How a Growth Mindset Can Transform Your GMAT Prep

Happy Monday! Let's start our week with an exciting topic: how having a growth mindset can lead to score improvement on the GMAT.

The connection is that a person with a growth mindset believes that he or she can develop his or her abilities, and scoring high on the GMAT 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. She might even start thinking things like “I’m just not a verbal person,” and stop putting in the effort. 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. He’ll remind himself that progress takes time and that setbacks are normal—not indicators of some permanent limitation.

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. That subtle shift in perspective can make a huge difference. After all, it’s a lot easier to keep putting in the work when you believe the work is going to pay off.

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

Warmest regards,

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder & CEO, Target Test Prep