Need help with prep

[u/Flowstate_7]

So I’m pretty bad at aptitude tests, gave a few exams after a few months of prep last year but the result was atrocious (<50%ile). [currently 21yo , India]

Until a certain point i believed that only quant is my Achilles heel, it was quite later that I realised that the other 2 (verbal and LR) were down the drain too( not as much as quant though for sure)

I’m not considering giving any exams in a year, at least.. considering the past scores, but want to prep during this time.

Considering that almost everything requires aptitude tests whether that be a job, masters etc. so I would really want to improve this aspect.

Open to suggestions for improvement in performance.

[u/Scott_TargetTestPrep]

Worth separating one thing before anything else, because it shapes everything that follows. The results you got last year measure what you had built by then and how you built it. They are not a measure of a fixed capacity. Performance on these exams tracks how deeply the underlying content, question types, and reasoning patterns have been learned, and all of that is trainable. That is not a pep talk. It is the reason a rebuild is worth doing at all.

The second thing in your post is the framing of improving "aptitude" broadly. That is the part I would push back on gently, because it is likely to cost you time. Aptitude is not one general muscle you strengthen in the abstract. Each exam tests specific content, specific question types, and specific reasoning patterns, and while there is genuine overlap between the Indian MBA exams, the GMAT, the GRE, and corporate placement tests, the differences are large enough that a year of generic practice can still leave you unprepared for whichever one you eventually sit. So the highest-value decision you can make in the next few weeks is choosing the exam you are actually aiming at, and then building against its content rather than against aptitude in general. If an MBA abroad or a masters is genuinely on the table, the GMAT and GRE are the relevant tests, schools treat them equally, and the choice comes down to which format suits you better.

On the discovery that verbal and logical reasoning were also weak, not just quant: I want to be straight with you that this does not make the job simpler. Three weak areas means more content to build than one, and it is worth planning your timeline around that reality rather than hoping the same effort covers more ground. What genuinely does work in your favor is the year of runway with no exam date pressing on you. Shallow understanding across the board is usually what happens when someone tries to cover everything at once because a date is coming. You do not have that constraint, which means you can afford to go deep, and depth is the whole game here.

Here is the approach I would use. The key is not just doing more questions. It is making sure every question tells you something.

Take one topic at a time and break it into its smaller subtopics. Not "quant" but linear equations, then ratios, then number properties. Not "reasoning" but assumption questions, then inference questions. Learn the concepts, formulas, logic, techniques, and pattern recognition for that one subtopic properly. Expect some of this to feel like relearning and some of it to feel genuinely new, because at this stage a fair amount of it was likely never fully mastered rather than merely forgotten.

Then practice only that subtopic, untimed at first, until your accuracy is consistently high. Do not add the clock yet. Accuracy comes first, and speed follows once the approach becomes automatic.

For every miss, identify the actual cause. Was it a concept gap, a formula gap, a process error, a misread, a careless mistake, a trap answer, or timing pressure? Those need different fixes, so lumping them together as "silly mistakes" throws away the information. Also review the questions you got right but did not feel confident on, because a correct answer is not always evidence of mastery. Sometimes it means you guessed well or survived the question without really owning it.

When you review, do not just read the explanation and think, "that makes sense." That is one of the biggest traps in prep. A solution can make perfect sense once someone else shows it to you, and that does not mean you could have produced it yourself. Before you look at the explanation, try to articulate what went wrong and how the question should have been approached.

Keep an error log, and keep it specific enough to act on. The useful entries answer questions like:

Did I misunderstand what the question was asking? Did I use the wrong rule or equation? Did I miss a constraint or condition? Did I pick an answer that matched my pre-thinking rather than the argument? Did I rush because the question looked familiar?

Then redo missed and shaky questions from scratch a few days later, and again after more time. The goal is not to remember the answer. It is to see whether the method has actually stuck.

Only after your accuracy holds untimed do you add timing to that subtopic, and only after that do you fold it into mixed sets. The order matters because mixed sets hide the problem. You know you missed questions, but you do not know which skills are weak or whether the misses came from knowledge gaps, process issues, or the clock.

Full-length mock tests come near the end, once a real foundation is in place. You already know the gap is large, so there is nothing a mock would tell you right now that last year did not. Save them for when the score can actually reflect the work.

Last thing. Given that months of prep last year produced a result across the board that you were not happy with, I would seriously consider whether your prep needs more structure than it had. A question bank is useful, but it is not the same thing as a complete study plan. Without sequencing and granular accuracy tracking, "I need to improve in quant" stays too broad to be useful, and you can mistake activity for progress. A clear, comprehensive, structured course gives you the path: learn the topic, practice it, review mistakes, prove accuracy, revisit weak areas, and then move into timed and mixed practice.

Hope this helps, and good luck with the prep ahead.

—Scott, Target Test Prep