Math Anxiety

You sit down to take a math test, and you feel your heartbeat faster and your palms start to sweat. You get butterflies in your stomach, and you can't concentrate. This phenomenon is called math anxiety, and if it happens to you, you're not alone. Researchers think about 20% of the population suffers from it. Some psychologists even consider it a diagnosable condition. But having mathematical anxiety doesn't necessarily mean you're bad at math - not even close. Laurent Schwartz went on to win the Fields Medal, the highest award in mathematics. People might think that they're anxious about math because they're bad at it, but it's often the other way around. They're doing poorly in math because they're anxious about it. Some psychologists think that's because math anxiety decreases a cognitive resource called working memory. That's the short-term memory system that helps you organize the information you need to complete a task. Worrying about being able to solve math problems, or not doing well on a test, eats up working memory, leaving less of it available to tackle the math itself. People can suddenly struggle with even basic math skills, like arithmetic, that they've otherwise mastered.