GMAT Is Your Psychological Test (Here’s Why)

 

By Haris

If you are in search of the psychological aspect of the Graduate Management Admission Test, then look further. Today we are going to explain what the GMAT Psychological Test is all about. This article shall entail an in-depth explanation of the psychology of the graduate admission test.

Let’s start the article with a question. Do you possess some sort of knowledge regarding the Graduate Management Admission Test?

If you do know about what the test is about the well and good otherwise we will give a short introduction to GMAT.

What is GMAT?

The abbreviation of GMAT is actually the Graduate Management Admission Test. This is basically a CAT exam which means that it is a computer adaptive test. This means that the system will adapt to your answers and give you easier or harder questions depending on the answer.

This test was created by the GMAC which stands for the Graduate Management Admission Council for the purpose of admission in business schools. This test will sort out the best from the worst.

Many well-known universities use this test for admission of promising students. These universities are:

• Harvard University.
• Columbia University.
• Stanford University.
• London Business School.
• The University of Chicago.

These are only a few of the universities that accept the test world wide. More than 200,000 students take this test annually.

The test consists of 4 sections which are specifically designed to test each of your abilities. These sections are:

• Analytical Writing Assessment.
• Integrated Reasoning.
• Quantitative.
• Verbal Skills.

Hopefully, this gives you an understanding of what GMAT is and what it entails. Now let’s move on to the main topic of our discussion.

Psychological Aspect of GMAT

This is the main topic of our discussion. The main purpose of the GMAT exam isn’t to test your writing skills or question-solving speed. The main purpose of this test is to analyze how well you can take the pressure, manage time and control your emotions.

On the surface, the GMAT exam can be very intimidating but in reality, it is a very simple exam. I’m not saying that it is easy because let’s be honest it isn’t. The thing is that most subjects in the exam are the ones that we have already studied over the years.

There is nothing to worry about because the test is not designed to test your IQ, Business skills or future success. It is designed to determine whether you can come up with an idea to sneak past the problem. The people who create the exam have this intention behind it.

There are also a few things that we have to look out for the preparation and the actual exam day. These things are as follows:

1) The toughness of the Exam

As we have explained above, the GMAT exam is not easy. Even the preparation for the exam requires complete and utter concentration.

The exam demands that you must follow a rigid schedule that will get you high marks. It also asks for candidates with the right attitude to achieve high scores.

You can also call the GMAT exam an Intense Marathon. It requires complete focus because of the adaptive nature of the exam messes with your head. That is the true purpose of the exam. Even if you have solved the previous question correctly, you will still face difficulty in understanding how you do it?

There is also the question of your mental stability. There are few things that can have an effect on your mind during the exam such as:

• Did you go to the bathroom?
• Do you freeze while solving a question?
• Sleep requirement for the test.
• Nervousness level during the exam.
• The level of concentration.

These few things can greatly affect the mind and the problem-solving ability of the student. That is why you need to be completely focused and determined to achieve high marks. This is what means to have a good attitude for the exam.

Many people ignore such psychological aspects for the exam but it is not be ignored. The reason for this is the one we have discussed above. By understanding and overcoming these hurdles we can succeed in the GMAT exam.

2) Perfection is the enemy of GMAT

The title is intended to be a joke but it is the truth. Achieving perfection in the GMAT exam is impossible. Doing so can cost you dearly. That is why it is best to avoid perfection in the exam.

The thing is that the GMAT exam has a calculated amount of time for each of the 4 sections. If the candidate who is a perfectionist who wants to solve all the questions that are thrown towards that person can create difficulty for himself.

The best option is to do your best but also keep in the remaining time of the section. The reason for this is because the exam is created so that they could find your floor. This will show them how much good and bad you are in the specific section.

If you take too much time in the analytical writing section then it can affect all of the exams other sections. Trying to achieve perfection in your essay can have serious aftereffect on your exam.

Doing the average you could have done while managing your time can be much better than trying to achieve perfection in each and every question.

3) Visualizing Success

To achieve success in the GMAT exam Visualizing is ver necessary. Just imagine that today is the day of the exam and you are giving the real GMAT instead of a practice exam. This will completely change the result of the test.

This method is used to visualize the events that can possibly take place during the actual exam day. Through this process, you can map out all the bad things that can possibly occur during the exam.

Visualizing can actually have great effects on the mind and can also prepare you for the worst possible outcome during the exam. This is a proven study from the Neurophysiologist researchers at Stanford University (Source).

These are the psychological aspects of the GMAT exam. Hopefully, this gives you are a good idea regarding GMAT Psychological Test.