Maths or test anxiety: Let's find solutions

LIFESTYLE NEWS - The June exams is starting to rear its head and for many learners this prospect brings about feelings of anxiety, tension and dread. Most learners are especially worried about their math, accounting and science exams.

Dr Lorna Geer, an experienced ex-maths teacher turned counselling psychologist who specialises in anxiety, says there are indeed solutions to maths or test anxiety.

"These can range from simply learning appropriate coping mechanisms to undergoing therapy to resolve underlying issues," says Geer. "There are also several things that parents and teachers can do to reduce or even eliminate the anxiety and corresponding impact that many learners experience."

Geer's passion for the topic led to two doctoral degrees, focusing respectively on motivational strategies in the learning of maths and science, and handling anxiety.

With the focus on the upcoming exams, Geer tackles the subject head-on and provides some perspective on the matter. Read Geer's answers to many FAQs at www.georgeherald.com. She describes this type of anxiety as an emotional, physical, and intellectual anxiety reaction when learners experience pressure, which can paralyse their thinking and reduce their performance.

"Maths, science and accounting are perhaps better known for causing anxiety, but other subjects can also act as trigger for the anxiety reaction," she says. Irrespective of whether the anxiety is warranted according to a bystander (a parent, teacher, or peer), it can still have the effect of overwhelming that learner physically, intellectually and emotionally when under pressure, suppressing their ability to perform. It is their reality."

Here is how you can help

Parents and teachers' empathy with a learner who struggles with maths play a particularly important role in determining their attitude towards and performance in maths.

Unthoughtful remarks such as "how will you ever pass", "your maths is terrible", "I am disappointed in you", "see how well so-and-so does; why don't you too?", "your brother/sister used to do so well" can have a surprisingly devastating and lasting impact on a learner's self-esteem, as well as their confidence to ask questions or ask for help.

Simply said, don't make remarks like these, ever. It will never be helpful and will probably do more damage than you might guess.

• Expect your adolescents to behave immaturely. They probably don't have the life skills to make a huge contribution with most of these suggestions. The continued hard work will mostly fall on your shoulders. No, it won't always be easy, so keep trying.

• Try to maintain a neutral, blame-free and conflict-free atmosphere at home.

• Try a problem-solving attitude that does not come across as criticism. For example, ask which questions they found particularly tough. Were they particularly nervous? Were they forgetful? What do they think went wrong? Is there anything they can identify that would help them to be better prepared for the next test or exam?

• Focus on what works. What part of the subject do they enjoy, or at least enjoy more, or even hate least (yes, humour is your friend!)? Any positive experiences – friends or peers whose behaviour that surprised them in a good way.

• Ensure that their study methods and study habits are appropriate and healthy, especially with regard to maths, science and accounting (or subjects that give them a hard time). This one is a bit harder, so do get experienced or professional help earlier rather than later. Remember that changes in study methods or exam-writing techniques are likely to cause stress for a while, and they may need to practise for a while before it yields results.

• Remember that minor and major assignments, tests and even exams are all learning opportunities to experience how the subject may be tested, how questions should be answered and how the subject should be learned. Focus more on the learning opportunities (what do we need to do differently) and less on disappointing outcomes. Keep at it and celebrate the small improvements and successes.

• Be pro-active and get professional help to make sense of your child's anxiety. The nature of anxiety is that it snowballs. Each new setback adds to previous negative experiences, entrenches negative expectations, and makes it more difficult to normalise the situation when you do get around to addressing it.

How does math or test anxiety start?

It ranges between individuals and across different contexts. For some learners it may simply be an unpleasant period of uncertainty just before or during a test. For others it can already start when they sit in a classroom, filled with trepidation that the teacher might ask them a question and they might get it wrong or look foolish.

It could be a debilitating worry about the consequences of taking home bad results, or not getting into the tertiary institution of their dreams. And in still other cases, the learner might not even be consciously aware that they stress – they might simply notice an inexplicable drop in marks.

The common theme across these examples is that there is an expectation of not being able or prepared to perform to the standards expected of them, and feelings of apprehension or even dread of facing the consequences of their failure.

How does someone with maths or test anxiety feel?

In some cases, learners first become aware of the physical reaction of their body to the stressor. It could include rapid heartbeat, headache, stomachache, a dry mouth, shortness of breath, cold or sweaty hands, trembling, tense muscles or even a sense of straining to breathe.

When they become aware of these sensations, it could lead to even worse anxiety because they become aware that things are starting to go wrong, and yet they are unable to identify and correct the cause.

Emotionally they might feel overwhelmed, helpless, frustrated, frightened or worried. They can feel afraid of failure, experience a sense of inadequacy (not being good enough, never able to do the right thing), being a disappointment to themselves and their parents, looking foolish or stupid, or afraid of being judged or compared to their peers.

How does all this impact performance?

In short, when the mind is overwhelmed by thoughts and emotions such as these, the brain shifts its focus away from solving the problem at hand (eg, working through the next step in the test) towards the unpleasant consequences of failure (eg, what is going to happen when I fail or do as badly as I think I am doing).

Consequently, they lose concentration, make silly mistakes, become more forgetful and in extreme cases experience the proverbial blank where it feels like they cannot remember anything useful. In some cases, it can escalate to extreme nausea, fainting or a full-blown panic attack.

This shift in focus is not a choice they make, but much more of a natural reflex of the brain. It may seem to make little sense to us today, because it is a physical survival reflex. Some argue that it is designed to spur the body into motion to fight or flee the situation.

In a test situation neither is an option though, and instead this reflex reaction turns into a snowball cycle where fear breeds more fear and it becomes increasingly difficult to break free and regain control of their thoughts.

Is there such a thing as a psychological block to maths?

Absolutely. Once learners start believing that they are simply not good enough, their self-image deteriorates to the level where they lose determination or their will to try and reach the point where they are often labelled as having a "psychological block" to maths.

Why does a learner experience maths or test anxiety?

There are several possibilities, which can make it really difficult to help.

• Let’s focus on maths first, as it is somewhat unique in that it keeps building on prior knowledge. It happens all too easily that a student falls behind in their base knowledge because of absenteeism, infrequently doing homework, not asking when they don't understand until they understand (for any reason) or having difficulty concentrating because of conditions like ADHD or ADD. Over time, these gaps in knowledge can completely erode their ability to even follow the teacher in class, leading to doubt and indeed self-doubt their mathematical abilities. Bad results seem to confirm their suspicions that they cannot do maths, and because of the prominence maths gets in our education and expectation to land "good" careers, it is easy to understand why they develop a fear of maths.

To improve their marks, we often send them to extra class, where the focus is all too often on the same or similar problems than what was discussed in class, without identifying and correcting any gaps in base knowledge. Unsurprisingly, they don't do better, and their anxiety and sense of helplessness increases.

Parents try to make sense of this situation by asking learners what went wrong (which they cannot answer) or comparing them with peers or siblings. They may try to motivate or pressure learners to study harder by highlighting the importance of doing well, or stressing the cost and effort that went into extra class, and the lack of progress. All these strategies are usually counterproductive as they further increase the pressure without solving the underlying problem and lead to more negative associations or expectations, which in turn worsens the anxiety.

• Incorrect study methods contribute to anxiety, especially in maths, science, and accounting.

During our early school years, memorisation is the basis for remembering most subjects and we grow used to increased memorisation effort leading to better results. For maths, science and accounting however, the nature of the subjects changes in the mid high school years, where process-thinking becomes key. Process-thinking is the ability to reason out answers instead of remembering them. This requires a corresponding change in both study habits and study techniques – the brain learns process thinking by working out problems, not by memorising solutions. A learner who falls back on memorisation techniques does not develop the insight needed to reason out the answer to a question that looks different from the example they did in class. Again, the result can be that effort is invested into studying, yet the results don't improve. A learner could easily conclude that either it does not help when they work harder, or that they simply lack the ability to do well. Consequently, this will either create test anxiety or worsen any existing anxiety.

Whose fault is it: Parent, teacher, or learner?

Silly as it may sound, the most likely answer is all of the above. Parents, teachers, learners, life … things happen. It is important to identify causes and address them, but maths or test anxiety are complex problems where it is unlikely that finger pointing will produce the solution.

How do I know if my child suffers from maths or exam anxiety?

Sometimes they can answer the question directly. Ask them if they feel stressed about their subject or approaching assignments, tests, or exams.

Also, look for any of the following symptoms:

• Their marks deteriorated significantly.

• They perform noticeably worse in a subject (particularly maths, science or accounting) than others, often despite clearly working hard.

• They understand most of the work, but make silly mistakes, forget when they are in the test situation, or experience the proverbial blanks.

• During tests or exams, they may experience physical symptoms such as increased heartbeat or respiration, unusual perspiration, cold or clammy hands, trembling, tense muscles or nausea.

Dr Lorna Geer