4 Practices that ensure a High GMAT Score

Students start preparing for the GMAT once they have worked out a clear career plan and are sure that they need the test score to get admitted into their dream business schools. But all schools have a score requirement – mostly high – and this means serious pressure on preparation efforts. In fact, the crucial connection between getting a high GMAT score and securing admission is an intimidating one and, if not attended to with seriousness and sense of purpose, can jeopardize one’s career plans and result in waste of time and effort. As professional experts training students for the GMAT will vouch, the first and foremost thing to get in place for securing admission is to secure a high GMAT score. That sets the ball rolling and definitely makes the chances for admission brighter.

Here are 4 practices that go a long way in helping you make the most of the GMAT experience:

#1 Keep a learning notebook/diary

It is advisable to keep a small and handy learning diary or notebook to pen down every new trick for the quantitative and verbal so that you don’t have to go through all your notes and books over and over again. In fact, flash cards are a good idea too. They can be organized in topics and labeled to enumerate each trick. Though constructing this kind of study resource sounds cumbersome, the truth is that in the long run a ready reckoner is a handy tool for last minute revision.

#2 Learn a bit, practice a whole lot

Simply learning all the rules and tricks of the game isn’t enough for playing the real game. For playing the game well and coming out victorious you need to practice, practice and practice! So, learn what is essential but do not confine yourself to too much theory and learning and don’t burden yourself with too much information. Instead, practice a whole lot so that exposure to the test question types builds up in you a large reserve of resourcefulness. This allows you to think up intelligent ways to negotiate tricky questions and sometimes to take calculated risks when selecting an answer. Whether it is the critical reasoning part, the sentence corrections, the reading comprehension or the quantitative analysis, just don’t give up practicing.

#3 Take mock tests

Once the preparation modules are over and all the aspects of the test have been studied and practiced sufficiently, get down to evaluating yourself in terms of the whole test. Doing just math or verbal questions, or simply writing an essay requires a limited attention span and specific skills. But taking on the whole GMAT test requires the ability to be at your best for near to four hours and to exhibit a range of skills. So as soon as you are done with all the topics,  start taking tests to know how good you are at using the tricks you have learnt. With every test, speed and confidence levels will increase and scores too will improve till they plateau and a predictable outcome is reached.

#4 Do not fully depend on the GMAT prep test results

So, you took a test and got a really good score and now you think you’ll be doing exactly this in the real exam too? Hope so…but don’t be sure! Every test has a different level of difficulty. Besides, the conditions that you have in a typical classroom are always different from those in the test room. So, although practice test scores are a fair measure of your ability to perform on the real test, don’t depend on the results unrealistically. The best way is to observe performance over a series of tests and identify typical and atypical trends in the scoring and to take an average of all the scores - that should be close to what the real day outcome will be. It is also advisable that the tests are picked wisely and are from different sources so that you are exposed to different versions of the test. Take a mix of Kaplan ( the best yardstick to measure your readiness), Princeton and the OG tests.

So, no matter at what stage of the preparation you are, sum up the situation, plan the preparation and take the GMAT bull by the horns!!!!

Good luck!

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3 Quick GMAT Test Taking Tips to Avoid Blunders on the Exam Day

Students looking forward to getting admission into top B-schools are plagued by several doubts and confusions both about the GMAT test and their subsequent applications. Despite giving their best to studying the intricacies of the test and practicing mock tests, students often fall prey to stress and commit blunders on the exam day that wash out all the labor and planning that was put into the preparation.

A good training course is one that trains test takers to acquire not only academic prowess but also test taking skills. Such a course, imparted by an experienced faculty, is what test takers should seek to find. Good mentors are the single most effective tool for taking on the GMAT. When a trained faculty gives you tried and tested tips, doubts vanish and things go smooth!

Here are the some tips that trainers should focus on inculcating in test takers.

1.  Focus on getting the question in front of you right.

When you are writing the GMAT test, it is no use spending your time and energy in guessing the difficulty level of the question. Some students tend to do this; they simply waste time in trying to determine how difficult the question is and contemplate the loss or gain involved. This is very clearly a futile effort and a time consuming one too. Besides, it doesn’t really help and increases anxiety levels.

So, the tip here is to simply focus on the question in terms of doing it right. Don’t worry if the question looks difficult or terrifies you; simply be sure to give your BEST answer for it! And remember, an odd wrong answer releases the presure off the test! It acts as a safety valve and stops your questions level from spiralling out of control. In fact, when a test taker keeps doing all the questions right he can sense the difficulty level of the questions rising and becoming unmanageable. So relax and do not punish yourself to get everything right. 

2.  Pay equal attention to each section on the test

There are students who are really good at certain sections; they are confident about attempting some  questions but dread  handling  others. If you are one of these students, it’s time to change the way you approach the test. Start practicing those sections more where your “FEAR FACTOR” is working on you!

Remember – speeding through the sections or trying to skip out certain questions or simply clicking through the sections, just to do better in that particular section in which you’re comfortable will reflect in your score. Doing your best in every section will yield an impressive score sheet that will have a better impact on your application’s competitiveness.

So, the tip here is – do not speed through portions of the test just to do well in your favourite sections. Spend equal time in dealing with each of the sections and do not write the test with any biases.

3.  Start practicing to improve your pace for finishing the exam on time.

At the start of GMAT preparation, it is common to aim at just gathering as much information about the test as possible and on getting familiar with the contents of each section of the test but not on   improving your skills and acquiring the right attitude for the exam. However, with time it becomes important that you start focusing on cultivating skills, attitude and pace. If you aren’t fast enough to handle the questions on your test, you’ll not be able to finish the test on time, which will obviously lower your scores. It is fine to understand the question types and practice to handle them for a while but on the long run especially when the D-DAY – the test -  is near, say a month away, it is always advisable to focus on improving your pace. This is considerably acquired through knowledge, exposure to question types, and being resourceful.

The tip here is – do not spend a whole lot of time in trying to understand a particular question in case you get stuck on it during the test. It is better to take educated guesses and move on to questions that can be cracked quickly and that can boost your scores. In other words, avoid getting into the common ego trap! Do not insist to yourself that a particular question is not beyond you; there are questions on the GMAT that can be really tricky even for the most adept test taker.

On a happier note, here’s some good news for you - the GMAT exam works on an adaptive algorithm; so, even if you guess wrong, it will adjust accordingly!

Happy and productive learning!

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