Same here. PC was almost my downfall, but then, so was invertebrate embryology. Pushed me to my limits. I had some incredibly smart profs that knew their stuff and made sure I learned it.
I was lucky. I was a horrible student in High School, got passed from grade to grade, the highest grade I ever got in Math was a “C”, but most of the time I got an “F” and occasionally, a “D”.
My mother spent several summers in elementary school trying semi-successfully to teach me the multiplication tables. I went to summer school for math nearly every summer (it seemed) and they even tried hiring a sailor when we lived in the Philippines to tutor me.
When I graduated from high school, I couldn’t even add fractions or do long division.
I went into the Navy, did very well (made E5 before I got out in the peacetime navy) and decided to get out after one hitch and go to college and do something in the sciences. But I had this problem with math, a complete mental block.
I wasn’t dumb in other things (as much...:) and I read ferociously ever since I was a little kid (I read Moby Dick when I was eight...) but I just couldn’t do math. When I was at sea, I got math books from the ship’s library, but...they didn’t do any good.
I was chosen to work one on one with a tech rep from Detroit Diesel Allison who manufactured our engines with Rolls Royce, on a special project called IECMS (Inflight Engine Condition Monitoring System) and it was great.
I spent a huge amount of time with this guy, and got to work with a mainframe computer (a PDP-11...:) to record engine temperatures, pressures, vibrations, etc. to try to predict when an engine would fail before it did.
This guy also taught college level algebra courses to guys on the ship, and when I mentioned to him I wanted to get out and go to college in the sciences but my math skills were going to probably be a problem, he said “Look. Anyone can learn how to do math. I can teach you. One-on-one, as much as you need to get it.
And I worked at it, learned it, and...I could do math and barely passed the class, but...I could to algebra! It somehow broke the logjam for me, and by the time I graduated from college and took Physical Chemistry my last year, I could hardly believe it. Math was such a bogeyman my whole life, and here I was, doing this...well...pretty complicated math! Thermodynamics, the whole nine yards!
To this day, I wish I could find that guy. I have tried, but never been able to find his name anywhere. Now, I can only remember his last name...Wouters. I wish I could talk to him, shake his hand and tell him what a difference in my life he made. Just to say thank you. Not everyone gets that kind of break.