Background
So, I'm a 30 years old Brazilian who has been struggling with
ADHD and
dislexia since I was a kid, over the time I've graduated in International Relations and founded several startups.
I tried 3 times with a 4 years break between the second and the third, so I will try to focus on my
lessons learned.
Starting
Initially I tried to make several questions a day, reading
the Official Guide's answers and trying to figure out something. This took me NOWHERE, so I went to a prep called
MBA House. There I had classes and studded full time for 3 months.
Always use GMAT Club's answers, not the official ones[Mock]600 barier
Til 600 it was all about learning basic things, so classes helped me to get there
[Mock]700 barierThis is really harder, and what helped me the most was:
- Meditation (App:Headspace)
- Taking my meds correctly (ADHD)
- Pomodoro technique
- Eating healthy
- Sleeping regularly
- Studying outside my home
First and second test
In my first test things went sideways, I got really nervous and could not do the test, had a low 600.
Trying to get around it I went to a
psychologist, and this was a
big mistake! Not because it is a bad idea, but because I've chosen the wrong one, her method was psychoanalysis and one should not use that to treat someone who needs quick and timed results. After a lot of studies, I found out that we, test makers should try a
behavioral cognitive psychologist.
2020-2021: restart
At first I've made all
OG 2020 questions and, after that, analyzed deeply my
error log. I found out what were my weak areas and studied them in detail. It is critical that once you find an weak area you study the theory and do a lot of exercises focused on them.
First Non Official Mock
At my first Veritas mock I found ou what I should study. Lesson learned: do take notes on every thing you can about the firsts mocks, how did you feel, what you did and what could you done better. There are just too many thing for us to remember and this general analysis can point deficiencies that no
error log will.
Ps: do it before and after, but not duringFirst Official mock
For my surprise, I had a 730! After carefully analyzing it, I've realized that we should not see a mock result lightly:
Every thing I knew I got right, therefore my score was inflated. This is really bad because after you have got a 730 you wont feel good about reading a 680. At this time anxiety might kick in (more on that later)
Next 5 Non Official Mocks and 1 Official
After that I've hit a sad plato: 680 after a 730 and some of you might know this feeling.
Controling emotions is the single most important thing on GMAT, and I had a really detailed strategy here that I will write in the next few days.
Back to 730
Test day
RC: what did I do?
I've played the long game reading a lot:
- 1 year of The Economist
- HBR: top 10 reads on various topics
- Thinking Fast and Slow helped me a lot
- While transmuting I heart Audible
What do I do?
- I take long to read the first time and try to answer the questions in about 30 seconds
- I do take notes, but not much
- I try my best to find why do I care about the topic
- I do think that reading is the best exercise
_________________
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