Many students get sweaty and shaky before a math test. Ways to handle this can be learned at the Math Anxiety Workshop presented by Nancilyn Burruss in Humanities 206 at 3 p.m. tomorrow.

“I am doing this workshop for future teachers as part of the CTETP (Career and Technical Education Teacher Pipeline),” Burruss said. “However, because there is such a great demand for understanding why students, and even some teachers, have a fear of math we thought it would be best to open it up to the campus.”

Burruss has presented this workshop on campus a couple of times before, but this is the first time it’s open to the entire campus. There also used to be an Academic Strategies 40 course, which was called Math Anxiety Workshop. It was an eight-week, two unit class but it was cut a few years ago with the first round of budget cuts.

“It was a great class to teach. I had students come into class in tears and at the end of eight weeks leaving empowered to tackle the challenges of math,” Burruss said. “ I even had one student who, within a year, was accepted to UCLA. The only thing holding her back was math and when she realized she could be successful in this subject, she was able to move forward with her goals.”

Burruss and John Weitzel, Career and Technical Education Teacher Pipeline coordinator, are certain the workshop may help students overcome their trepidations.

“There are a lot of students who can succeed in math and science if they just overcome their irrational fear of it,” Weitzel said. “We are conditioned to be afraid of things we do not understand right away.”

One EC student says this workshop will help her reduce the anxiety that math classes give her.

“Math gives me anxiety because there’s a lot of little mistakes you can make and it’s hard to double check,” Micah Castrillo, 18, film major, said. “And there’s just a lot of pressure.”

Students struggling in math are encouraged to attend the Math Anxiety Workshop to help them overcome their fear of math, but students should come in willing to learn.

“I believe that the information given in these workshops helps students learn what they can do to overcome their fear of math and gives them a boost of confidence to move forward and face that fear,” Burruss said.

The workshop scheduled for Friday is a one-time event this semseter, with room for about 30-35 participants in the classroom and students can reserve a spot with Weitzel at 310-660-3593, ext. 3609.