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 am awful at analogue clocks - it is embarrassing almost, how bad. I can work it out, but it takes a while.
I am not very good at arithmetic. I was good at maths in secondary school - because it was about the concepts and not about arithmetic at all. I have to do a lot of sums on my hands - or mentally with 'hands'.
I don't think it's bad enough for me to be considered to have Dyscalculia, but I'm also below 'normal', I think.
I have the opposite problem, I have difficulties with digital clocks and the 24 hour clock. I recognise analogue times visually, I look at the clock and know what the time is. However, I have difficulty translating this knowledge into words. When asked the time on the street I tend just to show my watch rather than try to translate the time into words - the length of time taken by me looking dumbly at my watch is embarrassing and I tend to panic a bit.