Maths anxiety is REAL

To do well in maths, you have to prepare well, but you also have to be calm and be able to think clearly while taking a test. Anxiety and stress have the opposite effect and will most definitely influence one in a test environment. 

It is the subject that undeniably causes the most anxiety among learners (and parents!). It is also the subject on which the most time and money is spent. Yes, you guessed right! Maths is the culprit. An alarming number of learners rely on tutors to help them navigate the complexities of mathematics. What’s more is that the additional time spent on mastering mathematics sometimes have a detrimental effect on other subjects.

Not all children are naturally gifted with numbers. Have you ever heard of a child who can’t draw a stick figure having a tutor to better his artistic abilities? Despite this, assessments get more and more difficult and the pressure and anxiety increases.To do well in maths, you obviously have to prepare well, but you also have to be calm and be able to think clearly while taking a test. Anxiety and stress have the opposite effect and will most definitely influence one in a test environment. 



So how would you know if you child suffers from maths anxiety or if he or she just didn’t prepare well enough for a test?

1.     Silly mistakes

Making a few silly mistakes in a test is normal, but a test riddled with silly mistakes can be an indication of stress.

2.     Time management

Children suffering from test anxiety have a tendency to get stuck on a problem. Although they are taught to move on and later return to the problem, the stress of not being able to answer the question can be debilitating and will influence accuracy in the rest of the test. It will be common for these kids to not complete an assessment in time.

3.     Faultless preparation

Another strong indicator of possible test anxiety is if your child studies hard and is able to complete practice tests nearly faultless, but then struggles to get more than 60% in the actual test. 

4.     Last-minute revision

A child who is frantically revising and checking methods just before entering the class is usually a highly stressed child. The only thing that this last-minute revision will achieve is confusion, something you definitely do not want before writing a maths test.

Maths – Anxiety = Success

To identify maths anxiety is not that difficult, but to minimise the anxiety is far harder. Minimising anxiety requires teamwork with parents, teachers and learners working together. The teacher plays a cardinal role and if you suspect your child may be suffering from maths anxiety, the teacher must be told. Being put on the spot in class to solve a problem is probably the worst thing that can happen to someone suffering from maths anxiety.

Learn from your mistakes

Much research has been done on this subject and the role teachers play in minimising anxiety. One simple strategy is for a teacher to allow for re-testing. The real learning happens when you get the answer wrong and learn from your mistakes. Allowing a child to retake a test will help the child learn from their previous mistakes. 

Effort trumps results

Another strategy is to assess more regularly, less content at a time. One teacher even stopped calling it ‘tests’ and now uses ‘checkpoints’ to assess where his Grade 5 Maths class is at. The ‘checkpoints’ always include a few problems from the previous assessment to allow learners to keep revising what they’ve already learned.  “The biggest difference between our old tests and the checkpoints is a marked reduction in student stress levels,” says Steven Goldman (Edutopia, April 2022).

As parents we have to manage our expectations. A child that suffers from maths anxiety should receive a lot of positive reinforcement. More emphasis should be placed on the effort and less on the results.