For countless numbers of graduate school applicants, preparing and sitting for the GRE, GMAT, LSAT or MCAT can be extremely stressful. If you are considering working with a test prep organization, you will most definitely want to follow this blog series.
MyGuru offers excellent test prep services for grad school applicants. They offer GMAT tutoring, GRE tutoring, LSAT tutoring, and more. Perhaps more importantly, has the outcomes to prove that their strategies and individualized approach with students works.
We are delighted to offer this interview series, which will feature a new interview question every two to four weeks.
Below is our second question for MyGuru.
Grad School Road Map: What are the biggest mistakes grad school applicants make when preparing for standardized tests?
Stefan Maisnier, Director of Online Tutoring: In my nearly two decades prepping grad school applicants for the LSAT, GRE, GMAT, and other lesser used admission tests, I have heard some stories! One student memorized an entire series of official online practice exams expecting rote recollection to deliver success on the official exam. Then there was the GMAT student who prepped with a calculator mistakenly believe that one was available for the quantitative section of the exam. But beyond these more extreme examples of memorable miscues, there are certainly three very common mistakes that just about every test prepper could fall prey to.
1) Prioritizing test prep too late in the admissions process. The standardized test portion of a graduate admissions packet is something a savvy applicant can address well in advance with just a little bit of foresight. The score will be good for at least five years, so if you have any indication that you might want to pursue a graduate degree, get the exam out of the way first! If you’re still an undergrad, consider adding GRE, GMAT, or LSAT prep to your final semester’s course load. If you’re a working professional, predict your workload and find two to four lower volume months in the calendar to prep the exam. Too many students leave the standardized test to the end of the application, and as a result may miss out on a deadline as because they didn’t have enough time to get an acceptable score.
2) Cramming instead of practicing regularly. Avoiding this mistake is so very important. Excelling on a standardized test is a skill to be cultivated, not an academic exercise of memorization. You can’t cram for a marathon and these tests are nothing if not mental marathons, so set a reasonable regular practice schedule for the months leading up to the exam to set yourself up for success. An hour of practice every day before work will be a much better method for maximizing improvement than spending six hours once a week on a Saturday or Sunday completing as many practice problems as possible. Furthermore, that practice before work will be much better focused than trying to practice after an eight-, ten-, or twelve-hour day at the office, and of course cycle in official practice exams when you are well-rested to practice for the real administration.
3) Relying fully on 3rd party practice materials. If you are studying for the LSAT, get access to lawhub.lsac.org for the official practice tests. If you’re prepping the GRE, head over to ets.org/gre/powerprep for the official PowerPrep practice exams and GRE texts. For the GMAT or Executive Assessment, head over to mba.com for official practice problems and exams. Third party apps, courses, or texts should supplement rather than replace the official content from the test makers. A good first step for any test prepping scenario is to get the official practice materials from the test maker, regardless of who that is. Sure, the official materials may not have the best explanations or lessons, but they will always have the best practice problems.
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