ANY TIME YOU HAVE A MINUTE OR MOREYOU WORK ON SMALL CHUNKS OF MATER...

5. Any time you have a minute or moreyou work on small chunks of material at a time. For example, you can pull them out while you wait for thebus or look through a few while eating breakfast.Remember, your brain works best when you give it small, frequent assignments and then give it timeto process each one. Recent scientific studies show that sleep, especially, helps the brain process what it haslearned. In other words, if you study before bed, when you wake up, you will know more than you did beforeyou went to sleep. It’s just one more reason for getting a good night’s rest.On the actual exam, it is important to give yourself permission to take a mini-break whenever you needit. If you need to stretch after every question, that’s okay. A quick stretch or a deep breath and forceful exha-lation can do wonders to keep you focused and relaxed.

Te s t i n g P s y c h o l o g y

As you already know, it’s important to review reading comprehension techniques, improve your critical rea-soning skills, review the rules of grammar and style, practice your writing skills, and brush up on your mathas you prepare for the GMAT exam—but it’s not sufficient to do onlythese things. Like all standardized tests,the GMAT exam also measures your test-taking skills. In this section, you will learn some of the best test-taking strategies for success on the GMAT exam, including approaches to the AWA. Strategies for each typeof question will be discussed in more detail in Parts II, III, and IV of this book.Get Familiar with the Exam to Combat FearIn the previous section, you learned that fear (or anxiety) is your enemy on the GMAT exam. What happenswhen you are feeling fearful or anxious? Your heart starts pounding, sending blood away from your brain toyour limbs. Maybe you start feeling a little light-headed, a little disconnected, or even a little woozy. Are youin good condition for test taking then? Of course not!There is much truth in the saying that we fear what we don’t understand. Therefore, the best way to over-come the anxiety that keeps you from doing your best on the GMAT exam is to learn as much as you canabout the test. The more you know about what to expect, the more practice you have with the exam, the morerelaxed you will be, and the better you will perform on test day.

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S T U D Y S K I L L S

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Taking practice tests and working with the tips and strategies in this book will help you immensely. Youwill get used to the kinds of questions on the GMAT exam and learn how to maximize your chances ofanswering them correctly. You will build on what you already know and enhance the skill sets you need forGMAT exam success. By the time you enter the testing center, you will be familiar with the format of the testand prepared for the length of the exam with strategies to help you succeed.

H o w t o “ D e - s t r e s s ”

It’s one thing to be told not to worry, and another thing to actually not worry. How can you stop yourself fromworrying? You can start by replacing worried and anxious thoughts and actions with positive ones. The fol-lowing sections examine some techniques.Nip It in the BudWhat are you worried about? Maybe you are worried that you don’t have enough time to prepare for the testor perhaps you are afraid you won’t do well on the exam. That leads to anxiety about not getting into the rightbusiness school. Pretty soon, you are convinced your life is basically ruined, so why not just turn on the TVand resign yourself to a low-paying, dead-end job? Sounds silly when you put it that way, right? But fear hasa way of escalating when you do not control it.The best way to beat test anxiety is to preventit. Don’t let it get a good grip on you. Whenever you catchyourself worrying or thinking anxious thoughts about the GMAT exam, firmly tell yourself that you havenothing to worry about because you are preparing for GMAT exam success. Of course, for that strategy towork, you have to establish and stick to your study plan. Therefore, beating test anxiety is made up of twocomponents:thinkingand doing.Face Your FearsDifferent people have different ways of manifesting test anxiety. You may deal with anxiety by working your-self into a frenzy, limiting yourself to six hours of sleep, and refusing to engage in leisure activities so you canget more work done. Meanwhile, your anxiety level mounts. Or you may take the opposite approach and putoff work because the task seems so large and the time available so short. Of course, the more you procrasti-nate, the shorter the time becomes. You end up feeling more anxious so you avoid working and your anxietylevel mounts. These two approaches are like two sides of the same coin, and the denomination of the coin isfear. Before you can get productive work done, you have to face your fears. Admitting that you are worriedabout the GMAT exam is the first step toward overcoming those fears.It can be helpful to write about your anxiety. Start with the basic fear: You are worried you don’t haveenough time to prepare. Once you have written that fear down, you can come up with a way to eliminate it.Prioritize what you want to study so that you work on the most important skills first. (Start by working yourway through this book.) Look at your schedule again. Where can you squeeze in more study time? Remem-ber that flashcards can be studied any time you have one free minute!

Rules of the GMAT Exam Game