Is learning mathematics any different between grade school and university?

It has been my experience that if you hate mathematics or have a mathematics disability, you are stuck with it. I hated it in first grade, and at some point in grade school I was diagnosed with a math disability called dyscalculia. When I left high school, I could not even do long division.After high school I did eventually make it up to calculous level, but that’s where I dropped out. There were people far less successful than me academically who could get it. I could not keep track of what order to do what in.

I never had problems with fractions or short division and usually did okay with the simple stuff, but the rest, especially everything beyond factoring, was near impossible.

Of course the math you learn in Kindergarten is different than college algebra.

@Dutchess_lll Yes, but is the difficulty similar.

There is a switch between the two. Sort of. Depending on your major you can go through college without touching difficult math. You shouldn’t have to know what a differential equation is if your major is sociology.

I had to do a fair amount of statistics and calculus in college. I struggled. But all math through high school was really easy. I am great at following rules. But once math got more abstract I struggled.

I know that -3*-4 is a positive number. But I couldn’t really explain why. In college the “why” becomes more important. Unless you are going for a degree in sociology.

Yes, the difficulty is greater for a college student learning advanced math than for an elementary student learning arithmetic.

Arithmetic is based on concrete units and operations that can be replicated by use of models of units.

Advanced mathematics is abstract, not concrete, so the student must be adept at conceptualizing abstract operations and concepts.

Yes. It’s fun!

The math taught in the early grades is mostly rote learning. Later on there may be more than one way of solving a problem. You need more of a conceptual understanding. At the start of high school, most students learn geometry, which requires an understanding of how proofs work.

@LostInParadise Nailed it. Timed multiplication/division tables were among the most brutal for me. I’m dyslexic, with marginal (at best) handwriting, so I would transpose numbers on those quizzes, or lose points because they wanted pristine handwriting. My mother would give me practice tests every morning before school. It was hell. I had never felt so stupid in my life.

Once math became more advance and logic/analytic/problem-solving based, it was became one of my strongest subjects and I would consistently outperform the class. I still struggled with running out of time, but that’s always been a factor for me.