How Repetition Can Improve Your GMAT Retention and Confidence

Humans learn through exposure and repetition, so the more time you spend with a GMAT topic and the more often you study it, the better versed in that topic you’ll become and the better you’ll remember it. Therefore, as you prepare, it’s important to regularly re-expose yourself to previously learned GMAT material.

For example, if you learn about number properties on day one of your prep, it would not be wise to wait until day 60 to again review number properties. Instead, spend some time reviewing number properties on day three, day eight, and so on.

This kind of spaced repetition is essential. When you expose yourself to a topic over and over, you’re basically telling your brain, “Hey, this stuff is important!” You reactivate neural pathways to that part of the brain where the information is stored (and weaken competing pathways), making the information more easily accessible. That neural reactivation is a key to retaining previously learned material and keeping it fresh.

Another benefit of frequent review is that it helps you build confidence. As you revisit a concept and find it easier to understand or solve questions related to it, you’ll feel more assured in your abilities. This confidence can be especially helpful on test day, when nerves can otherwise shake your performance.

Also, reviewing previously studied material helps you make connections across topics. For instance, revisiting equations and inequalities later in your prep can help you more easily solve complex word problems that blend those concepts. So, regular review doesn’t just help you retain information. It actually helps you deepen your understanding and problem-solving ability.

Keep this fact in mind: your brain is not designed to remember everything. In fact, it’s not designed to remember most things. Can you imagine how overwhelming it would be to remember everything you saw, heard, tasted, smelled, and felt each day? Furthermore, can you imagine how much energy it would require to remember all those details? So, by design, your brain remembers only the important stuff. But you must teach it what is important, and one way to do that is to study a topic multiple times, over multiple sittings, thereby making that topic memorable.

So, if you want to retain more, understand more deeply, and build more confidence in your GMAT prep, make frequent review part of your study routine.

Reach out to me with any questions about your GMAT prep. Happy studying!

Warmest regards,

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder & CEO, Target Test Prep