There’s a sure-fire way to shut down a conversation in any social situation:

New acquaintance: What do you do?

Me: I teach maths.

New acquaintance: Oh. I was never any good at maths at school.

End of conversation.

Nine times out of ten, that’s roughly how the conversation goes. But why do so many people have an aversion to maths?

Maths anxiety has been defined as ‘an emotion that blocks a person’s reasoning ability when confronted with a mathematical situation’ (Spicer, 2004). One study found that 85% of students are affected by some form of anxiety when dealing with maths and numbers (Perry, 2004). This often stems from a time at school when they were made to feel stupid, or experienced feelings of inadequacy, thinking everyone else knows more than me.

The most common response to maths anxiety is avoidance. People will even make life decisions on the basis of avoiding maths, stats or numbers. But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if your emotional response was holding back your mathematical reasoning ability, meaning that, actually, you could be better at maths than you think?

The good news is that there are strategies for overcoming maths anxiety. Awareness is the first step: knowing that it’s normal to feel anxious when faced with a problem but that the anxiety itself is preventing you from concentrating on the maths. Positive steps to build your confidence include journaling your feelings of anxiety, scaffolding a problem and seeking help rather than avoiding problems you can’t immediately do.

As an example, when presented with a maths problem, don’t focus initially on getting an answer. Tell yourself you’ll be able to do it, then ask yourself: what information do I have? Can I write this information out in a clearer way, or assign names/letters to any of it? Would drawing a picture or diagram help? If there any rules or formulae that might be relevant, write them down. With things written out a bit more clearly, see if there are any first steps you can take towards solving the problem, but remember: don’t worry yet about getting the final answer, rather concentrate on what you CAN do and tell yourself that it will lead you in the right direction. Try to overcome the temptation to freeze and not attempt anything – a wrong answer is better than no answer, and it might not be as wrong as you think!

With some practice, positive thinking and a bit of help when needed, you might well find yourself not only enjoying maths for the first time, but unlocking doors of opportunity that you had always assumed would be closed to you. So, if I meet you at a party, please don’t walk away when I tell you I teach maths. Instead, tell me about your journey to overcome maths anxiety.

For more ideas on how to overcome maths anxiety and for full references for the articles cited above, see this resource from Sheffield University: https://xerte.shef.ac.uk/play.php?template_id=200

You can book an appointment to see a Maths or Stats Adviser using the MyCampus Appointment Booking System here (GUID required): https://frontdoor.spa.gla.ac.uk/AppointmentBookingService

Written by Ruth Douglas, Maths Adviser for LEADS