GMAT Strategy

Hey all,

Boredom during the CAT. What a bizarre thought? I somehow just experienced it during a GMAT Prep mock I just finished!

I somehow started feeling pretty bored during the verbal section and was able to feel loss of enthusiasm. It was certainly not a carry over of the feeling of poor performance during the previous sections or the fear or lack of mood since I was behind time. I scored more than I expected in IR (6) and Quant (47) and I was just a question or two behind schedule. My boredom began during the 17th or 18th verbal question and I kinda forced my self out of it when I was almost approached the 26th question, cheering myself that only a few questions are left.

Guess what, I got only one question correct between questions 19 and 26 (1 of 8) and my verbal score was only 33! I was expecting at least 5 more.

My GMAT is on next Friday. Would appreciate your views on how to overcome this bizarre experience.

Thank you!

When you pay attention to boredom it gets unbelievably interesting.


---Jon Kabat-Zinn

This sort of verbal malaise is quite common, in my experience.

After writing a boring essay that no one will ever read, toiling through 30 minutes of spreadsheet shenanigans in IR, then plowing through 75 minutes of superficially easy math questions designed to lull you into making a lazy assumption or answering the wrong question ("Yes, x = 3, but we asked for 3x, you fool!"), the last thing you want to do is read 600 words about vellum mapmaking in Roman Gaul.

In other words, at some stage of the GMAT, most people go from fear ("Agh, it's the GMAT!") to focus ("... but I can beat it!") back to fear ("Was that right!? Wait, what is this question even asking!?") then to not giving a crap any more and just wanting to get the heck out of the testing center. Depending on your mental stamina, it seems to be the second, third, or fourth RC passage where you finally throw in the towel, but it happens, and the only way I know to overcome it is lots of practice (so you're able to answer most of the questions) and lots of pride (so you'll have the fire to want to crush the testwriters).

Another important lesson is to take the test after the right amount of studying; in my experience, most students burn out at some point -- sometimes after 200 hours of self-studying, other times after the third class! -- and any tests taken after that point suffer from listless indifference.

That said, this has afflicted me too. The first time I took the GMAT I was excited, but I was overwhelmed by the math section (I hadn't done it since high school, like most Americans) and had mentally forfeited by the time I got to verbal. (Luckily I was able to do verbal on autopilot, but that isn't advisable.) The second time I took the test, however, I was bored, probably because I had been teaching it for four years in between and the questions felt so routine: I was expecting clever stuff but I got a bunch of retread questions from regional MATHCOUNTS and some arbitrary BS SC where all the answers were trash and the validity of the exercise was called seriously into question.

I even caught myself missing two or three questions because of this sense of disappointment: I clicked the answer, confirmed, then immediately realized it was wrong and that the right answer was (D), or whatever, and the trick in the question was something cheap and silly. It felt like high school all over again: the questions were dull exercises and I was rushing to finish the test so I could stare out the window. So I've been there, and won't preach to you from Mount Pious!

Hi Rich and Matt,

Greatly appreciate the time and effort you took to shed light on my concern. Here are answers to questions you raised:

1. I took the test (along with AWA and IR) at 1:15PM (the time I'll be writing the GMAT next Friday. Chose an afternoon slot as the test center is 2 hours from home, because I am not a morning person and since I feel more comfortable with afternoon tests). I had slept well the previous night, had good breakfast and lunch. Took adequate snacks during my breaks as well.

2. This is the first time I was feeling such prolonged boredom during a test. I have written lots of exams - commerce graduation, Indian chartered accountancy (US CPA equivalent) and certified information systems auditor (of ICASA USA). However all these tests are much different than the GMAT and one must concentrate fully during the GMAT.

3. Based on your comments, I realised one thing. I have always been good in RC. My accuracy has been over 85% consistently and I pace well too. For this reason I have not been spending time on RC though it was a part of my plan to practice some RC. Perhaps a reason why I was skipping RC practice is because I find the passages boring. So I am thinking I will spend more time on RC till my test.

4. Last weekend I had completely burnt out and had a bottle of drips administered. I have been eating a lot more of healthy food and though I am not completely fine now, I don't think I can completely blame my body for this unusual boredom.

5. Matt made a good point on more practice. I had been wanting to redo the three GMAT Prep CATs before I take the 4th CAT, but I was having a little second thought after my tiredness. I am thinking of taking only the quant and verbal sections of these tests the next three days at the same afternoon time. In addition I am thinking I will attempt only the verbal sections of the free mocks of test prep companies for more practice. What are your views?

6. Further, I badly want to know where I stand now in my prep. In my first mock like 3 weeks back I got 630 (Q46 V31) and in the second 2 weeks back I got 580 (Q44 V25) (there was a lot of prolonged disturbance during the verbal section which I expected to vanish a little sooner - the disturbance impacted my score) and yesterday I got 650 (Q47 V33). After my second mock I burnt out after completing Manhattan GMAT's SC guide in 3 days and when I just started completing SC questions within 1 minutes time. SC was my weakness. Is it important and fair for me to predict what my score would have been had I not screwed the verbal section. I got 8 of 9 questions wrong in a row. Can I say my V score could have been a 38 making my overall score 680 or something?

Postpoing my test is not an option. I will have to charge myself and conquer GMAT. Would appreciate your insights with the additional data you requested.

Many thanks!

Regards,

Joseph

PS:
1. I was doing some googling on how to overcome boredom during tests and I found this link https://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Getting-Bo ... st-or-Exam. I am leaving it here for anyone going through this thread who might find it useful as well!

2. Rich and Matt, I have been a fan of the way you write your responses. Rich you have been analytical and to the point asking additional questions for more advice and Matt your stories and the way you make your points are amazing. Do continue your great work for the GMAT student community!

3. Rich I am glad to have given you the 1001st thanks in this community!