New here

[laura]

Hi, i am new to the forum. I am 22 years old and as long as i have been in education i have struggled with Maths. I am not sure if i am Dyscalculic or not. Basically all through 12 years of education i recevied Support for Learning for about 8 years. From i was about 6 or 7 years old until i was 14 years old. Then it stopped. I actually passed my exams with a Grade 5 in my Standard Grade Exam which i took when i was 16 years old. I then received a C in my Intermediate 1 Exam which i sat when i was 17 years old. My Maths teacher who i had for 4 years beged me not to take Maths in my 13th and final year at school becasue i stressed him out too much. Anyway's i work fulltime as a Stock Controller in a supermarket, IRONICALLY working with numbers. Thank god for paper/pens oh and FINGERS. I am/was at college. We are off for the summer hols at the moment. I started college last October and i have been finding it majorly difficult. I was sitting Core Maths 3 which is a higher level than that i should actually be sitting at. I sat my 1st assessment for UNIT 1 and FAILED IT 3 TIMES. After that i went for a meeting with my tutor who then told me that after 5 months of FAILING, I AM SITTING THE WRONG LEVEL I was not amused. So he gave me 4 booklets on Core Maths 2, which i am still finding very difficult.

I read the symptoms of Dyscalculia and these are my areas:

Difficulty of the abstract of time/direction- to some extent that is me.
Inconsistent test results in addition/subtraction/dividing/multiplying- Yes this is me, Even now this happens
Poor Mental Maths abiltiy- Oh yes this is definatley me i am really bad at thinking of answers on the spot, even really simple ones as 12+15=? if written down ill possibly get it in my head no way
May have a fear of money- To some extent yes. Mainly when i was younger but now i am getting better. I tend not to know whta change i am due back nor what change someone else is to get
Inability to understand Maths concepts/formulaes/rules/sequence and basically me- Oh yes this is definatley me could not tell you any formulaes for AREA of a shape or circles, algebra
Poor long term memory- When i was younger yes this was always on my report cards for Maths, however now i dont know
I can do/attempt my work but as soon as i have a test to do i so cant do it. I have always been like that
Poor sense of direction- Oh yes this is so me. I have never been able to tell which direction we are in. Least i know which side of Scotland i live in
I have never been able to read music or play an instrument using both hands. I have been singing since i was 14 years old and i have never been able to learn to read music. Nor when i use to play the recorder my friend use to write the letters underneath the notes
I can not dance nor can i do a dance sequence as i literally have 2 left feet. I have a friend who is dyspraxic and we went dancing and she thought it was hilarious as she could do the dancing but i was hopless, also i forget what the steps are even if i just learnt it 2 seconds ago
And lastly i have never been able to play chess/draughts/othello even though i have been taught so many times. I can not understand what to think when play them.

So what do i do. College doesn't start back until September. In order for me to get a good carrer and a good job and do something i am good at i need to get a higher grade in Maths. I use to want to do teaching when i was younger, i still do but i don't think i will be able to do it. I am kinda lost on what i should do career wise. I am exactly academic at all, i past all my exams but they are not exactly things i wanna do. I did like one class which was Modern Studies- which is all to do with war/health/wealth/political issues/ UK/America/China etc and i was kinda good at that but i had problems writting essays and understanding questions which i at times find hard??

[misty]

Laura, First of all, I can't stress enough how important it is to get tested to be SURE its dyscalculia you are dealing with. I know from watching my daughter, how frustrated it can be trying to do something & having that "mental block". Heres a site that has a lot of info as well as strategies to help deal with dyscalculia:

www.ldonline.org/indepth/math

Heres an interesting article titled: More colleges helping with disabilities.

test.denverpost.com/ci_4726614

And another called: How College Students with Learning Disabilities Can Advocate for Themselves.

www.ldaamerica.org/aboutld/adults/post_secondary/college.asp

[charliegirl]

I want to let you know that I admire your persistence. With all the educational issues you have had, many people would have just given up.

Definitely get tested so you know what you are dealing with. Once you do I'm sure you can find ways to get the help you need.

[laura]

Hey charlie girl, big thanks. I know i am lucky, i may not be as bad as some people out there and i have accomplished a hell of a lot of stuff. My main thing is my confidence in my self and in others which has greatly increased over the years. I am a naturally shy person and i have had to adapted. I threw myself into music which is probabley the only thing academically that meant anything to me. I use to sing and i was bloody good if i do say so myself( BIG HEAD) but i was actually good at it and i did it for myself. I am proud now of all the things i have done and remembering them reminds me that i am not too bad at things.

[laura]

This is how bad i am at measurements. I got my hair cut the other day and the woman said to me do you want 1 and a half centimetres off your hair. WHAT!?!?!?!?!? Erm ok but unknown to me i didn't think it was gonna be this short. I have hair up to my chin but its kinda short. I could not tell you what 1 centimetre is let alone 1 and a half centimetres. I was working today and when i finished i decieded to get some shopping. At the moment i am getting 15% off using my discount card from work. So i bought 2 loads of Strawberries which were both reduceded, Sliced Mango and Sliced Watermelon both reduced to 99p each, 2 bottles of diet coke 500ml, pasta and a newspaper. When i was gonna pay i started to panic incase i didn't have enough money. Luckily i had my back card with me. Amazingly my shopping came to £16.50 with my discount- Thank god. I was shocked at how scared i was incase i didn't have the right money and incase i made a fool of myself. That was quite scary for me.

[charliegirl]

Maybe you should get a small pocket calculator so you can keep track of what your groceries are adding up to. I do that when I only have a certain amount of cash and don't want to use my card and I'm concerned it won't be enough.

[laura]

Charliegirl, thanks. Ye thats a good idea. Also i was thinking about this and i could actually just round the cost up to the pound so £3.45 would be £4.00. Thats if my rounding ability works though

[jj]

You know Laura I use a trick that works pretty well when I have limited cash or don't want to go over a certain amount. Here is how it works...

When you go grocery shopping for a lot of food figure out the average cost of items. You could even add .25 cents to the average to be on the safe side so you don't go over.

Then when I go to the store I just count the items in my cart and take it times my average. You'd be surprised how close it comes to the actual cost. Of course if you have a very expensive item you would exclude that.

I am also a very bad judge of how much $$'s worth of food I have in my cart. I've been using this technique for years.

[laura]

Thanks JJ, i know what you mean about judging your basket. Its dead weird how it all adds up in the end.

[jerbear]

jj said:

When you go grocery shopping for a lot of food figure out the average cost of items. You could even add .25 cents to the average to be on the safe side so you don't go over.

Then when I go to the store I just count the items in my cart and take it times my average. You'd be surprised how close it comes to the actual cost. Of course if you have a very expensive item you would exclude that.

I am also a very bad judge of how much $$'s worth of food I have in my cart. I've been using this technique for years.

hmmmm, this technique you speak of. it's commonly refered to as.................................................MATHEMATICS!!!!!