Confidence is Important

If there is one thing that I've learned from playing tennis, it's that confidence is one of the most important aspects to performing well. You have to trust that what are doing is correct, and then do it. There are many learning and memory studies that address this, and in that context the advice would be: when frustrated, do problems you know how to do. This could simply meaning going back and resolving stuff you've already done. The process solidifies your knowledge and reviews things you've previously done. That, and we've seen in the creativity section that difficult problems work themselves out by focusing on something else first. The act if solving something else could spark what you need in the current problem.

There is more to it than just this stuff. Confidence in your abilities play a big role on tests and performance in general. I find that anyone who can start a math proof can also finish it. Even I fall into the trap of trying to see the whole proof before writing anything down. I am completely unable to solve the problem when I try to do that. If I start writing down what I know, the rest usually just follows easily. Doing problems you know you can do will help build confidence and keep you on track, realizing that you can actually accomplish things in this field. Just take it one step at a time.