Hi All I really love this website and all it has to offer, but I’m someone who gets overwhlemed very easily.
A very pathological problem of mine, I scored Q-147 & V-137 in Power Prep One and I want to score above 320…Is the 2month plan just enough for a score closer to my aim?? Cause I’m getting distracted by everything else(Other Sections of the Website). I’m just doing week 1(2 Months) and got a lot left in it… but I’m getting constantly distracted by other sections like Quant Section verbal section etc…it is very overwhelming now…What should I do ? any suggestions ?
Hey there -
I can relate; sometimes I’ll spend time exploring other sections, worried that I won’t cover as much as I should before test day. But I think it can be seen in two ways: anxiety or fear.
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Anxiety comes from a lack of confidence in the preparation you’ve done till now - you might have out in the effort but get wrong answers on practice questions, feel a loss of confidence when you don’t get something as quick as you think you should. And that’s natural - we all have some expectations of ourselves, especially here in the prep community.
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Fear, on the other hand, comes from a lack of preparation. It’s intimidating to look at the things you couldn’t get done today and face the mountain of topics that’s yet to be done. Because - even if you’re confident in what you’ve done in a certain day, there’s the daunting task of finishing what you started, not to mention the time constraint from test day coming up.
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I’m not trying to intimidate you by pointing this out. I hope that at this point in my reply - you get that although I can’t entirely understand your situation and external factors - there’s a satisfaction that I can comprehend what you’re trying to say. Believe me - I’ve personally been there and other people have not only faced but overcome this in their own way.
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Before a plan of action, allow me to address both of these feelings:
All anxiety isn’t bad. Yes, the sense of a lack of progress in the initial stage is a bummer but this is only the beginning of your journey. This is not to imply the amount of work to be done, but rather the fact that with time the way you feel towards getting a few practice problems will change. What’s important with practice is that you take the time to review - to understand what went wrong.
Be patient with yourself. You’re learning and in the alternative (say, you knew every single thing) you wouldn’t be able to learn much. Learning happens not only in video lectures, but through practice and allowing yourself to make mistakes. We create a stigma around getting answers wrong when the reality is that getting answers wrong is the point of practice. I’m also sure you must be getting plenty of questions right as well - which goes to show that you have a foundation with concepts to handle some questions.
While it takes a lot of humility and patience, being persistent and having faith in the process - done by showing up every day - is what improves a score.
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As for fear - it’s all part of starting out. We’re intimidated by what we don’t know, and even more by what we know we don’t know. Knowing how much we don’t know gives us some sense of control over our fear subconsciously, but can be detrimental in the long run. Yes, you’ve paid for the monthly subscription and feel free to make time to explore the platform. The GRE is an exam that teaches us a lot during the process, and has so many ways we can prepare for it - yet the amount of information often overwhelms us.
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To deal with both of them, I think a good course of action before starting a week is to glance through each day of the week. What concepts do you expect to cover? What do you personally feel like adding on as a supplement? There’s no problem in watching other videos like essay writing if you have the time,
Next - I’d recommend you schedule and block out the amount of time you know you’ll need for a day of the plan (which it’s a good idea to have seen the night before). For example, for the practice problems, set aside a particular hour of the day to sit down and focus on just that part of the day. You can take a break and spend an hour just to review.
What I’m trying to say is - have faith in the plan. The two month plan is a lot more holistic and covers almost everything. It’s designed by someone with years of experience in GRE prep. All you need to to is manage the daily task of showing up. Setting aside time exclusively for each part of the day (Foundation, Strategy, Practice, & Review) makes it easier to focus because you’re sticking to one thing. You can take the same approach to “distractions” by setting aside a particular hour to exclusively rest or rejuvenate.
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If time isn’t sufficient, you can set a day aside to catch up or to rest. As great as the plans are, that along with the added responsibilities we balance are pretty draining. If not a day, getting a good night’s sleep is the minimum to rejuvenate and replenish our brainpower.
Enforcing some routines which work for us can be difficult at first, but in the long run make it a bit easier to be consistent with taking action. And with that - the rest starts to fall in place.
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I know this is a long reply, and hopefully doesn’t sound too complicated. I know it’s easier said than done, so feel free to take a few days off to clear your head before getting back to the prep plan. Connect with other people preparing for the exam, maybe indulge in a show you enjoy (maybe you can make watching an episode of it part of your routine). There’s tons of inspiration out there in people’s study abroad stories, not to mention your own - how often do we give credit to ourselves for how far we’ve come in life?
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Apologies for the long reply - hope this helps. : )
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