When teachers emphasize the memorization of facts, and give tests to measure number facts students suffer
in two important ways. For about one third of students the onset of timed testing is the beginning of math
anxiety (Boaler, 2014). Sian Beilock and her colleagues have studied people’s brains through MRI imaging
and found that math facts are held in the working memory section of the brain. But when students are
stressed, such as when they are taking math questions under time pressure, the working memory becomes
blocked and students cannot access math facts they know (Beilock, 2011; Ramirez, et al, 2013). As students
realize they cannot perform well on timed tests they start to develop anxiety and their mathematical
confidence erodes. The blocking of the working memory and associated anxiety particularly occurs among
higher achieving students and girls. Conservative estimates suggest that at least a third of students experience
extreme stress around timed tests, and these are not the students who are of a particular achievement
group, or economic background. When we put students through this anxiety provoking experience we lose
students from mathematics.