Canada’s best GMAT trainers share tips on acing the GMAT… and enjoying the challenge!
Have you ever taken on a new challenge? How did you overcome it? Did you simply read a book about it, or did you follow any training program to help you succeed?
Many beginner students approach the GMAT as if it were a “traditional” content-based exam. They read 10-12 books, or maybe even attend a 100-200 hour “cramming” course that requires them to memorize lots and lots of content.
Bad idea!
This strategy may have worked in college, but it will not work on a standardized test such as the GMAT.
The GMAT measures advanced reasoning skills, rather than knowledge of any specific subject matter. There’s not much to memorize – instead, you need to learn how to answer dozens of progressively harder questions quickly and accurately. This requires a new approach – an approach we call “Thinking Like a CEO”.
Help me! How should I study?
Because the GMAT is a skills-based rather than a content-based exam, if you want to do well on the test, you need to train for it as, if you were to train for a marathon or for another sports challenge!
Follow these tips, based on our experience training hundreds of students for 700+ GMAT scores, to make your test preparation efficient – and enjoyable!
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- Learn the rules of the game. On the GMAT, this is Math and English Grammar theory from high school. It may have been a while since you’ve learned it, but you did it before – and you can certainly do it again! Moreover, the theory tested on the GMAT is finite, meaning there is end in sight. Learn 100% of it!
- Learn how to play the game. Learning all of the rules of soccer will not – yet – make you a good soccer player. You need to learn the strategies for winning a game. You could try to figure out the strategies on your own, but this approach may easily become the case of “not knowing what you don’t know”. Training in a small class environment for 6-8 hours/week and doing lots of exercises between classes will let you master the best strategies and achieve a GMAT score well above your expectations!
- Get coaching, keep practicing. Even if you attend the best GMAT course in the world, you can’t get good results if you don’t continue practicing on your own. To study more efficiently, get a coach who will help you overcome your weaknesses and make learning more enjoyable.Each student in the GMAT Mastery program gets a coach, but even the best coach cannot be with you 100% of the time. When you attend the program, you will learn how to coach yourself – a useful skill you could apply to any area of your life!
Avoid expensive mistakes
If you’re only beginning to study for the GMAT, you may be tempted to memorize lots of content or cram – after all, this is what we all did in college or university (OK, maybe you were an exception – but I sure did!). Doing so on the GMAT will not only lead to poor results, but will cause you much frustration and may even discourage you from pursuing an MBA degree!
Avoid expensive mistakes that could jeopardize your chances of admission to your dream business schools. Accept GMAT as a challenge to overcome, train for it properly, and not only will you get great results, but you will also enjoy the process!
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