The GMAT is a marathon, and not a sprint! I like to use the analogy of an endurance athletic event like a marathon or a stage of the Tour de France. At that point, you’re well trained and primed for action — you really can’t improve your conditioning the day before the race, but you could certainly downgrade your performance by draining your energy or taxing your muscles. The same is true of the GMAT — you won’t get any “smarter” the night before the test by studying; you may, however, wear yourself down by staying up late to get to one more set of problems, or make yourself nervous by happening to hit a patch of ten monster questions in a row and struggling through them.

Now, on the flip side, you’ve worked too hard and are too antsy before the test to simply “do nothing”…doing that will probably increase your nerves to the point of being counterproductive, as well. So I’d steal a page from the Tour de France cyclists, who ride their bike trainers on a low gear before events, basically “spinning their wheels” with little-to-no resistance in an effort to replicate the motion of riding and keep their muscles fresh (plus burn off any “just sitting around” anxiety) without taxing themselves before a monumental challenge.

You should attempt to do something similar by working through old problems and just going through the mental steps necessary to solve them and remind yourself of any special-circumstances items you need to remember (e.g., “It’s a Data Sufficiency problem with an inequality, so I need to rearrange the algebra in statement 1, but be careful to not multiply or divide by a variable because it could be negative, in which case I would have to flip the sign”). By doing this, you’ll remind yourself of how to succeed, but you won’t tax yourself mentally or run the risk of encountering a few tough problems that shake your well-earned confidence.

Remember: Rest and relaxation, coupled with perhaps a little “light exercise” for your brain, are your best bets for maximizing your GMAT score on test day!

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Thanks to Veritas Prep for this article. MBA Podcaster listeners receive a $150 discount on any Veritas Prep GMAT course, private tutoring, or admissions consulting school package by registering with the code “pod150″. Learn more at veritasprep.com

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Author: Gina Allison, Kaplan GMAT Instructor

It’s that time of year again—time for resolutions and re-assessing your priorities. If getting an MBA is one of your priorities in the near future, then creating an effective GMAT study schedule should be one of your top January goals.

You would be surprised at how many ways there are to fit GMAT study into your busy schedule. As I’ve worked on the Kaplan GMAT Revision and looked at the new material and resources that we will be offering our students, I’ve thought more than ever about how success on the GMAT is inevitable if you devote enough time and attention to your test prep material. For many of my students, juggling a full-time job, a family or relationship, a social life (what’s that?), and all the other assorted and sundry components of life along with focused GMAT study seems difficult, if not impossible. Although it is hard work, incorporating adequate study time into your already busy life is definitely not impossible! Here are a few pointers on how to make it all happen:

• Schedule GMAT study like you would a trip to the gym or a doctor’s appointment – write it on your calendar, put it in your PDA, do whatever you need to do to make it “official.”
• If you have an active family life or live with roommates, be sure to post your study schedule somewhere that everyone can see it. Well-meaning friends and family can sometimes interrupt your study, but will be more careful to give you respectful peace and quiet if they know about your study “appointments.”
• If your home space is too hectic for study, use your local test prep center or library for study – the computer lab or wifi will allow you to work on your syllabus in a more studious environment.
• Break up your study into manageable pieces. If you know you will be too exhausted to devote 2 hours to study after work, try doing 30 minutes when you first wake up (Quiz Banks are a great breakfast companion!), 30 minutes on your lunch break (GMAT study can seem downright exciting when it gives you a break from work-related tasks), and then an hour at night. On this schedule, you can work in 2 hours a day, which goes a long way toward satisfying the 8-12 hours of out of class study that you should aim for after each in-class session, if you are taking a course or studying with a tutor.
• Reward your hard work! In order to jolly yourself through an intensive 2-hour Saturday morning study block, plan a lunch out with friends for that afternoon. To refresh yourself after working 20 Data Sufficiency problems in your Official Guide, go out for a walk around the block with your dog or your kids. Even while studying and focusing, you can make time to do things that keep you in the balanced frame of mind you need as you approach Test Day with confidence!

Reward your hard work! In order to jolly yourself through an intensive 2-hour Saturday morning study block, plan a lunch out with friends for that afternoon. To refresh yourself after working 20 Data Sufficiency problems in your Official Guide, go out for a walk around the block with your dog or your kids. Even while studying and focusing, you can make time to do things that keep you in the balanced frame of mind you need as you approach Test Day with confidence!

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Thanks to Kaplan for this article. MBA Podcaster  listeners receive 10% off all Kaplan GMAT courses by using the code MBAPOD10 at kaptest.com/mbapodcaster

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Business school applicants are facing increasing competition.  The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) says more than three-quarters of the schools they surveyed reported an increase in application volume in 2008, up from 64% in 2007.  In addition, the number of GMAT tests taken outside the U.S. increased 21.5% over 2007 to 105,914 and the number of GMAT tests taken in the US increased 5.9% over 2007 to 158,727.

What advice do test prep experts offer to help GMAT test takers? There appears to be a consensus for how soon students should begin preparing for the GMAT.  That’s about six months.  According to the experts “the best way to get good score gains is to do a little bit less work over a longer period time.  Lots and lots of practice.” 

Experts also agree that applicants should know their starting point.  They recommend students take a few practice tests at the very beginning of the process, to provide a ballpark for the score, and to get familiar with the GMAT. 

If students only have a couple of months to prepare for the GMAT, Liza Wheale of Kaplan says that’s like trying to learn how to learn the entire French language two weeks before a trip to Paris — impossible.  “What is possible, however,“ she says, “is focusing on the areas of the GMAT that will bring you the most success, in the same way that focusing on conversational French that will be relevant to your trip will be the most beneficial.”

Each one of the experts advised students to not change their normal routine in advance of the GMAT.  Brian Galvin of Veritas Prep says one of his students had heard that salmon was great brain food, so she dined at an all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant the night before her GMAT, eating as much salmon as she could.  She woke up with food poisoning the day of the test.     

Admissions officers may raise their eyebrows over test-taking students who are into the double-digits, Chris Ryan of Manhattan Review warns, especially if the scores are hanging around the same number.  All five experts advise B-school applicants to examine where they are weak on the GMAT – is it the nerves, the permutations and computations, the sense of not quite being prepared – and focus on that for the next GMAT. 

            And, for students who wonder if it’s possible to score high without really studying, experts say being a natural at taking the GMAT is not unlike being able to bend your elbow backwards. Definitely not natural!

To listen to the full show click below:

GMAT Test Taking Tips from the Test Prep Experts

• Jon Denning, Director of Operations for PowerScore Test Prep
• Brian Galvin, Director of Academic Programs for Veritas Prep
• Jose Ferreira, CEO of Knewton Test Prep
• Chris Ryan, Director of Product and Instructor Development for ManhattanGMAT
• Liza Weale, Executive Director of the GMAT Program for Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions