Math Anxiety

Oftentimes in conversations with parents, I'll hear the term "math anxiety" or "test anxiety" mentioned as a reason that their child is not performing well in math class. A common issue in sports, it seems to be increasing in frequency in the classroom as well. At the very least, our recognition of anxiety in the classroom or before tests is increasing.

I’ve had some personal experience with math anxiety. Despite majoring in math in college, I remember vividly the first time I was crippled by math anxiety. I was in 6th grade. Normally a straight-A’s student, regular factors (not paying attention, missing school because I was sick, etc.) contributed to me not performing well on a quiz or homework. This poor performance increased my worry, and I continued to perform poorly until I received a C on a test. A C was unheard of for me at that point in my academic career, and I was devastated.

So how did I recover? How did I eventually become so good at math that I majored in it?

Well, there’s no magic bullet, but scientists made an interesting discovery in 2007 about math anxiety that could illuminate our efforts. They found that math anxiety occupies a large majority of our working memory, the same working memory used to complete complex mathematical computations. Simple mathematical computations don't require as much working memory, so worried students can still add and subtract, but are unable to use and complete concepts they learned more recently. In effect, math anxiety can actually cause poor performance, all by itself.

For me, I was fortunate enough to have a teacher who pushed me to join the math club at school, MathCounts. By practicing math more often, the club got my confidence up, and I began performing better on exams. I didn’t fully understand what happened until I read the findings years later, and I still consider myself lucky to have those resources available to me at such a young age. It’s not easy to improve your confidence in such a challenging subject; we all need a little help sometimes. Having someone outside of my regular routine who could help me build my confidence saved me years of insecurities later.