I'm a math tutor, and I sometimes get just as bad questions regarding math. Stuff like people not knowing how to multiply by 0.

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'Cause when you've given up,
When no matter what you do it's never good enough,
When you never thought that it could ever get this tough,
That's when you feel my kind of love.

I've had students who don't know that subtraction is the opposite of addition, or that division is the opposite of multiplication.

The most common errors I see include:
- People trying to distribute a power over addition or subtraction. Something like (a + b)² is not equal to a² + b².
- Rearranging the order of the numbers in subtraction or division.
- Confusing powers with multiplication (I see this way more than I should).
- Anything involving negative numbers.
- Handwriting errors, like confusing a 5 with an S.

And, above all...
- Copying the problem wrong from the book in the first place!

____________________

'Cause when you've given up,
When no matter what you do it's never good enough,
When you never thought that it could ever get this tough,
That's when you feel my kind of love.

Emuz: Math's reputation isn't helping matters. People think "math is hard" so they don't try as hard in it. Me, I always thought math was the easiest subject. Stuff like literature and essay writing were harder for me.

Another one is people confusing squaring with square roots. Sometimes they just call it the wrong thing, but some students seem to think that "square root" is just a fancy name for x².

____________________

'Cause when you've given up,
When no matter what you do it's never good enough,
When you never thought that it could ever get this tough,
That's when you feel my kind of love.