How Confidence Relates to Mathematics

Short answer: Confidence is the most important trait for success in math, and math performance in turn shapes confidence. Many students decide they are “bad at math” after one embarrassing incident, usually around 4th to 7th grade. That negative narrative is psychological, not genetic, and a single “ah-ha” moment with a good tutor can start to reverse it.

Key points

• Confidence drives success: Confidence is the most important trait for success in mathematics.
• One incident can break it: A single moment of feeling dumb about a problem can convince a student math is not their thing.
• It’s a story, not ability: The “not a math person” narrative is psychological, not genetic.
• It spreads beyond math: A long-running negative narrative lowers confidence in other areas of life too.
• One “ah-ha” moment helps: As easily as confidence is crushed, it can be turned around.
• Confidence is a skill: We consider confidence the number one skill we teach.

How does confidence relate to mathematics?

Mathematics has a massive effect on student confidence. Confidence is the most important trait for success in mathematics. Conversely, performance in mathematics has a huge effect on confidence. Therefore mathematics provides a wonderful opportunity to build confidence.

It doesn’t take much to make or break your confidence when it comes to math. All it takes is one incident of feeling dumb about a math problem for a student to decide math is not their thing.

Why do students decide they’re bad at math?

We’ve seen it over and over again: a student comes to us that “hates math” or “sucks at math” looking for help in their math class.

Every one of these students had an incident around the 4th to 7th grade in which they decided to be bad at math. Usually, it’s a mean teacher that embarrassed them in front of the class. Other traumatic events include:

• Missing out on a year of school.
• Being put in the advanced class and competing with smart friends.
• A learning difference that requires a different approach to math that was never received.

It’s the traumatic event that caused the student to decide to be bad at math. What is the psychology behind this decision? It’s much safer to have been born “not good at math” than it is to try at it and fail.

Therefore the student takes comfort in “not being a math person”, and proceeds to check out of any further math conversation. For more on this, see how to reverse the effects of math trauma.

“Students are afraid they’re behind, and they don’t want to be embarrassed. But this should never be about ego. It’s simply: where are you, what do we need to learn, and why does it matter?”

Jake Gerhardt, Alexander Tutoring math tutor

What does a negative math narrative do to a student?

This is what we call the narrative: the story you tell yourself about you and math. The longer a negative narrative is allowed to run, the truer it becomes.

After multiple years of a negative math narrative, guess what happens to your confidence? It drops. Not just in math but in all areas of life.

You start to feel un-smart. You feel you can’t figure out problems by yourself. You start to develop math anxiety (see also how to prevent math anxiety).

I’m not just talking about math problems, I’m talking about life problems too! Have you ever met an adult that will ask for help the second a problem gets challenging, without directly engaging the problem themselves? This could be something like logging in to a website or fixing the kitchen sink.

This is a remnant of lacking confidence: they don’t think they can solve the problem themselves.

Is being “bad at math” genetic?

The crazy thing is there is no correlation to mathematical ability! Students that struggle in math are victims of their own psychology, not genetics.

Are there math geniuses out there? Sure, but no one is incapable of learning mathematics.

Tutor tip: Listen for the narrative. If your child says “I’m just not a math person,” treat it as a story they learned, not a fact about them, and ask when they first started feeling that way.

How can a student rebuild confidence in math?

There is light at the end of this tunnel. If a lack of confidence in math is psychological in nature, there must be a solution! And here’s the good news: as easy as it is to crush a student’s confidence in math, it’s that easy to turn it all around. All it takes is one “ah-ha” moment for a student to start seeing themselves differently.

What a great math tutor or physics tutor can do is:

1. Deliver the “ah-ha” moment. The student realizes they “get it”.
2. Build upon it. Once the student gets it, we’ve entered a different universe of learning. The student is engaged, enjoys finding the right answer, and is ready to learn.
3. Re-shape the narrative. Our job is to re-shape the narrative into something positive and self-sustaining.

This will build the student’s confidence not only in mathematics but in their ability to solve life’s challenges. We consider confidence to be the number one, most important skill we teach.

Tutor tip: Celebrate the first problem your child solves on their own, out loud and specifically. That first “I got it” is the start of a new story about them and math.

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