Are you good at maths?

I'm terrible at maths, especially when it comes to working things out in my head. I found I improved when I got a personal tutor in high school, but there were some concepts I just never managed to wrap my head around (like long division).

The abstract side of maths, I was always pretty good at, and I spend quite a bit of time turning equations into computer algorithms in the sound processing code that's one of my hobbies. I got my 'A' level without having to sweat too much (doing both Applied Maths and Physics conveniently meant there was a bit less to learn!)

Mental arithmetic, I'm absolutely hopeless at, though. Unless I write down my working out, I can mess up just adding a couple of two digit numbers very easily. I don't have any problem with number recognition; I think it's more that I always seem to have too many thoughts cluttering up my working memory - I make a lot of mistakes carrying over to the next digit. I also quite often have to work forwards or backwards through different multiples to double-check that I've remembered my times tables correctly.

I'm a maths teacher 

well maths was my thing at school. I got 2 years ahead in class and helped my 2 year older brother with his homework. Got my maths A levels Pure and Applied when 16, but terrible with social skills and now in deep mess with legal issues related to poor understanding of social matters. Self diagnosed autism but high achiever, but now official confirmation aged 64 years

Good is a relative term.  One can appear good when the people around one are truly awful.

I was good at maths throughout my up and down school career without making any effort.

And being good, caused endless problems.

I was moved into a normal middle school after my stay at a 'special school'/insane lunatic asylum is a better description.  I arrived a few weeks after term had started and I was immediately placed in the bottom maths set.  I enjoyed my stay in that maths class and I didn't have any problems. I actually fitted in.  In the end of year exams I came top by a big margin.  And I was moved to the middle maths class for the following year.   But, the boy who came second wasn't moved and he really was upset. He blamed me, for holding him back.  If I hadn't been there, then he would have been top and he would have been promoted. Despite being in the same class in other subjects, he never spoke to me again.

A month in the middle maths class, I came top in a maths test again by a massive margin. And I got promoted to the top maths class.  And we had a repeat performance,  the girl who was second, behind me in the test went ballistic.  Blamed me for stealing her place in the top class, she refused to work in the middle class, started a petition to get moved to the top class.  The irony of the whole situation was that I would have preferred to stay in the bottom or middle classes because they were relaxed and had a friendly atmosphere.  The top class was overcrowded and impersonal. 

So glad to see this thread and would like to add to it. One of my great disappointments with myself is I've never been good at math. I'm technical minded- have been an electronics engineer first part of my life (so much terrible trouble and stress getting through the theory qualifications for that). I love science too, but the math just does not compute :( 

I love doing statistics though, this is the crazy thing.

I also think that in recent year I've developed Dyscalculia. I'm definately starting to jumble numbers up.

I have always been hopeless at maths. Slow, and easily confused. English was another matter, I was tested for IQ more than once and according to the school psychologist, scored very high, though I was never told what this score was. I was three or four years ahead of my classmates anyway and was also considered gifted at languages, though somehow I did not reach the levels of proficiency I could have hoped for. My comprehension skills always seem to lag, do speak at varying levels, four other languages. 

So my skills were uneven and the trouble with all this is still that for every gift, there seems to be something I am slower at that will trip me up.

I have always been fascinated by small gadgets and loved my very first Sharp pocket computer, graduating to Psion, then a Mio 550. But then one ofy students came to class in 2006 with her i-phones.....

No I don't programme or anything like it, I do find smartphone technology exciting, less thrilled to see how terminally it distracts some of the kids in the classes I teach. 

I am good at most maths (although I really struggled with my first year university applied maths unit probably because I didn't do physics at school.) My parents were both accountants though so it is in my blood - they used to keep me occupied as a youngster by giving me columns of numbers to add up.

Pure Maths was my favourite subject at school. Algebra just makes so much sense, creating rules, abstracting the real world out into the world of numbers and formulae to manipulate at will. I work in Computing now and everyday is algebra and variables. Big smiley face.

There is more to maths than simply arithmetic.  If you can manipulate formulae, or work out odds and statistics, if you can do allgebra, or trigonometry, or expand binomals, or do differential and integral calculus, you could be good at Maths without being good at working out sums in your head.

I can work out many sums in my head, but it is more of a party trick these days.  Most young 'uns (those below about 60) automatically reach for the callcullator and as often as not get it wrong.  I very rarely reacch for a calculator, add up my shopping bill as I am doing the shopping and get it right.  But all autistic people do not have to do this!

Thank you both, yes I am more focused on the other things that interest me more. I think that's the same for everyone right enough, we're good at the things we spend the most time on and we spend the most time on the things that interest us. 

This has been really interesting so far!  I was really expecting a high spike on people being great at maths and actually it seems that so far the majority are weaker numerically than I guess I'd imagined (me included).  It will be interesting to watch this and see where it ends up! 

There are lots of 'assumptions' that I had about Autism, before I spoke with other adults with Autism on here that have blown apart since I joined this forum. I think that some of these assumptions have stopped me from seeking diagnosis.  I went for my pre diagnostic screening today which was very interesting.  I was so nervous about it.  My husband was with me.  When it was over, I was so busy thinking about the next thing, that I didn't thank the Doctor and just left the room.  My husband said I hardly looked her in the eye at all.  He just did this neurotypical shrug with her at the end like "see this is what I'm working with Doctor".  In any other circumstance it would have really annoyed me but in the context of an ASD diagnostic session, I suppose it wasn't so bad - eek :O 

He said I do it all the time but most of the time he doesn't have the heart to pull me up on it.  He said he thought it was fair game in an ASD diagnostic interview! 

i was crap at maths at school - was in the lowest set.  But when I left school I really got into calculating planetary positions and navigation. I took my Ocean Yacht Master certificate many years ago (so I could sail alone :-)) and excelled at plotting vectors and navigating by the stars.  Who'd have thought!  I'm a bit surprised by your poll though.

Computer Geek but also into literature, philosophy and psychology, nature... so passable as human as well as machine!

I love maths. I play with numbers all the time.

Terrible at anything related to maths.

no, you are just rubbish with computers and maths (assuming from your comment that this was your answer) - there's a lot of other stuff left to define you

Not good with anything relating to computers either, I'm a rubbish Aspie  : (