Ok, desperate call here. Have been preparing since sometime now, however lately i realized that I suffer from a pathetic syndrome. I have this problem of absentmindedness and that too of highest degree. This is specially when I am reading. I don't know how serious this issue will be taken but I am assured that this is a very critical issue and if treated will help me score much much better.

Whenever I read, my mind starts wandering towards un-related things e.g. any recent discussions, gadgets that I want to own, to entrepreneurship, to recent date with my girlfriend, to any random thing one can possibly think of.. I know this sounds very childish and un-professional but is a fact. Worst part is sometimes I don't even realize it. Also, these lapses in attention are for very short intervals, maybe 1-2 seconds but occur very frequently or so but the thing is, I have to return back to the part I missed and inadvertently even skip it. All in All I spend much more time with much less comprehension.

This is not just in RC, even in CR, SC and even Maths.... I tend to re read quite often, infact almost 90% of the time. I also think so much when I am doing other activities like talking to someone, watching a movie etc.

When I realized about it I searched over internet about the possible remedies. I tried meditation, with earplugs on, studying in White Noise, be here now technique. No matter how hard I try not to think about random stuffs I always end up doing so. I very much want to ace gmat but don't know how to go about it.
I recently took few mocks -

Manhattan - 670
Powerprep - 700
Veritas - 600 !!!!! :'((

And 1 thing i found common in all(even the questions not taken as mocks) - My accuracy in RC tends to be the lowest (with big difference). Also while analyzing my mocks I realized something. 85% of the mistakes that I committed were not because of forgetting an SC rule or committing a calculation mistake but because I misread (or skipped)words in Statement or Passage or Question or Options. No matter which part of test, I committed the same mistake everywhere. I am sure even while typing this long message I must have thought of numerous random stuffs.

I know if I can get over this, big awards are hiding for me. I need advice to overcome this problem. Should I see a psychologist?
If anyone is facing the same issue pls let me know. Experts, you can be of great help,u have the experience of psychology of variety of students. I will do everything to overcome it. I have my GMAT exam in 13 days.
PM me if u think it can be personal.
PS - I don't do drugs, don't smoke,drink very seldom(once in maybe 2months,none since 7-8 months)

Thanks in advance for your patience and reply.

Hmm. Have you been tested for anything like attention deficit disorder? If you have something like that, there are a lot of resources out there to help you learn how to concentrate better - though I think if the problem is that serious... it will probably take quite a bit of time to learn habits that will help you to overcome the problem. I'm thinking 6 months at least - not 13 days.

I don't know that much about ADD and similar disorders - I'm not a doctor or therapist! - but what you describe sounds pretty significant / serious. You may want to talk to someone who specializes in such things.

You mention misreading and even skipping words. Try reading with your finger - that is, put your finger on what you're reading and move it word by word as you read. You have to "touch" every single word. If you get to the end of a sentence and realize you were thinking about something else while you were reading that sentence, read that sentence again.

When you find that you're thinking of something else, what do you do? Do you tell yourself to stop thinking about that, to concentrate on the test, etc? Try this instead: tell yourself "I'll think about that as soon as I'm done reading this." That is, tell yourself you're just delaying the thought. That can help sometimes because, when you tell yourself NOT to think about something... well, you often just end up thinking about it more! But when you tell yourself, "oh, yeah, just one second, hold that thought," then it's easier to push the thought aside for a moment and concentrate. And then you just keep doing that - just keep telling yourself, "Yeah, I'll think about that as soon as I'm done with this problem..." until you're done with the test. :)

Those are just some ideas. I do think you should talk to someone who specializes in learning or concentration disorders and see what a specialist can advise.

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT