I am someone who struggles with maths, but some of my dream jobs include it. Is there anyone that was in a similar

Question: I am someone who struggles with maths, but some of my dream jobs include it. Is there anyone that was in a similar situation, and how did you get around it?
- Keywords:
  education,
  maths,
  study
Asked by anon-373832 on 9 Nov 2023.
- Octavia Brayley answered on 9 Nov 2023: last edited 9 Nov 2023 11:05 pm
  
  I felt the same, and still do to this day. I was never very good at Maths at school, and I have to use it frequently as a scientist (usually statistics). I think being good at Maths really depends on how you’re taught the subject. I’d suggest getting a tutor to help you, or maybe find some good websites that explain things in different ways and break things down. Maths is definitely something that everyone can be good at! There are also other ways to approach Maths now as well…for example, I do a fair bit of coding (R and Python) as a scientist, and I found that learning to code helped me with Maths problems. Lots of jobs involve Maths, but some more than others. So you could choose a job with less Maths, but I have confidence in your abilities! The fact that you’re even thinking about your future career and what subjects might help shows that you have great determination. And besides, once you get to a certain level, you always have lots of people to ask for help 🙂
  
  I don’t know if you’re a GCSE student, but there’s a great channel called Cognito which explains things in a really clear and simple way:
- Ian McKinley answered on 10 Nov 2023:
  
  I have never had problems with maths, but I worked with a colleague who had real difficulties here. Originally she worked as a laboratory technician, but she was very ambitious and so we just worked slowly together, especially on development of mathematical models. She never enjoyed maths, but her career has been incredibly successful: although trained as a biologist, she progressed to a very senior level at the British Geological Survey. Recently she was awarded an MBE for services to radioactive waste management!
- Ashley Hecklinger answered on 10 Nov 2023:
  
  I struggled with maths for years. In fact, it was always the lowest of my test scores just barely meeting the mark. Now I use maths all the time as part of my role as a scientist. Life is a lot different than when you’re being asked to memorise complex equations and repeat them under the time pressure of exams. If you have an interest in a career that includes maths do not doubt yourself even if you find it difficult now! I would suggest talking to your teachers (and eventually professors) and tell them you are struggling and ask if they sit down with you to go over it one on one, or if they have any resources. I’ve also heard great success stories from those who enrolled in tutoring outside of school. As a final comment, I think it’s easy sometimes to feel like you are bad at something when maybe it’s just one aspect of it – for example, I did alright in algebra and statistics but found trigonometry and calculus to be a nightmare, and now as a scientist I use algebra and statistics, as Octavia described below. Good luck!
- Jonathan Allen answered on 10 Nov 2023:
  
  I can relate to this – while I enjoyed maths at school I didn’t find it easy to understand and struggled to remember formulae etc. But there are many science jobs that don’t need to have an in depth understanding of maths – more of a general appreciation of it. As a mechanical engineer, I need to understand the physics of problems – although physics is based a lot on maths, I don’t actually need to do much maths myself to do my job. There are others who I work with that do a lot of maths as part of analysing structures and designing components and testing things, but I perform a different role managing their work and pulling the results together to produce a report that explains what they have found out and why this means the ‘thing’ we are working on is safe and well designed. To do this, I do not need a deep understanding of the complicated elements of maths, but just an appreciation at a higher level of what it is the other experts are doing and how it all fits together. So, it is not as essential for becoming a scientist as many think.
- Andrew Lyon answered on 10 Nov 2023:
  
  I was ok with maths at GCSE level but really struggled with maths A-Level. In fact I only just about scraped a pass at AS-Level and decided to drop it at that point.
  
  That might sound surprising because I do use a lot of maths in my job, mainly statistics for looking at emission / pollution data and also tasks like converting units to calculate how much of a particular substance is released in a day or a year for example. I’ve learned these over time in different jobs and because the maths is often quite specific there is usually training available and also very knowledgeable and helpful people that I can ask.
  
  I would say don’t worry about it too much because maths is very different in a job compared to studying it at school or college. I’ve found that I’ve only been using statistics and rarely algebra so I don’t need to remember lots of formula nor do I need to be able to do everything on the syllabus.
  
  Often understanding what the maths is doing is sufficient. For example, if someone wants to build a waste treatment plant they can use something called odour modelling to predict if it is likely to cause pollution to nearby neighbours. I don’t understand the maths, certainly can’t remember the very complex equations and couldn’t do them myself but I don’t really need to because for my job all that I really need to understand is that the maths is calculating how emissions spread in the environment. This means that I can leave all the maths to the software but I can check what weather data and emissions data have been used to determine whether the results are likely to be accurate or not.
  
  I’d also say that skills like influencing, communication and problem solving are equally if not more important. For example if maths analysis of data finds an activity is causing pollution, I need to be able to explain what the impact is and why it is important to stop or reduce it, suggest possible solutions and encourage people to make changes to the activity. This is usually easier when I can show that the changes will save them time, money or use less energy!
- Amy Stockwell answered on 10 Nov 2023:
  
  I used to find algebra really difficult. I improved with practice, practice and practice.
  
  Also different people think in different ways. Look out for youtube videos etc which explain things in a different way to how your teachers and textbooks explain things.
  
  Good luck!
- Paula McMahon answered on 17 Nov 2023:
  
  I have helped people who struggle. Go back a step and learn the basics. When you understand the building blocks you can then understand the harder stuff better.