A beacon in GRE preparation – from Q153 to Q166

[Background] From Hong Kong. In banking industry.
[Exam result] Total score 303→323; Q153→166
[Preparation time] September 2020 – August 2021

I am very busy at work, and I often work overtime until midnight, so it was difficult for me to prepare for GRE. However, I still managed to study every day! As a person who is weak in math, I want to share my experience with people struggling with math.

“GRE math is easy!” I hear that a lot, but if you are weak in math like me, I can tell you that it is not easy!

First of all, GRE aims to test your understanding of a broad range of concepts.

Secondly, I have already graduated from college and worked for a few years, so I have not touched math in ages. Therefore, my priority is to build a strong foundation. Besides, I also need to train myself to finish the exam in time. It is very difficult to score 165 if I learn everything by myself. It is like a suicide mission, isn’t it?   

Because I work full-time and I was not good at math in my school days (I had to take resit exams), I decided to go to cram schools. I didn’t get the result I wanted. It was a waste of money. There were a lot of concepts and too many students to be taught at one time, so I couldn’t learn step by step.

Honestly, I was going to give up because after going to cram school, the exam results 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 wanted to fight to the last ditch. I didn’t want to give up on my dream of going to business school. Fortunately, I found Candice’s online GRE math tutoring class.      

I started my weekly math tutoring class 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 the questions, and I could organize and solve the problems in a logical way. To me, Candice is like a coach. She has strengthened my weaknesses and reminded me not to let my guard down even I did well on the practice exam. “Keep practicing,” she encouraged me. 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 not good at math has improved from 153 to 166! My efforts eventually pay off. 

In addition to following Candice’s study plan, I strongly advise you to learn from the mistakes! You can write down all the mistakes on a notebook and review them from time to time. If you don’t learn from the mistakes, you might end up repeating them!

As for English, I think memorizing vocabulary is important! It is better to practice 5 to10 reading comprehension passages, and 1 to 2 text completion questions a day. You can also read 1 to 2 articles on New York Times every day if you have time! 155 shouldn’t be a problem! Come on, you can do it!