BY LAURA McFADZEAN and PRANJALI SEHGAL

When Lucas Liu enrolled in a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering degree at Monash University, he thought the anxiety he’d experienced during high school while learning mathematics would ease.

While studying VCE Specialist Mathematics, Mr Liu said he felt “an overwhelming level of anxiety” on a daily basis.

“I had strict parents growing up, which nurtured my anxious mindset when it came to studying,” he said.

“The reason I am so anxious is due to not only [my] parents’ expectations but also [that] I was marked harshly.”

However, Mr Liu was not expecting his maths anxiety to carry over into his university studies.

“Before I entered uni I was really optimistic and loved the prospect of studying something new,” he said. 

“But I was disappointed and I actually dislike my degree because it [feels] really hard and takes a toll on my mental health.

“I was not expecting it to be this hard because my parents told me uni would be easier to keep my spirits up.”

Mr Liu said his maths anxiety affects his examination performance, whether or not he has studied.

“If I come prepared for an exam, then it is more a feeling of OCD because often if you put in enough effort, careless mistakes could still take some marks off,” he said.

“If I come relatively unprepared then it’s an entirely different story because I get a mini panic attack and I often just freeze when I see a question I am unfamiliar with - like in fight, flight and freeze - and it feels abominable.”

However, there may be a solution to reducing maths anxiety.  

According to a study released last month, boosting students’ confidence in learning maths is imperative in creating greater engagement with the subject.

The study found students’ low motivation and belief in their ability to achieve will lead to maths anxiety. This, in turn, affects students’ perseverance, achievements and self-confidence in successfully solving maths problems. 

The study was undertaken by the University of South Australia and conducted at their Centre for Change and Complexity in Learning, in collaboration with the Australian Council for Educational Research.

Lead researcher Dr Florence Gabriel said maths anxiety, or ‘mathemaphobia’, is an emotional reaction analogous to stress, leading to poor maths achievement and a “reluctance to engage with the subject at all”.

As a trained cognitive psychologist and a learning scientist, Dr Gabriel believes understanding the interplay of complex factors surrounding maths anxiety and math performance can help design targeted interventions. 

“Many of us would have felt some sort of maths anxiety in the past – a sense of panic or worry, feelings of failure, or even a faster heart rate – all of which are associated with stress,” Dr Gabriel said. 

“More and more research shows that emotions (like maths anxiety) are a fundamental part of the learning process because they can influence students’ behaviour. 

“When students experience maths anxiety, they’ll tend to hurry through maths questions, lose focus, or simply give up when it all seems too hard.”

Dr Gabriel believes by avoiding maths and maths-related professions, students are limiting their future career and opportunities. 

However, the cycle of maths anxiety may be broken by a growth in student confidence and self-regulated learning, Dr Gabriel said.

“Our research shows that we need to build and grow student confidence in maths, especially before starting a new maths concept,” she said.

“By developing a student’s ability to reflect on past successes – before maths anxiety sets in – we can break through some of the negative and emotional beliefs about maths and, hopefully, pave the way for students to accept and engage with maths in the future.”

Dr Gabriel recommended students "write out their negative emotions and worry" when dealing with ‘mathemaphobia’, which assists in regulating emotions. 

“This in turn frees up working memory resources that would otherwise be consumed by worrying, and that can then be used towards solving maths problems.”

Mr Liu said building a student’s confidence is “the cornerstone of how a student performs”.

“I always experienced deterrents where a maths teacher or lecturer criticises me harshly and makes me question myself,” he said.

Mr Liu grew up learning mathematics from his “very stern” parents, and then “had a strict teacher in [his] early and secondary years”. 

“My anxiety in terms of doing mathematics became more and more etched in my mind,” he said.

“However, I had a good physics teacher who always encouraged me in Year 12 ... and he actually shed light on instances where I did a question really well and really boosted my confidence.”