optiquezt wrote:
Hi,
I'm curious to know what other's study lifestyle is like. I'm fairly certain the majority of folks on here are both studying for the GMAT as well as working full-time.
I happened to have a week long holiday to go home to visit my family and this allowed me to set aside time to map out to study and to thoroughly plan my studying. However, when I go back to work, it will again be tough to make sure I'm studying on a regular basis.
I'd be interested to know how others have adapted to the challenges of a full time job while studying for the test.
Also, specific insights I'm interested in (and I'm sure others are interested in):
1. Managing expectations at work. Did you inform your colleagues and supervisors that you are prepping for the test. Did you try to negotiate any kind of work load adjustments and were there any good strategies for securing that?
2. At the end of the day, my brain is totally fried. I'd really appreciate any advice from folks on coming home and performing rapid decompression and relaxation in order to hit the books with focus
3. I'm also planning in a dietary and exercise regimen for the test prep period (and hopefully longer). Any thoughts and/or experience on this?
Thanks!
Everyone's needs, work schedules, and learning methods are different, but I'll share my perspective.
1) Some of the people I work with know that I'm re-taking the GMAT, but I don't think you need to communicate this. Although I do some GMAT-related stuff during my breaks, I wish that I could turn the GMAT off completely while I'm at work - like a vacation from the GMAT.
2) To some extent, I have the same problem. I've minimized this issue by studying for 1 hour before work and 1-2 hours after work. I wasn't too excited about waking up earlier, but it has really helped me to reduce burnout.
3) This is usually a good idea, as long as the time required to make it to the gym isn't causing you to stress out. I ate healthy and worked out regularly throughout most of my prep the first time I took the GMAT, but I stopped going to the gym in my last 1-2 weeks before test day.
Overall, I study anywhere from 2-3 hours/day on weekdays and 3-6 hours/day on weekends, averaging 18-25 hours/week. It's shocking to me that I can spend so much time studying for something and still have content to learn, but I guess that never really ends.
2-3 months (@ 10-20 hrs/week) should be a sufficient amount of time to increase your score significantly. It depends on where you're starting and where you'd like to finish, but anything beyond 3 months introduces the risk of burnout (not true for all people, of course).
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13 Jul 2009, 21:15
