{"id":7673,"date":"2012-01-07T11:00:13","date_gmt":"2012-01-07T17:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?p=7673"},"modified":"2022-01-26T13:15:26","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T18:15:26","slug":"gmat-impact-in-it-to-win-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-in-it-to-win-it\/","title":{"rendered":"GMAT Impact: In It to Win It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>When it comes to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this biweekly blog series, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.manhattangmat.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Manhattan GMAT<\/a>\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.manhattangmat.com\/gmat-prep-gmat-instructor-koprince.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stacey Koprince<\/a> teaches you how to perform on test day by using some common sense.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Or: <strong>the most important thing you need to master before you take the GMAT.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Last night, one of my students told me that he\u2019s struggling to cut himself off on too-hard problems, because normally, he\u2019s \u201cin it to win it.\u201d (For those who aren\u2019t familiar with that expression, it means that if you\u2019re playing a game, you\u2019re always trying your hardest to win.)<\/p>\n<p>I responded, \u201cBut are you playing the right game?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s been playing the game he was taught to play in school\u2014there, getting things right was more important than the length of time spent. In school, grades are almost always based on percentage correct. The best students expect to get everything right. And this is the mindset that most of my students take into the GMAT as well\u2014at least, until they talk to me.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re not playing that school game anymore. This is a new game with different rules. If you play by \u201cschool rules,\u201d you\u2019re not going to get the best score that you\u2019re capable of getting.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, sticking to your timing, learning to make educated guesses, cutting yourself off on too-hard questions and making educated guesses instead\u2014all of these habits ARE the habits of someone who is In It To Win It! You\u2019re not giving up when you do those things. You\u2019re playing the game like an expert.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some additional resources to solidify this new mindset and learn to do what you need to do to win the game.<\/p>\n<p><em>Scoring:<\/em>\u00a0Read the \u201cScoring\u201d section of ManhattanGMAT\u2019s free e-book <em>The GMAT Uncovered Guide<\/em>. If you have an account with us (even a free account), the guide is already sitting in the Downloads section of your Student Center. (Note: It\u2019s in the Downloads section as of the date of publication of this article; it could move over time.)<\/p>\n<p><em>Timing:<\/em>\u00a0Read this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.manhattangmat.com\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/06\/21\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-time-management\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">article on time management<\/a> and start doing what it says.<\/p>\n<p>Good luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this biweekly blog series, Manhattan GMAT\u2019s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform on test day by using some common sense. Or: the most important thing you need to master before you take the GMAT. Last night, one of &hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-in-it-to-win-it\/\">Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;<i class=\"fal fa-sm fa-angle-right\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gmat"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>GMAT Impact: In It to Win It | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-in-it-to-win-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GMAT Impact: In It to Win It | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When it comes to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this biweekly blog series, Manhattan GMAT\u2019s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform on test day by using some common sense. Or: the most important thing you need to master before you take the GMAT. Last night, one of &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-in-it-to-win-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-07T17:00:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-26T18:15:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-fallback-image.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeremy Shinewald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeremy Shinewald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"GMAT Impact: In It to Win It | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-in-it-to-win-it\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"GMAT Impact: In It to Win It | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","og_description":"When it comes to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this biweekly blog series, Manhattan GMAT\u2019s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform on test day by using some common sense. Or: the most important thing you need to master before you take the GMAT. Last night, one of &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-in-it-to-win-it\/","og_site_name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","article_published_time":"2012-01-07T17:00:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-01-26T18:15:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-fallback-image.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Jeremy Shinewald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeremy Shinewald","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-in-it-to-win-it\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-in-it-to-win-it\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeremy Shinewald","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74216774a1761e746e2426c9c8171f5f"},"headline":"GMAT Impact: In It to Win It","datePublished":"2012-01-07T17:00:13+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-26T18:15:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-in-it-to-win-it\/"},"wordCount":380,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["GMAT"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-in-it-to-win-it\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-in-it-to-win-it\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-in-it-to-win-it\/","name":"GMAT Impact: In It to Win It | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-01-07T17:00:13+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-26T18:15:26+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-in-it-to-win-it\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-in-it-to-win-it\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-in-it-to-win-it\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"GMAT Impact: In It to Win It"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/","name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","description":"World&#039;s Leading MBA Admissions Consulting Firm","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"mbaMission","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-organization-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/mbam-yoast-organization-logo.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"mbaMission"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74216774a1761e746e2426c9c8171f5f","name":"Jeremy Shinewald","description":"In addition to being Founder and President of mbaMission, Jeremy Shinewald is a Darden MBA, published author, and the recipient of Poets&amp;Quants\u2019 Lifetime Achievement Award in MBA Admissions Consulting. With more than 20 years of experience and a background as a professional speechwriter, he combines deep industry insight and exceptional storytelling skills to help applicants create powerful, distinctive MBA applications.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/who-we-are\/team\/jeremy-shinewald\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jeremyshinewald\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/author\/jeremy\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7673\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}