In this week's blog post we are going over the final three steps that are required in order for you to get a great score on the GMAT (+710) which will open doors to all the best business schools in North America.
Step 4. Study for long and consistent hours
Now we’re getting into nitty gritty, if you want to pass this test, and I mean PASS this test for any and all schools around, you’re aiming for a 710. This is your holy grail score, and it will require: 1. that you be a genius,2. that you work more than anyone else in the room, or3. a healthy combination of both Workout a schedule where you’re studying daily 2 hours if possible. If you’re single, go out less, if you’re in a relationship, send her postcards. Oh yeah, and 4-6 hours of studying each Saturday… AND Sunday. If it helps, remember that you will likely be taking many more tests in your life, so embrace it, it’s gonna be a lifestyle .
Step 5. Have a plan
Get organized: get set up, buy your favourite notebook, grab a great study guide — I’m partial to Manhattan/Kaplan books myself, though I’m such a nerd I use my own in-house material with clients. Build a calendar, plan your studies into phases. In my classes, I focus on 3 layers of knowledge: theory, application, and execution, make sure you give yourself time to progress across each phase – and recognize early if you’re in danger of falling behind.Quality over quantity: It’s better to do 100 GMAT sample exam questions and know them solid than to do 1000 and barely grasp what happened in all of them.Remember your key learnings – I encourage my clients to never erase, but rather track their errors in red: a large part of learning is using those errors to better yourself. Fail fast, correct often.
Step 6. Technical
The GMAT test is made up of 4 sections: Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) – An essay (not part of your main score) Integrated Reasoning (IR) – Funky graph analysis/logic games/critical thinking in math (also not part of your main score) Quant (part of your main score) Verbal (also part of your main score)
Knowing the timing/difficulty for each of these sections is key, so you can strategize your approach and decide on what order you want to take these sections in (yes, you can choose the order, more on that later).
Know the best way to improve your GMAT Score: the test uses multivariate distributions, which you’ll hear from a Stats prof in your MBA one day. It’s a fancy way of saying you should probably focus on your weakness, rather than bolstering your strong suit. So, if you suck at math, do more math prep. If you suck at verbal? do more verbal (one day, an Econ prof in your MBA will refer to this concept as maximizing your marginal returns on effort).