Why do some students freeze up or shut down after making a mistake in Maths? For those with Maths anxiety, even a small error can trigger fear, self-doubt or the urge to give up.
In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at:
What Maths anxiety is (and what it isn’t)
To begin with, it’s important to understand what we mean by Maths anxiety. This term refers to the feelings of tension, worry or even fear that some students experience when they are faced with Maths tasks. These feelings can arise in many situations, not just during tests but also in everyday classroom activities or even when trying to work out something simple like splitting a bill.
In fact, Maths anxiety doesn’t only affect students who struggle with Maths. Even high-achieving students can be held back by the emotional stress it causes. For instance, research shows that around one in three students across OECD countries report worrying about their performance in Maths.
How Maths anxiety leads to avoidance
A key way students respond to Maths anxiety is by avoiding Maths altogether. This might mean not putting their hand up in class, skipping parts of homework or choosing subjects that don’t involve Maths later in school or university.
While this avoidance may feel like a short-term solution to their discomfort, it often makes things worse in the long run. Students get less practice, their confidence drops further and the anxiety grows stronger. Over time, this cycle of avoidance can limit not only academic success but also future opportunities, including careers in fields like science, technology, and engineering.
How anxious students respond to making mistakes
So, what happens when a student with Maths anxiety makes a mistake? Research suggests that their response often falls into one of three patterns:
- Avoidant behaviour (skipping the next question)
- Help-seeking (asking for a hint)
- Self-reliance (trying again without help).
The research into Maths anxiety and mistakes
A recent study published in Learning and Individual Differences looked at what students do after they make a mistake in a Maths test, and how this might be different depending on how anxious they feel about Maths. The researchers also explored whether giving students a choice about doing Maths would make any difference to how they behaved.
In the study, students were divided into two groups. One group got to choose between taking a Maths or literacy test, while the other group was assigned a test with no choice. When students got a Maths question wrong, they were given three options: skip the problem, ask for a hint, or try to solve it on their own. Here’s what the researchers found:
1. Students with high Maths anxiety were more avoidant and less likely to seek help
After making a mistake, students who felt more anxious about Maths were more likely to skip ahead quickly to escape the unpleasant feeling of having failed. They were also less likely to ask for a hint when they got stuck.
The researchers suggest that this might happen because these students were afraid of being judged, felt unsure about their abilities, or simply wanted to avoid doing Maths whenever possible. Unfortunately, these behaviours can make it even harder to improve over time.
2. Anxious students didn’t try harder on their own either
The researchers also looked at whether anxious students tried to solve problems by themselves after a mistake. Surprisingly, they found no link between Maths anxiety and this type of independent effort.
In other words, students who didn’t ask for help weren’t necessarily trying harder on their own. Instead, they were often just stepping away from the problem altogether. This suggests that Maths anxiety may lead to a general sense of giving up, rather than encouraging resilience and pushing through in a different way.
3. Having a choice didn’t make a difference
Finally, the researchers found that giving students a choice between doing a Maths or literacy test didn’t affect their behaviour after a mistake. Here, the authors argue one reason might be that the choice wasn’t meaningful enough to really boost students’ motivation. On the other hand, another possibility is that the effects of Maths anxiety are just that strong: even when given some control, anxious students still responded to mistakes in the same unhelpful ways.
This is an interesting finding as previous research suggests that giving students some choice in Maths tasks may help reduce avoidant behaviours and support more positive responses after errors. This conflicting findings suggest more research is still needed.
Final thoughts
Maths anxiety doesn’t just affect how students feel; it also shapes how they respond when things go wrong. Avoiding problems and staying silent after mistakes can hold students back, creating a vicious cycle that prevents improvement. But with practical strategies, supportive teaching and a shift in classroom culture, we can help students stay engaged, ask for help and build the confidence they need to keep trying.
