GMAT Tips to Perform Your Best on Test Day!
By: Bara Sapir, CEO and Founder of TPNY/TPSF
Picture this: It’s the day of your GMAT, and you find yourself at the testing center sitting in front of your computer, about to begin. What do you feel? If you’re like a lot of students, you may feel everything from queasiness to full blown anxiety — certainly not the the types of things you should be feeling if you expect to perform as well as you had on your practice GMAT diagnostic tests! Well fear not. Here are some ways to avoid such maladies and be at your best test day.
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- Set goals, visualize, then write them down! We’re preconditioned for success or for failure. Our beliefs and expectations lead to outcomes that match our expectations. Whether your goal is to increase your Quant aptitude, achieve a 750 score, or just chill out when you take the test, if you visualize it AND do the ‘work’ necessary to have the chops to achieve it, then you likely will. When you believe something is going to happen, you begin to direct energy consciously and subconsciously toward making it happen.
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- Invite confidence. For some people, a lack of confidence when taking the test prevents him/her from excelling. To shift this, take a moment to remember a time when you felt calm and confident. Any time will do. Maybe it was when you were young and taught a friend how to play a game. Or maybe it was that killer presentation you gave at work last week. Whatever it is, remember how you experienced it, then re-experience it through your imagination. As you relive the victory in your mind, imagine going into take the GMAT experiencing the exact same sensations.
- Budget time for Body and Buddies. It turns out emotions like confidence and focus have positive biochemical and psychological benefits. As such, schedule things for shortly before the GMAT that will make you happy and calm– whether it’s spending time with friends, cooking, or exercise. You can also calm your body/mind with practices such as meditation and yoga, which provide you with the opportunity to slow the body and quiet the mind and in turn activate focus, perception, and mental equilibrium.
As you take the steps to reach goals, invite confidence, and improve your happiness quotient, the more likely it will come to pass. Don’t hold back. These practices are just some examples of what you can do prior to the GMAT to support your best performance. For a comprehensive audio program that goes into more detail and is proven to help you win the “inner game” of the GMAT, check out our Full Potential Audio Program. For more great tips, watch this recording (below) of a webinar we conducted with Dominate the GMAT a couple weeks ago teaching additional strategies for overcoming GMAT test anxiety:
Bara is an expert in alleviating test anxiety, managing stress, high-performance coaching, and personal empowerment. Her transformative test preparation includes twenty years’ experience teaching, including six years as an instructor for The Princeton Review. TPNY/ TPSF is the first and only educational company to fuse academic and strategy-based learning with holistic human potential training.
