Preparing for GMAT/GRE GAME-DAY

The most important thing is to clear out the mental blocks that you’ve been building up. Scoring above a 685 on the GMAT or 165 on each GRE section is mostly about mindfulness and attention to detail. GMAT and GRE study requires monkish devotion of both your time and mental space. While you’re learning important concepts and strategies, you are also, in my opinion, building up clots and cobwebs in your mind, and this can gradually impair your ability to think clearly, especially for the ah-hah moments when you figure out a cunning way of simplifying a problem. Notice the feeling of mental fog that builds up not just in a prolonged single study session, but over the days and weeks you spend poring through problems. You’ve got to clear that out- 30 minutes of cobweb-breaking is more valuable than 4 more hours of study. And it’s especially necessary when you’re building up to a practice exam or the actual thing.

For me, physical exercise is the best way to do this. And this doesn’t mean just going for a run. Mark Zuckerberg made a good point when he talked about how he used to run but found it insufficient in bringing the mental clarity he hoped to get by having exercise in his routine. He found that his mind would just continue to agonize through the same channels and worry over the same problems while he jogged. He needed something that occupied his whole attention span and demanded his entire body and mind. For this, he turned to mixed martial arts, and talked about what wonders it did for him in actually bringing him not just physically but mentally into a different space where he forgot everything he’d been bogged down in. The primal urgency and intensity of fighting brought him to a new cognitive plane. 

While I personally enjoy running a great deal, I think Mark does have a point about the way it still allows the mind to run in the same veins as it was before. For me, bouldering does the trick. While I’m mid-climb, I simply couldn’t think about the GMAT even if I wanted to- I have to constantly shift my grip and body position, look for the next grip, and plan and adjust my line of approach as I go, or else I fail and fall. It totally occupies me. And when I’m done, I’m a good 20 percent sharper. 

The bottom line is you need a break, and not just a cessation- you need to do some activity or distraction that totally takes your mind away from the GMAT for at least 30 minutes. You should do this preferably once a day, but at least 3 times a week for hour-long periods, and on the day before the test you should aim to spend significant parts of the day either fully or partially distracted in some way or another- whatever it takes.

Diet: Don’t take this for granted. You know the feeling of being groggy or foggy after eating dense, processed, greasy, or sugary foods. You know at this point in your life what to avoid. Eat clean, balanced meals with lean proteins, vegetables, and some carbs. You might find it helpful to meal prep, the same way fitness athletes do. It will allow you to eat right and fuel yourself efficiently without big break times to prepare food, and you’ll be less tempted to just crash into a fatty, heavy meal after the feeling of brain drain consumes your mind. After a long intense day of teaching GMAT I’m often overwhelmed with the feeling of needing an enormous cheeseburger and fries. A big part of the urge is that my blood sugar is depleted, my mind is fairly spent, starvation mode is taking over, and with an impaired ability to make prudent food choices, I’m tempted by food with high satisfaction factor: pizza, burgers, and fried stuff. Avoid the food crash and plan ahead.

Sleep- king of all cures and palliatives. Ideally never sacrifice sleep for study during any part of your preparation, and definitely not in the final weeks, and definitely DEFINITELY not in the last few days before test day. Cut other things out of your life for the time being- but never cut sleep. You need it to consolidate all the studying you’re putting in during the waking hours. It’s best to train yourself to go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day when you start to study, and then you’ll be set up for success on that front when it comes to getting sleep before test day. Anxiety can hamper sleep and sleep quality the night before the exam- do whatever is necessary to prevent that, whether that means melatonin or doubling up the exercise the day before- but you’ve got to sleep. And if you’re not a daytime napper, I strongly suggest developing the habit. My highest scores have also been right after a really fire nap.

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