Was there a subject in school you just couldn't understand?

Physics in high school, it was either because I didn’t pay attention at all in class or I just didn’t get it. Probably both.

Some kinds of math.

Chemistry was another one… gah…

I had a difficult time understanding many lessons in Chemistry and Algebra II w/ Trig.

Definitely Geometry. I just cannot visualize the stuff. There were portions of Calculus that confused the hell out of me too. I pretty much gave up mid-year.

I didn’t get the home economics classes. I never had a great deal of trouble with Maths or the Sciences, and I usually did well in English, but put me in a kitchen or in front of a sewing machine, and I am totally useless.

Science came pretty naturally to me, but some Math classes were just plain awful. Trigonometry stands out as being particularly painful.

Calculus

I’m good at math. Had no problems with algebra, trig, geometry, but the second part of calculus blew me away. I was fine for the first half of the semester, but then it kinda flipped, like you had to do things backwards. I could never get my head around it. I had an A at midterm and ended up with a C- in the course.

History for me. I got so mixed up with all the dates :)))))))))

Organic chemistry.

I had a hard time with math and science, but Latin and Spanish totally eluded me. I just didn’t seem to have a brain that would retain foreign languages. Still don’t.

We got woodwork lessons, often double bloody woodwork. Now i’m not saying I didn’t understand it. It’s just that I utterly despised those lessons. Everything I ever attempted to make either broke or failed to look anything like it was supposed to. A stool : broke. An egg rack : holes not aligned properly. A sculpted fish : it’s tail was literally planed off. Yeah one lesson that definitely didn’t give me wood :¬)

Geometry. Like the OP, Algebra was fine, even easy. But Geometry? I failed twice.

I also just couldn’t get economics. I tried really hard, asked questions, got tutoring, but i just couldn’t pass! I don’t know why! But my teacher passed me. (I think it was a pity grade because he saw how hard I was working)

Not until college, when a few subjects eluded me. Chemistry, the second semester in particular, gave me a lot of trouble. Not even my lab grade could save me there. Ugh.

Calculus, where I had no clue what was going on. We did a lot of things on computers, and I never understood what the hell we were doing. I managed to scrape by somehow.

Genetics was also incomprehensible to me for at least half the semester. Our professor told us on the first day of class that most of us would be completely lost before the term was up, but that he’d take into consideration our lab work and effort. At first I had a good grasp of what we were learning, but about ⅔ through the semester I started to feel like I was taking a class in another language.

Math. Period. I don’t get it, I never have. It doesn’t make sense to my tiny brain. I’ve admitted this before and I’m not at all ashamed. I believe that math should be relatively simple to understand if you have a firm grasp on the basics (which I do not), so that says to me that I must have had lousy math teachers early in my life.

German.

Algebra one and Mr. Friday. I asked him oneday if he could tell me why I needed to know what X meant? Could he give me a practicle application for it? He couldn’t I failed… Went on to Geometry, straight A’s got it, understood. So the Public education system in it’s infinite wisdom put me in Algebra 2/trigonomotry with… you guessed it Mr. Friday. Just put the f on the paper and I will see you in the spring when I graduate.(already had enough credits) or I’d still be there.

Embarrassed to admit it: Statistics.

Trig and calculus were very hard for me. I was good in math until i took these courses.

I couldn’t understand french. Then I took Spanish in college and I’ve been able to grasp it very quickly.

Organic chemistry. Made no sense to me why the carbon atom attaches to the molecule here if it is next to an oxygen atom but over there if theres another carbon atom next to it…......

I was petty hopeless in most math attempts.

I could do without algebra 2.

We should pool our vast wealth of knowledge, figure out who’s good in what areas, and set up a tutoring service for the students that ask homework questions on here. $5.00 per question?

@Adirondackwannabe That is really a good idea. At least $5.00 per question… we don’t come cheap!! LOLL

@Adirondackwannabe Great idea!
@Carly Why couldn’t you understand French?

Spanish, but it was only because of a bad teacher who refused to explain anything and just spoke in Spanish to kids who had never studied it before. I learned it on my own later without the pain and confusion.

Maths. No matter how hard I tried, I just could never grasp it!

Not really. When I didn’t understand something, I asked questions until I did.

When I was in Jr. High (this was before they called it middle school), they had just started having girls take shop and boys take home ec. I already knew how to cook, I thought. But there was one thing that totally eluded me.

When it came out of the oven, it was this gooey mess covered with a bit of tomato sauce. It was supposed to be pizza, but it was probably the only time I’ve ever had a complete and utter failure trying to cook something.

I have not ever—not even once—tried to make a homemade pizza since.

The only subject I ever had trouble with was physics and it was only some parts of physicis like anything having to do w/torque calculations or pressure.

Most kinds of Math elude me.

Chemisty and I had really bad chemistry.

I would say math, but I am okay at math now. I think the problem was my teachers were just bad at teaching me math. It always plagued until I got to college though. I was pretty good at most everything else, except Latin. I liked the class, but the grammar kicked my ass.

I had to fight to get an A in physics. Physics was known as the “GPA killer” at my high school. People who had gotten straight A’s all their life would get a B or lower in physics. I just wasn’t that interested in it and I found it to be pretty difficult. I’ve essentially forgotten everything I learned about it that year…

I never really “got” Economics but I think that was because it was so damn boring, I fell asleep in class every day.

physics…. how can one square time?... and trig…. I really hated when they combined the two… like bobby tossed a tennis ball 45 degrees at 19 m/s when will it land and where will it hit the target 45 meters away 3 meters long

Another relatively clueless former Geometry student here. I also struggled with memorizing history dates. (I don’t know how the British kids do it with all of their history.) And taking Geology in college was a huge mistake, but the field assignments were fascinating.

Right now am stuck doing homework which am not understanding.
It’s Social Sciences, also Biology, Physics, Chemistry.

Physics. I think it was down to total lack of interest.
I’m surprised how many people strugged with geometry. It was the branch of mathematics that I found the easiest and most enjoyable.

Definitely Algebra 2. I did perfecly fine in Algebra 1 but now, I keep thinking that I know the information after reading it and learning it but then when I go to take the test, I totally freeze and can’t remember anything!

I nominate @downtide for the one responsible for handling all Geometry homework questions on Fluther.

@Pied_Pfeffer I’m British and love history! As a school kid I loved the fact that there was so much history (local to me and world wide).

@downtide Geometry was developed by the Devil!!!! I guess it’s because I’m not a visual person. I loved Algebra I

@Pied_Pfeffer I would have to go back to school and re-learn it though. It’s been nearly 30 years since I did any.

Physics, Chemistry, and advanced calculus

English. All my honors/AP Science and Math classes were a breeze. And I consistently scored among the top in my honors English class, so I know I have the ability to write well.

But in Jr. High, I literally cried over my english homework, having to identify nouns vs. pronouns vs. adverbs . . . subject predicate, all that crap.

integral calculus

@Aesthetic_Mess, I’m a visual person too, and I loved Geometry, so your comment strikes me as odd. Geometry (taught right, anyway) is all visual. Shapes, angles, volumes… Where I got lost was when they started talking about imaginary numbers, negative exponents and Greek symbols I couldn’t read (all left-brain stuff, I guess).

Foreign languages. I tried first with Spanish because it’s supposed to be the easiest and then French, both with no luck. I can listen to others speak and get an idea of what’s going on but I can’t speak a coherent sentence to save my life. I lived several years with Russian, Hebrew, Farsi and German speakers and had to endure a lot of ribbing because I couldn’t speak. Oh well, I’m a good eavesdropper at least.

math and, strangely, history.
I can hardly get through history class.
It doesn’t interest me, I can’t remember dates and names, and I just don’t understand it.

I feel like a dumbass when everyone around me seems to know it all and I am clueless.
I studied for weeks and got a B on my final… But other than that, I was SOL.
haha

English classes. I am much better now than I was back in high school, but still in college I dont really like English classes. History/Science/Math classes were always extremely easy for me though.

Did you all do fine in music? I cannot carry a tune and hated that recorder thing. Music notes go in and right back out.

@faye Yep. I played violin in elementary and middle school, and piano in high school. I was in the Glee Club and performed in the musicals we put on every spring. I even attended a music college for a year. It was probably my best subject.

I haven’t really put a lot of effort into it, but Spanish is difficult for me because of the apparently arbitrary assignment of biologically sexual genders to nouns that refer to things that aren’t really female or male.

E.g., I have no trouble with muchacho or muchacha, but what is there about a boat or a building that makes it male or female?

@faye Yea, I play the violin

@faye oh my gosh! I am terrible at music, haha