Math Anxiety

[Anonymous]

Trying to sort out best course going forward for daughter in 9th grade. She seems to have oddly specific math anxiety. It’s not there in any other subject. Our school does three math tracks. In 6th grade, she was recommended for the highest track - what leads to BC in 11th grade (for context, she didn’t know that part) and promptly bombed her next text. Her teacher recommended she drop down to the track that puts them in AB or BC in 12th. That seemed like plenty of math to me, so it wasn’t a problem. After the decision was changed, she went back to getting all high A’s. (She was also still “messy”’on tests which was also a factor that made sense to me)

7th grade, she did great the first half of the year, but had a lot more test anxiety as the year went on … even a panic attack one test. We had a conference with her and the teacher and decided she would continue on current track. She did do better the last few tests of the year. The next year went ok for the first half, but there’s was a lot of anxiety at home… not nearly as bad as the year before. However, we were now up to ninth grade, and she wanted an otherwise very advanced schedule and asked to drop down to lower math level … heading to only three years of math or standard calc in 12. This is not an irreversible decision in 9th, so we said ok.

So now, in 9th, she’s in standard geometry. For context, she’s in advanced physics, where she had to teach herself trig (which she did) and is doing well. She’s also killing it in 10th grade honors language, as well as English. Math, however, is ridiculous. She’s hardly working and getting 100 on everything. But, upside, she’s happy!

Long story,,, but thoughts? Her math teacher was already confused and called to ask about moving her up during the first month of school. It’s now too late until next year. But should we be pushing her a little in math. We have tried learning support for anxiety, but she is resistant to that.

[Anonymous]

I would leave it. Geometry is considerably easier for most people than algebra II.

She has already demonstrated a lot of anxiety around math and has tried the harder track and it didn’t work out for her. If she is otherwise doing well now, that is telling you what she is doing is working. If you push her to a higher math, she may crumble in other subjects as well.

Perhaps she would be open to some outschool classes. She can get some accelerated learning but without the pressure of grades and tests

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would leave it. Geometry is considerably easier for most people than algebra II.

She has already demonstrated a lot of anxiety around math and has tried the harder track and it didn’t work out for her. If she is otherwise doing well now, that is telling you what she is doing is working. If you push her to a higher math, she may crumble in other subjects as well.

Perhaps she would be open to some outschool classes. She can get some accelerated learning but without the pressure of grades and tests

OP here. I’m sure that’s good advice. Especially as she could, i think
, get to AB on the current track if she so desires. It’s the physics thing that is breaking my brain. The class is designed for the kids on the highest track, I’m not sure why they even let her in, so she’s on YouTube, staying up to 11pm, teaching herself algebra 2 and trig, and killing it. But as soon as you call it “math class” she’s a wreck.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and her geometry teacher has been trying to get her to do some of the advanced geometry work. Just to stay in the zone to possibly move up. She has no interest at all.

[Anonymous]

I love geometry, but most people don't care about it and it doesn't hurt them. Honors geometry and some trig that will get covered in precalculus.

Encourage her to consider honors algebra 2 next year.

More of a concern is the anxiety. My kid has anxiety too, and it interferes with math confidences and work, even though DC gets the answers correct. There's a huge fear of making mistakes, so there's a night and day difference between churning out answers to already taught stuff vs paralysis on new problems.
(This is bad because math is like weightlifting. You get better by struggling and building the "muscle" , not by reading and memorizing)

It's strange that a kid is doing well in advanced physics but struggling in honors geometry or algebra 2. Can you dig in to figure that out? Was she having trouble with gender relations /stereotypes in the class (Just guessing). Or a similar anxiety/ fear of the unknown?


If she's teaching herself some math, maybe it's fine to be the low stress version in school, and challenge yourself at home with the AoPS or other enrichment material.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love geometry, but most people don't care about it and it doesn't hurt them. Honors geometry and some trig that will get covered in precalculus.

Encourage her to consider honors algebra 2 next year.

More of a concern is the anxiety. My kid has anxiety too, and it interferes with math confidences and work, even though DC gets the answers correct. There's a huge fear of making mistakes, so there's a night and day difference between churning out answers to already taught stuff vs paralysis on new problems.
(This is bad because math is like weightlifting. You get better by struggling and building the "muscle" , not by reading and memorizing)

It's strange that a kid is doing well in advanced physics but struggling in honors geometry or algebra 2. Can you dig in to figure that out? Was she having trouble with gender relations /stereotypes in the class (Just guessing). Or a similar anxiety/ fear of the unknown?


If she's teaching herself some math, maybe it's fine to be the low stress version in school, and challenge yourself at home with the AoPS or other enrichment material.

OP again. I had the same thoughts about standard level geometry. No concerns about missing content. A little trepidation about losing her momentum for tackling advanced math.

The hallmark of honors math classes, at our school (maybe at all schools), is that you will get tricky problems on homework and on tests for which you need to extend your knowledge beyond what has been explicitly taught. IE, you can't be a completist with your studying and know you will have seen every type of problem before. My kid is a perfectionist, and this is almost intolerable for her. Somehow, in physics, maybe because she really likes it, she doesn't seem to notice she is doing the same thing. So, in standard geometry, she does all the homework, doesn't study, and performs flawlessly on the tests. In physics, on the other hand, she had to teach herself how to break down and put together vectors (thank you YouTube) , learned basic equations of motion, learned that motion is independent with independent vectors, and was off and running breaking down parabolic motion and extending vectors from distance to velocity, to acceleration, to force, without even having seen it explicitly done. It's like a kid who insists they hate vegetables eating everything when you hide it in a muffin.

I'm much more concerned about her letting this attitude persist and interfere with her ability to meet her potential in general. SO, yeah, I'd love to encourage to take a chance on honors math again next year. But, as another poster pointed out, I have no interest in overstressing her. And, in general, she shows a lot of resilience - in her extracurriculars, in other subjects, it's like a real mental block just with math.

Dunno, I guess she gets the overthinking honestly. And there's six months to sit with this before she has to choose.

[Anonymous]

I really think you need to get her evaluated for anxiety and look into some kind of therapy that teaches strategies to manage this. She is going to likely have similar issues with other things as she grows up, and she needs to learn to manage it now. The math stuff doesn’t matter. She can always catch up in learning. The issue is learning to manage anxious feelings now so she is a happy adult, up to challenges that she will meet in life.