Learn how to set up a study schedule—and stick to your daily practice.
Whether you’re shooting for a fall 2016 matriculation to business school or are a junior or sophomore wanting to lock in a surefire test score for future enrollment, the GRE or GMAT could be your key to acceptance. With several months still to go, we continue to offer helpful planning tips in the second part of our “Kickstarting Your GRE or GMAT Prep” blog series.
How to follow a GRE or GMAT prep study schedule
There’s no time like the present to start prepping for the GRE or GMAT. No amount of cramming will aid you; these kind of standardized tests are not crammable because neither one demands a degree of specialized expertise or field of study as a prerequisite.
Well, that’s a relief, you might say. But it raises a different question: If the GRE and GMAT offer little informational content to study (other than remediating on math you may not have seen since middle school), how are you supposed to prep for it?
Ramping up successful behaviors
As tests of cognitive management, the GRE and GMAT measure how well, under the stress of the Test Day experience, you employ work-smarter/not-harder behaviors, just like a business student does to excel in his or her profession.
Understandably, then, GRE and GMAT prep strategies for hitting your target score are not a matter of absorbing reams of information but instead:
- Identifying the Test Day behaviors that the test rewards with a higher score.
- Noting your own tendencies either to exercise those behaviors or to lapse into time-consuming/unproductive, score-depressing behaviors.
- Rehearsing the rewarding behaviors and the triggers that can help you avoid the unproductive ones as part of your GRE or GMAT prep.
Sticking to daily practice
Acing Test Day requires daily practice, five to six days a week, ideally across a period of eight to 12 weeks (fewer weeks than that is not as optimal, but you can squeeze your study schedule into as few as four weeks, if needed).
Daily practice ensures that you’re not cramming information but are rather conditioning your brain, heart, and self to deliver Test Day behaviors that equip you to answer the most questions correctly within the allotted time period for each section of the test. Like a world class tennis player practicing every day to perfect a serve or backhand, you must daily reinforce behaviors that empower you effortlessly respond to the problem solving dilemmas imposed by Test Day.
Lock in your study schedule
Study your schedule to schedule your study. Review the typical work week in your calendar and make note of the following:
- Busy days and open days
- Morning and evening slots into which you can fit your daily practice
- One to two days each week that will be your GRE or GMAT prep rest day on which you forgo studying and let sink in the behaviors you’ve practiced during the week
Frequency beats volume
Your GRE or GMAT prep does not entail hours of practice every day. Instead, work test-productive habits into your everyday life. Daily exposure translates into Test Day excellence better than does sheer volume of prep. Even on your most hectic days of the week, you can grow your GRE or GMAT repertoire in a time slot as limited as 30 minutes (preferably in the morning, so that the rest of your day is colored by GRE or GMAT prep problem-solving behaviors).
However, you must reserve one or two days a week for more substantial test prep (for instance, every week or every two weeks taking a full-length practice test or doing longer learning/practice). Your goal should be to:
- Pinpoint which new behaviors you’ve adopted towards advancing towards your goal score
- Learn what aspects of your current GRE or GMAT prep are not harvesting score improvement
Mileposts to your goal score
To nail down your goal score, research the schools to which you’re applying to discover what they consider competitive scores for admission (and scholarships).
Then, be patient with yourself. Your first diagnostic practice test score result may look distant from your goal score destination. Of course, your first two weeks of GRE or GMAT prep will not get you to that goal score. So, identify in your diagnostic test one or two areas in which you can realize the greatest point growth. Then, set up a mile marker score that you want to hit on the way to your eventual goal score.
After a few weeks of passing each successive milepost, you’ll have made substantial progress towards your goal score and will have advanced in your ability to deliver behaviors that the test rewards.
How will you stack up against your spring Test Date? Find out by taking a live GRE or GMAT practice test.
The post Kickstarting Your GRE or GMAT Prep, Pt. 2 appeared first on Business School Insider.
