This study had two goals: to examine the relationship between math anxiety and performance on unit assessments and to see if an open writing task before unit assessments would improve high math anxious (HMA) students' performance on the assessment. The study took place at a high school in southeast Colorado Springs. An honors math II class (n=30) and an honors math III class (n=26) served as the treatment group while a different honors math III class (n=21) served as the comparison group. Students were given the Abbreviated version of the Math Anxiety Rating Scale (A-MARS) to determine their math anxiety score. The results showed a negative correlation between math anxiety and performance on the first unit test, which served as the pre-test. Before both of the next two unit tests, the treatment group was given time to write about their feelings related to the upcoming assessment before it took place while the comparison group was just given the assessment. The HMA students in the math II treatment and math III treatment improved their average on both post-tests while the HMA students in the comparison group scored lower averages on both post-tests. The results point towards the possible benefits of the open writing assignment for HMA students and suggest that other ways to mitigate the effects of math anxiety should be explored.