slatterly
January 31st, 2007, 06:24 AM
In attempting to define some odd quirks of one character, I ended up with the discovery that he's abysmally bad at conventional math. However, he's also a very well-organized sort of person, and math would probably show up every so often in the job he has. Plus I imagine he must have had to pass a math course at some point.
So I decided he must have invented a sort of pseudo-math that would make more sense to him and accomplish the bare minimum he needed to get by. Unfortunately, I never had much trouble with high-school math and so I have no idea how a less fortunate person would deal with a math deficiency.
So, the question: does anyone know of any common strategies people use to cope when they have a hard time with mathematics? It doesn't have to be particularly complex at all, maybe just some odd mnemonics or ways of remembering what they need. This isn't really a vital part of the story so far, but it's bugging me now, and I'd like to be able to say something reasonable if it comes up.
So I decided he must have invented a sort of pseudo-math that would make more sense to him and accomplish the bare minimum he needed to get by. Unfortunately, I never had much trouble with high-school math and so I have no idea how a less fortunate person would deal with a math deficiency.
So, the question: does anyone know of any common strategies people use to cope when they have a hard time with mathematics? It doesn't have to be particularly complex at all, maybe just some odd mnemonics or ways of remembering what they need. This isn't really a vital part of the story so far, but it's bugging me now, and I'd like to be able to say something reasonable if it comes up.