How to Find Your GMAT Motivation
For better or worse, your GMAT score likely will have a significant impact on both your business school candidacy and your long-term career path. The higher you score on the GMAT, the more MBA admissions options you’ll have available to you. Furthermore, in today’s competitive job market, some companies request that applicants submit their GMAT scores during the interview process. Thus, a high GMAT score can also make you a desirable hire.
While a top-tier MBA or a well sought-after job should seem like motivation enough to study as hard as possible for your GMAT, it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture, and thus lose the motivation to study.
This article will present several ways to sustain a high level of motivation throughout your GMAT prep. To start, let’s discuss the importance of enjoying what you’re doing.
Enjoy What You’re Doing
Whether we are talking about your job, college classes, or GMAT preparation, one of the most effective ways to be motivated is to enjoy what you’re doing. On the other hand, working hard and ultimately achieving your goals becomes almost impossible when you don’t enjoy what you’re doing.
If you can find joy in your studying, you’ll be significantly more motivated to put in the necessary study time, and thus give yourself a great shot at achieving your GMAT goal. If you are struggling to find that enjoyment, consider the fact that not only will a high GMAT score help get you into a top MBA program, but also the skills you learn will carry over to business school classes and everyday life. So, instead of viewing GMAT studying as a drag, look at it as an opportunity to improve your skills — and yourself. Let’s discuss this idea a bit further.
Recognize the Importance of GMAT Skills
Your GMAT skills transcend the exam and carry over into your daily life, which also should provide GMAT motivation. Without a doubt, these skills will help you in school, work, and beyond. For example, through preparing for Critical Reasoning questions, you can become a more decisive thinker, a person who is well-versed in logic, decision making, and executive functioning. You can become “the smartest person in the room” with your Critical Reasoning skills.
What about Sentence Correction? Think about it: today, nearly every work activity involves writing. Emails, texts, reports, blogs, chats — the list is endless. Imagine how much easier and more impactful your writing is when you are an ultra-confident writer who is able to notice every detail.
And Reading Comprehension? Well, you’ll be reading for the rest of your life. Can you imagine how much more you can learn and apply if you are super skilled at comprehending written information?
Getting good at GMAT quant also has so many benefits. Your mastery of quant improves your data-driven decision-making skills, which are critical skills in business and life. When your math skills are strong, and your quantitative reasoning skills are solid, a world of possibilities can open up to you. So, why not embrace and enjoy the process of studying for the GMAT? Why not become internally motivated to get this process done well, so that you can improve many areas of your life?
Invest in Yourself
So often, we think of investments as equities or property or businesses. However, one of the best investments you can make is in yourself.
When you’re studying for the GMAT, you are investing in yourself. You are investing in your skills, abilities, and knowledge. Most importantly, the time and energy expended are an investment in your future. Unfortunately, most people in the world never get the opportunity to do what you are doing. Don’t let that get lost on you.
We already discussed how studying for the GMAT will help you improve your verbal and quant skills. However, the primary goal in scoring high on the GMAT is to gain acceptance to a top business school, so that you can land a great job and ultimately have greater earning power throughout your career.
According to the annual US News survey, the average starting MBA salary (with bonus) among the top 132 full-time MBA programs is $101,034, about $40,000 higher than the salary of a graduate with a bachelor’s degree in business. Even if we assume that your salary does not increase throughout a 30-year career (which is unlikely), that starting salary translates to roughly $1.2 million more in earnings, on average, with a top-130 MBA than without.
The disparities are even more significant when considering starting salaries for graduates from the top-10 full-time MBA programs. The average starting salary (with bonus) was $172,265, so over 30 years, you’re looking at an extra $3.2 million in earnings. Divide this 3.2 million by the 400 hours you spent preparing for the GMAT, and you’ll find that you “earned” $8,000 per study hour.
Another thing to remember is that, while the average cost of an MBA is around $65,000, not all MBA students end up paying the full cost (or any cost) for an MBA. Business schools offer various scholarships, which often come with the price tag of a high GMAT score. So, the next time you groan at the thought of sitting down to study for the GMAT, really think about the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow: high GMAT score = acceptance to a great (maybe free) school = great job = great salary.
Don’t Listen to the Naysayers
In the process of studying for the GMAT, you may encounter a small yet vocal number of your peers disenchanted with the GMAT preparation process. You’ll see that they are angry and almost detest the idea of having to study for the GMAT. These people will say things such as, “I’m great at business, so why do I have to take the GMAT?” or “What does the GMAT even test?”
You’ll discover that these people have probably struggled with their GMAT preparation. They spend a lot of time complaining and not enough time preparing. Don’t let these people color your view of the situation and bring you down with them. In fact, you can use your motivation to perform well as a competitive advantage. If the competition is not motivated to study, and you are, you will be more likely to succeed on the GMAT than they will.
Now that we’ve discussed some of the psychological aspects of staying motivated, let’s discuss some practical strategies for increasing your level of motivation.
Practical Strategies to Increase Motivation
To help stay motivated, you can put the following simple strategies into practice as soon as you begin your GMAT prep.
1) Use Proper Study Materials
I can’t tell you how many students have come to Target Test Prep almost ready to give up on the GMAT, after months (or sometimes years) of ineffective and disorganized studying. Here is a common scenario:
A student decides she wants to go to a top business school and sets her GMAT score goal at 730. So, she picks up a few GMAT books and immediately dives into her prep. Unfortunately, she treads water for 2 months with no plan, practicing a random array of GMAT quant and verbal questions and reading the solutions only to realize that she is not improving. While this student may be perplexed about her lack of progress, the reason for it is quite simple. Without following a detailed and organized study plan, it’s nearly impossible to succeed on the GMAT. This is true not only for the GMAT, but for almost everything we do in life.
So, before you dive into your GMAT studying, be certain that you have study materials that will provide you with a detailed road map showing you where you are and where you are going. The TTP course, for example, is broken down into specific missions that contain clear directions for what needs to be done and in what order. With that study plan, our students never have to think about what they need to study next; they just need to do it.
Having this type of structured GMAT study schedule will allow you to make consistent progress and always see where you are in relation to your end point. Thus, you’ll be better able to keep up a high level of motivation to work toward your goal of a great GMAT score.
2) Join a Study Group or Be Active on GMAT Forums
Studying for the GMAT can be lonely. If you are lucky, you may have a coworker, friend, or relative who is also studying for the GMAT, but usually that is not the case.
Feelings of loneliness and isolation can result in a lack of motivation to study. So, to keep yourself motivated, regularly interact with fellow GMAT test-takers. If you live in a large city, you could join a GMAT meetup in which you attend weekly or biweekly meetings with fellow GMAT test-takers. Regardless of where you live, you can become an active participant on GMAT forums such as GMAT Club, Beat the GMAT, or the GMAT subreddit, or even join an online GMAT group on Whatsapp or Discord. By interacting with other like-minded GMAT test-takers, you likely will stay motivated and excited to achieve your target score.
3) Create a Study Schedule and Reward Yourself for Sticking to It
I generally suggest that GMAT students study for 2+ hours each weekday and 4+ hours each weekend day. If you follow that study plan, you should be studying for about 18+ hours per week. While in theory it should be easy enough to study for 18+ hours each week, in practice, doing so is not always so easy. So, to keep yourself on track, create a study schedule and stick with it. You likely have a busy schedule, so you will need to be disciplined and creative with your study time. The key is to find a study schedule that works for you.
Also, reward yourself for consistent studying. Give yourself a cheat day occasionally by taking a day off from studying to do something fun and relaxing. Go to the movies, splurge on a spa day, or hang out with friends. Do something that will give your mind a rest from your GMAT prep.
To read the full article, view my full article on Target Test Prep’s blog.