Hi

My title is kinda strange, so I apologize for that in advance. I don't really know how else to phrase it.

Since I was little I have had an ability for figuring out how electronic things work, and more importantly I like to figure them out. I have just moved from Britain to a different country, and I found this website via a friend. I did my GCSE's in Britain and I did really well in English (A) but I did really poorly in Maths (D). For some reason my brain doesn't really work slowly and I always like to tear through things at speed (my GP says I have a hyperactivity problem). This would be fine, but my Mathematical prowess does not work as fast as the rest of my brain which leads to a huge deficit in what I can accomplish. This makes me very sad.

I am very visual and have a solid iq (125+) and I'm clever, if uneducated. I guess my point is are there some peoples brains that are just not wired to excel or even be adequate at mathematics?

I live in hope that I can study Electronis at a higher level (BSEE??), but I am starting to lose faith in it all.

/rant

 

If you want it ... you can do it.

 

Have you done any Maths beyond GCSE level?

Dave

 

Since I was little I have had an ability for figuring out how electronic things work, and more importantly I like to figure them out. I have just moved from Britain to a different country, and I found this website via a friend. I did my GCSE's in Britain and I did really well in English (A) but I did really poorly in Maths (D). For some reason my brain doesn't really work slowly and I always like to tear through things at speed (my GP says I have a hyperactivity problem). This would be fine, but my Mathematical prowess does not work as fast as the rest of my brain which leads to a huge deficit in what I can accomplish. This makes me very sad.

I am very visual and have a solid iq (125+) and I'm clever, if uneducated. I guess my point is are there some peoples brains that are just not wired to excel or even be adequate at mathematics?

I live in hope that I can study Electronics at a higher level (BSEE??), but I am starting to lose faith in it all.

A couple of comments from my life:
I was horrific at arithmetic: the answer to "6x8=?" resulted in a blank. I improved greatly when I got a job (retail clerk) that forced me to do more arithmetic. (Practice makes better, I suppose!)

I was also poor at calculus. I finally realized that I was having trouble because I saw no use for it in the real world. C'mon, how often do you really need to calculate the instantaneous velocity of a falling object?

And different people learn differently. My wife learns mainly by doing. I learn mainly by reading -- if I see a need for learning. (FWIW, I'm one of those odd people who reads the manual FIRST!)

And yes, there are people who are better in one field than another: my sales ability is non-existent, but give a salesman my job, and he would be L-O-S-T!

Incidentally, I've managed rather well as an Electronics-Technician-turned-programmer.

Don't give up!
--Rich

 

Don't give up! Practice makes perfect

 

Oh man I used to totally suck at math until I got to college. I started with algebra 1 in college, i.e. high school taught me nothing. I moved my way up, and guess what I just recently got an A in calculus 3.

Just because you suck at math doesn't mean you are stupid, it means some idiot teacher taught it wrong to you, made it boring, etc. High school is hell on earth anyway.

But that doesn't answer your question. Just how much math do you really need to do electronics? I mean come on. 90% of it is ohm's law expressed in greek and etc letters.

Matrices, we use calculators for them 80% of the time.

KVL and KCL is literally algebra 1. Very rarely do you need to do calculus. I noticed that engineers don't particularly love math and try to avoid it if possible.

So even if your brain is not made for mathematics as you say (I cannot judge since I do not know your situation) you can still do electronics.

Are you at least good at Algebra 1? That is all you really need.