One of the things you will need to account for in your business school admission is the GMAT exam. GMAT is submitted with your MBA application to indicate your readiness for business school. If you’re already preparing or just getting started with your studying, you might be asking yourself: How can I prepare for the GMAT effectively?
Most test takers spend more time on preparation than they need to or dedicate less time than is required to cover all areas. While the thought of preparing for the GMAT exam may sound daunting, especially when studying at home, rest assured that a solid study plan and expert GMAT tips will set you up for success. Read on to learn how to prepare for GMAT using the most effective study tips.
GMAT Study Plan: How Long Does It Take to Prepare for GMAT?
This is one of the most common questions regarding GMAT preparations. Studying for GMAT takes time. Unfortunately, there is no one size fits all when it comes to time. You need to plan ahead depending on your learning curve, the study tools available, and the efficiency of your learning process. If you are preparing for GMAT at home, plan to spend about 2-3 months and about 120 hours of regular studies.
Remember, GMAT is not a test of your memory but an assessment of comprehension, language skills, and quantitative abilities among other skills. These skills take time to develop. To make sure you can cope, schedule between 1-3 hours each day for your studies. A common sentiment among students is that “I can’t find the time to fit in all the studying I need to do.” Use the time you have, whether it’s the 20 minutes on the train, lunch break, or weekday evenings.
Must Read Tips on How to Prepare for GMAT at Home
Know exam syllabus
To adequately prepare for GMAT exam at home, you must understand the syllabus for the exams first. The syllabus will help you to know the topics you need to practice. In addition, find more information about the GMAT exam patterns. You can get the information by reviewing data from the previous year’s questions. Past exam papers will guide your preparation by giving you an idea of what kind of questions to expect in the exam.
Create a study plan
The last thing you want is to juggle all the admission requirements while preparing for the GMAT exam. To avoid such a situation, create a study plan early. Ensure your study plan allows you to prepare for GMAT analytical writing, integrated reasoning, quantitative, and verbal reasoning sections of the exam. Be purposeful when mapping out dates and study times in your calendar. Ensure you add the specific goals of the next few day’s sessions. Closer to the test day, incorporate the mixed practice into the goals of your session.
Find a designated study area
One of the most helpful tips to prepare for the GMAT at home is finding a designated place to study. Identify a quiet, well-lit, and comfortable area for studying. Avoid choosing the bedroom as your study place. Given that a home can have many destructions, you can have 2-3 study spaces in the house so that if you are not feeling good at some places, at the time, you have another place to switch.
Pick the best-practice materials
Find the best quality practice resources to help you make the most of your study time. The books and notes you use should be similar to the real GMAT in terms of format, tone, content, and difficulty. The practice materials should also help you to target your weakest areas. The best GMAT prep tools are similar to the real exams. It’s advisable to use GMAT official prep materials because they’re created by the makers of the GMAT and contain actual tests, GMAT essays, and real questions from past exams.
Concentrate on your weaknesses
To adequately prepare for GMAT exam, focus on your shortcomings. You won’t get the high scores you want if you allocate equal time to each area of the exam. To ensure you don’t miss critical details that can propel you to the top, assess your deficiencies at the beginning. Create a custom study plan that allows you to brush up on your weak areas. Set up drills during your practice sessions to determine if you’re making progress.
Seek assistance
If you’re not getting any topic during the preparation, ask for help. You can get the most reliable online help from Custom writing services. The websites link you with an academic expert who can help you with different aspects of GMAT preparation, including paper editing, essay writing from scratch, handling practice tests, integrated reasoning tests, analytical writing, and quantitative techniques. Also, you can view sample essays for your inspiration. If you need help, enlist a professional essay writing service CustomWritings.com that will help you to identify core mistakes in your work, give suggestions to improve your language and writing skills, and show you how to complete GMAT practice questions.
Keep track of time as part of your preparation
GMAT exams have limited time, and hence pacing yourself is paramount to success. If you go too fast, you risk missing critical details in a question or answer choice, and if you are too slow, you risk not finishing a section. Identify the type of questions you have the most trouble with, determine how much time you should spend on each one, and create clear goals for each drill. As you approach exam day, you’ll fall into a routine that will feel comfortable.
Be consistent
Preparing for GMAT at home while working can be challenging for many people. Yet, inconsistency and haphazardness in your studying are one of the most popular ways to sabotage your GMAT preparation. You will need to create time to study at least each day of the week. Cramming is unlikely to help you attain a high score. Instead, you need to dedicate numerous study sessions to drill certain skills and practice exams to assess your progress.
Build core skills
You must study every component of the GMAT to do well in the exam. Solving GMAT questions blindly without knowledge of concepts, proper analysis, or the right approach will lead to microscopic gains. For example, you need to understand solid fundamental math, language skills, and reading. You can improve your mental math by resisting the urge to use the calculator every chance you get. This is a time-saving tool that will help you in the quantitative and analytical sections. Also, read books and articles to improve your comprehension and language skills.
Test your readiness with full-length mocks and practice questions
There are many GMAT mocks and practice tests available online. They are the closest thing to the actual exam. If you’re at the start of your preparation, you shouldn’t be writing mocks. Attempt the tests from scratch when you have finished cementing all sections. The test will help you to aspire for a high GMAT score to get you that MBA or business master’s acceptance letter you desire.
Conclusion
Make progress towards your business school goals with the study tips outlined in this post. Remember, you need to understand the overall design of the test to ace the GMAT. A strong GMAT score can help you stand out in the admission process and may even qualify you for scholarship opportunities. We hope we have cleared all your queries on how to prepare for GMAT at home and helped you get ready to face the exam head-on.
