Feelings, Worries, Difficulties (Memory, Innate Disability)

Burton, 1979 says that signs on people that have mathematics anxiety are like sweating palms, queasy stomach, panic, fear, clenched fists, cold sweat, helplessness, tension, distress, dry mouth, shame and inability to cope and many more just like other phobia. Students confronted with a difficult mathematical task on which they are to be assessed may feel nervous and show signs such as tremor in the limbs and sweating of hands.

A student may, for a variety of reasons, develop an emotional and intellectual block towards the learning of mathematics in the course of his school years. Lazarus (1974) describe that a student who has developed an emotional and intellectual block against mathematics finds that making progress in mathematics and closely related fields is very difficult. If student became over-anxious when he or she did not fully understand some part of the mathematics lesson, they would make greater effort to comprehend. Such a student actively turns away from mathematics and rapidly develops a fatalistic attitude about mathematics, fully expecting to do badly. Therefore, constant failure in solving mathematical problem hence triggers the dislike for the subject.