5 things I wish I knew before studying for the GMAT Focus Exam

hey what's up everybody today I want to talk about five things that I wish I knew before studying and taking the GMAT Focus exam if this is your first time on my channel then hey my name is Cameron galberth I'm a finance professional here in New York City I graduated with a degree in finance from the University of Florida and I currently am studying for the GMAT exam I did already take it a few months ago but didn't quite perform exactly how I wanted so I'm working on studying again so I can take it and get the score that will make me feel extremely confident it's been a long process of me studying and I've gone through many different programs from Target test prep to mou to even just the gmats official guide so I think that gives me a good perspective to offer you five things that I wish I knew before I started this whole process so with that said let's jump into it so number one is to take an official practice exam before you create your whole study plan this will assess both your strengths and your weaknesses and when taking a look at this it'll really kind of help you refine where you need to spend your time taking an official practice exam will help you determine what you should probably prioritize more than other things the example I always use for this is the law of diminishing returns it's really easy to think that you need to do absolutely everything but if you're already pretty good in one section 5 hours of work toward WS that topic can be really incrementally small compared to 5 hours of work towards a topic that maybe you struggle with a little bit more prioritizing your weaknesses and kind of going through your strengths a little bit faster will save you weeks of study time the GMAC offers two free official practice exams to anybody and six official practice exams overall so there are plenty of opportunities to study and you taking this one right at the beginning of the process doesn't really jeopardize any practice exams that you can take later on number two is that it is better to slow down and go at your own pace and what you're comfortable with compared to an xmon study plan or whatever robust plan is on the the program that you're using this was something I really wish I knew earlier on because I got too caught up in okay this is what I need to get done today and often times I find myself kind of rushing to get things done so I could be done for the day because I knew what I had to get done tomorrow and it it wasn't the best thing for actually learning I think learning is so much about understanding how you actually learn best and I don't think there's any situation where you learn best under strict time pressure that is just totally unnecessary when I started studying I also would watch like all videos at two times speed just to get through the information as fast as I could and again that probably isn't the best strategy for actually retaining the information for for the GMAT it is so important to learn and fully understand the fundamentals before moving on to more advanced topics this because everything else builds off of those fundamentals and especially on the exam if you miss some easy questions it hurts your score way more than you missing hard questions and this is what leads me to tip number three it is very important to master all of the easy questions before moving on to the medium and hard questions I know it's really easy to go through 10 easy problems and think you know it all and want to move on to the medium and hard to then get through the the studying a little bit faster but like I said in that last piece of advice it is so important to truly understand the fundamentals before going on to the more advanced topics all the medium and hard questions build off of the foundations of the easy question so if there's a topic that maybe you still aren't 100% confident in and easy chances are it's not going to be any EAS easier or you're going to have that understanding for the medium or hard and like I said it's so much more detrimental to your overall score to miss easy questions than to miss the medium and hard so certainly don't Breeze through the small stuff small things lead into big things especially on the GMAT exam number four is something I really wish I did a better job of doing earlier on in the process and that is finding a study partner or somebody to hold you accountable throughout the studying process when I started studying for the GMAT I was the only person in my friend group here in New York back home and at work that was studying for the exam so it often felt isolating it really makes a huge difference to be able to go through the highs and lows with somebody else even if it's just having a community on Tik Tok I'm sure we can all relate to the days in college or high school when we were going through really challenging classes but because we had our friends in the class we all kind of hold held each other accountable it was easier to study it was easier to put in those long hours and that's because you had people alongside with you and the same applies to studying for the GMAT I'm grateful now to have a few people in my life that are studying for the GMAT this is super helpful just because I can discuss the process with them and we also understand that everybody learns differently so we often offer advice and things that may have helped us that someone else wouldn't have previously considered and this is what leads me into the final tip so I know there are so many different resources and programs out there for studying and preparing for the GMAT but I think the most valuable and honestly the most affordable option is to use gmats official guide I think this is the best place to start and then from there you can kind of assess and see where else you want to go but I think using the official guide is the best place to start and I know I've done a lot of videos with GMAT in the past but honestly this video isn't even sponsored this is truly just my advice to you there really is no better source of information than from the people who actually make the exam the official guide helps provide a comprehensive look at everything on the exam and honestly it's a little bit less daunting than some of the other programs that have thousands of practice problems and hours upon hours of videos to watch I think going through GMAT recommended study plan at your own pace puts you in a great spot to then take that first icial practice exam and assess your score and from there you can see kind of what you need to focus on and on that point you know certain programs are better for Quant than for verbal so going through kind of the GMAT official guide first and then taking the practice exam helps you see what you need to focus on for example if you really want to improve your Quant Target test prep is known for really being good at that there's a ton of other resources for reading or for for verbal I should say and and other sections so that kind of helps helps you evaluate what you should not just spend your time but also your money on because a lot of these other programs aren't too affordable the GMAC offers so many great resources both free and some that you can pay for so definitely make sure to take advantage of those before deviating elsewhere and finally always remember that your GMAT score is valid for 5 years so it can be a long process and even if you don't plan on going to business school in the next 1 to two years similar to me it's always great to go through the process take the exam because then it gives you a lot of opportunity and leverage later on so with that said I hope you enjoyed this video I hope you got some value out of my past mistakes I wish you all the best of luck on your studying process as always if you have any questions at all feel free to reach out to me on Instagram or LinkedIn I am happy to help definitely make sure to subscribe to this channel like this video and let me know what you think and I will see you in the next one peace wow

Channel: Cameron Galbraith

Views: 10,880

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Id: KxSfVSAwym0

Length: 8min 4sec (484 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 13 2024