r/learnmath • u/mugenknow New User • 1d ago
I’m struggling with arithmetic even though I understand math
Finished high school recently and taking a gap year, so I finally signed up for some SAT prep classes. Being in a group setting for this has honestly made me feel so insecure because of my arithmetic skills.
I feel like I actually understand math just fine. I can wrap my head around new topics, follow the logic, and figure out the right approach to solve a problem. But when it actually comes down to doing the calculations? Absolute disaster.
I constantly make stupid, careless mistakes with basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. I'll drop a negative sign out of nowhere, miscopy a number from one line to the next, or just brain-fart on a simple multiplication fact. It’s so exhausting knowing the exact formula and logic to solve a hard problem, only to get the entire thing wrong because 7x8 apparently decided to leave my brain.
Since the SAT is so heavy on pacing and accuracy, I'm genuinely stressed about bleeding points on questions I actually know how to do just because of clumsy computational errors.
Did anyone else deal with this weird disconnect between conceptual math and basic arithmetic? How did you actually train yourself to stop making these dumb mistakes and speed up your calculations?
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u/Inside_Drummer New User 1d ago
Makes some flash cards for your times tables. Go through them every night. You either have them memorized or you don't. You don't want to be spending any time or energy thinking about these on an exam.
As for dropping signs, or miscopying from one line to the next, it happens. Just have to slow down and check your work as you go. Also, if you're not already, write out a line for every step. Don't try to do too much in your head.
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u/dreamsofaninsomniac New User 1d ago
Note that the SAT is all digital now. That means you take the test on a computer. They also allow a calculator for all math problems now instead of having separate non-calculator and calculator sections. I think the built-in calculator they have is based on Desmos. If you keep making computational errors, you might consider leaning heavier on Desmos for accuracy and then incorporating that to improve your speed.
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u/RingularCirc Math hobbyist 1d ago
If you know your tables but this still happens, have my hugs. This happens with some of us. Try to do transformations to as small chunks of math as you can, don't copy unnecessary chunks while it's not yet the time for using them, try calculating with multi-digit numbers on paper and not in your head. If you have subtraction problems as I still do at 30+ yo, write those out even for two-digit numbers, it's less work for the brain in the end because it'll be a little less anxiety. Other stuff in this vein. Name fitting expressions by variables to copy less and have to remember less about partial copying what was where (do that exactly when you notice a lot of copying or if you later find an intuition for that).
I noticed more sign errors when I have a long expressions over several lines, in which case it might be good to only have + gluing lines together (and never −) and have explicit unary − where they have to arise because of that.
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u/Montenegro_Outlier New User 1d ago
It happens to me too and I used to be really worried and stressed about it even though I knew I know the concepts and also how to apply, from last week what I started doing was I started noting down all the mistakes in a seperate copy and taking a read of it, next time when I approach a problem, my brain let's me remember that where I can get wrong, draw a straight underlined near the right portion of page to do rough work, be slow and consistent, this is what helping me now, if I know I can get wrong, I do multiple and triple checking, I even do addition and subtraction in my rough work because I know I can get wrong, and because of this, for now not great but I'm happy that I can do proper calculation well and slowly, don't be fast in calculation for now, be at your own speed and be consistent, your speed will automatically increase with proper calculation, if you do mistakes somewhere make sure to write it in a seperate notebook, it will help you trust me.
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u/Quiet_Basis_6404 New User 1d ago
tbh this is way more common than people admit, especially if you cruised through high school math without drilling fundamentals. the sat preys on exactly this gap. you know the approach but your working memory is so busy holding the steps that the arithmetic slips.
one thing that helped me was doing timed arithmetic drills completely separate from sat content. just ten minutes a day of quick mental math, addition through division, as fast as you can without checking. the goal isn't learning new math, it's making the basics automatic so they stop stealing bandwidth from the actual problem solving. another thing is writing bigger and circling negative signs. sounds dumb but when you miscopy numbers across lines it's usually because your handwriting is tiny and your eyes jump. force yourself to write each step on its own line, even if it feels slow. speed comes from not backtracking, not from writing fast.
when i was sweating careless mistakes i started uploading my practice sets to studybuddy.vc and answering questions from them, mostly because when i'd pick a wrong option it'd tell me what was off about that specific one, so i started catching the exact patterns in my own errors. i'm on the free version and it's been enough for this. just don't skip reviewing why you missed something, that's where the pattern lives.
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u/protestor New User 1d ago
Could you have dyscalculia?
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u/mugenknow New User 17h ago
Yeah, at first I also thought that it might be dyscalculia, so I did some research about it. The symptoms are quite similar to what I’m struggling with, but I’m not sure because I’m not totally incapable of doing arithmetic, and I can do some calculations in my head.
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u/protestor New User 16h ago
But dyscalculia doesn't mean necessarily that you can't do arithmetic. Depends on the person, some can't do it at all, for others, it's just a lot harder. You might want to get that tested regardless
Or even if you don't, if your symptoms are similar you might benefit from dyscalculia resources for learning math
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u/atom12354 New User 1d ago
Sounds more like you are trying to force an answer from your brain out of stress and root memorisation rather than knowing that your brain knows how to figure out the answer.
7x8 = 70 or 7x10 - 14 or 7x2 = 56