18, 27, 36, 45, etc. and rhyming but it takes me five seconds to remember the next letter (even if the alphabet, an example is that one Wizard’s of Waverly Place episode where Justin(?) repeats the ABC’s each time he’s looking for the next victim). So, fellow folks of Reddit, is this normal? Maybe it’s just my OCD (or ADHD)?

I’m fine at math, it’s just that I need people to teach slower so I can also copy down my notes and actually process what the problem is about after taking too long doing that and registering what to do moments later. I know that I can’t ask for that though.

Sometimes I am able to do it in my head…if I visualize my fingers and the space between two numbers isn’t humungous.

Tl;DR: I’m so slow at counting, and if I “do it in my head” (spoiler alert: Can’t without messing up) I visualize my fingers in my head. I can also do it on paper and pencil as well but I can’t really visualize (even though I used to maladaptive daydream) the numbers (especially if they’re big) because it gets jumbled in my brain.

The thing is when teacher asks what something equals I’m stuck counting while this other dude blurts out the answer in 3-5 seconds.

And she’s the teacher asks me personally I count, mess up, teachers always go “it’s __.”

-

I have ADHD, OCD, and (self-diagnosed because this last one doesn’t really have many doctors to officially diagnose you) Misophonia…so maybe the first two are why?

I was scrolling through Instagram reels around 11PM and I came across a video (https://www.instagram.com/reel/DdF0YVSMbUO/?dlrf=cW95eGswa2pteWZj) which showed the viewers the “new way kids learn math.”

I came across this one comment which said “This is just way more complicated. No wonder kids cant simply add in their heads.” I, of course, replied with “I can't do it in my head even with the old way. I need to use my fingers or use paper and a pencil.”

I mean, yeah…easy addition? No problem. After that…subtraction was added. I’m typically one to ask A LOT of questions (yeah, teacher would get annoyed but I asked my math professor and he doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, I would like to say that more people started asking more questions since I started asking. 😅).

Every. Single. IEP. Meeting…At least ONE teacher would say “They ask a lot of questions!” That should normally be a good thing, but it felt like I was questioning authority, if I’m going to be honest.

Back to the subtraction issue…I was thinking “How would I do this without fingers?” Luckily, some older kid taught me at afterschool daycare (at the school) to not start from the biggest number and go down from there, but to start at the smallest and count up. Whatever the difference is between the two will be the answer. (I’m not explaining this very well…) I also learned that anything multiplied (and later, divided) by 0 is…you guessed it, 0! All due to this person. Thank you!

However, it also made me think about how I would always (and still do) count with my fingers or with a pencil and paper by writing everything out. I’m more a visual learner, that might be why…yet my mom did also teach me how to count when I put olives on my fingers and then ate them to subtract (I was 5…I know it’s gross, but I was 5).

Last year, my senior year of high school, I realized that everybody else answered faster than me when answering math questions. I always noticed it, but that class..: it was obvious.

If I ever tried to do it in my head (I could barely visualize any number, I needed to physically touch or point to something…strange because I used to daydream vividly A LOT) It just felt like I was reaching for something that was air, could be evaporated.

I’ve gotten a bit better but I feel so ashamed when this guy blurts out the answer in 0.1 seconds. Why should I even try blurting it out when other people say it immediately? How do they do it so fast?! Whenever I ask a teacher/professor for advice/clarification on an assignment, most of the time, they try to do an example then ask me: “What is 61+87” and it feels like I’m being timed. I look over at my fingers and they just end up responding with “It’s __.”

Why did you ask me then? I’ll take 1 minute on this. Want me to put it into a calculator? Why not ask somebody else who could do it for you in a snap? Another person is more useful to these situations anyways, I just feel slow.

Another example would be in Total Roblox Drama. If you don’t know, it involves obstacle courses and challenges. It’s a fan-made game of Total Drama Island, which is a parody off of game shows/survival shows for a prize. One of the challenges in the game is to complete math equations. 10 of them, to be exact, in order to win safety (being safe from getting voting out for that round) and it’s timed. I freak out and somehow somebody beats it immediately. If I do it in my head, I always have to double check again because I’m either counting too fast or over-counted (OCD…).

“I got through 5,” “I got through all of them,” and I got through 1-4, congratulations (no, seriously. That was fast). How do people do this? If a number is too big my mind freezes and I just lose motivation. I just use the calculator for that challenge—technically cheating I guess (at least it’s in a game, I’ve never once cheated in school or anything! I was always classified as one of those “good kids who never breaks the rules,” cough, OCD, ENORMOUS COUGH), which I am ashamed to admit (although a lot of people do that as well).

So I’m just lying here laying in my dorm, after scrolling through a videos and finding a video about the “new way kids are taught math” (I feel old), it got me wondering…is it normal to still finger-count at 18? Am I just lazy if I stop at big numbers? Was I just never taught to retain math correctly or does everybody just sleep with their books under their pillows?

Yeah, I know a few tricks like 9, 18, 27, 36, 45, etc. and rhyming but it takes me five seconds to remember the next letter (even if the alphabet, an example is that one Wizard’s of Waverly Place episode where Justin(?) repeats the ABC’s each time he’s looking for the next victim). So, fellow folks of Reddit, is this normal? Maybe it’s just my OCD (or ADHD)?

Anybody else deal with this? I feel too old for this, and I bet that the teachers have been impatient with it, I’m surprised that nobody has ever actually said something about it out loud.

I’m fine at math, it’s just that I need people to teach slower so I can also copy down my notes and actually process what the problem is about after taking too long doing that and registering what to do moments later. I know that I can’t ask for that though.

Sometimes I am able to do it in my head…if I visualize my fingers and the space between two numbers isn’t humungous.

Hello everyone!

I’m currently a high school senior still unsure of my career path.

I love animals so, so much and I always have. Nature is 100% my biggest passion. Each weekend I hike 10+ miles and I never get tired of it.

I know it might seem obvious to most that I should pursue some kind of wildlife-related degree, but with my dyscalculia, I honestly don’t know how I could handle advanced chemistry. I struggle enough with basic math!

I don’t know. Part of me wants to believe that if I truly love this, I will be able to figure it out somehow, even if my math skills are abysmal. But choosing your major isn’t exactly a light decision. If I just can’t handle chemistry and biology, changing my major will be extremely time and money consuming.

Does anyone here with dyscalculia have a STEM degree? If so, what was your experience like with schooling and work?

Blank mind, no answer,

I think about it for a while,

They call me a chancer,

Ability of a juvenile.

Lowest grade in the room,

My future feels bleak,

All doom and gloom,

My peers tell me I’m weak.

No friends in class,

Can’t split the bill,

I know I won’t pass,

I have no skill.

No jobs for me,

Not allowed to try,

Is this my reality?

I begin to cry.

Wish I was better,

Could be just like them,

Feels like a fetter,

The point of the poem.

This article showed up on my newsfeed:

https://phys.org/news/2026-10-people-good-math-struggle.html#comments

This particular passage had me laughing quite hard:

The researchers found that one cognitive skill that strongly influences math skills is comprehension knowledge, which represents language, vocabulary and the ability to engage in verbal reasoning, Hajovsky said.

"If someone wants to go to law school, they'll take the Law School Admission Test. Part of that test requires strong reading comprehension skills and bringing in your own background knowledge or schemas of understanding to make sense of the new information you're learning. That's comprehension knowledge," he said. "It's important for reading, it's important for writing and we see now it's important for mathematics."

I had the highest reading comprehension score in my state throughout K-12. My verbal IQ is above 150. I received an 800 in verbal on my SATS without studying because I was too busy spending two years cramming to get a 490 in math. I’ve had professors tell me that they’ve had to look up vocabulary words I’ve used in academic papers for my degrees.

Whoever wrote this never encountered someone who is twice exceptional. (That refers to someone who is gifted in one area and has a learning disability in another.)

i live in germany and don’t know of a place where i can get a test covered by insurance but i have suspected it a while now. i have asked other people if they also struggle with the same things and some say they do too so it makes me think i’m just dumb and normal like everyone else and that most people are just dumb at math but my sister and best friend and some other people say they don’t struggle with the same things i do so idk maybe the people who agreed w me may also have it idk; to those who got diagnosed and have it, do you think i may also have it? like am i just stupid or am i actually disabled? 😭

my traits:
unable to do basic math
i cannot do basic math like 12-7 i literally have to count using my fingers and i use my fingers to count a lot and do math and i definitely cannot do something like 201-98 so quickly and easily in my head and apparently people can?? like nah i need a calculator or just take a long time to do it & calculating discount prices or splitting a bill?? like people do that mentally in their head?? i cannot at all that is crazy

struggling to read analog clocks
which i know a lot of people sadly don’t know how to read them but for me i can’t just look at an analog clock reading 4:18 and immediately just read it as 4:18, like i have to closely look and count the dashes to really read the time and sometimes i find it confusing too like if it’s 4:47 i really have to see that it is not yet 5:00 w the short hand pointing close to the 5 and i have to like double check w a digital clock to make sure i read it right & another

navigation/direction
i have heard that people w dyscalculia may have trouble w directions and navigating house numbers and stuff and i feel like i do. i feel like i have to really pay attention to the numbers when trying to find a house and i have found myself struggle to find a house w the number a lot or even locker numbers and i find it kinda confusing and inconvenient that the numbers on the street are not in order bc it is sorted in an odds and even number side and sometimes it has taken me 20-30 min or even almost an hour just to find a certain address & i often get lost even in my own town i go to all the time 😭

estimating
i find it hard to estimate things like if someone were to ask how long i think something would take or around how much something would be or how much something would weigh or how big something may be, i have to think hard and don’t find it easy to just estimate so quickly

mixing up numbers
just like in dyslexia mixing up d & b i sometimes can mix up 6 and 9 like one time i was going to an address w the house number 6 and went to 9 instead and sometimes too playing uno or a card game i have to sometimes ask other players if it was a 6 or 9 even if uno literally has an underline to differentiate 🥲 or if i try to remember digits like 5321 i sometimes will remember it as 5231 and mix it up sometimes

memory
forgetting pins, zipcodes, & your phone number that you use frequently is another thing apparently that is common; i wouldn’t say i often do but i sometimes do forget and i sometimes panic when i am asked to say my number or zipcode even if there is no reason to bc i’m afraid i somehow will get it wrong or mix up a number when saying it 😭

I recently started a PhD program and need to take Stat and after failing horribly my family shared that there is a strong genetic component of dyslexia and dyscalculia in the family. I found out my mother, brother, uncle, aunt, grandparents struggling with this and no one had every said anything to me or had me tested when I was failing school and couldn't understand math. Now I feel stupid and struggling so much. Really don't know where to start or if I can learn well enough to pass or get services to help. Looking for feedback or suggestions.

That's all. It just makes my brain so tired.

I know this sounds absurd, but about once a month I get a nightmare where I'm transported back to a high school setting and forced into a math test setting. I inevitably meltdown in the dream and refuse to take the test, but these dreams have honestly become more recurring than traditionally trauma-based nightmares. I guess it stems from the fact that I was forced through regular math classes rather than being allowed to take specialized classes, and how my school in general was very STEM and trades focused over arts and humanities.

I studied in advance, I stayed up late, and when it came time to answer, I did everything wrong, Not only the basic operations, the position of numbers, the clearing in formulas, and I'm really sad because I really tried hard studying, I did flashcards, quizzes and group meetings. I even did extra exercises and nothing helped me.

I refused to give my diagnosis to my teachers and I feel that they perceive me as stupid for not understanding what comes out of their mouths or what they write on the board. I also feel very sad because a very dear friend made time in his schedule to help me understand, and it turns out it was all for nothing because my damn broken brain ruined it again. :(

College algebra is mandatory for almost everyone in the US regardless if their desired degree is Arts & Communications, Social Sciences & Humanities, etc. but do you think it should be mandatory for everyone even after 7 years of basic algebra in middle and high school?

I’m currently taking multivariable calculus and I have an accommodation for 1.5 time for adhd. I did very poorly
on a relatively short exam because I ran out of time. I kept getting lost in the algebra, writing the questions wrong etc. This and many other lifelong signs (bad with directions, bad at unit conversions/estimates, can’t memorize formulas, can only do addition/multiplication facts with the big number listed first) are pushing me to get tested for dyscalculia.

My main question is: what kinds of accommodations do you have? Is it double time, formula sheets, calculator etc? I’m trying to decide if it would help me at all to seek a diagnosis given I have some overlapping accommodations.

Unfortunately I have a lot of math, physics, and chemistry ahead of me for my biochem major, so there’s no way around it. Math has always been my biggest struggle and it’s making me feel so stupid right now