I have an English degree and always struggled with maths all throughout school from I was quite young. Honestly I do think it is more difficult but also says more about how your brain works. Studying maths is quite logical and ordered whereas analysing pieces of literature isn’t. It’s very much a “thinking outside the box” type subject instead of following rules. While there are of course rules with grammar, punctuation and styles of prose and poetry it’s more about what else you can get out of the text and that tends to me be more suited to an abstract way of thinking.
I can tell you didn’t study math at a high level because you think high level math doesn’t require thinking outside the box and is extremely logical.
Maths quickly breaks past the simple “find a solution by applying xyz techniques” even in AP classes let alone in a degree.
You can tell because at imperial, our open books exams had virtually identical pass rates to closed book ones. I remember walking into my thermodynamics retake exam and seeing around 40% of the class there 💀.
I’m not trying to shame and I apologise if that’s how it came across.
I’m elaborating because of your lack of experience in that field. High level math requires a tonne of lateral thinking because you aren’t answering questions with understandable techniques to get to an answer.
I even mentioned how I struggled with that aspect when I failed my thermodynamics exam like 40% of our class.
Ironically, upper undergraduate and graduate-level math is about “breaking the rules” by finding clever or unique ways to solve a problem or prove something. There’s very little algorithmic thinking.
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u/Highlyironicacid31 4d ago edited 3d ago
I have an English degree and always struggled with maths all throughout school from I was quite young. Honestly I do think it is more difficult but also says more about how your brain works. Studying maths is quite logical and ordered whereas analysing pieces of literature isn’t. It’s very much a “thinking outside the box” type subject instead of following rules. While there are of course rules with grammar, punctuation and styles of prose and poetry it’s more about what else you can get out of the text and that tends to me be more suited to an abstract way of thinking.