Math Anxiety

What is Math Anxiety? There are many definitions to this, but to keep things
simple, I would define it as an emotionally unpleasant feeling inside a person
that will hinder the learning process. Everyone has a certain amount of it but
differs in the way it is managed.

Why is the anxiety in math stronger than other subject? It may be due to the
fact that answer to a math question is clear cut in nature. It is a straight
forward correct or incorrect; a direct exposure to weakness or strength in that
subject. This is not so for others, like Literature, where the answer is mostly
open-ended and subjective in nature.

This math anxiety causes a person to dislike math, since the guilt of failing
to solve a math question causes him to loss his self-esteem and pride. He may
feel that he is being isolated by the rest. This bad feeling spirals and further
reduces his chance of succeeding with math. With worsening math performance, his
attitude towards learning of math deteriorates fast and may reach a stage where
he finally cannot perform simple math calculation.

This anxiety would therefore hinder his learning pattern towards math and
leaves him helpless, fearful and worried. To him there is no more enjoyment in
the learning of math. What will he do next? Avoid math with all means!

Avoidance of math is a step backwards and it will reveal its ugly face when
the person moves on in life. For example, he may be at a disadvantaged position
during job application. With increasing demand of the job industries, avoiding
math is definitely detrimental. Math is seen by many employers as the ability to
think logically in order to solve a set of real-life problems and this is the
skill necessary to do any job well.

To avoid math due to math anxiety has further negative effect. It causes fear
in any topics related to math, be it statistical control studies (need for
handling raw data), computer programming (computation of numbers by software) or
simple technical drafting (geometry dimensioning). Skill learning will be slowed
down.

Therefore to conclude, even though learning of math is different from other
subject, it can be fun and interesting if failure can be accepted as part of
learning. This will turn the fearful math anxiety into constructive learning
with an attitude change. Love math and math will love you.