- Fight the GMAT. I thought of it as a competitor who I knew would throw everything it had at me, but that I needed to beat to move one with my life. Honestly, this thinking kept me motivated to study and kept me on my toes during the day.
Don't hate taking the GMAT. When you hate something, that emotion can overwhelm you and cloud your judgment. If I hated the GMAT when I got my 660, I probably would not have tried another time. Do not let the toughness of the test hurt your feelings about it.
Keep a log of the hours you put in. I created an excel sheet with three columns: date, hours studied, and a "did you study?" column. When I put in hours into the hours studied column, the "did you study?" column would say yes and turn green. Keeping the chart filled with a streak of green was one of my motivations to keep studying plus keeping track of your hours will make you feel confident that you have prepared enough.
Use the free questions and expert answers posted on sites like this. I would spend hours doing questions on these forums and then comparing it to how the experts did it, it helped me tremendously.
Use the free resources in general. I found so many websites, videos, blogs, etc. that had tons of useful information. Do keep in mind that some of them aren't reputable so take them with a grain of salt.
Create flash cards of larger ideas you need to remember. There are a ton available for free here and elsewhere, but I created a small list of cards with things that I particular had trouble remembering (i.e. what each tense signified).
Have a short term goal and a long term goal. Everyone who is taking the GMAT wants to go to b-school and do great things, but sometimes when you are studying for the test it easy to lose sight of this long term goal. I had a shorter term goal of doing well enough on my GMATs that I could eat from this super famous sub place in Boston. I chose this place because every single day I walked home I would see my test center and the sub place, it made me want to study when I got home. Before you ask, yes the sandwich was everything I dreamed of.
Exercise. Seriously, exercise relieves your stress and doesn't necessarily have to take away from your studying. I watched GMAT tutorial videos while doing 30-45 min of cardio every morning and it kept me energized.
Check out Tuesdays with Kevin (Magoosh) and Thursdays with Ron (Manhattan Prep). I owe both of these guys quite a bit because they really helped me go from a V30 to a V42. Check them out, all of their videos are free and fantastic.
Give up things you love to do to study. When I first started studying to take the test, I still tried to fit in all of my normal social life (games, drinking, friends, etc.), but after I struggled the first time around I realized that sacrifice is necessary for success. Put in the time and the right effort to get you where you need to go.
Don't over caffeinate. One of my biggest mistakes the first time around was, as a non-coffee drinker, having two 5-hour energies throughout the duration of my test. I could literally feel my heart beating and it sure as heck wasn't from stress but it definitely distracted me. When I got my 750, I just had a small sugar-free Red Bull and trail mix.
Eat healthy. Feeling sluggish because you had a Big Mac the night before is not what you need the day of the test.
Meditate/ Breathe. Before and during the test, if I ever got distracted I would simply take a second to close my eyes and take a deep breath and say (in my head, because you are in a quiet environment) "focus". Kept me attentive to the problem that I was on and helped me avoid getting stuck on distractions.
Get enough sleep. This should really be common sense, because you aren't going to help yourself studying the day before the test.
Check out these "I just beat the GMAT!" posts. Kept me motivated and made me happy thinking about the day I could write a post similar to it (oh heyyyyy, is that today?)
Let me know if any of y'all have any questions and I'd be happy to answer them. Now I am going to enjoy the rest of my sandwich and maybe a glass of scotch.
Cheers,
V
