Is this “myth” true?

[LacySheridan]

I’m not a math genius but I could get through school perfectly fine, and I was always great with English. I hated math, but I could do it.

[stella_vigo]

@AMMeyers

Is it true that people who are bad at math, are good at English, and those who are bad at English, are good at math?

Can be true, but can also be false. I can think of many people I’ve known in real life who are both good at English and good at math

I know this girl who was the class salutatorian (basically No. 2 in the entire grade). She was Best in English at one point, and had really good math scores. As in, her overall math scores for the four terms (1/2 a semester, or 1/4 a year) would be like this: 99 100 99 100. I’m talking not a single test, or an exam, but the entire term.

And our valedictorian is also like this. Literally got Top in the World for IGCSE Mathematics (basically she scored 100 on both math exam papers) and she scored As in English.

And this other girl who was Best in English has also gotten As in math.

If you come to my school you can see multiple examples of people being good at math and English

Also, this doesn't really apply anymore, and you probably shouldn't read this because it sounds like I'm bragging, but I'm just stating facts.

I scored high scores in Math and English. And when I mean high scores, I mean like this:

• In sixth grade, I was awarded the Best in English out of all those in my grade. Also, during that time, I would regularly get more than 90%, and even more than 100% (back when we had a teacher who would give a ton of bonus questions)
• In seventh grade, I would score the highest out of my class on English exams, and I wouldn’t score the highest on math, but I would consistently get 90% and above
• In eighth grade, the same story. With the exception of the second term (basically we had a bad math teacher) I did really well in both math and English, and some other subjects. Consistently in the 90+% range.
• In ninth grade my math grades were consistently 90+%, usually 100. My Additional Mathematics grades were a whole other story I was literally failing that class. But I also did well in English and still got As.
• In tenth grade, my Additional Math grades soared till I was getting 80+% on that. I also kept on getting 90s and 100s on math, as in just math. There were times when we took math quizzes and I would be one of three people in my class to get a perfect score. I also kept scoring As in English.
• Similar thing happened in eleventh and twelfth grade. I kept on getting relatively high grades for both subjects. Our English teacher in eleventh grade refused to assign us top scores because we’d be “over the moon” and complacent, but when we got our scores back, I’d usually be in the Top Three of my class. I didn’t do well for statistics in eleventh grade (I passed, but not as high as I wanted), and for pure mathematics it was just a breeze thanks to me taking Additional Mathematics (basically eleventh and twelfth grade mathematics, but for ninth and tenth graders). Consistently got As.

TL;DR It’s definitely a myth. I know a lot of people who can prove this myth false

[J.L.O]

@TheTigerWriter

I could be wrong, but I think mathematical thinking uses a different part of your brain… (science people, is this true or did I just make it up?)

Yes and no.

First, science doesn’t have a good grasp on what the brain does, yet, although we’re well ahead of only a generation ago (and then exponentially stacked by each gen).

But we’ve done a few studies, like there’s one that shows that cab drivers use a much larger area of their brain for spatial relations than do other people. The conclusion drawn by the study is that this operation was naturally larger in cabbies, while I’m sitting here going, no, they just used parts of the brain not usually allocated to spatial relations.

Then they have studies that show you don’t often think a decision through in the heat of the moment, but rely on whatever programming you have on it, and the THINKING done is actually your brain scrounging for an excuse as for why you instinctively reacted that way.

And then there’s studies on Deja Vu: using the part of your brain that recalls history to record current events causes your mind to feel weird, like you’ve done this novel thing before.

With all this, my best guess is that the mind is a muscle and you have to exercise it to expand ability into areas of the brain not usually used for the given task.

That, and your body and mind want to work on autopilot as much as possible: which CAN be done in math. You did it for memorizing your times tables, so you can do it for Trig or for any weird noodly design out there. You just have to know that you are memorizing a sequence that you have to regurgitate.

[TheTigerWriter]

So, in theory, if I had exercised my brain for math, I would have probably done well?

But I didn’t because I had a hard time understanding and when you don’t understand, you get bad grades and then you get discouraged and give up, I guess?

[J.L.O]

More accurate that it ruined your chances. There are people who can’t do it no matter how hard you try with them. It’s just a much smaller portion of the population.

Bit I’ll put it this way: kids do some algebra in 2nd grade.

You know, the fill in the blanks? They change the blanks and boxes to an -a- and all of a sudden kids can’t do the math.

[Incognito_latte]

Imma be real honest, I don’t really know what I do in both classes but I manage to come out with fairly good grades Mostly its just about interest and the teachers you get. I know for a while I despised math but my father and my grade 8 teacher for some reason made math seem a whole lot easier. Same goes for English, I love the creative side of English and sometimes you’ll get stuck with teachers who have no passion for it and some who challenge themselves. Just take it one step at a time,engage with others and play around with it.