How to Prepare for GMAT in India?

Since 2010 it has been witnessed that students appearing for Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) in India has increased by 25% while the same number has declined by 4% for Common Admission Test (CAT). The number of Indian students appearing for the GMAT hit an all time high in the year 2013, a year when applicants for the CAT have dipped to a seven-year low. Interestingly, more and more Indian institutions have started accepting GMAT scores and currently about 235 management programmes in India accepted GMAT scores in 2013, up from 37 in 2010.
The rising popularity of GMAT in India can be attributed to certain factors. The introduction of integrated reasoning in its test patterns has found great responses from the Indian students as Indians are normally good at integrated reasoning. This is about integrating information across different areas and is a skill that is particularly useful for consulting jobs.
Seeing the popularity of GMAT in India it would be meaningful for students to prepare hard for the same and reach to a respectable score. In this article certain tips are discussed that would benefit students while preparing for GMAT.
• Consistency is the name of the game. It is not only important to learn the tricks and concepts clearly but is equally important to learn how to apply those in a stipulated time frame. So, regular practice will go a long way for you.
• It is always better to maintain a concept diary for things which have taken considerable amount of time to learn and understand. You need to refer to these critical concepts and revise them regularly to improve your familiarity with these types of questions.
• Follow an exponential preparation pattern. What it means is that as the time to take the actual test comes nearer you need to spend most of the time dedicating in preparation. This will boost your confidence in the actual test environment.
• Many test centres offer only laminated drawing boards for calculations and sketches during the test. This can trouble candidates not accustomed to use an erasable overhead marker – especially left-handed people, who often tend to smear their notes. In order to avoid any of such surprises during the test day you should practice such sessions during your preparation phase.
• There are many sources and companies that provide good GMAT prep tests. The good thing about prep tests used by these companies is that most of them follow the same pattern of an adaptive question algorithm – as the real test does (presenting takers with harder questions). Therefore, it is a good method to use the same prep test multiple times, because as you improve, the questions you will face will be different. So redoing a prep-test exposes you to a greater volume of questions.
• Work on your weaknesses an d maintain a proper balance between your strengths and weaknesses so that both can support your overall score.
• A good method in dealing with GMAT questions (especially in the verbal section) to which you are not absolutely certain of the answer is ‘educated guessing’. This means to quickly rank the five possible answers in order of their suitability and exclude wrong answers. You can save time by quickly eliminating two or three wrong answers and then guessing out of the rest.
Follow the above mentioned guidelines and you can be sure of making a good score in GMAT in India.