GMAT Stress Management: Top 8 Tips

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Last Updated on May 16, 2023

If you’re dealing with GMAT stress, you’re not alone. Most GMAT test-takers get stressed at one point or another as they prepare for the GMAT. For many, the entire GMAT process can feel pretty stressful from beginning to end. Whether it’s balancing busy work and study schedules or dealing with the sheer amount of Quant and Verbal material there is to learn for the GMAT, managing GMAT prep isn’t exactly a piece of cake.

Fortunately, there are relatively simple GMAT stress-management techniques that you can use to get some relief. In this article, I’ll share 8 of the most effective. These techniques have worked for many test-takers before you and can be integrated into your GMAT routine pretty much immediately.

Here are the GMAT stress tips we’ll discuss:

• Tip #1: Get Out From Behind Your Desk
• Tip #2: Add a “Relaxation Reset” to Your Calendar
• Tip #3: Stick to a Regular Sleep Schedule
• Tip #4: Don’t Study When You’re Tired
• Tip #5: Give Yourself a Cheat Day
• Tip #6: Don’t Try to Learn Too Much at Once
• Tip #7: Leave Time Between Practice Tests
• Tip #8: Create a Routine and Stick to It
• GMAT Stress Techniques: In Summary
• What’s Next?

Let’s start with the stress-relieving benefits of getting out from behind your desk

Tip #1: Get Out From Behind Your Desk

The GMAT preparation process is inherently pressure-filled. So, if you prepare for the GMAT for months, as most test-takers must, you need to find ways to blow off steam. Stepping away from your desk and getting your body moving is a great way to do that.

Exercise is a scientifically proven stress-reducer. It both lowers the level of the stress hormone cortisol in your body and stimulates endorphin production, improving your mood. Exercise also provides an energy boost and helps regulate sleep.

Even if you can get in only a 20-minute run, you’ll feel the benefits! So, try to make your preferred method of regular exercise a part of your schedule. Consider it another facet of your GMAT prep!

Additionally, a simple change of scenery can be helpful in overcoming GMAT stress. Between work or school and GMAT prep, spending hours upon hours seated at a desk each day can make us feel physically and mentally sluggish. So, if you’re dealing with GMAT stress, it might be time to mix things up.

For example, if the weather is nice, instead of studying at home on Saturday morning, grab a cup of coffee at your favorite coffee shop and find a quiet spot to study at a local park. If you’re using flashcards to aid your GMAT prep, why not take a stroll around your neighborhood while you quiz yourself with them?

The point is, doing the same thing day in and day out can make preparing for the GMAT feel like a grind. That feeling breeds stress. So, get out from behind your desk, get moving, and get a change of scenery. You may be surprised how refreshed you feel when you do!

Tip #2: Add a “Relaxation Reset” to Your Calendar

You can get some serious GMAT stress relief by scheduling relaxation time into your calendar. Now, you may be wondering when you could possibly have time to relax as you prepare for the GMAT while managing all your other responsibilities. Here’s the thing: even a small “relaxation reset” can have a big effect.

Here are some examples of “relaxation resets” that you could schedule into your day or week:

• 5 minutes of deep breathing exercises at the beginning and end of each GMAT study session
• 10 minutes of yoga to wake you up each morning or wind you down each night
• 10 minutes of guided meditation with an app each morning
• a 30-minute meditation session on Saturday and Sunday mornings
• a weekly yoga class or at-home yoga session
• a bath with calming scents and soothing music before bed each night or on the weekends

There are also specific meditation-related practices, such as body scanning and focusing on your breath, you can engage in for a few minutes any time you feel overwhelmed by GMAT stress. These activities have proven calming effects and can help you mentally “reset.”

Can you find 5-10 minutes each day to do nothing but relax? YES! Managing stress is an essential part of GMAT prep. Schedule it into your calendar. If you find it difficult to fit in even a few minutes of downtime, I recommend bookending your GMAT study sessions with relaxation. After all, you’ll need to block off that study time anyway.

Doing a brief relaxation exercise before and after GMAT study can also help with compartmentalization, allowing you to focus on non-GMAT aspects of your day when you need to, and thereby reducing stress.

Tip #3: Stick to a Regular Sleep Schedule

I mentioned earlier that exercise helps regulate sleep. Keeping a (basically) full, regular sleep schedule is a very important part of GMAT stress management.

The fact is, everything feels more stressful when we’re not getting enough sleep. Being sleep deprived can have a negative impact on your mood and make retaining what you learn more difficult. So, not getting adequate sleep throughout the GMAT preparation process is a recipe for stress.

Of course, I realize that we’re all busy people and a good night’s sleep isn’t always on the menu. Nevertheless, if you’ve been feeling a high level of GMAT stress, you may want to evaluate your sleep schedule. Have you been going to sleep at widely varying times from one night to the next? Do you get less than 7 hours of sleep on most nights, and far less than that amount on many?

A smartwatch, fitness tracker, or even just a reminder on your phone can help you become more aware of when you’re getting to bed each night and help keep you on a more regular schedule. If your sleep schedule has been seriously off, incremental improvements should bring down your level of stress, even if you can’t get the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep every night.

Tip #4: Don’t Study When You’re Tired

Just as keeping a regular sleep schedule will help reduce stress, not studying when we’re tired will make GMAT prep a much less stressful process.

If all or many of your GMAT study sessions are at times of day when you’re already exhausted from, say, a long day at work, chronic stress is bound to be a problem. If you tend to study when your energy is low, then you probably won’t feel like you have the energy to deal with the GMAT.

So, you have to be strategic about what times of day you schedule your GMAT prep for. Shuffle things in your schedule if you can, so you can study for the GMAT when your mind is fresh. Schedule longer study sessions on days when you have less to do and shorter ones on days when you’re busier.

You may also want to break your GMAT prep into shorter sessions in general, if long study sessions feel overwhelming. For instance, if you generally study for an hour and a half in the evening when you get home from work, you could try studying for 30 minutes before work, 30 minutes during lunch, and 30 minutes in the evening instead. “Bite-size” study sessions may feel more manageable for you, and thus less stressful.

Overall, your GMAT preparation will be more effective and less stressful if you study when you have the mental bandwidth. So, if you’ve been feeling very stressed whenever you sit down to study, you may need to rethink your time-management.

Tip #5: Give Yourself a Cheat Day

Burnout is real, and it’s heavily tied to the amount of stress you feel in relation to your GMAT prep. So, if your attempts to reduce GMAT stress aren’t having much of an effect, it may be time to take a day off from GMAT studying. In fact, having a cheat day every once in a while is a great way to get some much-needed GMAT stress relief and come back to your studies with renewed vigor.

A cheat day is a guilt-free day to do something relaxing and fun instead of studying for the GMAT. Go to the movies or the beach. Go out to dinner or grab a drink with friends. Whatever you do, give yourself a break from thinking about the GMAT. Recognize the importance of recharging your batteries. Just make sure to jump back on the GMAT bandwagon after your cheat day is over.

Tip #6: Don’t Try to Learn Too Much at Once

A big driver of GMAT stress is cramming in too much information or too many different things at once. If, for whatever reason, you’ve decided that you must be ready to take the GMAT in 2 months, or 10 weeks, or whatever arbitrary timeline, and you’re trying to cram in hundreds of GMAT concepts in that time, then your high stress level can’t be very surprising.

If you’re working a full-time job and studying for the GMAT for 5 hours a day just so you can “get it done” as fast as possible, then it’s no wonder the situation feels overwhelming.

Moreover, if you’re bouncing around from topic to topic, trying to learn a lot of different GMAT material at once because you think doing so is more “efficient,” I’ve got news for you. Your GMAT prep is probably less efficient than a more measured approach. Furthermore, you’re almost certainly creating unnecessary stress by constantly switching gears.

You have to be realistic about the amount of time it takes to properly prepare for the GMAT. You also have to be realistic about how many different concepts you can master simultaneously.

Many of us remember how stressful it was to try to write a paper the night before it was due or “catch up” on nearly a semester’s-worth of reading for a midterm in a matter of days. When you try to learn too much GMAT material at once, you create that situation again and again for yourself.

So, have a realistic study timeline and a well-thought-out plan for learning all the GMAT topics you’ll need to cover. That way, your studying won’t feel random or rushed.

Tip #7: Leave Time Between Practice Tests

Another aspect of GMAT prep you don’t want to cram in is taking full-length practice tests. Toward the end of your prep, taking full-length practice tests is an important part of getting ready for test day. However, those tests can take a lot out of you. So, if you’ve been taking a full-length practice test, say, every other day because test day is approaching, and you’re feeling a lot of GMAT exam stress, I’m not surprised.

Ideally, you should leave enough time at the end of your prep to take one official practice test every 5-7 days in the weeks leading up to your GMAT, with several days left over before test day. Having that gap between each test will give you time to rest, recoup, and review your performance, so you can actually make improvements from test to test.

Alternatively, not giving yourself adequate time between tests may make the GMAT seem increasingly stressful with each test. Furthermore, you may not see the score improvements you’re hoping for, resulting in further stress.

I also caution my students against taking too many full-length practice tests. For instance, there really is no reason to take a full-length test every week for the final 2 months of your prep. Overdoing it on practice tests could create burnout, leaving you drained on test day. For most GMAT students, the official practice tests on mba.com are plenty for getting ready for test day.

Tip #8: Create a Routine and Stick to It

It has been something of a running theme throughout this post, but creating a routine can help reduce GMAT stress. Of course, in the interest of reducing stress, you want your routine to be realistic and doable. But the overall point is, if you have a routine, then you’ll feel more in control of your GMAT preparation. And if you feel more in control, you won’t be as stressed.

Preparing for the GMAT will always be somewhat of a disruption in our lives. After all, it’s a big, time-consuming endeavor that requires a lot of hard work and mental stamina. So, we can’t expect to eliminate GMAT stress altogether. However, making our day-to-day feel as “normal” as possible will help. Having a solid routine that you can stick to goes a long way toward creating that sense of normalcy.

So, scheduling your study times in advance, carving out a scheduled time for exercise each day, getting to bed at roughly the same time each night — all of these things will help you create a routine that allows GMAT study to be a regular part of your day rather than an interruption. In other words, as much as possible, GMAT study will become “no big deal.”

Remember, your routine doesn’t have to be exactly the same every day — for most people, it can’t be. For example, most people have very different schedules on weekdays and weekends. The point is to have a routine so you don’t have to worry about how you’re going to fit in all of your various activities or stay on top of your GMAT prep.

GMAT Stress Techniques: In Summary 

There will always be a certain amount of stress associated with standardized tests such as the GMAT. That said, these 8 tips should help reduce GMAT stress, so you can make the most of your study time:

1. Get out from behind your desk.
2. Add a “relaxation reset” to your calendar.
3. Stick to a regular sleep schedule.
4. Don’t study when you’re tired.
5. Give yourself a cheat day.
6. Don’t try to learn too much at once.
7. Leave time between practice tests.
8. Create a routine and stick to it.

What’s Next?

Now that you know how to reduce GMAT exam stress, you may be wondering how to deal with GMAT anxiety. While lowering your stress level may help somewhat with reducing anxiety, GMAT test anxiety is its own issue, and there are specific techniques for dealing with it. Check out our article on how to eliminate GMAT test-day anxiety for help.

If you try the tips in this article and still find that you’re having difficulty coping with GMAT stress, you may want to consider consulting a GMAT tutor. Experienced GMAT tutors often act as performance coaches for test-takers, advising them on dealing with the unique stresses and demands of GMAT prep. Ready to speak with someone now? Schedule a free consultation with a TTP tutor here.