I never bothered learning them either (apart from the squares, which stuck quickly for some reason) - I just got fast enough at working them out from known values (squares, 10x is trivial, 5x is half of that) that no one could really tell the difference. I think it actually helped me in some ways, because those "tricks" (mentally breaking it down into simpler steps) generalise to larger numbers quite well.

Exact same thing here. I'm actually having a moment realizing this is more common than I thought. Everyone always acted like it was the easiest thing in the world (even the ones that hated math) and that I must have brain damage or something. But to this day, if you put a gun to my head, I could not tell you what 7*8 was in any less that a minute (and possible not at all without some paper to work it out).

You don't happen to work with software anyone of you? I wonder if this "math dyslexia" has caused any tricky situations at the workplace

I failed tons of those timed tests in school and have gotten better at basic math only somewhat recently, by practicing with a calculator.

I don't work with software per se but I do write some software in the course of my work, and haven't had any issues from my difficulty with math. (At least, not since having to re-take Calculus and reshuffle my major back in college.)

One of the reasons I originally decided I wanted to work with computers was that (in a general sense) I could tell the computer to do the math for me. I always loved playing with calculators and seeing what I could get them to do.

Ok :-) thanks for the reply

I only program as a hobby, but the math issues have certainly never caused problems there, which I've always been a little amused by, since everyone seems to assume amazing math is needed for programming. I DO comment the living hell out of my code though, due to memory/concentration issues, just so I can remember what each chunk does 15 minutes later.

Yes maths is rarely needed (unless one creates a 3d game engine or a neutral net implementation or airplanes for example)

> comment the living hell out of my code

I like comments too, the "Why" type of comments :-)

I’m an engineer (embedded systems and graphics) and it has never once been an issue.

Graphics? Hmm when I was coding 3d graphics there was matrix multiplication and rotation etc,

makes me wonder if comparatively hard things like that, work fine, although some of the easy things don't?

And someone with dyslexia can write an amazingly good novel, I presume.

I'm in the same boat. 8*7 is naturally 8 squared (64) minus 8. :D

Or 7 squared (49) plus 7. Which for some reason is stuck in my brain...

Think 5-6-7-8. 7 times 8 is 56.

Or use a calculator, who cares. Arithmetic is mostly memorization.

I don't understand how those number dots are supposed to help with multiplication.

I break 7 * 8 down into 7 * 2 * 2 * 2, which is much easier to do in my head.