Why do so many people dislike Maths?

I have always been someone who has been both naturally good at Maths, and revised for it, so I might be slightly biased here, but why do so many people find Maths difficult? Its not actually a very difficult subject.... I mean, most of the concepts are fairly basic if they are explained properly, and practiced. You don't need to be good at Maths to like Maths, some of my friends are not good at Maths naturally, but revise it so hard that they still get 75-90% on every test, and they enjoy it, even though they are not naturally good, so why do so many people hate it as a subject? Surely I thought it would be a much more well liked subject due to there only being one answer in most cases, rather than subjects like English or Religious Studies which are just ridiculously subjective. Maths is everywhere, so why do people find it so hard to understand, and dislike it so much?

TBH It's not only Maths, its really all STEM subjects, I just don't see why people hate them so much.

(edited 6 years ago)

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Reply 1

camjessamine

What level of maths are you at?

Reply 2

username3590460

I mainly hate the geometry shapes and all that. It’s just boring and hard and that’s like half the exam paper

Reply 3

Zoqua

Original post by camjessamine

What level of maths are you at?

Currently in Year 10, doing GCSE Maths(Last 2 assessments 79/82, 139/141), intending to do Double Maths(Maths and Further Maths) as one of my A levels and do Maths at Uni.

Cos.

Original post by Zoqua

Currently in Year 10, doing GCSE Maths(Last 2 assessments 79/82, 139/141), intending to do Double Maths(Maths and Further Maths) as one of my A levels and do Maths at Uni.

GCSE maths is easy as it comes and then A-level it’s a completely different kettle of fish the step up into C3 and C4 is painful. I got A* at GCSE and am actually well chuffed when I get a C in A level papers makes me want to die

Reply 6

Waterlemons

I used to love Maths too, having been naturally good at it. However, from when I was exposed to what test papers would actually look like for GCSE maths (I’m in year 11) I’ve started to dread doing them. The mock papers and new specimen are nothing like I’ve studied the past years, and being so unprepared for the level of difficulty in them, I lost hope in myself. Just great...I’m still doing it at a level though

Reply 7

RuthieG101

I'm doing old spec a level maths.
I love maths but I wouldn't say I was naturally talented at it. some concepts come more easily than others, for example I struggle with trig but only because of all the bits that need remembering. I have just completed d1 in 2 weeks as I have loved working through it.

Headaches ;/

Original post by Zoqua

It's actually one of the most popular A Levels, might even be the most popular - I can't completely remember.

It's probably a loud minority that struggle with it and make sure their voices are heard about it. You hear about it a lot less during Y12 and Y13, when a lot of the weak students drop out

Reply 10

Zoqua

Original post by RuthieG101

Lots of people say Trig is difficult, but its not that difficult if you have been taught it properly(or GCSE Trig isn't anyway), just remember SOHCAHTOA and revise/practice using it, memorize the tan,sin,cos 0, 30, 45, 60, 90 and you should be ok.

Reply 11

RuthieG101

I'm ok with the GCSE level trig stuff, it's just remembering all the double angle theories and the different trig identities that are needed to be recalled quickly in exams at c3 and c4 level

Reply 12

Zoqua

Original post by Kyber Ninja

I didn't know it was one of the most popular A level subjects, that's cool. When I do AddMaths in Year 11 I'm hoping it'll be more interesting with all the people who hold back the class gone.

Reply 13

Zoqua

Original post by Kyber Ninja

I didn't know it was one of the most popular A level subjects, that's cool. When I do AddMaths in Year 11 I'm hoping it'll be more interesting with all the people who hold back the class gone.

Reply 14

Anonymouspsych

Original post by Zoqua

Currently in Year 10, doing GCSE Maths(Last 2 assessments 79/82, 139/141), intending to do Double Maths(Maths and Further Maths) as one of my A levels and do Maths at Uni.

GCSE maths is like nothing compared to A Level maths and further maths, when you do A Level maths you will see how easy gcse maths really is. I got A* in maths and A^ in further maths gcse and am currently doing Maths and Further maths at A Level. Especially with A2 further maths, the difficulty is at another level. I am on my way on getting A* in both maths and further maths as I got 100% in a lot of modules already which I took for AS but you have to do more work with A level maths and concepts are more difficult to understand.

Clearly you are very able at the level you're at so you will adapt when you move onto A Level maths but for those who managed to scrape A*s at gcse may very well get a C in A level maths.

Reply 15

username2178331

I have dyscalculia (which for brevity and not accuracy is number dyslexia) I find maths so difficult. Its why I don't like it.

Reply 16

anonasian

I think it’s because maths is one of the few subjects which actually relies on understanding of the concepts, with biology or something for example, you can memorise the textbook for the topic. For maths you have to figure out which method to use and adapt it to different questions

Reply 17

gjd800

I could do it, I just found it incredibly, spectacularly dull. And just about every teacher I ever had for it bar one were awful, so there was little to whet my appetite for it.

Reply 18

Zoqua

Original post by amibee

I have dyscalculia (which for brevity and not accuracy is number dyslexia) I find maths so difficult. Its why I don't like it.

That's understandable, I perfectly understand that case. I'm autistic and sometimes I find it really difficult to understand parts of English like what questions are exactly asking me, and how emotive language works and rhetorical questions and stuff like that. I understand why You don't like Maths, but I don't see why other's why other's without Dyscalculia don't.

Reply 19

username3748656

Original post by Zoqua

My cousin, dad and uncle all got top grades in A level Further Maths

I think that's a core reason why some of us may hate maths because we didn't grow up with it, your family members are very experienced in maths therefore the concept of maths was familiar with you at a young age. They know the importance of Maths A-Level (and it is a very important A-Level had I known how much Unis bend down for it I would've kicked my butt and do well in Maths GCSEs so I could do the A-Level) so therefore they ensured you would like it so that you could do well in it.