For many GMAT test-takers, the biggest challenge in GMAT practice isn’t Data Sufficiency, Sentence Correction, or permutations, but rather finding the time to practice at all.  On average, the 700+ scorer prepares for about 100 hours for the exam, and finding those hours can seem impossible when you’re trying to keep your job, get promoted, avoid swine flu, and maybe even have a life.

Recently I coached a few of my students at one of Kaplan’s premiere corporate partners on this issue.  My advice: the Punchcard Method.

The time card is an obsolete technology for the average b-school applicant (aged late twenties, on average, for a male, and a couple years younger for a female).  In decades past, you used to enter your time card in a machine that clocked how many hours you worked.

A time card

If you were showing up, but not contributing to work much beyond that, people said you were just “punching the card.”  Doesn’t sound like a killer GMAT study strategy, does it?  Nevertheless, if you’re having trouble finding time to practice, it’s exactly what I recommend.

Just punch the card.  “Show up” to your GMAT practice, every day, even if that’s all you do.  Make sure you practice at least one question, or spend at least five pages reviewing one proven test strategy, every day.  Don’t worry about how long you study for, as long as you punch the card.

The punchcard method is like having a workout routine that doesn’t focus on how many miles you run or how many hours you’re in the gym; it’s just focused on how many days you actually bother lacing up your sneakers.  (And it’s a pretty good way to stay in shape.)

Imagine a calendar hanging on the wall.  An X marks every day, meaning you punched the card and studied at least a little GMAT.

What you’ll find, when you adhere to the punchcard method, is that some days you will study only five minutes.  But you’ll end up practicing a lot more, and worrying less about time management.