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Last Updated on May 16, 2023
Many test-takers suffer from a lack of GMAT confidence. They may doubt their ability to score high, to keep their cool on GMAT test day, or both. Combating GMAT anxiety can be tough, especially if, like many students, you have months of GMAT prep ahead of you — meaning months to agonize over whether you can reach your GMAT goal.
Well, you’ve come to the right place. If you’re wondering how to overcome GMAT anxiety related to a lack of self-confidence, this article will help. In it, I’ll give you my top 10 GMAT confidence-building techniques to help you manage the stress of GMAT prep and mentally prepare to perform at your best on test day.
From positive self-talk to relaxation techniques to boosting your motivation and mental stamina, we’ll cover all the bases when it comes to building GMAT confidence.
Here are the techniques we’ll discuss:
- #1: Have a Solid Plan in Place
- #2: Know the Material Like the Back of Your Hand
- #3: Take Full-Length Practice Tests
- #4: Study at Your “Peaks”
- #5: Keep a List of Topics You’ve Mastered
- #6: Use Study Resources That Motivate You
- #7: Read GMAT Success Stories
- #8: Remind Yourself That You Don’t Have To Be Perfect
- #9: Create a Confidence-Building Mantra
- #10: Get Some Exercise (and Some Sleep)
- Key Takeaways
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- What’s Next?
To start, let’s talk about the confidence-building benefits of having a solid plan.
#1: Have a Solid Plan in Place
It’s hard to feel confident about the outcome of any endeavor if you’re just “winging it.” Particularly when you’re tackling something as big and important as the GMAT, the benefits of having a solid plan in place are immense — not only for your confidence but also for your ability to properly prepare and perform well on test day.
Without a solid plan to get you from day 1 to test day, it will be difficult to weather the many ups and downs you’ll experience throughout your GMAT prep and during the exam itself. And if you often feel lost as to what to do next, your confidence will suffer.
So, what does having a solid plan entail? A few different things, actually:
- creating a study schedule for yourself
- studying in a linear and methodical way
- having a test-day plan
Let’s delve a little deeper into each of these aspects of a solid GMAT plan.
Set Your Study Schedule
When you schedule something into your calendar, you don’t have to wonder anymore when you’ll find the time to do it or worry you won’t fit it into your day. There is no fretting over how much time you’ll have to devote to it on any particular day. There is no keeping a running tally in your head of how many days in the past week, or two weeks, or month you’ve done it.
Aside from not having to worry about when you’ll study, having set study times every day gives you something solid to fall back on no matter how your GMAT prep goes from one day to the next. Maybe you’re tired one day and you don’t have a great study session. Maybe you’ve been studying a GMAT topic that confuses you. Well, your schedule assures you that you’ll be able to pick things back up the next day and keep chipping away at the work, making incremental improvements day by day.
If you don’t have a set study schedule, a bad day feels like a more urgent problem. Will you even have time to study tomorrow? Maybe your bad day was the first day that week you even got a chance to study. Maybe your studying has been so sporadic that you’re only remembering the bad days and not the days when you made real progress. Moreover, it’s tough to feel that you’re ever making progress if you’re putting in only a few days a week. Instead, you may feel like you’re always playing catch-up.
Not knowing when you’re going to study next can be a confidence-killer. So, schedule daily study times into your calendar in advance.
Not knowing when you’re going to study next can be a confidence-killer.
Study in a Linear and Methodical Way
We just learned that creating a study schedule can give you the confidence of knowing that you’re putting in the necessary work each day. But what sort of work are you putting in? Are you studying random topics with no order or logic to your GMAT prep from one day to the next? In that case, all the time in the world may not get you very far. And when people “hit the books” day after day and don’t see much progress, their confidence takes a serious hit.
So, in addition to having a set study schedule, you need a set plan for what you’ll study each day. Random practice, jumbling a bunch of different topics together, etc., does not produce results on the GMAT. More often than not, these haphazard study methods produce frustration. You may feel that you’re “just not good at the test” or “just not smart enough.” Trust me — it’s not you! It’s your lack of a thought-out study plan.
The way to build confidence in your GMAT abilities and effectively learn the material is to study one topic at a time, starting with foundational concepts and progressing to more difficult ones. This method of study is exactly what students do with the TTP GMAT course, and it’s incredibly confidence-building. Why? Because with every topic, every lesson, every practice quiz, you’re able to check the box on something new you’ve learned. You see your progress continually, and it motivates you to keep going. Studying in a random way doesn’t provide that confidence-boosting sense of accomplishment.
TTP PRO TIP:
Build confidence in your GMAT abilities and effectively learn the material by studying one topic at a time, starting with foundational concepts.
Have a Plan for Test Day
We know that having a plan for your study time can help boost confidence before test day. But what about test day itself? We don’t want that day looming like a giant question mark over our heads. Again, we want to have a plan, so we can reduce our level of stress and worry about the GMAT.
For instance, have you set a score threshold for canceling your score? Do you plan to send your scores to schools on test day or wait? Do you know which schools you’ll send scores to?
Moreover, if you don’t hit your score goal on test day, do you have a backup plan in place? Have you left yourself time for a GMAT retake (or even two, if necessary)?
By answering these questions in advance and creating contingency plans, you position yourself to feel more secure about test day. After all, whatever the outcome, you’re prepared. If you don’t hit X score on your GMAT, that’s OK because you know you know you’ll cancel your score. If test day doesn’t go your way, you know you’ll have time to study more and take the test again.
It doesn’t take much time to devise a test-day plan for yourself. However, having one does take a lot of the pressure off. So, when you’re making your GMAT study plan, don’t forget to make a plan for test day as well.
TTP PRO TIP:
Have a test-day plan that addresses score cancellation, sending scores, and GMAT retakes.
#2: Know the Material Like the Back of Your Hand
It may seem obvious, but a great way to boost your confidence is to know GMAT material like the back of your hand. The better you know the material, the more confident you’ll be on test day. Consider a math test on basic addition and multiplication. Your confidence about being able to perform well on such a test would probably be quite high, right? After all, you’re very well-versed in those types of basic problems.
Now suppose you’re facing a math test that covers permutations and combinations, probability, and overlapping sets. If you’re not as familiar with those topics, your confidence level naturally won’t be so high.
The solution is to know the material on the GMAT inside and out. Moreover, you must give yourself the time you need to build that familiarity and comfort with GMAT topics. Remember, you didn’t become so confident in your ability to handle basic addition and multiplication overnight. So, don’t expect that confidence to come at the snap of a finger when you’re studying GMAT concepts.
It’s easy to get the impression that you’re taking more time than you “should” to learn new material. But the fact is, even if you’re familiar with many GMAT topics, it takes time to learn problem-solving strategies and develop your critical thinking and analytical skills in ways that apply specifically to GMAT questions.
So, learn everything there is to learn about each GMAT topic. Then, practice with questions on each topic until your accuracy level is consistently high. This work will take time and effort, but you’ll have every reason to be confident after you do it!
TTP PRO TIP:
The better you know the material, the more confident you’ll be on test day.
#3: Take Full-Length Practice Tests
Another big aspect of feeling comfortable and confident when it comes to the GMAT is taking full-length practice tests. Full-length practice tests help build confidence in several ways.
First, when you take numerous full-length practice tests under realistic test-day conditions, you desensitize yourself to the process of taking the GMAT. So, when you take the real GMAT, it feels somewhat like just another practice test.
Second, full-length practice tests allow you to hone your time-management and guessing strategies and build mental stamina for test day. While you can tackle those tasks to a certain extent by doing practice sets, those sets don’t replicate the experience of sitting through the entire test.
So, by taking multiple full-length practice tests before the big day, you give yourself time to build your GMAT “muscles” and work out the kinks in your test-taking strategies. Thus, you can walk into the test center (or wherever you’re taking your GMAT) feeling prepared and confident in your ability to get the job done.
Third, taking the official tests on mba.com allows you to confirm that you can reach your score goal! In other words, if you take all of the official practice tests that GMAC offers and hit your score goal on at least the last few tests, then you’ll have every reason to feel confident taking the GMAT.
That said, not hitting your score goal on official practice tests is no reason to lose hope. It simply means that you need to prepare more before you take your actual GMAT.
TTP PRO TIP:
Prior to your actual GMAT, build your confidence by taking all of the official practice tests that GMAC offers.
#4: Study at Your “Peaks”
If you consistently study at times when your energy is low — for instance, after a long day of work — you’ll associate GMAT study with feeling tired. Moreover, you may find that focus and concentration are hard to come by. The result? A persistent feeling that you don’t have what it takes to succeed on the GMAT. A feeling that the GMAT is too hard, or that it requires too much of you.
Now, you may think, it can’t make that much of a difference that I’m studying when I’m tired. Think again! Feeling chronically exhausted when you study for the GMAT, and probably annoyed that you have yet one more thing to do that day, can have a very real effect on your ability to retain knowledge, and thus your confidence.
You want to study for the GMAT during your mental peaks, not your lulls. Of course, we all have other responsibilities, so we can’t always time GMAT study “perfectly.” Nevertheless, we can be strategic about scheduling study times. We can shuffle other things around in our schedules. We can do shorter study sessions on busier days and longer sessions on quieter days.
Additionally, schedule full-length practice tests for times when you have the mental energy to perform at your peak. Think about it. How well can you expect to perform on a challenging, hours-long exam after you’ve just spent 8 hours at work?
The process of preparing for the GMAT will feel much more manageable (and be more effective) if you study at times when you have the mental bandwidth. If the process doesn’t feel manageable, your confidence will understandably be low.
TTP PRO TIP:
Schedule your GMAT prep for times of day when your mind is fresh and you feel energized.
#5: Keep a List of Topics You’ve Mastered
I mentioned earlier how the TTP course’s presentation of one topic at a time, starting with foundational concepts, helps students build confidence as they go because they continually “check items off the list” and see their progress. Well, one way to gain more GMAT confidence is to actually create a list of the topics you’ve mastered!
You could keep your “Mastered GMAT Topics” list in a notebook, on your laptop, or on a whiteboard by your desk if you want to keep your list visible. Yes, in the beginning, the list will be blank. But as you get further along in your prep and there are dozens of mastered topics on your whiteboard, you’ll probably feel pretty great about all that you’ve accomplished.
Of course, if you’re using the TTP GMAT course, we take care of all that tracking for you. With the click of a button, course users can view their completed tasks, number of lessons read, course completion percentage, and more at any time.
TTP PRO TIP:
Keeping a list of all the topics you’ve mastered, or using a course that tracks that data for you, can help build your confidence as you progress through your GMAT prep.
#6: Use Study Resources That Motivate You
I’ve already hinted at this point, but it’s really important for GMAT students to use study resources that motivate them. When you consistently feel bored, drained, or confused by your study resources, you’re going to lack the motivation to study. And when you lack motivation to study, it’s difficult to feel confident that test day will turn out well.
Of course, some of your motivation to study must come from within. Nevertheless, using GMAT prep resources that incorporate motivational tools really does help. For example, when students log into the TTP course, they’re greeted on their personal homepage with an inspiring quote and a video tip of the day to get them energized to study, plus key stats such as the percentage of the course they’ve completed and the amount of time they’ve spent studying that week, month, or since they began their study plan.
Motivation breeds confidence. If you have low GMAT confidence, you may notice that you generally feel tentative about or exhausted with GMAT studying. If that’s the case, it could be that you need to find some more motivating ways to study. Let’s look at a few examples.
Try a Guided Course
If you’ve just been studying from a 5 lb. book or watching video after video online, a guided self-study course could help you feel more engaged in your prep. Guided self-study courses — particularly ones that have been proven effective — can do more than just help motivate you and make studying more interesting. They can also help give you confidence that you’re studying exactly what you need to study, when you need to study it, in order to reach your GMAT goal.
Join a Study Group
If you’ve been feeling doom and gloom about the GMAT, you could try joining an online or in-person study group to gain support from your peers. Commiserating with others going through the same things you are can help put worries into perspective and quell test anxiety. Plus, a study group that meets regularly can help you with goal-setting and staying on top of your GMAT prep. You may find that after just a few group study sessions, you feel significantly more optimistic about your GMAT prospects.
Talk with a Tutor
Low GMAT confidence? Consider scheduling some sessions with a private GMAT tutor. An experienced tutor has been through the GMAT process many, many times, and thus knows how to help students stay motivated, gain confidence, and remain on track to their goals. Plus, if your confidence is low because of specific GMAT weaknesses you have, a tutor can help you turn those weaknesses into strengths.
TTP PRO TIP:
If your GMAT confidence and motivation to study are low, try using a guided self-study course, joining a study group, or working with a private tutor.
#7: Read GMAT Success Stories
If you’re feeling discouraged about the GMAT, reading some inspiring GMAT stories online is a great pick-me-up and can help put your situation into perspective. On GMAT forums such as GMAT Club, Beat the GMAT, and the GMAT subreddit, there are countless students sharing their experiences of struggling with the GMAT, and then triumphing on test day. In fact, you’ll find many discussions about overcoming low GMAT confidence, and advice from test-takers who have been through exactly what you’re going through.
You can also hear GMAT success stories directly from students on the TTP YouTube page. Plenty of students have come to TTP with low confidence in their GMAT abilities and low starting scores and still managed to reach their goals when all was said and done. If they can do it, so can you!
TTP PRO TIP:
Reading some inspiring GMAT stories online to see how other test-takers overcome their struggles with GMAT anxiety.
#8: Remind Yourself That You Don’t Have To Be Perfect
If you expect yourself to be perfect on the GMAT, you’re never going to meet your expectations. And if you never meet your expectations, well then, your confidence in yourself won’t be very high.
Students who strive for perfection see every GMAT question they answer incorrectly as an affront to their vision of how they “should” perform. Thus, their confidence in their test-taking abilities tends to be low. On the other hand, students who view missed questions as opportunities to improve and a natural part of the learning process tend to feel more confident about their GMAT prospects.
Here’s the thing: perfection on the GMAT is not possible or even necessary. For instance, according to ESR data, a test-taker can incorrectly answer around 10 Quant questions on the GMAT and still score Q48. That’s quite a few missed questions! Now, maybe you’re aiming for a Quant score higher than 48, but the point still stands. You don’t have to be perfect on the GMAT to earn high scores. And when it comes to GMAT confidence, expecting perfection from yourself is probably doing more harm than good.
So, do your best. Put your full effort in. But, remind yourself that you don’t have to be perfect to reach your GMAT goals. And if you need some more confidence-building around not being perfect, check out this article on how many questions you can get wrong on the GMAT and still score 700.
TTP PRO TIP:
Remember that you don’t have to be perfect to earn good scores on the GMAT.
#9: Create a Confidence-Building Mantra
The idea of purposefully engaging in positive self-talk sometimes makes people cringe. I would cringe myself if I didn’t know just how effective positive self-talk is for confidence-building.
Your internal self-assessments matter big time when it comes to your belief in your GMAT abilities. If you never tell yourself you can succeed, or you frequently tell yourself you won’t succeed, low confidence and high test anxiety are basically foregone conclusions.
One way you can train yourself to start thinking more positively about the GMAT, and thus build your confidence, is by creating a confidence-boosting mantra and repeating it daily.
For example, your mantra could be something like one of the following:
In all ways, I will CRUSH the GMAT.
Nothing can keep me from a [insert score goal here].
I can handle this. I am prepared.
Find a mantra that makes you feel more confident and repeat it to yourself until you believe it. Any time negative thoughts about the GMAT or your ability to succeed on it creep in, repeat your mantra. You can use your mantra while you’re prepping for the GMAT and, if you need to, during the actual exam.
Remember, the more negative self-talk you engage in, the more negative you’re going to feel. So, logically, if you tell yourself you’re confident over and over again, eventually you’ll really start to feel it!
TTP PRO TIP:
Create a confidence-building mantra and repeat it daily or whenever negative thoughts about the GMAT creep in.
#10: Get Some Exercise (and Some Sleep)
Every student, confident or not, has to find ways to blow off steam during the GMAT preparation process. Stepping away from your desk and being physically active is a great way to do that.
Particularly if your GMAT anxiety is high or your level of confidence is low, regular exercise can be surprisingly helpful. Exercise provides a mental reset, gives us an energy boost, helps regulate our sleep, and can make us feel stronger.
A daily walk around your neighborhood. A yoga class or a sport you love to play. However you get your body moving, try to make some form of physical activity a regular part of your schedule. Your mood will benefit, and you’ll likely feel better equipped to manage anxiety or negativity you feel about the GMAT.
On the flipside, it’s also important to make sure that you’re getting adequate sleep throughout the GMAT preparation process. Being sleep deprived can have a significant negative impact on your mood and make studying for the GMAT more difficult.
TTP PRO TIP:
Getting some exercise on a regular basis can help improve your mood and make you feel more confident.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
How do I get over my fear of the GMAT?
The 10 techniques in this article should go a long way toward helping you conquer your fear of the GMAT. For instance, taking full-length practice tests can help you get comfortable with the test-taking experience.
Additionally, you can try turning your GMAT anxiety as excitement, a technique that studies have shown is effective for test-takers.
You can also try some visualization techniques to help calm your GMAT fears. For instance, you could visualize yourself walking into the GMAT test center with your head held high, fully confident that you are ready to rock the GMAT. Then, imagine yourself the moment before you see the screen displaying your score, feeling confident that you rocked the exam. Or, you could visualize yourself taking the GMAT, correctly answering question after question.
What relaxation techniques can I use to stay calm during the GMAT?
If you’ve ever practiced the mindfulness technique of focusing on your breath, you’re probably aware that deep breathing can have a very calming effect. On the other hand, breathing faster than normal is a common symptom of test anxiety.
So, it’s no surprise that people who are calm tend to breathe deeply. Furthermore, mimicking this behavior can actually make you calmer. So, if you start to feel too much nervous energy during your exam, take a few long, deep, full breaths. When you breathe deeply, you deliver more oxygen to your brain and calm your system. I suggest practicing deep breathing before test day, so you can do it without missing a beat during your exam.
Another highly effective relaxation technique, though it may seem counterintuitive, is focusing on the question in front of you! Focusing on the question in front of you is one of my top test-taking strategies for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that you will be too busy to make yourself more anxious. In other words, the intense focus on a purpose will calm you by distracting you from your feelings of nervousness or worry. So, focus on getting the right answer to the question in front of you at that moment and nothing else.
Also, don’t beat yourself up for feeling nervous or jittery. Remember that your feelings are natural, and you can even use them to pump yourself up to do your best on the exam.
How can I improve my mental stamina for the GMAT?
The best way to improve your mental stamina for the GMAT is to take all 6 of the official, full-length practice tests on mba.com under realistic, test-day conditions.
What are some effective test-taking strategies for the GMAT?
In addition to using the test-taking strategies we’ve discussed in this article, check out these highly effective strategies for test day and for the days leading up to your GMAT.
Key Takeaways
There are plenty of theories out there about how to build self-confidence in students, but the following 10 techniques are specifically geared toward helping people studying for the GMAT become more confident in their abilities to master GMAT content and perform at a high level on test day:
- Have a solid plan in place.
- Know the material like the back of your hand.
- Take full-length practice tests.
- Study at your “peaks.”
- Keep a list of topics you’ve mastered.
- Use study resources that motivate you.
- Read GMAT success stories.
- Remind yourself that you don’t have to be perfect.
- Create a confidence-building mantra.
- Get some exercise (and some sleep).
What’s Next?
Now that you have some GMAT confidence-building techniques, you may be interested in this article on how to eliminate GMAT test-day anxiety.
