Academic subject you are bad at

[MonaLyssa33]

Is there an academic subject you are particularly bad at?

I've always prided myself on being able to understand the basics of most things, but there is one subject (that actually covers a lot of different sub-topics) that I have the absolute hardest time understanding: money and/or finance. I met with a financial advisor a couple of years ago and I flat-out told him to explain everything to me like I were a 5-year-old. I still don't understand it.

 

[neely]

I have never particularly cared for Math, I excelled at most other subjects in school but I found Math boring.

 

[cassiopea]

Math. Definitely math. Chemistry too.

 

[susanm9006]

Before starting college I worked for four years as a legal secretary so when I took a law class I thought I would do well. It turned out that in four years of college and a 3.3 GPA, it was the only class I had to drop because otherwise I would flunk it. My brain apparently doesn’t think like a lawyers.

 

[Tobermory]

I understand basic finance, can balance my checkbook, etc., but investing? No. My brother loves to talk about investing and the market, and my brain sticks its fingers in its ears and goes, “La la la la la“ and starts thinking about cats. And I barely scraped by with a C when I took Econ in college.

 

[Jem]

I'm wasn't good at math, but it's learning math in school that I hated. I did just enough to pass my classes. Now as an adult, I'm actually OK with applied math in day to day stuff and figuring things out, budgeting, measuring and angles, making change, etc...
I'm horrible with spelling and grammar - but I'm dyslexic, so I have an excuse LOL! The dyslexia did make math difficult for me too, so that is probably why I hated it...it was just too tedious.

 

[Katie M]

I always hated math in school. It turns out I had a math disorder the entire time, but it wasn't diagnosed until long after high school. I'm much better at reading and writing.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I find foreign languages tedious. I think something self-paced might be better than learning by memorizing vocabulary words was in school.

I always thought I was bad at math until I took a self-paced remedial class in college. It turns out I just don’t learn math well in an auditory way. I need kinesthetic/visual instruction. It was so amazing to feel like I actually understood things that I struggled with in school. If you talk math; you might as well be speaking Greek or Vietnamese or something. And definitely dont go use terminology on me. This was one big factor in choosing to homeschool my own kids. I get to teach how they learn (once we figure out how that is! ) They are using different programs for math already. DD pretty much teaches herself. DS uses a video program that uses block manipulatives.

My god-mother has been teaching English for decades. She says most people are either better at math or language arts. I’ve definitely seen that with my kids. DD was a late reader but does so well now. DS is almost the opposite.

 

[NY cat man]

I wasn't necessarily bad at any subjects, I just found most of them boring. Only history really intrigued me in high school, and organic chemistry in college. Still, I missed a 4.0 by only a whisker- a B+ in hematology tripped me up.

 

[jcat]

Algebra was a book with seven seals for me, but luckily I haven't needed it since getting out of school ages and ages ago.

 

[Elphaba09]

I am pretty good at most subjects I have studied and tutored in college for various subjects. I do not particularly like calculus or chemistry, though, and I am better at reading foreign languages than actually speaking them or understanding them when spoken. I do struggle with remembering dates, which makes history a bit irritating for me. I can explain how Isaac Newton's ability to guide the Church from the Venerable Model of Reality to the Modern Model of Reality where others had failed changed the world and set the path towards WWII and I can give you generalized dates, but if you were to ask me the exact dates of almost anything, I would have no idea. That, luckily for me, is my husband's area of expertise!

As a side note: I actually enjoy algebra and statistics, but literary theory and criticism is my favorite. (I am using "literary theory and criticism" as a singular subject--as it is usually presented--so if you, like my computer, are wondering about my choice of "is," that is why.) I think it is because it has always seemed to me to combine literature with sociology, anthropology, and psychology.

Also, I hate the Modernists! I can study them, teach them, analyze, and critique them, but I hate them. My "struggle" with them is boredom and/or irritation. I do admit, however, that my own personal style of writing contains an unusual morphing of Victorian, Modernist, and generalized "scholarly." It is why my syntax, word choice, and punctuation are as they are and why you will rarely ever see me use any contractions when writing. even if text. (My husband, children, and friends would know if someone was impersonating me via text if a contraction were present! Haha!)

 

[Kieka]

Biology, specifically cell structures. Never could wrap my head around the parts of a cell. I don't have a problem with anatomy or muscular structure. Just the stupid little cells, I blame my high school biology teacher for making his class a torture and staining the subject.

 

[Elphaba09]

I always hated math in school. It turns out I had a math disorder the entire time, but it wasn't diagnosed until long after high school. I'm much better at reading and writing.

Not to be nosey, and you do not need to reply, but is it by chance dyscalculia? My daughter and son have it. I have dysgraphia, which is a disability that affects my ability to spell and physically write. Printing is actually harder for me because I have to really think about where to put the lines, which makes my spelling issues worse.

 

[Katie M]

Not to be nosey, and you do not need to reply, but is it by chance dyscalculia?

That's the medical term, yes. Along with numbers and formulas, I also have difficulty judging distances and even reading maps.

 

[MonaLyssa33]

I always thought I was bad at math until I took a self-paced remedial class in college. It turns out I just don’t learn math well in an auditory way. I need kinesthetic/visual instruction. It was so amazing to feel like I actually understood things that I struggled with in school.

I'm pretty good at math to a certain point. I've taken pre-calc probably 5 times in my life in preparation for calculus but halfway through pre-calc I get lost. I wish college courses had a very slow-paced math option. I want to understand it, but it's going to take longer than a 16-week semester for me to figure it out.

 

[aliceneko]

Maths and science.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I'm pretty good at math to a certain point. I've taken pre-calc probably 5 times in my life in preparation for calculus but halfway through pre-calc I get lost. I wish college courses had a very slow-paced math option. I want to understand it, but it's going to take longer than a 16-week semester for me to figure it out.

One of my good friends has a degree in biology. I remember her telling me that she walked into one of her math classes and the professor told them the first day that many people have to take his class twice. She already had test-anxiety so that was only so helpful to hear! I think she made it through that class in one try; but just barely. There was another that she had to do more than once. She ended up becoming friends with the guy who tutored her and she got through it but she worked for it!

 

[Moz]

Math. I've always been bad at math, even when I was learning the basics in elementary school.

I had one good math teacher in high school who actually tried to help me figure things out. The others either didn't realize/care I had no idea what I was doing, or they didn't have time to help me during class. Needless to say, I dropped all math classes as soon as I had the bare minimum of math credits (grade 11), so I never took anything beyond that. I actually have nightmares about being in my high school math classes again.

 

[Uncled]

Math hands down, find it fascinating that math can send a rocket to Mars and I
love to watch shows like Nova on PBS when it is about rockets and telescopes and trajectory and angle of entry ect.ect.,but no way I could begin to figure out the formulas even if I could follow any of it. Just not wired that way.

 

[MonaLyssa33]

One of my good friends has a degree in biology. I remember her telling me that she walked into one of her math classes and the professor told them the first day that many people have to take his class twice. She already had test-anxiety so that was only so helpful to hear! I think she made it through that class in one try; but just barely. There was another that she had to do more than once. She ended up becoming friends with the guy who tutored her and she got through it but she worked for it!

Yeah the calculus class is the main reason I got halfway through a biology degree before switching to writing.