Ask a student their least favorite subject, and you’ll often hear, “I hate math.” Ask them why, and they’ll say, “because I suck at math.” Really, their reasoning makes sense: how many of the things that you’re bad at are among your favorite activities? As it turns out, a distaste for mathematics is extremely common, and a lot of that can be attributed to both individual learning styles as well as the ways we teach and study math skills.
In this article, we’ll look at what’s behind the “I suck at math” mentality, debunk some common myths, analyze the relationship between executive function and math learning, and offer helpful tips on how Houston-area students can improve their math skills.
Key Takeaways
- Math ability is made, not born. The idea that people are inherently “bad at math” is a harmful myth. Research indicates that up to 80% of a child’s math proficiency is determined by early exposure and their learning environment, not genetics.
- Anxiety hijacks the brain. Math anxiety can actively consume a student’s working memory, causing temporary executive dysfunction. This stress response makes it difficult to solve problems even when the student actually knows the material.
- A lack of support is often the real culprit: Systemic issues—like teacher turnover or instruction that doesn’t match a student’s learning style—often leave students unsupported, causing them to falsely internalize the blame and develop an “I hate math” mentality.
- Growth mindset is the cure: Parents can help students can reverse math resentment by normalizing mistakes, focusing on conceptual understanding over memorization, integrating math into everyday life, and using visual or written aids to reduce cognitive load.
- Math is a cumulative discipline: Advanced concepts build directly upon basic skills. When students miss out on early foundational knowledge—like simple arithmetic or number recognition—they inevitably hit a wall later on. Consistent, low-stakes practice of the basics is essential to keeping their brains primed for complex problem-solving.
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Debunking the “Bad at Math” Myth
There are lots of reasons to dislike something, but in the case of math, the biggest reason students don’t like it is a perceived lack of natural skills—and many don’t get the support they need to build their confidence and get them on track.
This is where a harmful myth often sneaks in: the common belief that people are inherently good or bad at math. At best, this is an over-exaggeration; at worst, it perpetuates harmful stereotypes and discourages children who struggle with math from trying to outgrow their “I suck at math” mentality.
Imagine you’re struggling to understand a mathematics concept. You ask your teacher or your parents for help, telling them that you’re struggling to understand. Trying to reassure you, they say, “It’s okay that you suck at math; some people are just born that way.”
Although they had good intentions in trying to ease your frustration, all they’ve actually done is encourage a fatalistic outlook. Once this happens, you might even start to identify as someone who is “bad at math,” accept it as a permanent part of you, and stop trying to get better. This mindset can sabotage your relationship with math for a long time—it’s a slippery slope towards believing that you’ve “always been bad” at learning math concepts (even if that’s not true), aligning the story you tell about yourself with your “I suck at math” identity.
What Research Shows About the “I Suck at Math” Mentality
While it’s true that a small part of the brain is connected to a person’s ability to recognize and decipher numbers, a much more significant indicator of someone’s math skills is preparation. For example, a recent study at the University of Tubingen found that 80% of a child’s math proficiency was determined by their learning environment. Genetics accounted for the remaining 20%. (Skeide et al., 2020)
In the study, scientists measured the growth of gray matter in the brains of children between the ages of 3 and 6 years, then examined those students’ second-grade math test results. There was not a strong correlation between the students’ brain size and their results; however, the amount and types of exposure each child had to mathematics during that time went unchecked, leading scientists to believe that the children’s unique environment had a hand in their end results. (The first experimental group included 77 children. A second experimental group, on which a replica study was conducted to check the results of the first, included 101 children.)
A separate study, conducted in 2017, did provide some evidence that intuitive number sense may run in families. Some scientists believe, however, that this can be attributed to how often a child is exposed to early math concepts before they reach school age. (Elliott et al., 2017)
For instance, a child whose parents explained how prices work when they took them to the grocery store, or had them try to count in different ways around the house would probably be more likely to excel in math later on than a child who wasn’t exposed to the same concepts. In that case, there is a family connection, but it’s not genetic, it’s environmental. Let’s put it this way: maybe not everyone has the capability to win a Nobel Prize in Mathematics, but anyone who prepares properly can pass Calculus!
Is it Normal to Struggle With Math?
Even though most basic math can be learned by anyone, finding it difficult to understand math concepts is a common experience.
One of the worst things about the “I suck at math” mentality is that it’s extremely isolating. Students who struggle in math often feel as though they are the only ones who don’t understand. (The problem is compounded by the fact that most young people are afraid of “looking dumb” in front of their friends.)
But students who feel this way aren’t as alone as they think. It’s extremely common for upper elementary students to fall behind in math. In fact, students are struggling with math concepts across the board, with students’ performance with 8th grade mathematics reaching a low in over 20 years—and Texas students score lower than the national average. No wonder so many students say, “I hate math!”
Are Houston Schools “Bad at Math”?
Low confidence in math is common across the country. How do Houston students fare?
While Texas averages lag behind the nation when it comes to math performance, Houston has seen recent success. In 2025, 39% of HISD elementary & middle schools outperformed the state in STAAR math. Still, that remaining 61% scored equal to or worse than state averages, showing that some schools are slipping through the cracks.
Since the TEA takeover of HISD, Houston schools have seen a sharper decline in student enrollment and rising educator turnover. And new teachers aren’t sufficiently filling the learning gaps that turnover leaves behind: nearly 20% of teachers in 2024-25 were uncertified, leaving children undereducated in core subjects like math.
Students are vulnerable to the instability of sweeping, sudden changes—especially those that need extra support in the classroom. Consider a student who has struggled in math and believes they’re inherently bad at it. When they start the next school year and face more advanced math topics, a first-year teacher without certification is unlikely to inspire the confidence that they need to turn that “I suck at math” mindset around.
It can be even more devastating when a teacher leaves mid-year, leaving classes in the hands of new teachers with no experience—or, worse, endless streams of substitutes. We’ve seen such stories here at General Academic: for example, one HISD 8th grader doesn’t have an algebra teacher and is trying to compensate for a year of math curriculum through tutoring. Many other students don’t have options in terms of supplemental learning, so they are left to determine on their own how to learn enough of the math they need to pass the STAAR this year.
When the school system struggles, the burden falls on the student to perform well even when they don’t have the instruction and guidance they need, reinforcing the idea that they are the problem. A lack of support plus an expectation of high performance can foster math resentment that’s hard to shake.
Why Students Develop the “I Suck at Math” Mentality
Students know mathematics is important, which can put added pressure on their existing issues with math. There are many reasons why a student may struggle with and therefore develop an aversion to math.
Different Learning Styles
If you’re a student and you feel like some crucial math concepts are too difficult to understand, there’s a good chance that the way it’s being taught to you isn’t syncing up with the way you learn best. Just as every student has an individual personality, they also have a distinct learning style.
If the way a teacher presents a concept doesn’t fit well with how a student’s brain deciphers things, that student is far less likely to get a grasp on the concept. They’re not dumb, and they don’t suck at math; they just need a different explanation.
Students who feel this way should make a point of (politely) reaching out to their teacher to discuss this; teachers should be able to explain difficult concepts in different ways. Together, students and teachers can work together to find an explanation that makes sense! Additionally, teachers may be able to recommend private tutoring for students to ensure that they are set up for success.
Lack of Foundational Knowledge
Starting in kindergarten, children learn basic mathematical skills: counting to 100, number and shape recognition, identifying patterns, and so on. They’re also often tasked with memorizing simple arithmetic facts, like “2+2=4”or “3×4=12.”
These are simple but essential concepts to learn. Math, like many disciplines, is cumulative: advanced ideas build directly upon simpler ones. If a student hasn’t adequately learned these basic skills, it would make sense that they struggle with more advanced concepts.
Math Anxiety
Math anxiety refers to the feeling of fear or tension when it comes to learning different mathematical concepts. Students with math anxiety can trace their dislike of the subject directly to the fear and anxiety they feel when faced with mathematics concepts. This anxiety can prevent a child from properly grasping the concept in front of them and can even contribute to standardized testing anxiety.
Students with math anxiety may feel hopeless or “stupid,” may be driven by a fear of failure, suffer from extreme stress, overall confusion, and may (in extreme cases) experience physical symptoms, too. Overcoming math anxiety, like confronting any fear, requires patience and consistent practice.
Dyscalculia: The Exception
Okay, so we fibbed a little bit—some people really are innately bad at math. People with dyscalculia have extreme difficulty learning basic math concepts, no matter what their ideal learning style is. Maybe now you’re thinking, “Of course! I suck at math because I have dyscalculia!” It’s possible, but not very likely: it’s estimated that only about 7% of elementary-aged students deal with dyscalculia.
Although it’s sometimes referred to as “math dyslexia,” most professionals call it a “math learning disorder” because dyscalculia affects the brain in a different way than dyslexia does. (It may be linked to ADD or ADHD, too.) If you genuinely suspect you may have dyscalculia, speak to a medical professional to see about being officially diagnosed and finding helpful accommodations.
The Relationship Between Math Learning and Executive Dysfunction
Many of the issues above can cause or be caused/worsened by executive dysfunction, which makes it difficult for one to manage their thoughts, actions, and feelings. This can be a barrier to success in any school subject, but it makes mathematics uniquely challenging.
The umbrella of executive function includes working memory, flexible thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving, all of which are crucial to math learning and practice. Here are how three aspects of executive dysfunction are important to math learning—and how their absence can make students think they suck at math.
Working Memory
Working memory is said to be the most important executive function in math learning, meaning that a poor working memory can be the biggest hurdle to learning, liking, and doing math. It allows math students to multitask, solve multi-step equations efficiently, or compare various approaches when deciding what to do.
When working memory isn’t functioning as it should, it can cause various disruptions to completing a math problem. This is why students with executive dysfunction might score poorly on tests or struggle with problem sets, even when they actually know the material.
For example, you may forget the number you carried over in a long multiplication problem, or you can forget the original objective of a word problem halfway through solving it. Lack of working memory can also make it easy to avoid careless mistakes, such as confusing formulas, misaligning columns when doing operations, or mistaking a haphazard mark as a negative sign or a decimal.
Cognitive Flexibility
One’s ability to switch between tasks, rules, or ways of thinking is reliant on cognitive flexibility. When a student has executive dysfunction, they may have a more inflexible way of thinking, making it difficult to switch between approaches to solving problems.
In mathematics, students who struggle in this way can find it hard to answer problems from different topics or units in the same test or assignment. For example, if a problem set started with addition but switched to subtraction, a student may continue adding throughout the set because they didn’t notice the change in operation. Another example is a student getting stuck using one method to solve a problem—if that strategy leads them to a brick wall, they may freeze and draw a blank rather than trying another approach.
Impulse Control
A cornerstone of executive function is inhibition or impulse control, which is when we pause to think before acting. A lack of impulse control manifests in math when students (especially those who dislike math) try to speed through an assignment to “get it over with” instead of methodically working through it.
Another way impulsiveness can inhibit math success is when students jump straight into a problem without reading the directions, or when they spot an answer choice that “looks right” and select it without thinking through the problem.
How Math Anxiety Causes Executive Dysfunction
Working memory (together with emotional regulation) is especially vital to success on math tests—when it is compromised, students cannot concentrate and keep track of the different elements required in solving math problems.
Studies have shown that working memory is the primary executive function responsible for mediating students’ feelings about math while they work on it. In other words, math anxiety or hatred can consume a student’s working memory, leaving no memory to use on working through the actual math problems. (Tapola et al., 2025, Pelegrina et al., 2024).
In this way, anxiety can cause executive dysfunction, even in students with otherwise normal executive function. Have you ever found yourself freezing during a math test, unable to break down a problem or understand what is asked of you—even when you know the material? That’s your brain entering a stress response due to anxiety of math (or testing).
So, How Do Students Get Better at Math?
Getting better at math takes practice and patience, and in the case of the latter, that has to come from parents and teachers as well. With that said, here are some helpful tips for improving math proficiency.
- Never miss an assignment. When teachers assign practice worksheets and other graded materials, make sure your child always completes it. These low stakes assignments are meant to reinforce concepts learned in the classroom and are the best way for them to practice, reinforce, and demonstrate to themselves what they have learned.
- Find a study partner. Whether they do so with a friend or a trusted adult like a tutor or parent, having someone to study with them can make math test prep and studying more enjoyable.
- Ask for help. If your child is in class and they don’t understand something, they need to speak up. Chances are good that there’s someone else in class who has the same question but may be too afraid to ask. If they don’t feel comfortable doing that, or they still don’t understand something taught during class time, they should consult their teacher after class or work with a tutor.
- Exercise your foundational knowledge. When they have downtime, they should take 20 minutes to practice some basic concepts. Doing this will help keep their brain fresh and it makes deciphering more complicated concepts much easier.
- Apply math to the real world. It’s easy to write off certain math concepts as being unrelated to real-world problems, but even the most obscure mathematical concept has a place in life. Students should find a hobby that can help them practice math knowledge or just research examples of math use in real life. Did you know that functions and trigonometry are critical components in aerospace engineering? Or that group theory and algebra are behind the beauty of crystal symmetry?
Math Learning Strategies to Combat Executive Dysfunction
For students struggling with executive function, math can be especially intimidating because of the need to remember values and mentally problem-solve. That’s why the use of written, visual cues (in addition to the tips above) can help you stay on-track through a math problem and reach the right answer.
- Always work through problems on paper (or a really big iPad). This will help them get familiar with individual steps and keep track of all relevant figures.
- Keep a “cheat sheet” on the desk. Having the formulas they need in arm’s reach will increase their comfort with them. They should write a “brain dump” at the start of a test of the formulas they think they’ll need. This way, their brain doesn’t have to simultaneously remember the formula and solve the equation.
- Use visual aids to stay organized. To differentiate the various parts of a process, students should use highlighters or colored pens to create their own visual cues. Graphing paper is also a great way for them to keep all their ducks in a row (or column). This will help them avoid careless errors as they work through a problem.
- Stay consistent and set goals. Students should set expectations for themselves. Start small; once they’ve already completed one problem, it’s easier to keep working, and reaching that goal will make it easier for them to face a slightly steeper goal tomorrow.
How to Stop Your Child from Hating Math
This anti-math mentality usually starts when children are young and relatively new to learning mathematics. That’s what makes this mentality so difficult to get rid of—the aversion to math becomes a core part of a child’s relationship with the subject.
If you’re a parent, what can you do to prevent your young child from developing the mindset of “I suck at math?”
Make math part of everyday life. Early exposure to mathematics is immensely impactful to a child’s math proficiency in school. By introducing a young child to number sense and basic operations on a regular basis, you are helping them build the rock-solid math foundation they need to effectively learn more advanced concepts in the future.
A parent could start by showing their child the patterns in the world around them. Pointing out repetition, whether in manmade structures or natural shapes, will help them understand number sense and basic operations. Expose elementary-aged children to different kinds of math by walking them through the role of fractions in baking, or involving them the budget for your grocery store trip. If math only happens at school or at a desk, it’s an unappealing chore. When math is something they see you engage with every day, it becomes an important tool in life.
Normalize mistakes. A child new to math will make many mistakes that will no doubt frustrate them. Instead of allowing them to fear the frustration and want to avoid math, frame mistakes as challenges to overcome. If they know that the struggle is where they learn and feel encouraged to try, even if they get things wrong, they will get a better understanding of the problem-solving processes they need to know. This goes for any kind of chore, challenge, or struggle in life—those skills will transfer to their attitude in academics.
Focus on concepts over memorization. It matters how you get to the answer, not just that it’s right. While the times table is an essential concept to memorize, a child solving one of those multiplication facts worksheets faster than their classmates isn’t the goal. Learning the process of solving problems will help young children remember concepts because they genuinely understand how they work. Teaching the “why” behind formulas, using physical objects to represent abstract figures, and using estimation to simplify problems are all ways to build conceptual understanding.
Encourage! Even if it’s true, don’t tell your child that you’re “also bad at math”—that can give them permission to give up and fester the “I suck at math” mindset. Be curious about their attempts and patient in talking through their perspective. Ultimately, math is something they should embrace, not shy away from.
Develop a Growth Mindset in Mathematics
One of our tutors here at General Academic specializes in helping students who hate math find ways to embrace the subject. He says that routine and personalized learning are key in helping students turn their math misery into a thirst to conquer new challenges with numbers. “Let’s hate math together and find an avenue that is less painful!”
Nobody is inherently bad at math; if you are one of those students who hates math (or your child is), the most important step you can take in remediating that is to convert the fixed mindset of “I’m bad at math” into a growth mindset of “I can improve at math.” Don’t conflate mistakes with your innate ability.
Like all your other school subjects, math is full of must-learn concepts that are integral to your preparedness for college or a career later in life. Rather than spending all of your time stressing out about falling behind, use your time to practice the concepts that don’t make sense to you.
For more than 22 years, General Academic has provided tutoring, test preparation, and consulting services in addition to producing publications like this one. If your student needs help to break out of that “I hate math” mindset, give us a call at (713) 838-7774 or fill out our tutoring request form.
Publications referenced in this article:
Elliott, L., Braham, E. J., & Libertus, M. E. (2017). Understanding sources of individual variability in parents’ number talk with young children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 159, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.01.011
Pelegrina, S., et al. (2024). Math anxiety and working memory: The mediating role of processing efficiency. Cognition and Emotion, 38(4), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2025.2516660
Skeide, M. A., Wehrmann, K., Emami, Z., & Brauer, J. (2020). Neurobiological origins of individual differences in mathematical ability. PLOS Biology, 18(10), Article e3000871. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000871
Tapola, A., et al. (2025). The role of math interest and math anxiety in predicting math performance: A longitudinal study. Frontiers in Psychology, 16. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38598473/
