ZDM – Mathematics Education (2023) 55:359–369

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-022-01456-1

ORIGINAL PAPER

Studying while anxious: mathematics anxiety and the avoidance

of solving practice problems during exam preparation in college
calculus
Jalisha B. Jenifer1,2 · Susan C. Levine2 · Sian L. Beilock1,2

Accepted: 8 December 2022 / Published online: 21 December 2022

© FIZ Karlsruhe 2022

Abstract
Students who experience mathematics anxiety have long been suggested to engage in avoidance behaviors that negatively
impact their mathematics performance. However, little is known about how these avoidance behaviors manifest for highly
anxious students within the context of a mathematics course. Since the use of effortful study strategies has been shown to be
an important predictor of students’ academic outcomes, we investigated whether highly mathematics-anxious college students
would be less likely to utilize such strategies during exam preparation compared to their less-anxious peers. To measure
this, we asked college students (N = 72) enrolled in introductory Calculus to complete a battery of anxiety-related surveys
and to retrospectively report how they studied for the final exam in their Calculus course. Using theories of achievement
emotion as well as recent research showing a relation between mathematics anxiety and students’ planned exam preparation
behavior, we hypothesized that students experiencing mathematics anxiety would retrospectively report less engagement
with effortful study strategies during exam preparation compared to their less-anxious peers. In line with our hypothesis,
we found that solving practice problems was viewed by students as being one of the most effortful ways to prepare for a
mathematics examination, and that mathematics anxiety was negatively associated with the proportion of study time students
allocated to solving practice problems during exam preparation. These findings highlight the significant relation between
mathematics anxiety and students’ self-regulated exam preparation behaviors, marking it as an important topic to consider
when investigating ways to improve the mathematics performance of highly mathematics-anxious individuals.

Keywords Mathematics anxiety · Mathematics avoidance · Practice problems · Exam preparation · Study strategies

1 Introduction These negative feelings characterize what is now referred

With rising demands for STEM professionals worldwide,
many countries are making mathematics education a top
priority (Lacey & Wright, 24). One critical determinant of
mathematics success that is becoming a more prominent
concern with educators and policymakers alike is how indi-
viduals feel about the subject (Corcoran, 6; Foley et al., 6).
Fortunately, decades of research have explored how feel-
ings of “fear” about mathematics can impact one’s math-
ematics performance (Ashcraft & Kirk, 4; Dowker et al., 6).
* Jalisha B. Jenifer
jjenifer@barnard.edu
1
Barnard College, Columbia University, NY, New York, USA
2
Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago,
USA
to as mathematics anxiety, a domain-specific anxiety that
has been shown to correlate strongly with poor mathemat-
ics performance in both children and adults (Foley et al., 6;
Hembree, 23; Ma, 33).
Individuals who experience mathematics anxiety are
often characterized as mathematically avoidant, with highly-
anxious students opting into fewer STEM courses and
careers than their less-anxious peers (Daker et al, 6; Hem-
bree, 23). These avoidance behaviors have been theorized
to mediate the relation between mathematics anxiety and
performance, as students who avoid mathematics are likely
to have less exposure to and practice with the mathematical
concepts required for success in the subject (Carey et al.,
2016; Ramierez et al., 24). However, most of the existing
literature on mathematics anxiety and avoidance focuses
on situations where individuals can opt out of engagement
with mathematics completely. As a result, little is known

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360
about how these avoidance tendencies manifest in situations
where it is impossible to completely avoid mathematics,
such as when students experiencing mathematics anxiety
are enrolled in a mathematics course.
In the present study, we aimed to investigate whether the
tendency to avoid mathematics by students who experience
mathematics anxiety might impact their exam preparation
behaviors when studying for an exam in a college Calculus
course. Gaining an understanding of this relation is critical,
as students’ study behavior has been shown to be a signifi-
cant predictor of their academic success (Dunlosky et al.,
6; Miyatsu et al., 23; Rohrer & Pashler, 33). Here, we used
theories of achievement emotion as well as previous findings
linking mathematics anxiety to the avoidance of mathemat-
ics-related effort to hypothesize that mathematics anxiety
would be associated with decreased engagement with study
strategies deemed effortful by students. Such findings would
highlight a significant relation between mathematics anxi-
ety and students’ self-regulated exam preparation behaviors,
prompting further exploration of this phenomenon and its
potential impact on student outcomes in mathematics.
1.1 Mathematics anxiety, mathematics avoidance,
& self‑regulated study behavior
Although mathematics anxiety is defined in a variety of ways
within the education and research literatures, one of the most
common conceptualizations describes it as “a feeling of ten-
sion, apprehension, or fear that interferes with mathemat-
ics performance” (Ashcraft, 2). This interference has been
theorized to happen in multiple ways, including by leading
highly anxious students to experience in-the-moment wor-
ries and ruminations about their likelihood of success that
limits the availability of working memory resources needed
to solve mathematics problems in the moment (Ashcraft &
Kirk, 4; Beilock et al., 6; Ramirez et al., 33). However, math-
ematics anxiety has also been theorized to effect how stu-
dents perform in mathematics by impacting the choices they
make regarding the subject (Buckley & Sullivan, 6; Hem-
bree, 23). For example, individuals who experience math-
ematics anxiety often opt out of STEM courses and careers
at higher rates than their less-anxious peers (Daker et al, 6;
Hembree, 23). Higher levels of mathematics anxiety have
also been linked to a reduction of in-class attention (Geary
et al., 23), mathematical processing (Ashcraft & Faust, 3;
Pizzie & Kraemer, 23), and cognitive reflection (Maloney
& Retanal, 24; Morsanyi et al., 33). Together, these findings
suggest that highly mathematics-anxious individuals possess
a tendency to avoid and disengage with mathematics mate-
rial in ways that are likely to have serious implications for
their mathematics outcomes.
The mathematics-avoidant tendencies of highly mathe-
matics-anxious individuals are particularly likely to pose
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J. B. Jenifer et al.
difficulties for students in college-level courses. College
students are often given autonomy over how to engage with
course material, including whether to utilize various study
strategies when preparing for an upcoming examination
(Hartwig & Dunlosky, 6; Karpicke et al., 24). However,
there has been a recent surge in research focused on how
study strategy selection relates to academic performance,
with a substantial body of literature supporting the benefits
of engaging in effortful, desirably difficult study behaviors
such as self-testing to enhance learning and performance
(Bjork, 6; Bjork et al., 6; Roediger & Karpicke, 6, 23). In
quantitative courses, self-testing typically refers to solving
practice problems that are similar to those one would expect
to occur on an exam (Tullis & Maddox, 6). This strategy,
which usually involves students solving problems presented
by the textbook or instructor, is more commonplace than
other, potentially more beneficial forms of problem engage-
ment such as the self-construction of problems or “prob-
lem-posing” (Baumanns & Rott, 6; Watson & Mason, 33).
Nonetheless, engagement with self-testing strategies like
solving practice problems has been found to boost long
term retention and transfer of learned information as well
as guide subsequent study behaviors, resulting in positive
performance outcomes (Carrier & Pashler, 6; Richland et al.,
44; Soderstrom & Bjork, 24).
Despite the benefits of effortful study behaviors, how-
ever, many students report using easier, sub-optimal strate-
gies that are likely to limit their overall learning (Hartwig &
Dunlosky, 6; Karpicke et al., 24; Kornell & Bjork, 33). For
example, students tend to under-use effortful strategies such
as self-testing and over-use less strategies such as rereading
that can provide them with a false sense of material mastery
(Gurung et al., 24; Koriat & Bjork, 23; Wallace et al., 23).
This type of decision-making can hinder students’ learn-
ing and preparation for exams, marking the avoidance of
effortful study strategies as being detrimental to students’
mathematics outcomes.
1.2 Mathematics anxiety & Pekrun’s control value
theory of achievement emotions
Given the mathematics-avoidant tendencies mentioned
earlier, students who experience mathematics anxiety may
be particularly likely to forgo effortful study strategies and
instead study via less effortful options. This idea is sup-
ported by theories of achievement emotions, or emotions
tied directly to achievement activities or achievement out-
comes. One such theory is Pekrun’s Control Value Theory,
which distinguishes between state achievement emotions,
which refers to momentary occurrences within a given
situation, and trait achievement emotions, which refers to
habitual, recurring emotions that are typically experienced
in relation to achievement activities and outcomes (Pekrun,
Studying while anxious: mathematics anxiety and the avoidance of solving practice problems…
44). The control-value theory also highlights two groups of
appraisals as being relevant for emotions in achievement set-
tings: (1) perceived control over achievement activities and
their outcomes, and (2) perceived value of these activities
and outcomes (Pekrun, 44). The theory specifically suggests
that students who experience achievement-related anxiety
are likely to have high value for the subject but minimal per-
ceived control. This combination of appraisals is theorized
to create feelings of uncertainty for students regarding the
utility of actions designed to prevent academic failure from
occurring, ultimately shaping the types of behaviors they are
willing to engage in.
Based on the control-value theory, it seems plausible to
predict that students experiencing trait mathematics anxiety
would differ in how they prepare for a mathematics exam
compared to their less-anxious peers. While mathematics
anxiety has been suggested to exist in both “state” and “trait”
forms throughout the literature, it is trait mathematics anxi-
ety that is viewed as having an impact through its effect on
learning-related choices and is therefore likely to impact
students’ exam preparation behaviors (Buckley & Sullivan,
6). Additionally, while trait mathematics anxiety typically
correlates with other forms of anxiety such as test anxiety
and general trait anxiety, it is also distinguishable from these
other forms of anxiety, with different measures of math-
ematics anxiety correlating more highly with one another
than with test and trait anxiety (Dew et al., 6; Hembree, 23;
Kazelskis et al., 6). Thus, despite its relation to other forms
of anxiety, trait mathematics anxiety appears to exist as a
unique contributor to students’ mathematic decision-making
and performance.
Since control-value theory specifically suggests that
students who experience achievement-related anxiety are
likely to experience uncertainty regarding the utility of
particular actions designed to prevent failure, it’s possible
that anxious students would forgo effortful study strategies
and instead study via strategies that require less cognitive
effort and are less likely to lead them to “labor in vain”
(Bae et al., 5). In line with this thinking, findings of experi-
mental mood research suggest that the activation of nega-
tive emotions such as anxiety minimizes the use of flexible,
creative learning strategies and instead facilitates the use of
rigid learning strategies such as rehearsal (Isen, 24; Pekrun,
44). Additionally, negative emotions are assumed to hinder
students’ self-regulation of learning which requires the use
of metacognitive skills (Wolters, 24). Mathematics anxiety
may therefore reduce students’ likelihood of optimizing their
exam preparation behaviors, to the detriment of their subse-
quent mathematics exam performance.
Findings from recent research also support the prediction
that students who experience mathematics anxiety may be
particularly likely to avoid effortful study strategies in math-
ematics (Ashcraft, 2). In fact, results from one study found
361
that when preparing for a mathematics exam, advanced high
school students ranked solving practice problems as being
the most effortful study strategy, and greater amounts of
mathematics anxiety were associated with smaller alloca-
tions of study time to solving practice problems during
exam preparation (Jenifer et al., 23). Additionally, the study
found that students who experience mathematics anxiety
also reported a likelihood of prioritizing easier practice
problems over harder ones during study sessions, and that
students’ planned study behaviors partially mediated the
association between mathematics anxiety and exam perfor-
mance. Together, these findings showcase the important role
students’ effort-related exam preparation behaviors play in
their mathematics outcomes and suggest that mathematics
anxiety may be a critical factor in this relation.
However, while students in the aforementioned study
were asked to report their study behaviors prospectively, no
study to date has investigated highly mathematics-anxious
students’ actual study behaviors either during or after a
study session/examination. Such a test is critical, as it is
unknown whether students’ planned engagement with effort-
ful study strategies reflects their actual engagement. Relat-
edly, students’ use of individual study strategies has been
suggested to vary across study sessions (Janes et al., 6) and
the accuracy of students’ predictions regarding their use of
individual study strategies has been found to vary across
strategies (Blasiman et al., 6). It’s possible, then, that while
highly mathematically anxious students report less planned
engagement with solving practice problems compared to
their less-anxious peers, they actually end up using the strat-
egy to a degree similar to their peers after they commence
exam preparation. Such a finding would suggest that there is
no relation between mathematics anxiety and students actual
study behavior, which could have significant implications for
future work designed to improve the mathematics outcomes
of highly mathematics-anxious individuals. The current
study was therefore designed to test this relation.
1.3 The present study
The goal of the current study was to investigate the rela-
tion between mathematics anxiety and college students’
retrospectively-reported exam preparation behaviors. This
study follows up on previously published research, which
found that greater mathematics anxiety was associated with
a reduction in planned engagement with solving practice
problems during exam preparation for advanced-level high
school students (Jenifer et al., 23). Given existing limita-
tions surrounding students’ planned estimates of their study
behavior, the current study aimed to determine whether
previously found patterns with planned study behavior hold
when study behaviors are reported retrospectively.
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362
In the current study, we specifically asked first-year col-
lege students to retrospectively report how they studied for
the final exam in their introductory Calculus course. Our
decision to focus the present study on college-age students
was motivated by the desire to test whether previous findings
would replicate in a non-advanced academic setting. Addi-
tionally, we specifically focused our investigation on stu-
dents enrolled in introductory Calculus because this course
often serves as a gatekeeper for students attempting to pur-
sue STEM majors and careers. The current study therefore
contributes to the mathematics anxiety literature by testing
the robustness of the link between mathematics anxiety and
the avoidance of effortful study strategies identified in previ-
ous work while also helping to expand the generalizability of
those findings to students enrolled in college courses.
Building on the significant findings from the previous
research, we were specifically interested in examining the
following:
• R1: Do college students view solving practice problems
as one of the most effortful ways to study for a mathemat-
ics examination?
o H1: College students will rank solving practice
problems as being one of the most effortful ways to
prepare for a mathematics exam.
• R2: Is mathematics anxiety related to college students’
engagement with solving practice problems during exam
preparation?
o H2: Mathematics anxiety will be negatively related
to college students’ engagement with solving prac-
tice problems during exam preparation.
• R3: Does engagement with solving practice problems
during exam preparation mediate the typically-found
relation between mathematics anxiety and mathematics
performance?
o H3: Practice problem engagement will partially
mediate the negative relation between mathematics
anxiety and mathematics performance.
2 Method
2.1 Participants
All students enrolled in a section of an introductory Calculus
course (Elementary Calculus or Calculus I) at a midwest-
ern university were invited to participate in our study. The
response rate to our survey was 10%, resulting in a total
sample size of 72 first-year students (Female = 69%; mean
age = 18.36). Our sample was 50% White, 15% African
13
J. B. Jenifer et al.
American, 21% Asian, 1% Native American, and 6% other
(an additional 7% chose not to report their race). 15% of
the students in our sample identified as Hispanic or Latino.
2.2 Materials and procedure
Students received an email from the university’s mathemat-
ics department inviting them to participate in our study
survey at the conclusion of their course. The online survey
was administered through the Qualtrics survey platform. All
study procedures were approved via the Social and Behav-
ioral Sciences Institutional Review Board of the university
where the study was conducted (IRB17-1248).
2.2.1 Mathematics anxiety
Mathematics anxiety was measured using the shortened
Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale (sMARS; Alexander &
Martray, 1), which is a shortened version of the 98-item
MARS (Richardson & Suinn, 43). Students responded to
questions about how anxious they would feel in different
mathematics-related situations (e.g., “signing up for a math-
ematics course”, “studying for a mathematics test”) on a
5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very
much).1 The scale was found to be highly reliable (α = 0.95)
and all analyses were conducted on the average of the items
for each student.
2.2.2 Trait & test anxiety
Given the significant relation found in previous research
between mathematics anxiety and other forms of anxiety,
we also measured participant’s trait anxiety and test anxiety
to include as covariates in our models. Trait anxiety was
assessed using the trait component of the State-Trait Anxiety
Inventory (Spielberger, 44) in which participants rated how
frequently they experienced feelings of anxiety and calmness
(e.g., “I feel nervous and restless” and “I make decisions
easily”). Test anxiety was assessed using the Test Anxiety
Inventory (Spielberger, 43) in which participants rated how
anxious they feel in 20 test-related situations (e.g., “dur-
ing tests I feel very tense” and “I feel confident and relaxed
while taking tests”). In both measures, items were scored
on a 1–4 scale and reverse coded where appropriate. Scores
were summed for a composite measure ranging from 20 to
80, with a higher value indicating higher level of trait or
test anxiety. Both scales were found to be highly reliable
(αtest anxiety = 0.96, αtrait anxiety = 0.93).
1
Due to experimenter error, only 24 of the 25 questions for the
sMARS were administered (Question 13 was accidentally omitted
from the survey).
Studying while anxious: mathematics anxiety and the avoidance of solving practice problems…
2.2.3 Study behavior questionnaire
Students were asked to retrospectively reflect on their use
of particular study strategies using a modified version of
the questionnaire utilized in prior research (Jenifer et al.,
23).The items of the questionnaire were modeled after
those used other study strategy and avoidance behavior
questionnaires (Midgley et al., 6; Pintrich, 6). Addition-
ally, students were asked about their study behavior in
relation to six specific study strategies that are similar to
the strategies students typically self-report as being those
they use the most when studying (e.g. Karpicke et al., 24).
Students were simply presented with a list of strategies
and were not given examples of the strategies. Students
responded to the questionnaire prior to receiving their final
exam and course grades. The questionnaire included three
items focused on effortful study strategy use; these three
items are described in greater detail below.
Rank ordering of study strategies by effort. To identify
the study strategies that students viewed as requiring the
most effort, we asked the following question: “Rank the
following strategies in order from the strategy that requires
the most work (1) to the least work (6).” Students then
rank-ordered the following set of study strategies: reading
textbook section(s) for the first time, re-reading textbook
section(s), reviewing homework solutions, solving prac-
tice problems, reading examples of solved problems, and
reviewing your notes.
Allocation of study time across various strategies. Stu-
dents were also asked to report how they allocated their
study time across various study strategies with the follow-
ing question: “When preparing for your mathematics final
exam, what percentage of your test preparation was spent
doing the following activities:: (a) reading textbook sec-
tions for the first time, (b) re-reading textbook section(s),
(c) reviewing homework solutions, (d) solving practice
problems, (e) reading examples of solved problems, (f)
reviewing your notes?” Students reported their allocations
using a sliding bar to indicate the percentage of study time
they allocated to each strategy. Students’ total study time
allocation was constrained to equal 100% across the six
options.
Prioritization of difficulty during strategy use. Stu-
dents were asked to report how they would prioritize dif-
ficulty when solving practice problems with the following
question: “When studying for your mathematics exam,
how much did you prioritize (or spend time on) solving
easy practice problems in comparison to solving hard
practice problems?” Students reported their answers on
a scale from 1 to 7, with 1 corresponding to prioritizing
easier problems and 7 corresponding to prioritizing harder
problems.
363
2.2.4 Calculus course grade
Students’ final letter grade for their Calculus course was
obtained from the university’s registrar office at the end of
the semester. Letter grades were numerically transformed
for all analyses.
3 Results
3.1 Descriptive statistics
Means and standard deviations for all study variables can be
found in Table 1. Zero-order correlations between all study
variables are reported in Table 2. We report significant cor-
relations that were pertinent to our research questions in the
remainder of this section. All analyses were conducted using
R (version 4.0.2).
3.1.1 Student ranking of effortful study strategies
In rank order from most to least work, students listed solving
practice problems as being the most effortful study strat-
egy, followed by reading textbook section(s) for the first
time, reviewing homework solutions, reading examples of
solved problems, reviewing notes, and re-reading textbook
section(s) (Table 1). More than half of the students (78%)
ranked solving practice problems as the most or the sec-
ond-most effortful strategy. Mathematics anxiety was not
significantly related to students’ effort rankings, suggesting
that both high and low mathematics-anxious students view
solving practice problems as being an effortful study strategy
(Table 2).
3.1.2 Student use of specific study strategies
When asked to report how they allocated their study time
across multiple study strategies, students reported allocating
the largest proportion of their study time to solving prac-
tice problems, followed by reviewing their notes, reviewing
homework solutions, reading examples of solved problems,
re-reading textbook sections, and reading textbook sections
for the first time (Table 1).
3.2 Mathematics anxiety & effort avoidance
Given students’ ranking of solving practice problems
as being the most effortful study strategy, we next tested
whether mathematics anxiety was negatively related to stu-
dents’ engagement with solving practice problems when
preparing for their final exam. Mathematics anxiety was
negatively related to the proportion of total study time
students reported devoting to solving practice problems,
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364 J. B. Jenifer et al.

Table 1  Means (SDs) for all Measure Mean SD Range

measures
1 Mathematics anxiety (α = .95) 2.38 0.73 1.17–4.38
2 Effort Ranking: Reading the textbook for the first time 3.51 1.78 1–6
3 Effort Ranking: Re-reading textbook sections 4.11 1.33 1–6
4 Effort Ranking: Reviewing homework solutions 3.78 1.47 1–6
5 Effort Ranking: Solving practice problems 1.80 1.28 1–6
6 Effort Ranking: Reading examples of solved problems 3.79 1.49 1–6
7 Effort Ranking: Reviewing notes 4.03 1.74 1–6
8 Time Allocation: Reading the textbook for the first time 4.39 7.02 0–29
9 Time Allocation: Re-reading textbook sections 9.47 14.32 0–65
10 Time Allocation: Reviewing homework solutions 16.07 13.22 0–58
11 Time Allocation: Solving practice problems 35.21 21.02 0–100
12 Time Allocation: Reading examples of solved problems 14.78 15.39 0–80
13 Time Allocation: Reviewing notes 20.08 16.51 0–75
14 Effort prioritization 4.68 1.13 1–7
15 Test anxiety (α = .96) 40.44 14.62 20–79
16 Trait anxiety (α = .93) 45.79 12.33 21–73
17 Course grade 2.33 1.61 1–8

Calculus course letter grades were numerically transformed for analyses using the following scale: 1 = A,
2 = A-, 3 = B + , 4 = B, 5 = B-, 6 = C + , 7 = C, 8 = C-, 9 = D, 10 = F

r(70) = − 0.27, p = 0.02 This relation remained marginally
significant after controlling for students’ test and trait anxi-
ety, β = − 0.23, t = − 1.72, p = 0.09.2 Figure 1 depicts how
high and low mathematics-anxious students allocated their
study time, with mathematics anxiety divided by a median
split (median split was used here solely for illustrative pur-
poses; all analyses were conducted using the full continuous
measure of mathematics anxiety). We also tested whether
mathematics anxiety was negatively related to students’ pri-
oritization of effort when solving practice problems during
studying. We did not find evidence to support the idea that
mathematics anxious students are less likely to prioritize
harder practice problems compared to their less-anxious
peers, r(67) = − 0.07, p = 0.52.
3.3 Relation to mathematics outcomes
An additional aim of the current study was to test whether
mathematics anxious students’ use of effortful study strat-
egies predicted their mathematics outcomes as measured
by the final grade they received in their Calculus course.
Surprisingly, we did not find a significant relation between
students’ mathematics anxiety and their course grade,
r(70) = 0.10, p = 0.39. Students’ Calculus course grades were
also not significantly related to the proportion of study time
they allocated to solving practice problems, r(70) = − 0.06,
2
Neither test anxiety nor trait anxiety were significant predictors in
the model, βtest = -.10, t = -0.61, p = .55; βtrait = -.03, t = 0.18, p = .86.
p = 0.61, or their prioritization of effortful problems during
solving practice problems, r(67) = − 0.04, p = 0.73. However,
we note that our results may be impacted by the skewed dis-
tribution of Calculus course grades in our sample where the
mean grade was approximately an A (Table 1).
4 Discussion
Students’ ability to prepare for and perform on examinations
is critical for their academic success. However, research sug-
gests that many students are do not optimally regulate their
use of study strategies, and often avoid effortful strategies
known to be effective for student learning (Culler et al., 6;
Karpicke et al., 24; Kornell & Bjork, 33). In the current
study, we hypothesized that individual differences in math-
ematics anxiety would relate to students’ use of effortful
study strategies when preparing for the final exam in a math-
ematics course, and that this relation would impact students’
mathematics performance.
Our results partially support these hypotheses by reveal-
ing that (a) college students view solving practice problems
as being one of the most effortful ways to prepare for a math-
ematics exam, and (b) students experiencing mathematics
anxiety retrospectively report allocating smaller proportions
of their study time to the effortful study strategy of solv-
ing practice problems compared to their less anxious peers.
These findings not only provide additional evidence for the
link between mathematics anxiety and the avoidance of
effortful study strategies found in prior work on high school

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 Table 2  Zero-order correlations
Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

1. Mathematics anxiety
2. Effort Ranking: Reading the textbook for the first time .19
3. Effort Ranking: Re-reading textbook sections .09 .54***
4. Effort Ranking: Reviewing homework solutions − .02 − .46*** − .37**
5. Effort Ranking: Solving practice problems .08 − .23 − .33** .04
6. Effort Ranking: Reading examples of solved problems − .15 − .54*** − .46*** .00 .02
7. Effort Ranking: Reviewing notes − .18 − .43*** − .37** − .11 − .28* .01
8. Time Allocation: Reading the textbook (­ 1st time) .03 − .18 − .06 .08 .14 .10 − .03
9. Time Allocation: Re-reading textbook − .08 − .32** − .29* .20 .07 .12 .22 − .02
10. Time Allocation: Reviewing homework solutions .15 − .07 .11 − .21 .10 .08 .03 .18 − .24*
11. Time Allocation: Solving practice problems − .27* − .01 − .04 − .04 − .15 .13 .07 − .15 − .31** − .20
.
12. Time Allocation: Reading examples of solved problems .14 .28* .07 .02 .10 − .39*** − .10 − .19 02 − .25* − .46***
Studying while anxious: mathematics anxiety and the avoidance of solving practice problems…

13. Time Allocation: Reviewing Notes .16 .16 .17 − .01 − .11 .00 − .20 − .18 − .30* − .18 − .35** − .08
14. Effort Prioritization − .08 .04 − .05 .28* − .12 − .15 − .03 − .07 − .02 − .18 .05 .21 − .05
15. Test anxiety .49*** .26* .19 − .13 .08 − .09 − .27* − .01 .01 .17 − .20 .15 − .03 − .05
16. Trait anxiety 0.26* .12 .12 − .03 .08 − .02 − .23 .00 .02 .06 − .10 .08 − .02 .07 .66***
17. Course grade 0.10 .11 .01 − .07 .09 − .10 − .05 − .18 − .03 − .12 − .06 .25* .04 − .04 .13 − .02

N = 72. *p < .05; **p < .01;***p < .001

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365
366 J. B. Jenifer et al.

Fig. 1  Proportion of time low

Proportion of Time Allocated to Study Strategies

60%
and high mathematics-anxious Solving practice problems
students reported allocating to
various study strategies. For Reviewing your notes
illustrative purposes, mathemat-
ics anxiety was divided into low 40% Reviewing homework solutions
and high levels using a median 40%
split (all analyses use the con- Reading examples of solved
tinuous measure of mathematics 31% problems
anxiety) Re-reading textbook section(s)

21% Reading textbook section(s) for

19% 18% the first time
20% 17%
15%
13%
10% 9%

5% 4%

0%
Low Math Anxious High Math Anxious
Student's Mathematics Anxiety

students (Jenifer et al., 23), but also expands the general- strategies that often accompany the activation of negative
izability of these findings to college students enrolled in emotions (Isen, 24; Pekrun, 44; Wolters, 24). However, pre-
introductory college courses. Additionally, we found that the vious research also suggests that these avoidance behaviors
relation between mathematics anxiety and students’ engage- may be related to how costly effortful mathematics engage-
ment with solving practice problems remained marginally ment is perceived to be (Ashcraft & Kirk, 4; Park et al., 43;
significant after controlling for students’ test and trait anxi- Choe et al., 6). Relatedly, research exploring the negative
ety, highlighting the important role domain-specific anxie- relationship between mathematics anxiety and mathematics
ties play in students’ self-regulated study behaviors. performance suggests that solving practice problems might
Surprisingly, however, we did not find an association be harder for mathematics anxious individuals, leading to
between mathematics anxiety and students’ course grades, their disengagement with the subject (Ashcraft & Faust,
nor did we find an association between students’ use of 3; Chang et al., 6; Geary et al., 23; Lyons & Beilock, 23;
effortful study strategies and students’ course grades. These Maloney & Retanal, 24; Morsanyi et al., 33; Pizzie & Krae-
findings differ from studies linking mathematics anxiety to mer, 23; Ramirez et al., 33; Lyons & Beilock, 23). Thus, it
poor mathematics outcomes (Barroso et al., 6; Hembree, 23; may be important to consider highly mathematics-anxious
Levine & Pantoja, 6; Ma, 33) and desirably difficult learning students’ perceptions of cost when attempting to understand
behaviors to positive academic outcomes (Dunlosky et al., their mathematics-related decision-making.
6; Miyatsu et al., 23; Rohrer & Pashler, 33). It is likely that
the opt-in nature of our survey in addition to our decision to 4.2 Limitations & future research
measure student performance via course grades rather than
by exam performance significantly impacted our ability to Despite the strength of our findings, the current study is
detect these relations, though more research is needed to limited by various factors. One serious limitations of our
fully understand the factors that influenced this outcome. study is the fact that our small sample results from a low
response rate to our survey. Additionally, while we didn’t
4.1 Mathematics anxiety and study strategy collect performance data for students who did not agree to
selection participate in the study, our sample likely consists of pri-
marily higher-performing students given the opt-in nature
Why would mathematics anxious students avoid solving of the survey (which may also explain the truncated range
practice problems when preparing for an exam? As previ- of course grades found for participants in our study, see
ously mentioned, the control-value theory suggests that this Table 1). Future research should attempt to recruit a greater
behavior may be related to anxious students’ uncertainty number of students from a range of ability levels and per-
regarding the utility of particular actions designed to pre- form more rigorous analyses to confirm the robustness of
vent failure. It’s therefore possible that anxious students these findings.
decide to forgo effortful study strategies that require the use The current study also measured mathematics anxiety
of metacognitive skills and instead use the rigid learning after the final exam for the course rather than before or

13
Studying while anxious: mathematics anxiety and the avoidance of solving practice problems…
during students’ exam preparation. However, the focus of
the current study was on “trait” mathematics anxiety, which
is typically considered a relatively stable trait that does not
vary without significant intervention. Nonetheless, the tim-
ing of anxiety-related measurement should be a considera-
tion for future research.
Additionally, we were unable to obtain student grades
for the final exam that corresponded to student responses on
the study strategies survey. For this reason, student course
grades were used in place of final exam grades for our analy-
ses as a proxy for student performance. However, course
grades did not vary greatly across participants, as only let-
ter grades were administered and all students received a
grade between an A and a C-. As previously mentioned, our
decision to measure student performance via course grades
rather than by exam performance may have impacted our
ability to detect the relations between mathematics anxi-
ety, students’ course grades, and students use of effortful
study strategies, especially since students’ course grades
are typically calculated using other non-performance met-
rics such as student attendance and participation. Since
students’ planned use of effortful study strategies has been
found to positively predict student exam performance and
mediate the negative relation between mathematics anxiety
and exam performance in prior research (Jenifer et al., 23),
future research should continue to test the robustness of this
phenomenon by investigating the prevalence of mathematics
avoidance behaviors and their consequences in classroom
settings using more proximal measures of performance.
5 Conclusion
A substantial body of literature exists supporting the benefits
of engaging in effortful, desirably difficult study behaviors
over less effortful options to enhance learning and perfor-
mance (Bjork, 6; Bjork et al., 6; Roediger & Karpicke, 6,
23). However, the results from the current study suggest
that students who experience mathematics anxiety allocate
smaller proportions of their study time to strategies deemed
beneficial by the literature compared to their less-anxious
peers. These findings align with those from previous work,
providing converging evidence in support of the idea that
mathematics anxiety relates to individuals’ effort-based
decision-making in consequential ways. The results of this
study therefore mark this relation as an important future
direction for work designed to improve the academic out-
comes of highly mathematics-anxious individuals.
Acknowledgements This work is supported by the National Science
Foundation (Grant No. DGE-1144082 and DGE-1746045 to J.B.J.)
and the Institute of Education Sciences (R305C050076 to J.B.J.). The
opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views
of the funders.
367
Author contributions JBJ developed the study concept. All authors
contributed to the study design. JBJ collected the data, performed the
data analyses and drafted the manuscript. SCL and SLB provided criti-
cal revisions to the manuscript. All authors approved the final version
of the manuscript for submission.
Data Availability The data that support the findings of this study are
available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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