Why such a long period of time?

Expensive $1500 prep programs revolve around 12-16 week courses that eat up your Saturday afternoons. 12-16 weeks!

I’ve never taken a sub-atomic physics class before, but trust me–there’s a TON more difficult material in a 9 week sub-atomic physics class than there could possibly be on the GMAT.

Most of the concepts on the GMAT were covered in high school. You’ve seen all this material before! So all you really need to do is to review high school math and writing and maybe learn a few new concepts. You’d also need to familiarize yourself with the various ways the GMAT guys try to trick you on the exam.

So given that most people study 3-6 months for this exam that covers high school level material, why then is the average GMAT score in the low 500s? Seems like a perfectly legitimate question!

At first, I thought the only two reasons were
1) the material is very difficult
2) the test is very tricky

But it wasn’t until my two friends came out of the exam that I realized there’s actually a THIRD reason.
You see, my two friends came out of the exam disappointed with their scores.

The prep book was full of grammatical terms like participial phrase, dependent clause, and subjunctive.
It would take me forever to understand what those terms mean.

They spend their time learning these useless fancy grammar terms. The critical reasoning section was also filled with these weird terms I did not understand.

After a few minutes of being confused by this observation, I quickly fell asleep as my eyes wandered across the pages and pages of the book. It was just way too easy for me to lose focus.

The quant section of the prep book put me to sleep and the explanations were very unclear. Part of it was that I’m a visual learner–there’s only so much I can learn by reading a book.

It was clear to me that part of the reason my two friends didn’t do well on the exam was the ineffective approach of the prep resources they used. These prep books used confusing words. They taught concepts–which are important–but they were missing something important–an efficient thought process. So what happened was my two friends understood all the concepts, but they didn’t know how to think through exam questions in a time-pressured environment.

During my two weeks of intense, marathon-like studying, I didn’t waste my time on “concepts” and instead developed an efficient thought process with frameworks that help me identify what is being tested.

I eventually showed my friends my thought process and they retook the exam with success. You can read more about our story.

So back to the original question: Why do most people study GMAT for 3-6 months?

1) the material is very difficult
2) the test is very tricky
3) confusing, inefficient studying techniques

The material is difficult, but it’s not impossible. Yes, the test is very tricky so understanding the ways the GMAT guys try to trick you is important.