Hello,
My name is “merlinjones” and I am typing this out in memphis, Tn. I am a very poor typest so please bear with me.
I am a currently a student at teh University of Memphis. I am an English major with a creative writing emphasis and have as a career goal becoming an english professor. I have very severe dyscalculia. It is my ponion that I have very, very severe dyscalculia because I had hydrocephelis as an infant (water on the brain) I think that having hydrocephlis as an infant did two things; really messed up my eyesight (I am quite near sighted) and really messed up whatever part of my brain does math.
At any rate, I am attending University, after having a bit of a break from schooling. I find this nice school taht takes all of my previous college credits and I ahve this problem. I never saved any papers stating my dyscalculia, I have no written documentation. I am soon to get some by the end of the semester becuase I am on tweo waiting lists for ld testing testing that is done really cheaply at the university).
The lady who runs the student disabled services just basically assumed that since I am an older (29 years old, I am ) lady student taht I am just trying to pull a fast one over her. I do not mind her thinking that for right now becuase when I recieve my testing, she will see things differently because I have delt with having very sever dyscalculia since I was a gal in grade school.
At any rate, my goal is this, work like hell on the elementary algebra class I am in, get the darned testing done for my ld and get any help I can get, get a waiver for College Algebra, and get my undergraduates degree and go to grad school. I think that this is a reasonable thing, but in Memphis, the department of vocational rehabilitation does nothing for adults with ld. I cannot get mad at that becuase they have as their priority the severly developmentally and/ or physically disabled. I called them thinking they would know of testing opps. for adults but they told me they only have funding for the profoundly disabled and whatnot, and I cannot get mad at taht at all becuase I have a cousin who is that way and I know what that type of thing is like.
So I am a poor gal stuck on two waiting lists for ld testing who does four hours of remedial math a day. Works for me, for right now. What I really wonder about is how to go to grad school? I really can not do math. I am not proud of it. It took me 11 years worth of resource room instruction to learn how to multiply, divide (three digit numbers) and add and subtract (three digit numbers, I add and subtract very, very slowly) and do fractions. I know nothing more than how to do these five math skills. I have worked very hard at keeping these five math skills fresh in my mind becuase they do come up during the course of this life we lead, eh? I cannot even do percents.
Somehow, I took a placement test for math that put me in Elementary Algebra but I do not know how. I think becuase I took elementary algebra four times in a row at community college and I could visually recoginze a thing or two on the placement test, or maybe I just got lucky.
Can you pass the grad school admission tests knowing no math? Casn you get permission to not take the math portion of the grad school admission tests if you have a very very severe math ld (and have proof of your very severe math ld)?
I do not know what to do with this. It is as though no one knows of dyscalculia at my school. I think that maybe no one really thinks of dyscalculia as really being an ld, they think you have math anxiety. I have laser sharp concentration, I have a hell of a memeory, I meditate for thrityminutes a day, hell, I even have low blood pressure, I have no anxiety issues with math. I have no real anxiety with most things in this life.
I have a good memory and lots of times, I bust out my flash cards and try to memorize what things look like with regards to equations. I never know what they mean, I just try to memorize what the most basic ones look like and then write that out on paper for my homework and whatnot. It is a bit like being functionally illeterate and I do not mean that as a term of disrespect to anyone who is that way.
Does anyone happen to know what to do with this, you know? I appologize for my typing but I harmed my hand and am basically typing this with one hand. You can e mail me at [email protected] too if you wanna.
Hey MerlinJones,
Just want you to know it is possible… I managed to get through college without dying. I have undiagnosed dyscalculia, but found dyscalculia.org, read through it, and felt vindicated. I finished college with D’s/D- in math (didn’t get resource help, just thought I was stupid, :oops: and it was in the early 90’s, too, maybe the prof. didn’t know any better), but the prof. passed me because I showed up EVERY MORNING to go over the homework with him so he knew I wasn’t pulling one over on him - I really didn’t get it and couldn’t do it. I took Math 001, 002, 003 at my college - basically bonehead math to pre-Algebra. And it just got worse the longer I went.
That was then: Currently I have ONE MORE SEMESTER until I finish a master’s degree!! :D The trick for me was to find a school that did not require the GRE — because it tests “basic” skills, and there was that whole math portion I knew I’d fail. Since you’re currently getting help, you’ll probably just be able to show them your paperwork for grad school and go on, but don’t forget that there is still resource help even at the grad school level for disabilities of all kinds. I am at a good school (Mills College 8) ), taking an MFA in creative writing, which seemed to be your interest as well. It CAN be done. Keep going.
:wink:
Good luck!
Tadamack