Why prepare for the GMAT?
Last updated: 13 Oct 2008
Why should you spend time preparing for the GMAT?
With a reasonable amout of time and effort put into studying for the GMAT you should be able to score 50-150 points more in the test than you would have if you had taken the test without preparation.An extra 100 points, say, on your GMAT score is likely to make a great deal of difference in how the business schools you want to apply to view your application.
It is definitely worth putting a little bit of extra effort into preparing for the test to ensure that you get the best score you can.
Levels of preparation
Preparing for the test will help you in the following ways
1. Familiarity with the test format
At the most basic level you need to prepare for the format of the test.
This means becoming familiar with using the different sections of the test and how you answer them.
Some of the question types have quite an unusual formats, for example sentence correction and data sufficiency which it will be very helpful if you are familiar with.
In the GMAT you will also be under considerable time pressure and so you will want to spend as little time as possible reading the instructions between sections which explain how the test works.
2. Revision of test subjects
The mathematics (arithmetic, geometry, algebra, probability, sets etc.) is of a high school level but for exactly this reason many of you will not have seen these subjects in years and inevitably you will be a little rusty.
In the verbal section sentence correction is full of traps to catch out even the most confident native speaker of English so you will need to brush up on your grammar.
3. Time savers and short cuts
There are numerous time savers and short cuts which you can learn which will help you save time and maximize your chance of getting the right answer even when you do not know how to answer all the questions correctly.
These can make all the difference in improving your score.
4. Practice
There is no substitute for practice in your preparation for the GMAT.
The GMAT has strict time limits and without practice you will find it very hard to finish the test on time.
Also, GMAT questions are all very similar and if you have already tried 200+ questions you will find that many of the questions in the real test are familiar and thus easy.
