Write an article based on this "Recognize the symptoms of math phobia. Acknowledge your math anxiety. Sign-up for the proper level of math course. Choose a professor who fits your learning style. Ask questions when you don't understand. Work the easiest problems first. Give yourself plenty of time to study for a test. Make a test plan to lower your anxiety. Ask for extended time. Revise your study habits."
If you get anxious or frustrated when dealing with math and numbers you may have math phobia or anxiety. There are four common symptoms that can help you recognize if this is the case for you: panic, paranoia, passive behavior and lack of confidence. Ask yourself some of the following questions to see if you might have math phobia: Panic: Do you feel a wave of helplessness or terror associated with math class, tests, quizzes, and homework? Paranoia: Are you concerned that you are the only person in the world who can't do the math problems and that everyone else is smarter than you? Passive behavior: Have you given up on trying to learn and understand math entirely because you feel that you are just not smart enough? Lack of confidence: Do you second guess all of your answers and rely on others to help you through the material? As with most phobias and addictions, the first step to treatment is admitting the problem. Having math phobia in itself does not make you a bad person, but not dealing with it will affect your life negatively. This is especially important if you have a child who is struggling with math. Your own anxiety can increase theirs. Everyone has different abilities and learns at a different pace. Make sure that you are placed in the proper level of mathematics before you begin. Being placed in a course that is more advanced than you are can be extremely frustrating as you struggle to keep up with the material. Talk to your advisors and discuss what level of math they think is appropriate for your skill level. Take a math placement test to help you gauge your level of knowledge. At the high school level or below, this may not be an option, but at the college level you can choose your professor and math section. There are many online sites where previous students have rated a professor that will allow you to get an idea of their teaching style. Ask other students who have been in that professor's class about how they liked it. Schedule a meeting with the professor and ask them specifically about how they teach. Tell them about your learning style and discuss whether you think they'd be a good fit for you. Math concepts build upon each other and if you get lost in the beginning, it will be much harder to understand later concepts. Good teachers want their students to succeed; they won't necessarily know your underlying problem if you don't let them know. Try not to feel embarrassed about asking a question. If you don't understand something, it's likely that there is at least one other person in the room who is also confused. In most groups of problems assigned as homework, the easiest problems come first and progress in difficulty toward the end. Answer the easier problems first and then work your way through the more difficult ones. Take your time and skip over a problem when you get stuck. You can always go back to it later. This strategy works well for quizzes and tests as well. Don't forget to go back to the questions you skipped along the way! Instead of cramming for a test the night before, set aside time each day to study and do practice problems. This will decrease your anxiety about having enough time to learn everything you need to know. Repeated long-term practice will help you remember how to solve things when stressed in the testing environment. Studying early also gives you time to focus on the concepts that are more difficult to master. Other than possibly varying the level of difficulty back and forth, the only difference between a test and homework is that you have a more limited amount of time to complete a test in. You can ease your anxiety about a math test if you approach it with a positive attitude and a plan of attack. Put the test's importance in its proper perspective. The test is only to measure how well you've learned the material in the unit it covers, not about your overall worth as a student or as a person. Use your limited time wisely. Don't dawdle, but don't rush, either. Take enough time to read a question over to understand it. Knock out the easiest questions first, and use the remaining time to work through the more difficult questions. Show your work; you're not just being tested on getting the right answer but on your understanding of the method used to get the right answer. Talk to your teacher and ask them about options for getting extended time for taking quizzes and exams. Having extra time to get through the test can help ease your anxiety about getting to every question in the allotted time. You may need to speak to a counselor or take a diagnostic test to qualify for extended time. While believing you can't do math has probably affected the way you study it, changing the way you study math may change your attitude about it. Simply memorizing a formula is not as effective as understanding what the formula means and knowing exactly when to use it. Try some of the methods listed below: Read the textbook as thoroughly as you can. You may need to read the lesson over several times if some of the passages are difficult or information-dense, but allow yourself time to absorb the text as best you can. Write down questions as you read to ask about in class later. Learn to be discerning in taking lecture notes. Your goal is to understand the lecture, not to scribble notes for the sake of scribbling notes. Take the time to evaluate the lecture for what's important and write that down, then write down the supporting material. Try studying in groups. Working with a study group can sometimes help you understand the subject better than doing everything alone. One of your classmates who "gets it" may be able to explain it to you in a way you can understand.