Participants
Undergraduate Students at Lehman College, CUNY were recruited to complete the survey. To recruit participants emails were sent to students majoring in study fields that require a strong math background such as economics, physics, computer sciences, math and accounting. These participants served as the experimental group with the assumption that they would be more confident or less anxious in solving math problems. Emails were also sent to students majoring in all other study fields in which a strong math background is not the major’s primary requirement. These latter participants served as the control group with the assumption that their confidence in solving math problems or their math anxiety would be more variable.
Using the RAD function in excel, the participants were randomly assigned to a control (n=25) from majors with a variable math background and an experimental group (n-25) from majors with a strong math background. Both groups were recruited through emails generated using the publicly available query function on CUNYFirst. In the email, students were informed that they would be entered into a raffle to win a $50.00 Amazon gift card as a compensation for their time. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Lehman College, CUNY.