How Having a Growth Mindset Leads to GMAT Success

The connection between having a growth mindset and GMAT success is that a person with a growth mindset believes that he or she can develop his or her abilities, and GMAT success requires developing abilities. So, a growth mindset is exactly what’s needed for GMAT success. To see why more clearly, let’s consider some examples.

For instance, let’s say someone preparing for the GMAT is strong in quant but weak in verbal. If she has a fixed mindset, she’s likely to give up easily if her verbal preparation doesn’t go well. On the other hand, if she has a growth mindset, she’ll see any trouble she’s having as just a natural part of the learning process and continue working until she succeeds.

Also, a person’s mindset can have a huge impact on a person’s psychology when he’s taking a test. If he has a fixed mindset, on some level, he’ll be constantly wondering whether his supposedly fixed abilities are strong enough to get him to his score goal. So, he may take any trouble performing as desired on a test as a sign that his abilities aren’t sufficient. Having such a mindset can be super anxiety provoking. On the other hand, a person with a growth mindset will see test performance issues as something to power through or just a sign that he has to prepare more.

In general, GMAT students with a fixed mindset see mistakes or other issues as indicating something about them personally, whereas students with a growth mindset see their mistakes as signs that they haven’t mastered something yet and need to keep going.

Now that we’ve seen how mindsets people have affect their GMAT success, let’s discuss fostering a growth mindset in ourselves.

Happy studying!

Warmest regards,
Scott