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You can feel them coming on…at first it’s just
a faint flutter of wings somewhere around your heart, but
soon enough you can feel the fervent flapping down in the
pit of your stomach, rattling your whole body. You’ve
got butterflies in your stomach, otherwise known as nerves,
and it’s all due to your impending GMAT Test. Test
anxiety is a common, almost universal problem, and all the
more so when you are dealing with a high stakes test such
as the GMAT. While meditation, acupuncture, and medication
are all used in attempts to calm the butterflies, the best
cure for this anxiety is often the confidence that comes
with knowing that you are as prepared as you possibly can
be.
Assuming you have followed the sound advice of my colleagues
here at JustColleges, you have taken loads of practice tests,
completed untold numbers of practice problems, and reviewed
the content backwards and forwards. (Well, hopefully not
backwards…I doubt that will do you any good). With
all of that preparation, the final three days before your
GMAT become just as much about your mental preparation as
they are about your intellectual preparation. With that
in mind, I would like to share the advice that I give to
the students in my Princeton Review GMAT Classes as they
leave my class and take on those last few days.
72 hours (3 Days Left)
This should be the last day that you allow yourself a full-length
practice test. I would actually recommend taking your final
test a day or two before this, and using this day as your
final “cram session”, reviewing mistakes from
previous tests or drills. Either way, today is the day you
should make a complete review sheet for yourself that summarizes
your strategies for each questions type. For example, make
a list of the most common types of grammatical errors that
appear in sentence correction problems (hint: you should
have six), and the ways that you know how to spot those
errors. For math, write down the formulas, rules, and any
mnemonic devices that you know you will need on the test,
such as the special right triangles (30-60-90, anyone?).
If you have taken a prep course or used study guides that
have taught you step-by-step approaches or strategies that
you find successful, write down those steps or strategies
here. A good review sheet will take two to three hours to
complete, and will involve a complete survey of the material
you’ve used over your weeks or months of preparation.
48 hours (2 Days Left)
The important thing to remember at this point is that it
is very doubtful that you will learn anything “new”
that will be of any use to you on the day of the test. Just
doing practice problems over and over, or especially taking
a full-length practice test, will actually do you more harm
than good. The reason for this is that you will put more
stress on yourself, over-emphasizing the importance of any
mistakes that you make because you are so afraid to repeat
those mistakes on the day of the test. Instead of this drilling,
use today to look over every practice test that you have
done, looking at the questions that you missed, guessed
on, or that you got right but took too long to answer. If
you have been keeping a log of missed questions in your
practice drills, you can review this as well, and review
any patterns to identify what areas you had trouble with.
After reviewing your previous mistakes, and what you should
have done, the correct approach will resonate with you more
clearly. Now, take some more time to read, refine, and tweak
your review sheet to that it is of maximum use to you between
now and the test.
24 hours (The Day Before)
The immediate thought that most of my students have when
they think about this day is “Last Chance!”
As in, last chance to learn everything, last chance to get
better, and last chance to increase my score! But in reality,
the only last chance you have on this day is to screw yourself
up. As I mentioned in the previous day’s activities,
you’re not likely to learn anything new at this point
that is going to help your score. You’re more likely
to psych yourself out. So, surprisingly, the best thing
to do on the day before your GMAT is…nothing to do
with the GMAT! Actually, you should allow yourself about
60-90 minutes to look at your review sheet and make sure
you’re happy with everything you have on there. In
addition, you should spend a few minutes visualizing the
next day. Close your eyes and picture yourself: waking up
in the morning…leaving for the test center…waiting
for your test to begin…answering questions and taking
breaks just as you have done on all of your practice tests…seeing
a score on the screen that makes you smile…leaving
the test center and getting on with your life. Running through
this scenario a few times in your head will prepare you
far better than doing fifteen hours of practice problems!
Other than these short GMAT-related activities, try to
keep yourself otherwise occupied the day before the test.
Don’t skip work if you can help it. Eat dinner with
a friend or loved one and watch a good movie (No unusual
foods, though…that’s the last thing you need
bothering you during the test!). Do a puzzle or computer
game that requires your focus and intelligence. These activities
will keep your mind off the test, which will help calm your
nerves, while the information from the review that you have
been doing percolates in the back of your head, readying
you for The Big Day.
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