8 Common GMAT Mistakes that You Must Avoid!

Graduate management admission test or more commonly known as GMAT is used to assess students in certain areas to qualify them for admissions in different management programs such as MBA. Your GMAT score matters a lot especially if you are aiming to secure a seat in one of the top business schools of the world. There are some common GMAT mistakes that students repeat over and over again, resulting in an average GMAT score. Read this article to discover these common GRE mistakes and make sure to avoid them in your GMAT preparation!

Unplanned Preparation

This is the most common GMAT mistake where students do not plan their preparation. It is essential to have theoretical concepts, mock tests, reviews and doubt sessions in appropriate ratio as a part of your preparation. This will prepare you in a holistic way for the exam and definitely lead to a better result.   

Practice Without CAT Format

The GMAT exam is in CAT (Computer adaptive test) format i.e. the questions are according to the examinee’s ability level. In simple words, if you keep on giving correct answers, then the difficulty level of questions will keep on rising and vice versa. So, it is not only important but necessary to give a mock test in CAT format as it will provide you with a realistic sense of your current situation and actually prepare you for the exam. It only makes sense to practice in the actual format of the exam so as to prepare anything that could go wrong during the exam.

Also Read- Everything About Online GMAT Exam

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Panicking During the Exam

As it is a CAT format exam, students get an idea if they are not doing well and that actually creates a lot of anxiety among students which then obviously leads to them ruining their whole exam. So the key to this exam is to stay calm the whole time and just carefully focus on giving answers to whatever questions appear in front of you. This is better said than done but something really important that you can achieve only if you practice enough mock tests in the correct format. It will prepare you to stay calm in any situation

Also Read- How to Tackle GMAT Exam Anxiety?

Wasting Time on 1 Questions

It is often noted that aspirants try too hard to get every question right especially for the first 5-10 questions ignoring the fact that they have limited time and this exam is not about getting every question right but allocating appropriate time to finish the test within your best capabilities. Obviously, quant section and data sufficiency problems will take a little more time but you need to realize that you only have limited time and you should allocate that time wisely.

Completely Focussing on One Section

Some students use this tactic to crack GMAT. They believe that they should just focus on their weakest/strongest section. This belief is completely useless as the exam consists of four different sections and you cannot crack GMAT even if you give all correct answers for a particular section. Preparing for different sections will firstly help you to get fully prepared for any kind of difficulties during the exam as well as it will keep your mind fresh by focussing on a variety of subjects.

Ignoring Your weak points

Like it or not but everyone has got some weak points. The question is how an individual deals with it. The scores in each section need to be uniform for you to perform well and that means taking out extra time for your weaknesses. Your weak areas need an extra proportion of your preparation in order for you to become able to answer them with consistency.

Cramming up

When there is not much time left to understand the concepts deeply, some students find it easy to just cram up the entire study material in the last few months of the exam forgetting the fact that this exam is totally analytical in nature and there is no shortcut for that. The examinee need to be ready for any type of question that comes their way which can be achieved only if they have understood the concepts first. 

Brood over the difficulty level

The CAT format of this exam can prove to be really stressful for some students. Instead of focussing on solving their paper, they keep on brooding over the difficulty level of the exam. They waste their time thinking about whether the difficulty level is getting high or low i.e. they try to figure out whether they are doing well or not. Instead of actually attempting the exam, they focus on the assumption of whether they will crack it or not. So, this is something really important to understand that you just have to focus on attempting the question that appears before you and nothing else.

Bonus Tip- How to Crack GMAT in 3 Months?

So, these are the 8 most common GMAT mistakes that we thought you should know of in order for you to prepare for them well in advance. Hope that this blog helped you get a little more clarity in your approach towards your exam. For any other doubts and assistance, you can contact the experts at Leverage Edu.