<p>Here's the story, my D and her 2 friends are in an honors class after successfully completed previous level w/A's. 2 of the 3 got D's on the first exam and my D, a B. The teacher holds study hall after school and all three are taking advantage of it. Of the 2, one is showing a steady improvement on the exams. My D says her friend knows the math when they're studying but when it comes to the tests, she performs poorly. So she gets A's in the homework and C-Ds on the tests. Her parents are very concerned. How does one know if this may be a case of test anxiety? I don't know how much they've talked to the teacher.</p>
<p>What level of math are we talking about?</p>
<p>Alg II and they’re freshmen</p>
<p>I would look over the tests and see where the mistakes are made. </p>
<p>Is it making stupid mistakes because you are not paying attention to the details (2 X 2 = 5, for example)? This happens a lot at the Algebra 2 level because the problems get more complex and the answers aren’t always a whole number.</p>
<p>Is it not really understanding the math concepts? At the algebra 2 level, you need to figure out, step by step, how to do a problem (“the process”), memorize the process and then get lots of practice using the process on the homework problems. And not just the problems the teacher assigns, but the ones he or she doesn’t assign. You need to get used to the discipline of working from step to step in a clean and clear manner, to cut down on mistakes and be able to check your work quickly.</p>
<p>Is it not being able to manipulate a problem to get to a process that you know how to do? Math is notorious for giving you a problem that looks like a “giraffe”. But you don’t know how to handle a “giraffe” problem. But you do know how to handle a “rhinoceros” problem. The trick is knowing what to do to the “giraffe” to make it look like a “rhinoceros.” Sometimes a less than solid grounding in algebra 1 can really mess you up here.</p>
<p>Or maybe she has testing issues. Because the problems are more complex, time becomes an issue for many. A person who does well on homework may not be able to perform as well when she doesn’t have as much time to ruminate on a problem. </p>
<p>So there may be many reasons why a person doesn’t do as well on math tests. But you’d really need to look at the tests to see if any of the above apply.</p>