Math is far from America’s favorite school subject, with a large chunk of the population reporting a legitimate fear and anxiety associated with completing math problems. However, in a recent video from Big Think, Carnegie Mellon mathematics professor Po-Shen Loh explains that math is easier to master than other school subjects. We’ve just been learning it the wrong way.

As pointed out by Loh, unlike other subjects, math concepts are intricately chained to one another. Due to this, missing just one topic in math could cause you to fall behind in the subject for the rest of your education career. For example, in history, missing the lesson on the War of 1812 won’t likely affect your ability to understand the lesson on the Vietnam War, but in math, missing one lesson does significantly compromise your ability to progress further in this subject.

Read: Are You Afraid Of Math?: Math Anxiety May Be In Your Genes

For this reason, Loh recommends that math education be restructured in America. If every student is allowed to learn math at their own pace, and helped to catch up if they miss a certain concept, American students as a whole may be able to excel better in this traditionally feared subject. According to Loh, a teaching method such as this would help math shift from being the hardest subject to learn, to the easiest subject to learn.

For some though, being afraid of math may be built into your DNA. For example, a 2014 study found that math anxiety is largely hereditary and having a genetic predisposition to math anxiety could make it more difficult for you to advance in this subject.

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