MBAs share their tips for GMAT success!

Doing well on the GMAT is a key part of your MBA admissions. It’s split into four parts: analytical writing (30 minutes), integrated reasoning (30 minutes), quantitative (75 minutes) and verbal (75 minutes). Your chances of getting into a top business schooldepend on it so we’ve asked a few MBAs to share their tips for success.

Jennifer Ng from the University of Western Ontario, advises that you do your research before you dive into your studies.

“Time management and discipline are CRUCIAL aspects for success,” she says. “The GMAT doesn’t exactly work like a school course in your undergraduate studies. Even if you prided yourself on your “cramming” abilities in the past – they may seriously let you down this time around.”

Elinor Song, studied five hours a day for three months before taking her GMAT. She scored 770 and got into the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, which requires at least a 680 to be considered, and stresses the importance of practice.

After deciding to go to business school, she realized she didn’t have much time to study for the GMAT, take it and complete her applications. However, she used her winter break to study hard and credits using the official GMAT practice tests with helping her pinpoint strengths and weaknesses. She also attended training classes with local GMAT tutors and found that the more tests she did under exam conditions, the better she got.

Soni, who got 780 and attended Chicago Booth, advises practicing basic quantitative problems as it will save you time during the test. During the test he didn’t waste time on the difficult questions. Instead he made educated guesses and moved onto questions he knew how to solve. He also advises taking the prep tests two to three times to get comfortable with them.

Finally tailor your study to your personal preferences. Elinor worked harder on the verbal section because English wasn’t her first language and she wanted to be comfortable with how the questions were phrased. Joanna designed a study plan and charted her progress so that she could pinpoint weaknesses. Small, maybe tedious, things like this could help you move up a percentile. 

David-Anthony Gordon is a journalist at BusinessBecause.com, a professional networking and news site for the business school world. Visit the site for info on MBA jobs, MBA rankingsand the popular Why MBAseries!