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[NT] NT's Good at Math?

Synthetic Darkness

New member
Joined
Feb 28, 2009
Messages
230
Am I the only NT who is rubbish with math? I can't understand it at all, I was only just slightly above average in primary school and once I hit high school I become below average. I can do well in every other subject but with math...I just freeze and my mind goes blank and I feel stupid and I hate feeling stupid. No matter how hard I study I always end up making stupid little mistakes on my tests that deduct from my marks and while I don't actually fail I end up with a mark that's much lower than what I anticipated.

I've always been under the illusion that NT's or maybe just T's in general were better with mathematics than their F counterparts but even the airhead of our grade does better on tests than I do...it's completely humiliating because I work my ass off and she's off listening to the Jonas Brothers -_-
 

01011010

New member
Joined
Jun 22, 2008
Messages
3,916
MBTI Type
INxJ
I know an ENTP that's also average. Some NTs might not like to do it, but they tend to be of good math skill.
 

JustHer

Pumpernickel
Joined
Aug 7, 2009
Messages
1,954
MBTI Type
ENTJ
Math (especially at the high school level) is definitely an SJ thing. You just memorize the rules and apply them over and over again and they won't make sense to you unless youre digging deeper and examining the theories which you don't really do on the basic level.

Also, math doesn't come naturally to you if you're an NT, you still have to work at it. Extensively.
 

runvardh

にゃん
Joined
Jun 23, 2007
Messages
8,541
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Am I the only NT who is rubbish with math? I can't understand it at all, I was only just slightly above average in primary school and once I hit high school I become below average. I can do well in every other subject but with math...I just freeze and my mind goes blank and I feel stupid and I hate feeling stupid. No matter how hard I study I always end up making stupid little mistakes on my tests that deduct from my marks and while I don't actually fail I end up with a mark that's much lower than what I anticipated.

I've always been under the illusion that NT's or maybe just T's in general were better with mathematics than their F counterparts but even the airhead of our grade does better on tests than I do...it's completely humiliating because I work my ass off and she's off listening to the Jonas Brothers -_-

I'm guessing you are one of those people who used to want to hogtie me and beat me. I'd forget a formula, but not the principles and rederive it while writing the test and ace it. I used to play FF7 instead of study... :blush:
 

Matthew_Z

That chalkboard guy
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Messages
1,256
MBTI Type
xxxx
In Middle School and High School, I was always top of my class when it came to math. It was always easily my "best subject."

My INTP friend, however, always struggled a bit with the subject. The "if this isn't interesting, I'm not going to learn it" approach, if you will. She being a writer and at the time desiring to become a psychologist, she didn't see any applications of what she was being taught. She ended up being capable of doing most anything in math, provided time to grasp all the "nonsense." However, I wouldn't call her a math wizard by any stretch of the word. She just applied her logical thinking and got through it all.

By counterexample I disprove the notion of NTs being good with math.

Side note: I'm accustomed to hearing "good at math" instead of "good with math." Just an interesting pronoun distinction.
 

Oaky

Travelling mind
Joined
Jan 15, 2009
Messages
6,180
MBTI Type
INTJ
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5w6
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sp/so
I hate maths but I had a talent in it. Never studied it though. If I did study it for about a day I'd get full marks. I didn't study it though and came out with average grades. I don't really care though as maths are not part of my future plans. This was back when I was in school.
 

Athenian200

Protocol Droid
Joined
Jul 1, 2007
Messages
8,828
MBTI Type
INFJ
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4w5
If it's any consolation, I'm not an NT, but I struggled with higher algebra.

I did fairly well in lower-level math after it finally "clicked." Before it did, I was counting on my fingers and toes more frequently than I care to admit.

From then, it was smooth sailing right through Algebra 1 and Geometry, and even the first half of Algebra 2. Once I hit the second half of Algebra 2, though, everything went to hell in a handbasket. I barely passed the class, and that was mostly because they fudged my grade.

When I took the test in college, I got placed in remedial Algebra I, and did well. Then I moved on to remedial Algebra 2, and failed!

I recently took a test of my skills, and apparently I'm very good at applied mathematics, like the kind used in accounting or measuring, though going much beyond that is too much for me. My mental limit seems to occur right around where college-level mathematics starts, which effectively keeps me from getting a college diploma.

I've really tried, but I simply can't grok math much past Algebra 1 and Geometry. :doh:

I CAN make change, set up a spreadsheet, calculate a budget, convert units, determine area/volume, and understand/create comparative bar graphs/pie charts, though. Which are all apparently useful career skills.
 

INTP

Active member
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Jul 31, 2009
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7,803
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intp
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5w4
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sx
Im not good, but not bad either. I only learned the basic stuff, but i can solve some bit harder stuff too, not because im good at math, but because im good at solving problems. It just takes bit more time and effort, thats why i rather not do it, unless its something important.
 

The_Liquid_Laser

Glowy Goopy Goodness
Joined
Jul 11, 2007
Messages
3,376
MBTI Type
ENTP
I think the multiple intelligences model is better at describing this sort of thing than MBTI. Some NT's are excellent at math, some are not so good, and there are plenty that are somewhere in between. Overall I'd say NT's are better at math on average, because NT's are more academically inclined in general.
 

Orangey

Blah
Joined
Jun 26, 2008
Messages
6,354
MBTI Type
ESTP
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6w5
I did well until I decided to stop doing homework in the 11th grade. I still got average grades, though. It was always one of those easy, boring subjects that I never liked. But my calculation and enumeration skills are abysmal.
 

poppy

triple nerd score
Joined
May 30, 2009
Messages
2,215
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intj
Enneagram
5
Am I the only NT who is rubbish with math? I can't understand it at all, I was only just slightly above average in primary school and once I hit high school I become below average. I can do well in every other subject but with math...I just freeze and my mind goes blank and I feel stupid and I hate feeling stupid. No matter how hard I study I always end up making stupid little mistakes on my tests that deduct from my marks and while I don't actually fail I end up with a mark that's much lower than what I anticipated.

I've always been under the illusion that NT's or maybe just T's in general were better with mathematics than their F counterparts but even the airhead of our grade does better on tests than I do...it's completely humiliating because I work my ass off and she's off listening to the Jonas Brothers -_-

Yep, that was me starting my junior year of high school with pre calculus. I can't remember rules for doing a lot of basic math (factoring, simplifying, any formulas) so I make all kinds of stupid mistakes. It's not pretty.

The conceptual stuff was never a problem, and I think I got into the habit of going "oh I understand how this works" and never took the time to memorize any of the the details (and then I'd run out of time trying to reconstruct formulas on tests and fail them...). If I had actually taken the time to study (since that was effectively the only class I ever would have needed to study for) I'd have been a lot better off.

Also anything applied is about a million times easier (otherwise I can't identify what the end product should look like). Right now I'm in college taking "Applied Calculus" for business/social science majors, and it's way better. So there might be hope for you yet.
 

wildcat

New member
Joined
Jun 8, 2007
Messages
3,622
MBTI Type
INTP
There is only one way to understand math, and it is to go at it alone.
All you need is pen and paper.
Teachers and guidebooks only obstruct. So it is with every subject.

If you do not want to understand anything, then you are an absorber.
You get good grades. You learn by heart. You memorize and learn by rules.
The teachers love you.

But if you want to understand, it is another thing.
Never read elementary books, go directly to the advance level and complicated stuff.
The elementary level teachers and the elementary books are dangerous.
They insist on telling things that should never be told.
Only if you are uninstructed, you can find out.

Everybody who is interested in math, is capable of learning it.
If you do not learn it, it is because you read book-guides and listen to teachers.
So it is with every subject.

There is no high grade or low grade. There is no grades.
The teachers say: First you have to learn A before you are able to learn B.
It is not true. The A is in the B.

Learning is a child's game.
 

Cenomite

Systematic chaos
Joined
Nov 30, 2008
Messages
623
MBTI Type
ENTP
I'm pretty average. I got mostly C's in middle school math, and A's in high school math even though I hated it. By college it dropped to B's and C's. I really don't know if I slipped because I just dislike it so much, or because I really just can't do it. I had a lot of trouble with infinite series, mostly because my algebra skills suck and it was definitely a skill needed to solve all of those problems.

I do tend to do much better at Calculus than things like algebra. The problem is, you need algebra to get to the end of a calculus problem. For example, I can get a hard integral into a solvable form, but then I'll screw up when finding out its value. I also make tons of little mistakes, like flipping a negative sign or doing random things with fractions wrong.

But yeah, I've never been that amazing at math. I did good in high school because I worked my ass off.
 

neptunesnet

man-made
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Sep 5, 2009
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sx
Yep, that was me starting my junior year of high school with pre calculus. I can't remember rules for doing a lot of basic math (factoring, simplifying, any formulas) so I make all kinds of stupid mistakes. It's not pretty.

The conceptual stuff was never a problem, and I think I got into the habit of going "oh I understand how this works" and never took the time to memorize any of the the details (and then I'd run out of time trying to reconstruct formulas on tests and fail them...). If I had actually taken the time to study (since that was effectively the only class I ever would have needed to study for) I'd have been a lot better off.

Also anything applied is about a million times easier (otherwise I can't identify what the end product should look like).

Although I'm not an NT, I can totally relate.
I took AP Calculus in high school, understood all the concepts, didn't bother memorizing the shortcuts because I felt I understood the meaning behind the equations conceptually, and ALWAYS ended up with borderline Bs. Like, 79.5s rounded. It made me sick! Same thing happened in my AP Physics class that same year. My teacher refused to teach us any conceptual stuff. We just worked math equations [BAD move], and with Divine help I managed a C- in the class at the end of the year. Completely ruined my senior year :cry:.
I can still feel the hatred I had going into those classes every day. They were emotionally draining, and I felt incompetent not being able to easily excel at something I worked hard at ...although it wasn't entirely my fault that the way the teacher taught wasn't exactly the way I learned.
Oh well. :cheese:
Once I got into college, I took the lowest math and a science that I was interested in and swore off physics and calculus forever. I couldn't take that sort of distress again.
 

thisGuy

New member
Joined
Mar 14, 2009
Messages
1,187
MBTI Type
entp
you need to practice and understand math...learn that shit

i have noticed a weird phenomenon though

in university,
calculus and circuit analysis comes easy to users with secondary Ni. i have seen this in ENTJ, ENFJ
linear algebra, programming and sciences come easy to Ne dominant/secondary users. i have seen this in ENTP, INFP

i can comment more on Ne...seems like Ne can deal with more stuff at a time and Ne seems to think in terms of optimized systems.

what i mean by 'optimized systems': when you dont know alphabets, you learn the alphabets, ABCD, and then attempt to write the word CAT...when Ne thinks it knows ABCD, it attempts to think CAT without even considering ABCD. as Ne tries to run before it fully knows how to walk, it trips a lot...till it can finally sprint

conversely, Ni thinks of ABCD and then builds onto CAT and thus always knows how to build up to the word CAT; it started with baby steps and learnt how to walk, once that was clear, Ni decided to run

if ENTP halted and took the time to let Ti do its thing, you'd be the master of calculus...but alas! halting and taking time is the counterpoint of the very nature of an ENTP
 
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