Focus: How to Get the Most Important Thing for Test Success

Hi all,

Fresh off the press is our blog post about the most important thing you need to master for best results on the GMAT/GRE: FOCUS.

In Daniel Goleman's book, Focus, he boils attention down to three forms - inner, other, and outer focus - and demonstrates why high-achievers need all three kinds. He writes that those who rely on Smart Practices - which include mindfulness meditation, focused preparation and recovery, positive emotions and connections, and mental "prosthetics" that help them improve habits, add new skills, and sustain greatness - excel. It's in the state of "full focus" that one achieves the ideal state: a doorway into flow. It's the state I'm in when I'm creative, productive at work, engaged with a friend, and when I work with my students. Further, my being in this state helps entrain others to enter it as well. Focus begets focus. Zone begets zone.

Ask any world class artist, musician, chess player, or high performance athlete about focus and flow, and they'll likely describe it the same: it's entering a high state of focus, where time seems to slip away, and the only engagement is with the moment unfolding. Certainly what separates a good performance in any of these fields from a great one is our being so captivated by the presenter's (artist, musician, athlete, etc.) ability to be so present, drawing from their wisdom, skills, and experience, while artfully and elegantly responsive to what the moment asks of him or her. And this engagement of the moment is what we experience cathartically. Think of the converse: I have always found fault in attending a concert only to see a musician whose performance mimics the studio version of their music. It's rote, predictable, and lacks the spark I hope to gain by getting to see the artist in his or her artistry. These distinctions can be useful for one to become a great test taker: one who not only draws from the mastery of material, practice, and execution of effective strategy, but also has prepared his or her mind to think critically and tap into different parts of the brain, different aptitudes, and different ways of engagement. In other words, building and engaging in a better mousetrap.

Want to build a better you and a better mousetrap? Read more here about how to get into the zone: https://testprepny.com/2016/06/3490/[/url]