Michelle Tregoning remembers the first time she felt nervous about math like it was yesterday.
In 6th grade, he was asked to answer a simple math question in front of the class: What is 5 x 6?
Mrs. Tregoning knew the answer deep down, but her mind went blank.
“I couldn’t for the life of me remember it … my mouth couldn’t move,” said Ms Tregoning, who currently works as a maths professional learning leader for the NSW Department of Education.
“It’s something I knew, but I just couldn’t bring it up at the time.”
Ms Tregoning’s experience is a classic case of ‘maths anxiety’ – the fear, dread and worry that many people experience when tackling a numerical task.
If left untreated, maths anxiety can end up shaping the decisions you make later, according to Sarah Buckley, who has conducted research on maths anxiety at the Australian Council for Educational Research.
“You might choose not to study math when it’s an option, or you might choose not to pursue a certain career,” he said.
The decision to drop maths altogether is on the rise, with year 12 enrollments in the subject falling to an all-time low of 66 per cent, according to a 2022 report by the Australian Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
But even if it seems like numbers will always be your worst enemy, the good news is that math anxiety doesn’t have to rule your life, Dr. Buckley said.
“Math anxiety is not a life sentence, it can be fixed.”
Is it math anxiety or something else?
Although estimates of how many people experience math anxiety vary, studies have suggested that it is between 6 and 17 percent of the population.
The 2017 Westpac Numeracy study found maths anxiety affects up to a third of adults and children in Australia.
It can appear as panic when you’re asked to solve a math problem on the spot, a knot in your stomach at the thought of doing your taxes, or a barrage of intrusive thoughts while taking a math test.
“People have sweaty palms … their brains shut down and they don’t remember anything,” said Eddie Woo, a maths teacher at Sydney’s Cherrybrook Technology High School.
Eddie Woo says math anxiety is a common struggle for many students. (Supplied)
It often feels like normal anxiety, but the trigger is math, said Mr. Woo, who is also the Mathematics Growth Team Leader for the NSW Department of Education.
Unlike dyscalculia, a learning disability that makes understanding numbers difficult, math anxiety is a psychological, rather than a neurological, obstacle.
While people with dyscalculia often struggle to count their change or tell time, math anxiety is closer to an irrational fear of spiders, Dr. Buckley said.
“I think it’s an emotion that we have to regulate.”
While math anxiety may convince you that you’re “bad” at anything involving numbers, research suggests that it has little to do with your actual abilities.
A large UK study in 2019 found that 77% of children with high levels of maths anxiety achieved average or high grades in the subject.
“It really has to do with people’s experience with math,” Woo said.
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How does math anxiety affect your performance?
Brain imaging studies have shown that math anxiety can affect your ability to process information and perform at your best.
A 2012 study explored what was happening in the brains of 7- to 9-year-old children as they solved a series of math problems.
In children with math anxiety, the scans showed that brain regions associated with processing negative emotions were overactive, while those that play a role in mathematical reasoning and working memory were underactive.
The study found that the effects were unique to children with math anxiety and had nothing to do with general anxiety, intelligence, or reading ability.
Anxiety interferes with your working memory, making it harder to remember facts and solve math problems. (Getty Images: JGI/Jamie Grill)
Results like these reveal how anxiety can disrupt our working memory, an essential companion when we’re solving math problems.
For example, most people can have between six and eight different numbers in their mind at any given time.
But when your brain is flooded with anxiety, you may only be able to remember three numbers, Woo said.
“Working memory is notoriously limited.
“When you’re anxious about something, it takes up space in your working memory.”
This can lead to a vicious cycle: the more stressed you are, the more your brain freezes and you perform worse, which only leads to more anxiety.
What causes math anxiety?
The seeds of math anxiety are often sown during primary school, with some studies finding it can start in children as young as six, Dr Buckley said.
By the time students are in high school and tackling more complex topics like algebra, their math anxiety is in full bloom.
Sarah Buckley says myths surrounding maths, such as the idea that you can or can’t do it, can fuel anxiety. (Supplied)
There are also many myths floating around about math and what it means to be good at it.
A big one is that you’re either a “math person” or not, and that you can’t improve your skills with effort, Dr. Buckley said.
“That’s a fixed mindset when it comes to how you feel about math.”
Gender stereotypes are also a major source of negative math beliefs in girls, who tend to experience math anxiety more often than boys, even though they perform just as well in the subject, she added.
“If a student identifies as female and believes that ‘girls are not good at math,’ this may lead her to believe that she has no control over her ability to learn in math, as it is determined by her genre”.
It also doesn’t help that the way math is taught in many schools is the stuff of nightmares, Woo said.
“They often make you feel bad because you don’t know the answer to things.”
Stereotypes about who is good (and who is not) at math can lead to negative beliefs about your abilities. (Getty Images: Sean De Burca)
Many of the math teaching methods that have been used for decades, such as timed math tests, are also a recipe for anxiety, he said.
The pressure to memorize and recall number facts at lightning speed is something Mrs Tregoning remembers well from her days at school.
Although he wanted to take the time to understand how things worked, such as why a formula was written a certain way or applied to one problem rather than another, his class was more interested in getting the right answer, quickly.
“They were rules for no reason,” he said.
How do you overcome math anxiety?
The first step to slaying your math demons is to challenge your beliefs about your abilities.
One way to identify unhelpful beliefs is to compare your thinking about math with the beliefs you have about other subjects, Dr. Buckley said.
For example, your reaction to making a mistake while playing a sport might be to simply pick up the ball and try again without any drama.
But when it comes to math, every mistake can trigger a downward spiral of thoughts that tell you you’re not good with numbers.
Finding math in the things you love is one way to overcome your fears. (Getty Images: Guido Mieth)
Once you’ve pinpointed the beliefs that are holding you back, the next step is to tear them apart by practicing your math skills, asking for help, and celebrating your victories, no matter how small.
“This will challenge that belief that your math skills are fixed,” Dr Buckley said.
Another way to become more comfortable with math is to find it in the things you enjoy, Mr. Woo said.
“One of the wonderful things about mathematics is that there is a connection between mathematics and everything you can imagine.”
For example, many of the fundamental principles of music, such as time and rhythm, are deeply rooted in mathematics.
“Someone once said that music is the joy people feel when they’re counting, but they don’t know.”
Ms Tregoning recalls that her turning point came while she was studying psychology at university and realized that psychologists use mathematics to make decisions about how to help people.
“I’ve never thought about math that way before.”
Although math anxiety still strikes her from time to time, she believes her experiences have helped her become a better math educator.
“It’s important that children have effective access to number facts, but how they acquire those facts is just as important,” she said.
“Having gone through math and not understanding it, you almost have this real desperation to make sure the kids and the teachers you work with understand it.”
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