{"id":9266,"date":"2012-06-30T11:05:45","date_gmt":"2012-06-30T17:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/?p=9266"},"modified":"2022-01-26T13:15:07","modified_gmt":"2022-01-26T18:15:07","slug":"gmat-impact-what-to-do-and-what-not-to-do-on-test-day-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-what-to-do-and-what-not-to-do-on-test-day-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"GMAT Impact: What To Do\u2014and What Not To Do\u2014on Test Day (Part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>When it comes to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this weekly blog series,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.manhattangmat.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Manhattan GMAT<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.manhattangmat.com\/gmat-prep-gmat-instructor-koprince.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stacey Koprince<\/a>\u00a0teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/2012\/06\/23\/gmat-impact-what-to-do-and-what-not-to-do-on-test-day-part-1\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Last week<\/a>, we discussed what to do on test day for the GMAT. As promised, this week we\u2019re going to talk about what <em>not<\/em> to do.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Don\u2019t: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Burn yourself out.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t overtrain in the few days before the exam. This can include taking a practice test within three days of the real exam, reviewing for more than 30 minutes on the day of the exam and studying for more than two hours on the day before the exam.<\/p>\n<p><em>Change your routine.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Keep to the same sleep schedule. Don\u2019t take a sleeping pill for the first time the night before. Don\u2019t have three cups of coffee\u2014or zero cups\u2014when you\u2019d normally have one.<\/p>\n<p><em>Bring GMAT notes into the test center; use electronic devices while on a break.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re not allowed to look at notes or practice problems even while on a break; the proctors can cancel your exam if they see you doing this (or even just suspect that you\u2019re doing this). So don\u2019t bring any notes into the test center in the first place! Make sure you don\u2019t touch your cell phone or anything else electronic during the breaks. You may just be checking the score of the game, but the proctors may cancel your exam on the spot.<\/p>\n<p><em>Dwell on past problems.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Focus on the problem on the screen in front of you; don\u2019t think about problems that have already come and gone. If you find yourself obsessing about a past problem (or anything), tell yourself: \u201cI can think about that all I want, but first I have to finish the problem I\u2019m on right now.\u201d If you\u2019re still thinking about the past problem when you finish the current one, tell yourself the same thing for the new problem on the screen.<\/p>\n<p><em>Try to figure out your score.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t even think about it! Even the question writers have to test each question on a couple thousand students to figure out how difficult it is\u2014and they wrote the questions in the first place! Also, when was the last time you were stuck in traffic and thought, \u201cOh, wow, I\u2019m in the fastest moving lane! Yay!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It doesn\u2019t work that way. You only notice when you\u2019re in the slow lane. The same thing will be true during the test\u2014you\u2019ll only remember the tough stuff, and you\u2019ll think you\u2019re doing poorly. That will hurt your confidence, and then you might actually start doing poorly. Don\u2019t go there.<\/p>\n<p>There you have it: the short list of what to do\u2014and what <em>not<\/em> to do\u2014on test day. Let us know how it goes!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this weekly blog series,\u00a0Manhattan GMAT\u2019s\u00a0Stacey Koprince\u00a0teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense. Last week, we discussed what to do on test day for the GMAT. As promised, this week we\u2019re &hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-what-to-do-and-what-not-to-do-on-test-day-part-2\/\">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-9266","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: What To Do\u2014and What Not To Do\u2014on Test Day (Part 2) | 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-what-to-do-and-what-not-to-do-on-test-day-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GMAT Impact: What To Do\u2014and What Not To Do\u2014on Test Day (Part 2) | 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 weekly blog series,\u00a0Manhattan GMAT\u2019s\u00a0Stacey Koprince\u00a0teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense. Last week, we discussed what to do on test day for the GMAT. As promised, this week we\u2019re &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-what-to-do-and-what-not-to-do-on-test-day-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-06-30T17:05:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-26T18:15:07+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: What To Do\u2014and What Not To Do\u2014on Test Day (Part 2) | 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-what-to-do-and-what-not-to-do-on-test-day-part-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"GMAT Impact: What To Do\u2014and What Not To Do\u2014on Test Day (Part 2) | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","og_description":"When it comes to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. 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As promised, this week we\u2019re &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-what-to-do-and-what-not-to-do-on-test-day-part-2\/","og_site_name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","article_published_time":"2012-06-30T17:05:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-01-26T18:15:07+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-what-to-do-and-what-not-to-do-on-test-day-part-2\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-what-to-do-and-what-not-to-do-on-test-day-part-2\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeremy Shinewald","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74216774a1761e746e2426c9c8171f5f"},"headline":"GMAT Impact: What To Do\u2014and What Not To Do\u2014on Test Day (Part 2)","datePublished":"2012-06-30T17:05:45+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-26T18:15:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-what-to-do-and-what-not-to-do-on-test-day-part-2\/"},"wordCount":508,"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-what-to-do-and-what-not-to-do-on-test-day-part-2\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-what-to-do-and-what-not-to-do-on-test-day-part-2\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-what-to-do-and-what-not-to-do-on-test-day-part-2\/","name":"GMAT Impact: What To Do\u2014and What Not To Do\u2014on Test Day (Part 2) | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-06-30T17:05:45+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-26T18:15:07+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-what-to-do-and-what-not-to-do-on-test-day-part-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-what-to-do-and-what-not-to-do-on-test-day-part-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/gmat-impact-what-to-do-and-what-not-to-do-on-test-day-part-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"GMAT Impact: What To Do\u2014and What Not To Do\u2014on Test Day (Part 2)"}]},{"@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. 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