How to Overcome Math Anxiety in College

Quick Highlights:

• Math anxiety is common among college students and can significantly impact academic performance and stress levels.
• There are resources available to help students overcome math anxiety including tutoring centers, online tools, and campus workshops.
• Techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy, practicing through exposure, and stress management can alleviate math anxiety.
• YouTube is a great resource for math tutorials as well as videos to help you reduce anxiety through meditation and deep breathing exercises.

While math anxiety in college is incredibly common, you don’t have to just put up with it. In order to become successful in your academic program and career, you must begin overcoming math anxiety. Most colleges require a certain number of math credits in order to get your degree, so you can’t graduate until you learn strategies to reduce math anxiety. 

Fortunately, there is a lot of math help for college students that you can access. Many colleges have campus tutoring centers, so you can get help completing your homework. Once you’ve learned about coping with math fear, you can move on and complete the rest of your degree. 

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Understanding Math Anxiety 

If you are experiencing math anxiety in college, it will feel exactly like typical anxiety disorders. You may experience:

• an increased heart rate
• lightheadedness
• clammy hands
• an upset stomach

These feelings will often start because you are taking a math test, doing math homework, or thinking about math in some way. Once this sense of fear and anxiety develops, it may not go away until the source of the tension is gone. 

Other than having an intense emotional impact, these feelings can also have a negative impact on your grades. You may find it impossible to focus during exams because of the fear and anxiety you experience. Because of this, you may perform significantly worse on tests than you should. 

Identifying the Causes of Math Anxiety

Unfortunately, many parents and teachers may unintentionally be making math anxiety worse. Early on, parents and teachers may set children up to fail by giving them the impression that math is an incredibly difficult subject. This creates a mental expectation that it will be challenging. For many students, this expectation becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

Additionally, some students develop math anxiety because math isn’t taught properly. When teachers don’t teach math in an accessible way, students can’t learn. Over time, they fall further behind as their lack of learning snowballs and fuels ongoing struggles with math. 

You may suffer from math anxiety in college when you are in a variety of different situations. While each person is unique, the following situations are the most common triggers. 

• Experiencing a situation that is similar to a negative experience in the past, such as suffering from embarrassment when answering a question wrong
• Going through a high-pressure situation, like taking a test or being required to answer quickly
• Dealing with cultural bias, such as an expectation that you will perform worse because of your gender or cultural background 

When someone has had negative experiences with math in the past, they begin to associate those negative experiences and anxious sensations with math. For example, you may have felt ashamed of answering a math question wrong in front of the entire class. If this happens often enough, you may start feeling embarrassed and anxious anytime a teacher calls on you in class.

Strategies to Overcome Math Anxiety 

If coping with math fear is difficult, there are ways you can start overcoming math anxiety. Thanks to modern psychotherapy, like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and exposure therapy, counselors have discovered new ways to retrain the brain. As a result of these math anxiety tips, you can experience less stress and perform better in your classes.    

Mindset Shifts 

The first way to get math help for college students is by focusing on your own attitude. One way to change your attitude is by developing a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset. According to researchers, a fixed mindset is when you believe your skills and abilities are innate and fixed. 

This type of mindset can be problematic because it does not allow for change and progress. People who think their skills are fixed believe that they are permanently unable to do math. 

In comparison, someone who has a growth mindset views incorrect answers on tests and obstacles to learning as challenges. They aren’t failing to learn or unable to do math. Instead, they are simply making normal mistakes as they learn. With this type of mindset, you can learn new skills and develop as a person. More importantly, you can start overcoming math anxiety so that you can do well on tests. 

To start adopting a growth mindset, you should learn how to accept your mistakes. Each mistake is just a sign that you are learning a new skill, and every mistake brings you one step closer to skill mastery. Challenges are merely an opportunity for growth. 

Preparation Techniques 

The next tip on the list of strategies to reduce math anxiety is preparation techniques. When reducing math anxiety or any type of anxiety, one of the most important things you can do is practice. Other than teaching you how to do a specific skill, practicing also decreases the anxiety you feel. 

Doing math homework is similar to exposure therapy. By repeating the same stimulus over and over, you gradually get used to it and learn to fear it less. 

If your fear is connected to exams, then the best math help for college students is to do practice exams. Set up a pretend testing center or classroom for taking a practice exam. Normally, your textbook will have example problems or tests you can use for practicing. If it doesn’t, you can access many online resources that have practice tests you can use.  

In addition to using practice exams to reduce math anxiety, you can also use them to see which skills you need additional help on. Then, you can go online to find extra problems, videos, and tutorials that can help you learn these concepts. 

Stress Management Techniques 

As you search for math anxiety resources, note any meditation classes at your school. Breathing exercises and mindfulness meditation are excellent for stress management. This is because of how your nervous system operates. 

Your body has a sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. While your parasympathetic nervous system goes to work when you’re resting and digesting, your sympathetic nervous system activates when you are under stress. When this happens, you might experience certain symptoms, like rapid breathing and a fast heart rate.  

However, you can get your parasympathetic nervous system to reactivate through breathing techniques. When your exhales are longer than your inhales, it triggers your parasympathetic nervous system to activate. By practicing long, deep breaths, you can help your body relax. 

Other than breathing exercises, another one of the best strategies to reduce math anxiety is time management. When you don’t feel pushed for time, you are less likely to stress out. In addition to managing your study time wisely, spend time learning how to handle your exam time as well. For example, don’t waste time on questions you’re struggling with. Move on to easy questions and come back to the hard ones if you have time.    

Seeking Support 

You don’t have to try coping with math fear by yourself. You can find a great deal of math help for college students at your university campus. Many schools have math clubs for students who love math or need to brush up on specific concepts. There are also tutoring centers where you can get extra help on specific projects. 

If you are currently in a math class, you can talk to other students about forming a study group. In a study group, you can get support from people who are actively taking the same class as you. Because they know the coursework you’re working on, they can easily offer advice and support on different homework problems.   

Implementing Supportive Technology and Resources 

Once you have found the right strategies to reduce math anxiety, put them to use. You may also want to test out different apps and websites that can help improve your mathematical understanding. The following platforms are great for giving you extra help when you need it. By improving your proficiency, you can reduce your math anxiety in college. 

• Math Master: This handy tool gives you all of the information you need to solve simple and complex math problems in college. 
• iCrosss: iCrosss is a math app that is designed to be more interactive than a traditional math textbook. If you’re struggling with geometry, this app can help. 
• Desmos: This website was designed for people who want to work on their math skills. Plus, it includes different calculator apps, which makes it useful if you leave your graphing calculator at home. 
• YouTube: If you are working on overcoming math anxiety, YouTube has a range of videos that can help. In addition to finding math tutorials, you can also decrease your anxiety through videos on meditation and deep breathing. 

Learn More About Overcoming Math Anxiety 

If you’re struggling with math anxiety in college, you’re not alone. Many people need help coping with math fear because of negative experiences they’ve had in the past. As a result, they need to learn new strategies to reduce math anxiety. 

To find math help for college students, talk to your college’s tutoring center. By asking for help, you can find an effective solution for your math anxiety.