I'm a big baby when it comes to getting sick. If I feel a cold setting in, I'm likely to be miserable since I anticipate the suffering I'm about to go through for the next week or so.

When I was younger, I used to use cold medicine to alleviate the symptoms of a cold, hoping whatever pill I took might clear my sinuses, or take away my sore throat, or give me more energy. Cold medicine does work to an extent. But I eventually realized what was more important: giving my body the support it needed to actually fight off the cold. By taking naps and sleeping as much as I could, it became possible for me to nip most colds in the bud so I never even had to head to the drugstore to buy a cold remedy.

People working on GRE prep are often pretty good at identifying pain points, a.k.a. symptoms.

I keep getting one of the blanks wrong.

I keep getting stuck between two RC answer choices.

I have trouble with word problems.

I can't figure out what the problem is asking.

I keep running out of time.

And so on. We can certainly treat the symptoms these people are having. There are strategies that can directly address each of these common complaints. But we would be remiss in merely addressing the symptom, since there may be multiple causes behind it.

Why did I get more colds in the past? Rhinovirus contacted my mucous membranes, right? But there were other causes: Poor sleep. Poor diet. Not enough sunlight, exercise, or vitamins. Not enough emotional / mental health. Addressing all of these issues is like strapping on full-body armor that makes me much less susceptible to illness.

Why are you having trouble with word problems?

• It's possible you're weak in one or more concepts.

• It's possible you don't have a procedure you follow when you see a word problem, and that you haven't drilled common word problem strategies.

• It's possible you lack extensive experience doing ETS and ETS-like word problems.

• It's possible your time management protocol is not in writing, and not heavily drilled.

Think about any pain point you have in your GRE prep at the moment. Make a list of all the possible causes of that issue. Then, be systematic in seeing how you can improve in each of those areas.

The Bottom Line

As they say in psychology, the presenting problem is never the real problem. By being curious about the root causes of an issue, we can devise comprehensive remedies that are more effective than just trying to fix the surface complaint.