How a crazy busy office worker scores 50 in GMAT quantitative section at the first attempt?

[Background] National University Social Science major

[Exam result] Q50 V23 (Didn’t prepare for verbal section)

[Preparation time] October 2019 – January 2020

Because I am very busy at work (sometimes I have to work till the midnight), I can’t prepare for verbal section and quantitative section at the same time. Therefore, I decided to focus on my weakness subject first, which is math. That’s why I didn’t prepare for verbal section at my first GMAT attempt! The exam result proves that my math improves a lot, so I want to share my experience.

Isn’t GMAT math easy? Isn’t it similar to a math exam in high school? For someone who is not very good at math or is afraid of it, this is really not the case. Preparing for GMAT math requires hard work. I am happy to score 50 at my first GMAT attempt.

Before preparing for GMAT, I heard a lot of people say that GMAT math is easy. However, when I tried to answer the math questions in the GMAT official guide, I was immediately defeated. The scope of the exam is really broad, and there are many concepts that I am not familiar with.

Since I have graduated from college and worked for several years, I haven’t touched the subject for a long time. I need to build a stable foundation in order to crack GMAT. Moreover, the GMAT math test is actually very flexible. Finishing 31 questions in time is not an easy task. I think if I have to study by myself, reaching 700 is nearly impossible. I have a full-time job and I was not good at math in my school days (I had to take resit exams sometime), so I decided to go to cram schools. It was disappointment and a waste of money. It was not as good as I thought it would be, because there were too many concepts and too many students to be taught at one time, so I couldn’t learn step by step.

At this point, I was thinking to quit. Although I once thought that facing GMAT can finally conquer my fear of math since I was a student, practicing and going to cram school made me even more frustrated. I was thinking that I am just not talented enough to study math, and there is nothing I could do about it. However, I still wanted to make a last-ditch effort and didn’t want to give up on my dream of going to business school. Fortunately, I found Candice’s GMAT Math tutoring course online. The reason I contacted her was because she had a video about math phobia. What’s even better is that she has a degree in math from Normal University. She understands my fear of math, and she cares about her students from the bottom of her heart. That’s why I decided to give it a last try.

I started my weekly math tutoring course before I went to work. I really appreciate Candice to help me build a strong foundation of math concepts. I always think that it would have been nice to have such a wonderful teacher growing up. After the basic classes, practicing is a whole new level.

The extra homework Candice gave me every week has improved my weaknesses. At first, I didn’t know I was making improvements. But after a while, I realized that I was no longer afraid of questions, and I could organize and solve problems in a logical way. In terms of preparing for GMAT math, you cannot learn everything by rote. GMAT can be very flexible, and some questions take time to understand. It is an exam to test your time management, judgment, and stability. Candice is like a coach to me. She has strengthened my weaknesses and reminded me not to let my guard down even I did well on the practice exam. She encouraged me to keep practicing.

The JJ course before the GMAT exam relieved my stress and anxiety. Candice always tried her best to answer my questions and even adjusted her schedule to accommodate mine since I sometimes worked overtime. Finally, a crazy busy full-time worker who is poor in math scores 50! My efforts eventually pay off. I am one step closer to going to my dream school! Although I didn’t do very well on the verbal section, I’m no longer afraid of taking GMAT. I am lucky to have Candice who has faith in me and will never give up on me! Now, I start to prepare for the verbal section, and I hope to achieve outstanding result at my second attempt!