3 Common GMAT Mistakes

When it comes to studying for the GMAT, there are common mistakes that applicants should avoid.

The experts at MBA Crystal Ball recently discussed the most common mistakes test takers make and how to steer clear from making them.

USING ONLY OFFICIAL GUIDES

The Official Guides by GMAC are helpful in that they give you a sense of what types of questions have been tested previously.

But experts say that relying solely on the official guides (OG’s) can be limiting.

“OGs don’t cover all the concepts tested on GMAT in depth. It is a great question bank without enough focus on concepts,” according to MBA Crystal Ball. “OG solutions to questions are not very elaborate for beginners and hence students tend to memorize the solutions rather than learning from each question. Since the same question is not going to repeat on GMAT, memorizing the solution doesn’t help.”

FOCUSING SOLELY ON ACCURACY

Unlike other exams, the GMAT isn’t based purely on accuracy. Test-takers cannot simply skip to other questions when they hit a road bump in hopes of tallying up as many correct answers as possible.

Additionally, getting a question wrong can actually do your score more harm.

“If you leave a question blank, you receive no credit for the item,” according to mba.com. “However, if you answer a question and get it wrong, you get no credit and you are penalized a quarter of a point for five-option multiple-choice questions and one-third of a point for four-option questions.”

But making more mistakes doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll score lower on the GMAT.

“The difficulty level of questions you get on the GMAT depends on your performance on the current questions,” according to MBA Crystal Ball. “This means accuracy alone is the wrong metric to look at while taking the GMAT.”

TAKING SHORTCUTS

Similar to focusing solely on accuracy, many test-takers think that taking shortcuts when solving a problem will be beneficial given that the GMAT is timed.

But experts say shortcuts on the GMAT can actually waste more time in the long run.

“Students believe that to solve the question correctly, they must save time on reading the question and only then they can have more time to analyze the option choices better,” according to MBA Crystal Ball. “Ultimately, they tend to re-read the question multiple times and end up underconfident while marking the answer.”

Sources: MBA Crystal Ball, mba.com

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