One of the essential aspects of outworking your competition is perseverance.

Persevering means not being deterred by setbacks, not getting thrown when things are harder than expected, and dealing with discomfort.

Over the years, I’ve seen that the students who went on to earn high Quant scores were those who did not give up on GMAT math practice problems. Conversely, the students who gave into their discomfort and gave up on questions after, say, 60 seconds, saw the smallest increases in their Quant scores.

To master GMAT Quant, you must learn to push through questions. Yes, even when your brain begins to hurt, you feel frustrated and tired, and you’d rather be doing anything else. Generally, if you keep at it and go through the fire of self-doubt and negativity, you will find the answer to the question. Or, you’ll learn what to do for the next question of that type.

On the other hand, if you never work past the point where you feel truly uncomfortable, you won’t experience the learning and growth that goes along with getting over that hurdle.

In fact, you should strive to make discomfort part of your GMAT preparation. Try to reach the point where nothing about the GMAT can shake your resolve. Let’s face it, the process of taking the GMAT is uncomfortable — the test center environment, the hours staring at a computer screen, the time pressure. There is pretty much nothing comfortable about it. If you use your GMAT Quant prep as training for being uncomfortable, you’ll be that much more prepared for the exam.

Warmest regards,

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder & CEO, Target Test Prep