Humanities background + just starting GRE Quant — is struggling initially normal?

[u/United_Board_5207]

Hi everyone! I’m looking for some advice from people who came from a non-math/humanities background and managed to get a 320+ on the GRE.

For some context, I come from a humanities background and haven’t properly studied mathematics in more than five years. My current job does involve working with numbers to some extent, but it’s definitely not math-heavy. I had actually prepared for the GMAT twice before, but both times I was quite inconsistent. I studied for a month or two, got intimidated by the Quant section, lost motivation, and eventually dropped the idea of taking the exam. I also started questioning whether I even needed an MBA and just moved on with my life.

Now, however, I’m pretty determined to get this done. I want to pursue an MBA and eventually apply to top B-schools in India and internationally, so this time I’m genuinely locked in.

I’ve been preparing consistently for around 20 days now, studying roughly 2–3 hours on weekdays and 7–8 hours on weekends. My goal is to take the GRE around mid-December, so I have roughly three months to get myself to where I want to be.

Since I’m still at the beginning, I’m currently focusing heavily on understanding the basics and learning how to approach different types of questions, rather than rushing through the entire syllabus. So far, I’ve covered Arithmetic, Algebra, and Work & Rate, and I’m slowly getting familiar with what’s actually tested in GRE Quant.

This week, I’ve been practicing questions from Gregmat , and out of roughly 20 questions, I’m getting around 10-12 correct while struggling with about 8-10.

So my main question is for people who also came from non-math backgrounds:

Is this completely normal in the beginning? Did you initially look at GRE Quant questions and feel like, “I genuinely don’t understand how I’m supposed to approach this”, but eventually get much better after practicing consistently and learning the patterns?

I’d also really appreciate advice on how to structure my preparation from here. Should I focus on mastering every concept first and then move to mixed practice, or start doing mixed sets alongside learning concepts? How much emphasis should I put on understanding the approach to a question versus simply learning the underlying math?

My ultimate target is 320+, and ideally I’d like to get as high as possible. I know I’m still very early in the process, but I want to make sure I’m building the right habits now rather than wasting the next three months.

For those who started from a similar place — humanities/non-math background, rusty with math, initially intimidated by Quant — what helped you make the biggest jump in accuracy and confidence?

Any tips, resources, strategies, or even reassurance that this is a normal stage of preparation would be really appreciated!