Studying with all my heart, yet, 0 progress!

[DCML]

[Long post - Only realized how big it was when I finished typing - my apologies!]

The GMAT and I have been on a love-hate relationship for a little over a year now.



Throughout this time, I've already studied for over 1000 hours (90% of my time on quant), but I still love it! I really enjoying everything I haven't learned in high school (that's right, I wasn't a good student) and even though I have a business degree and studied calculus and statistics 7 years ago, and work with accounting, math is not my thing, YET.

My GMAT goal is really modest, 600. That's all I need, no less (otherwise, no master), and I plan to take it in April with enough buffer for a retake as my deadline for application is in May and I don't want to miss this window of opportunity a second time.

What I have tried / done so far:

- After my first CAT, I covered the Foundations of Math MGMAT book and then took a 2nd CAT - My score did go up that time, but then it got stuck.
- From CAT 2 till my GMAT Exam I studied with another prep company and had no progress as you can see from the CATs and my final exam score. Did few OG exercises but never truly diving into them or fully understand the math behind the exercises and the course from this prep company doesn't really focus on the real math, but on testing numbers and alternate approaches.
- After test day till my 7th CAT I studied with another test prep company that focused mainly on quant (trully math approach to questions) and I did no OG exercises during this time. I studied SC, RC and RC on my own during this time and read the Economist very often but I did no OG Verbal exercises.

What I am doing now:

- Meditating 20 minutes per day in the mornings before I start studying and studying for 1h40min in the morning before going to work during weekdays and 5 hours on each weekend day. I plan to squeeze 30 min or 1 h extra max on each weekday and 1 extra hour max on each weekend day. I started to do mindfulness meditation as I realized I have high test taking anxiety issues, mainly because I have put the GMAT above all else in my life and I really want to go into this master program I'm targeting.
- I'm working with a tutor once a week - we started going over the 6th edition of the Manhattan Gmat books I bought used back in late 2015 (surprisingly I never used them) and he's assigning specific OG 2016 exercises for each book I cover. (Finished with the FDPs and started the Geometry guide this week.)
- I'm tracking the exercises on an error log and I plan to redo the ones I got wrong or wasn't confident when answering the first time on a weekly basis. Previously I tracked all the exercises I did but never went back to redo them. I hope that with this approach I will see results.
- I'm reading one Economist article per day.

Any suggestions, advices, positive criticisms, etc, are more than welcome.

I really want to make it this time and I believe that meditation is helping me. I feel I have a more positive mindset now and will do all I can to continue as such. I wouldn't say I'm burned out, but studying for over a year in this rhythm, is not for many. My friends say they don't know anyone like me and that I'm very determined and self disciplined. I believe I am, but I have sacrificed so much already, but I don't want to give up on this dream.

Posts such as this one gives me hope https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/forums/help-desperate-to-improve-t32931-30.html !

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm sorry that this process is taking so long! And I'm glad that you still like studying, despite that!

I'm responding as I read your post (so I haven't read it all yet) and my first stop is here:

I've already studied for over 1000 hours

If you've studied for over 1,000 hours but haven't seen much improvement, then we have to look at how you're studying. We have to find a more effective way for you to study.

You tried one program that focused on test-taking strategies but not the underlying math. You tried another program that taught you math but not how to approach the test. So the first thing that I'll suggest is this: you need something that teaches you all of the pieces put together. There are underlying rules and formulas that you need to know, yes. There are test-taking strategies that you need to know how and when to implement, yes. And you need to know how to think your way through official-format problems, which it sounds like neither program really addressed.

Next, you have already studied a lot, but not seen a ton of progress. So adding more time is not the best approach—please do not add 30-60m on weekdays and 60m on weekends. Rather, let's figure out how spend your current study time more effectively.

I think it's great that you are meditating—I would keep doing that.

It sounds like your current tutor is doing the right things—you're learning the math but also then testing your skills on OG problems. Use this to analyze these OG problems and extract your takeaways:
http://tinyurl.com/2ndlevelofgmat

Do this analysis even when you get the problems right—there are still things you can learn from that problem that will help you to get a better score on this test.

When you are learning some new skill (whether it's an underlying quant skill, like how to solve quadratic equations, or whether it's a test-taking skill, like smart numbers), make sure that you start by applying the skills on easier problems. Work your way up to harder ones. This is especially important for test-taking strategies. A lot of people only try smart numbers (or similar strategies) when the problem is really hard, and then they get discouraged when the strategy is hard to use or they mess it up. But that makes sense—the problem was really hard in the first place! You wouldn't learn algebra by starting with quadratic equations—start lower / easier and work your way up.

I would also recommend reading / watching this and starting to incorporate these principles in your studies:
https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/blog ... -the-gmat/

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2017/01/ ... est-part-1

Finally, I'm glad that you don't feel burned out yet, but I am worried that anxiety may be driving you to continue when you really do need a break. Please take one day a week completely off—meditate, but that's it. No GMAT. When you're mentally fatigued, then your brain is not forming good memories and extracting what you need to retain / learn in order to get better—so your study time is wasted anyway. Your brain actually needs that recovery time in order to work better.

And if you do feel burned out at all, take a minimum of one weekend off—and don't hesitate to take more. People can take off up to a few weeks without losing anything (and even if someone takes a couple of months, s/he can get back up to speed within a couple of weeks, typically).

[DCML]

Hi Stacey,

Thank you for your reply.

I've read all the articles you suggested plus all the other ones within them. I learned a lot and I'm convinced of what I must do the next time I take a practice exam.

Imagine, all along I've know about the scratch-paper set-up and benchmarks but never actually 'followed' the benchmarks. It's not that I didn't want to, just that my mindset was more or less like "Yeah, I know, I'm way behind the clock, so what? I'll have to guess on the last 10 questions towards the end anyways!". On my next CAT I will consciously monitor my time and guess on questions when needed to.

At the moment, I don't believe I have really changed anything since I last posted here.

► I'm still meditating - even meditating more I think - Mindfulness & visualization. I don't know whether I'm fooling myself but I started to feel more relaxed and less 'serious' about the exam. I'm basically trying to change my mindset and control every negative thought that crosses my mind.
► I'm maintaining an error log for OG exercises and for each exercise I work on, I'm applying the UPS Method and asking these question before I start anything "What's given?" "What do I need?" "How will I get there?" - If I don't understand the question, what's the point of even writing anything down? I might as well just take a guess and move on. Plus, I'm redoing weekly all the questions that I got wrong, that I too long to answer, that I guessed at, etc.
► I'm resisting the urge to study more. That's because I plan to take the exam by latest April 24th and I'm concerned I may not have all the time I need.
►I've covered the FDP and Geometry MGMAT guide and started with Algebra today.
► I'm trying to do HIIT sports at least 3 times a week, sleep at least 7 hours a day and eat as healthy as possible (except on my cheat day )

Besides keeping up with my dedication and determination, I'm not sure what else I can do differently.

All the best,
D

[StaceyKoprince]

I'm maintaining an error log for OG exercises and for each exercise I work on, I'm applying the UPS Method and asking these question before I start anything "What's given?" "What do I need?" "How will I get there?" - If I don't understand the question, what's the point of even writing anything down? I might as well just take a guess and move on. Plus, I'm redoing weekly all the questions that I got wrong, that I too long to answer, that I guessed at, etc.

A few things here. Applying UPS is good. I agree, if you don't understand, what's the point of doing anything more?

Are you using the 2nd Level analysis to analyze these problems after you're done? (The questions to ask yourself are linked in that article—another article called something like "how to analyze a practice problem.") If you are not asking yourself those questions after you're done working on the problem, start doing so today.

Next, don't necessarily re-do all the ones that you got wrong, took too long to answer, guessed on, etc. Your 2nd Level analysis of a problem might tell you, "I'll probably always get this wrong" or "I'll always need 4 minutes to do this problem," in which case you don't want to try to learn how to do it. Rather, you want to learn how to tell that you do NOT want to do it, so that you can guess and move on more quickly when you see a similar problem in future.

In short: start using that 2nd level of analysis. Your analysis will then tell you what you need to study or practice or do differently in order to get better.