Students can overcome math anxiety in critical test season

Math anxiety can easily undermine the hard work students have put in throughout the year, lowering their scores on standardized tests and jeopardizing their chances to take advanced classes or enroll in the schools of their choice.

But reducing math anxiety, a well-documented phenomenon, can prevent this.

Daniel Karp, the owner of the Five Towns Mathnasium franchise, explains that students can reduce anxiety by reviewing the mistakes they make in homework assignments and practice exams and grouping these errors into three categories, easily remembered as the “three C’s:”

•Concept — understanding the methods needed to solve specific problem types

•Comprehension — determining what individual problems you are asked to do

•Calculation — solving the problem correctly without making errors or oversights

“When faced with test questions for which they are not properly prepared or have had trouble with in the past, students can become gripped with math anxiety.

However, they can address the root cause by reviewing past assignments and practice tests.Often, the cause lies in difficulties with one or more of the three C’s: Concept, Comprehension, and Calculation. After identifying where exactly a student’s weaknesses lie, adults can help address them. This allows students to move on from anxiety and perform at the level of their true potential,” Karp says.

As a first step, parents, teachers or private instructors can sit down with students and look at the types of errors they’ve made in homework assignments, regular tests and practice exams. It’s a process that can be helpful anytime during the academic year, especially when students become anxious about math, and is particularly important when it’s time to start preparing for standardized tests.

To address concept challenges, students can be asked to break questions down into a series of meaningful parts, resolve these parts individually, and then put them back together. Children struggling with both Concept and Comprehension can be asked to read troublesome questions aloud. This helps to strengthen the mechanics of understanding by invoking different parts of the brain. Another helpful approach is to ask students to reframe questions in their own words.

To help students overcome Calculation difficulties, Karp suggests that beyond rote practice, which is more appropriate in this situation than the others, it’s crucial to make sure a child’s written work is neat and clear.

“Neat penmanship makes a huge difference in kids’ ability to think clearly and follow their own good reasoning,” Karp says. As test day approaches, children should also take some common-sense steps that can be applied to all types of tests, Karp notes.

First, avoid last-minute cramming by learning to pace yourself and structuring a daily study plan. Make sure to eat a healthy, high-protein breakfast the morning of the exam.

Then, in the testing room, STOP and close your eyes. Take a moment to inhale deeply. When you exhale, open your eyes and envision the test with an “I can do” mindset.

Studies have shown math anxiety to impact up to half of all students in various ways. However with the proper approach it can be effectively addressed and need not be a permanent hindrance to performance.

Five Towns Mathnasium is located at 414 Central Ave. in Cedarhurst, 516-569-1500, mathnasium.com/fivetowns