Score increase related to test anxiety?

Question

Hi all,

I am wondering if anyone has tracked how much their score has improved simply by focusing on working on their test anxiety. If so, what worked best & what improvements did you see?

Edskore · Answer

Yes, and I'd say it was one of the more underrated factors in my own prep.

I went from consistently scoring 680s in practice to 725 on the actual GMAT Focus Edition, and honestly a meaningful chunk of that came from getting better at managing what happens in my head mid-test, not just knowing more content.

What worked for me specifically: timed drills under conditions that felt slightly uncomfortable. Not full mocks, just 10-question sets with a timer running visibly, in a quiet room, no pausing. Doing this daily for a few weeks made the timer feel less threatening. The anxiety response is partly physiological, and you can condition yourself out of it somewhat.

The other thing that helped was separating two different kinds of anxiety. There's the "I don't know this concept" anxiety, which practice and review actually fixes. Then there's the "I know this but I'm panicking and blanking" anxiety, which is a different problem and needs a different fix. A lot of people spend time studying harder when they actually need to practice staying calm.

One concrete technique: when I felt myself spiraling on a question, I'd physically pause, read the question stem once more slowly, and write down what I actually knew, even if it felt trivial. That act of writing broke the freeze.

It's hard to quantify the exact score improvement from anxiety work alone, but the people I've seen improve the most tend to be working on both the content and the mindset piece at the same time. Good luck with it.

kartickdey · Answer

Thanks for your guidance

Archit3110 · Answer

Yes its true exam day anxiety does impact overall score.. which is why its recommended to give mocks in actual exam environment

gchandana · Answer

Hi  pumpkinluvr ,

I did have my fair share of dealing with anxiety, although I didn't exactly quantify the improvement, but it was very clearly visible.

A few things that worked for me:
1. To have a reset routine. As in, every time I felt anxious or rushed, I would move away from the screen, take a couple of deep breaths, and refocus.
2. You could also have a mental check for every few questions to check with yourself how you are feeling.
3. Practicing mindfulness, for you to reset from anxiety, you would first have to recognize quickly that you are feeling anxious. That self-awareness comes from practicing mindfulness.
4. Having a process/strategy for every question type, say one for quant, one for CR, one for RC, one for DI, and so on, helps reduce anxiety stemming from unfamiliarity.
5. Practicing under timed conditions to make yourself more accustomed to the time pressure.
6. If you aren't using the optional 10-minute break, you could give it a shot. You could use it after a section that didn't go well and refocus, or just even to take a break, rest, and refocus.

I could see improvements in how calmly I executed each section, how quickly I recovered from a question that didn't go well, how few careless errors I made in quant and DI, and how well I used my time. And all these will definitely reflect in the score at the end.

P.S. It's funny how to get a better score, we shouldn't be thinking about the score in the first place, and just focus only on the question on your screen. Even if your mind wanders, which it will, you'll have to quickly bring it back and refocus.)

Hope this helps!
All the best!

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi pumpkinluvr,

This may not directly answer your question, but official practice test scores are a pretty good indicator. So if you get XX5 on an official practice test, and you weren't already familiar with the questions, you're capable of getting XX5 on the actual test as well. Of course, this could easily become more complicated if you face anxiety issues during practice tests as well.

pumpkinluvr · Answer

Thank you for the helpful advice, I'm going to try this too.

pumpkinluvr · Answer

Thank you for sharing! I like your approach to focusing on the question itself rather than the score. It's definitely getting to my head.

MBAGuide · Answer

pumpkinluvr

This happened with me long back and I have written about it on this platform on another thread. I improved by a 100 points on the old GMAT scale. I am sharing tips I tried to train my nerves for the GMAT exam back in 2018.

1. Replicate or visualize the exam environment as closely as you can during your mocks
If anything, my first unsuccessful attempt at GMAT made me familiar with exactly what I would face the next time around - the infrastructure, the small dingy test cubicles, old-style bulky desktops, hard-keyed keyboards, a tiny notepad for calculations, and so on. This helped me to visualize the exam day every time I sat for a mock and my brain was not taken in for a shock when I got to the same test center the 2nd (and last) time.

2. Follow a fixed study routine and schedule your mocks ahead of time (just as you would schedule your actual exam)
Take mocks at the same time slot as when you plan to take the actual exam. I always took mocks in the afternoon, and also took the actual exam around the same time slot. Following a steady schedule during the preparation phase can trick your brain into believing that the exam day is no different than your routine weekly mock.

3. Do not take a break between sections during mocks to build up your stamina
Since I was preparing for an exam for the first time after almost 5 years of finishing school, I realized my focus and physical stamina were up to no good for such a lengthy and intense psychometric exam. Therefore for my mocks, I decided to always attempt the verbal and quant section in one go, which was a struggle in the beginning but gradually my endurance increased as did my ability to stay focused on the questions.

4. Ace your prep
Since Quant was always my weak area, I picked up the GMATClub mocks which, at least at the time were considered the most brutal quant mocks out there. I attempted and deep-dived into each of the 26 mock exams for the next 2 months. My Quant prep was all self-study and I aced a Q51. For the AWA I practiced and memorized a format that I knew would work for most questions and would not yield anything less than a 6. In this manner, I only had to deal with 2 sections realistically speaking. IR was not a real thing back then.

To reinforce thinking power and for recreational reading, I suggest you a great book (that I would not have read if it were not for my GMAT exam) - "Thinking fast and slow" by Daniel Kahneman. Preparing for a psychometric exam and reading a book on psychology in parallel got my nerd mode on, and I started enjoying seeing how GMAT pattern questions could or could not trick me into picking the wrong answers.

I did a very structured prep overall, maintained a log of my mistakes, and was able to categorize SC, RC, and CR into question types. Once I reached this stage, I knew I would be able to see and solve similar patterns on the actual exam.

My preparation method was probably too stringent and harsh (on me), but I knew I needed the confidence to be able to control my nerves on the final exam. For this reason, I tried to control every variable out there.

Best wishes to you

Feel free to speak should you want professional guidance

Best wishes
Aanchal Sahni (INSEAD MBA alumna, former INSEAD MBA admissions interviewer)
Founder, MBAGuideConsulting
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aanchal-sahni-83b00819/
|WEBSITE: https://mbaguideconsulting.com/| Message(WA): +91 9971200927| email- [email protected]

pumpkinluvr

Hi all,

I am wondering if anyone has tracked how much their score has improved simply by focusing on working on their test anxiety. If so, what worked best & what improvements did you see?

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Score increase related to test anxiety?

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