Hi,
as the topic name already states, my concern revolves about mental challenges I believe a lot of GMAT takers face. Yet, I have not found out how to get these issues: being focused during every single problem both Quant and Verbal, paying attention to details, and succeeding to one's " true " abilities.
First I would like to give some background about myself. I am a female business and economics undergrad from Germany. An important note is that I always have " struggled " with Maths, or generally preferred languages and liberal arts subjects over sciences. Indeed, I have never been bad students, but I just had the feeling that my brain was not wired for science subjects. It was awkward, I have never had problems learning or understanding new concepts, rather my mind got blank when a mathematical problem was differently rephrased during an exam. By all means, I just wasn't able to draw a connection. Moreover, I'm not really an attentive person. On the contrary, I am pretty chaotic, so I indoubtely believe that such an adaptive test is very unfortunated, while I usually do quite well on standardized tests.
So, the first time I took the was last year March 2nd 2016 with the result: 610 Q36 / V37. It was okay, as I have spent around 6 weeks to study, and I have not digged deep into the matter. I decided to retake the test this year in January, and I failed horribly (560, Q36 V27). I was studying for about 7 weeks but using different prep materials I wish I should have not used as I realized it was not beneficial to my way of studying. (Unfortunaktey, I realized it too late and stickers with it through the end). After being quite bumped, and doing nothing for 3 weeks, I decided to give it another shot.
So here I am soon taking (11 days) the test my third and last time. Because I have already spent too much money, I really want to nail it. I complete changed my study habit, and the first time really focused on the advices given in the forum such as through reviewing correct as well incorrect answers or working on weaknesses. I started to go pretty deep into the stuff, and I feel like my perception has changed quite a lot.
So what's the problem now?
I have taking three CATS by now:
03 March:
GMAT Club Test Q48
13 March: GMAT Prep Test 650 Q44 V35
16 March:
GMAT Club Test Q36 (quite distracted as I was pretty pissed haha)
17 March: Kaplan CAT 650 Q44 V35
I am aiming to score 700+, but I really feel anxious about keeping my quant. I know that I'm super volatile and my performance is not predicatble because of inconsistencies. For example it could very well be that in the next CAT I might score < 35 Q.
I spend a lot of time analyzing why I have this issue. It is important to note, that I actually don't have any issues solving
OG problems, most of the time I am able to solve easy/medium sometimes even hard questions correctly within 35 to 60 seconds. In this moment, I " just know " what to do. My mind feels agile, and I see shortcuts, the important " crux " and traps! But during the time exam, it's all gone. I feel like I have to focus hard, and this makes it hard to be " agile ". I do all lot of mistakes I can't understand in retrospect. When I resolve the problem, I don't face any issues. That's the thing, many times I resolve wrong problems without struggling!
What's the matter with that? What can I do be more consistent? What can I do to keep my mental flexibility?
Interestingly, I feel extremely exhausted during the exam, as if I could not think clear. I am really anxious about falling into that kind of mind state, because it hinders to me to perform back. I looked for some strategies to get back in track, but my minds just tired. I can't even understand the questions then haha.
My second issue, which is kinda correlated to the first point, is my lack of focus. There are two ways in which it is illustrated.
First, besides of careless mistakes, I realize that halfway through I kinda get a feeling of " demotivation " eventhough I might feel to perform well. (Especially! When I perform well) It's a kind of " meh, I don't want to do that anymore, screw that, I'll just guess ". It's terrible because it leads to the many errors in a row. (Up to 5 in a row!) Reviewing my CATs, that is my major issue. I am not able to focus through all 37 Q (or later in Verbal, too). I wouldn't say it attitude, it's just my mind doesn't feel that sharp anymore, and looses focus and starts to guess.
What can I do to stay focused during every single question without not trying too hard?
I thought of doing more CATs to get used to it. Maybe I need to skip some hard questions, not to get my mind wrapped up, and thereby fall into the state of mind mentioned above? Does anyone have an advice or exprience?
The second way how my lack of attention shows up is that I miss details or even whole chunks of information, both in Quant and Verbal. For example in Verbal, I just can't vertically scan Answer choices, because I feel like my lack of attention doesn't catch similarities or differences. Even whole phrades could be left out and I would not realize that. I feel like I need to focus very hard to see these kind of things, so I start to read more slowly and word by word, losing a tremendous amount of time!
In my last CAT, I run out of time, because I had to read so throughly otherwise I would not be able to understand or to see any errors. Is it just a matter of pratice? How can I get better at focusing? Are there any tricks or exercises?
I know that I can reach higher than I am currently doing. But so far, I am not able to reach that point as I cannot fix these issues
Even if I were to pratice more problems, review more content, work in topic weaknesses, I feel like it will not necessarily make a big difference.
Is there any advice you could give me? I really appreciate any help, I worked hard the last several weeks and I really want it!
What can I do my last 11 days to boost my score at least 50 points up? (I usually get enough sleep, try to work out a little bit, and eat healthy. I get a lot of hours studying in around 8h, but it does not bother me as I am used to get in a lot of good study hours)
All the best,
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