*Disclaimer: This blog, by any means, is not a tutorial or guide for any competitive exam. This is only meant to summarize the psychological aspects of undertaking an important test. All opinions stated herein are based on my personal experience and elaborated through self reflection.
We cannot talk about tests without highlighting the fear and inertia. Most have indefinitely postponed a certification exam, at least once, under the pretext that the plate is too full to pursue anything new. This excuse soon sets off a snow ball effect with a series of events or rather decisions that further strengthen the pretext. And this inertia soon transforms in to a state of denial, in which you refrain to accept that your initial decision rationale was flawed or based on comfort zone thinking.
Grind is not easy and as we humans are inherently lazy, the human brain get very creative in finding ways to weave a narrative that lucidly justifies our rationale to avoid the grind. And the beauty of these narratives is that the more often you repeat them, the stronger they become and it get increasingly difficult to break your own delusions. Once strengthened sufficiently, only the brute force of a significant event can shatter them.
And if you are patient enough, wisdom gained through experience will lead you to self-realization and eventually shatter delusions. However, this takes its own time and the ship would have sailed past continents, leaving you with mid-life regrets. This is much more difficult to overcome as it will bother you about everything that you could have achieved if you took action at the right time. This brings us to our first takeaway:
It is not only about taking chances but also going through the grind.
Once you convince yourself to pursue the expedition, the next challenge is persistence and consistency. Since I have already wrote a blog on the Astounding Power of Indiscipline and Inconsistency, I will briefly summarize the concept. Grind is unpleasant, whether running the marathon or spending an hour to study after a long work day. And our inherent tendency to gravitate to comfort serves as barriers to consistency.
Although it takes the same set of neurons to watch Netflix so as to watch the conceptual explanation of an exam topic, most will choose Netflix under the pretext of relaxation after a long work day. And over a period of time as our motivation fizzles and the new expedition loses lime light to other priorities, the grind goes for a toss. In short, it requires immense conscious awareness to keep yourself consistent with the grind.
Puppy love fizzles, true romance requires consistent efforts!
Personally it took me two years to conclude my GMAT expedition. In September 2019, I had purchased the Official Guide but it was not until September 2021 that would I conclude it with a score that satisfied my ego. First 20 months were on-and-off flings and it was only after I decided that I gotta do what I gotta do, I gained the required determination. So the last three months accounted for 90 per cent of my effort spent on test prep. The grind was intense and consistent.
Another key aspect going through any test is acquiring the mindset that the test makers deem appropriate for a passing candidate. In other words, you have to become the person the test makers want you to become. This is different from the ‘think like the test maker’ strategy suggested by most people in the test prep industry.
My suggestion involves developing the perspective and logic required to pass the test, while thinking like the test makers is a narrow and technical approach towards answering individual questions. Developing this mindset requires time and no amount of grind or cram sessions can help. Only time and approach will enable it and you will eventually feel the mindset grow on to you. This phenomenon is similar to the Chinese Bamboo.
I first encountered this while taking the PMP® test. At that time, the test involved questions that stated a scenario or dilemma and one has to select a resolution that is most suitable as per standards of Project Management. Hence, I had to think like a Project Manager! Although understanding of concepts was important, perspective was the key.
I encountered the same phenomenon with the GMAT verbal section that tests qualitative apprehension and reasoning. Unlike study material for the Quantitative section, that has numerous math formulas, material for the Qualitative section comprises only question types and grammar rules. My poor performance in my first attempt compelled me to take action.
Rather than grinding on the concepts, I adopted a different approach and focused on becoming the person that they wanted me to become. Instead, I read a dozen research papers, one book with dense academic writing and two other bestsellers written by academicians along with my daily dose of New York Times. To further facilitate this, I also wrote blogs and started writing a research paper and opinion-ed. And this worked, resulting in a 5 points and approximately 20 percentile jump!
And now getting to the reason why this works. Turns out that the human brain is a pattern processing powerhouse. The more patterns you feed your brain, the better it becomes at processing similar patterns. Daily diet of patterns along with sufficient rest and copious supply of dopamine helps build the necessary neural networks. This is also the reason we value grey hair judgement that speaks from experience. And these patterns are too complex to express in flowcharts, despite all the logic that goes into it. If you want to know the details, I would recommend you to read the book ‘Blink’ by Malcolm Gladwell.
Work on the mindset, most other things will fall in place!
Related Article: Logic Triumphs, but flowhcarts don’t serve as map!
Header Image Photo by Nguyen Dang Hoang Nhu on Unsplash
Savvy Munshi 