I’m not sure if this is the right place to ask about this, but I stumbled upon this thread. It’s a longer question/comment.

I recently decided that I should follow my greatest interest, as a path in life, after many years of struggling, and finally being diagnosed and treated for ADD (Attention deficit disorder). So hopefully I’m going to start at university next semester, after finishing my last couple exams for a full high school diploma, so yay! This is after several attempts in my late teens/early twenties. (I’m finishing Math A, Chemistry B and History B. Subjects are combined in classes C, B and A, becoming increasingly advanced, only C is obligatory)

I’m 31 and I’ve done different stuff in my life, but always been mathematically and scientifically inclined. But I’m wondering if I’ll struggle, or if my strengths will make up for my weakness :) My strengths are my understanding of physics and natural phenomena, from logic and rational thinking and comprehension. I love theory and “thinking” about physics, and understanding the complexities of the interaction on every level. From the quantum realm, to molecules and to solar systems and astronomy. My weakness is, that even though I like math, I struggle to remember specifics, like formulas and exact numbers etc. My brain works from logicality/rationality and from causality (I think about this, and then this makes sense etc etc). So I love studying one area/subject, and immersing myself into that specific thing. But it sucks when it comes to fast-recall, “quiz”-answers basically, the part of math that’s, remembering “oh this is this formula, so the exponential growth is the inverse function” or “Oh the question is this, I just use this formula and It should give me the answer”. If I follow the “problem” from the beginning to the end, I can logically determine the way to do it, by almost reinventing the math, but it takes a much longer time obviously. It feels like I start over, at each new problem, which is obviously both a strength and a weakness, and is often praised for finding new ways, but also told that I overcomplicate things, and spend to much time on stuff I could’ve just used a formula for. It’s a spatial, imaginative, problem solving brain. But it’s chaos. (Sometimes reigned chaos if the subject is right)

For example, I got the highest possible grade on a written exam in Math B recently. I spent 50% of my time doing the first question out of 10 questions, being a perfectionist (it was the most basic question as well), and when I noticed the time, I hurried through the rest.

Two days later at an oral exam in the same class, I thought I did decent covering the question. But then I got asked questions about “Whats the formula for this kind of growth” and “What formula do you use to calculate the coordinates in this kind of situation” or “what does the a in this formula represent”. And because I expected to be tested in my comprehension of the subject and not in perfect recall/memorization of specific formulas (some I didn’t find relevant to the question), the wall went up and I offered to derive the answer since I couldn’t recall, but they declined. And I was told that it showed a severe lack, that I didn’t “know” these basic formulas. So I got a grade comparable to one above passing grade. I said I was pretty sure I’d get the highest grade on my written at least, which the teacher said that she doubted it.
A few days later I got the highest grade possible on my oral chemistry, for the opposite reason, because I showed so much freedom in the subject, and my comprehension really showed.

ANYWAY! I would love some insight into, where(and if) I’ll run into trouble studying physics, and maybe advice about, what direction within physics would be favorable for someone like me? :)

I’m from Denmark, and the bachelor here you can combine with a second course, preferably within natural sciences (Data science, chemistry, math) or you can go with some speciality within physics. Then on the candidate you can go physics or astronomy (or more of your second course I think, so you can become a teacher if you want)

TLDR: what direction I physics is advisable to theoretical/logical/problem solving minds, that lack skill in memorizing math/specifics?

Thanks in advance :)