Researchers recently looked at brain activity in those who have math anxiety and those who don’t. What they found was that among those who have math anxiety, through focus and concentration they could perform just as well on test as those who don’t. People who showed activation in the frontal areas of the brain performed fine. It’s also important to do that sort of focus before actually being confronted with the questions
From the study:
“Essentially, overcoming math anxiety appears to be less about what you know and more about convincing yourself to just buckle down and get to it,” Beilock said. “But if you wait till the math exam has already started to deal with your anxiety, it’s already too late,” Lyons added.
In a way, not too surprising, but perhaps useful.