Published on 12, July, 2020
I've not been diagnosed with it or anything but I know I have it. I am and always have been TERRIBLE when it comes to maths. I never managed to learn the times tables apart from 1, 2, 5, 9 and 10.
I am always having to do additions on my hands, even simple things like 7+5.. I really struggle and have it count it out in my head and use my fingers. For bigger sums I have to use a piece of paper and really think about it or I wont be able to do it. I often use my calculator on my phone to do sums. Especially when shopping on a budget. I'll select my item and add it on my calculator to make sure I'm not going over my spending limit.
It also takes me a very long time to tell the time on an analogue clock. I'll have to sit there and count up to where the hand is. Similarly on a digital clock it has to be on the 12h setting. I get confused otherwise looking at like 17:36 and having to figure out what 17 is.
Honestly it can be really embarrassing when I can't do simple maths.
I really struggled with learning times tables at school, like you I found 2, 5 and 10 straightforward but took ages to learn 7 and 8. I realised there was a pattern with 9, as the last number goes down by 1 each time (9, 18, 27, 36 etc) I still don't know them automatically, by which I mean if someone says what are 6 eights, I can't give the answer immediately, I have to go through the table in my head... 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, oh, it's 48!
I'm also not good at mental arithmetic, although I have improved a little by trying to do the number puzzles on 8 out of 10 cats does countdown.
Despite this, I have an AAT qualification (Association of accounting technicians, equivalent to two A levels in accounting) and can identify patterns and errors in numerical data.
The 9 times table can be done with your ten fingers.
Just face both your hands palm side up in front of you. Label each finger like this:
...
Left hand:
Thumb = 1st finger
Index = 2nd finger
Middle = 3rd finger
Ring = 4th finger
Pinky = 5th finger
Right hand:
Pinky = 6th finger
Ring = 7th finger
Middle = 8th finger
Index = 9th finger
Thumb = 10th finger
1 × 9 =
Lower the 1st finger.
= 9
2 × 9 =
Lower the 2nd finger.
1 finger on one side
8 fingers on the other side
= 18
3 × 9 =
Lower the 3rd finger.
2 fingers on one side
7 fingers on the other side
= 27
4 × 9 =
Lower the 4th finger.
3 fingers on one side
6 fingers on the other side
= 36
....
And so on....
Now you will always have the 9 times tables wherever you go!