{"id":998,"date":"2009-12-27T11:17:45","date_gmt":"2009-12-27T17:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/2009\/12\/27\/admissions-myths-destroyed-i-should-quit-my-job-for-the-gmat\/"},"modified":"2010-10-07T08:08:51","modified_gmt":"2010-10-07T14:08:51","slug":"admissions-myths-destroyed-i-should-quit-my-job-for-the-gmat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-i-should-quit-my-job-for-the-gmat\/","title":{"rendered":"Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Should Quit My Job for the GMAT"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>mbaMission\u00a0hosts a weekly blog series, \u201cAdmissions Myths Destroyed,\u201d\u00a0for our friends at\u00a0<\/em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beatthegmat.com\/\" onclick=\"javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('\/outgoing\/www.beatthegmat.com\/');\"><strong><font color=\"#990000\"><em>Beat the GMAT<\/em><\/font><\/strong><\/a><em>. Check out the BTG site for fresh material and ours for \u201creprints.\u201d The following piece was penned by mbaMission Founder, Jeremy Shinewald:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Because the GMAT is the sole piece of data that is truly consistent from one candidate to another, many MBA applicants get carried away, placing undue emphasis on the test as the sole determinant of their chances (when, in reality, it is only one of several important aspects of an application). In extreme cases, some applicants will consider quitting their jobs to focus on the GMAT full time. Bad idea.<\/p>\n<p>Why is it a bad idea to quit your job to improve your GMAT score? Quite simply, it sends the message that you can\u2019t manage what others can manage quite well. In your application, you will need to account for any and all time off and if you note that you took time off to study for the GMAT (which would be the honest thing to do), you will be placing yourself at a relative disadvantage to others, who have proved that they can work and study simultaneously (and potentially maintain community and personal commitments as well). By taking time off you will send the unintended message that you cannot achieve what others have achieved, unless you have an uneven playing field. Is that really the message that you want to be sending to your target academic institution \u2013 one that wants to be sure that you can handle the academic course load, a job hunt, community commitments and more?<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of the perceptions of the admissions committees with respect to time off, we think that a calm and methodical approach would be the best one for you anyway. By furthering your career as you study, you will have a sense of balance in your life and relief from the stresses of the GMAT \u2013 a chance to clear your head at the start of the day. On test day, you will have a far better chance of keeping a level head, ensuring that you will do your best on the test &#8212; which was the point in the first place, right?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>mbaMission\u00a0hosts a weekly blog series, \u201cAdmissions Myths Destroyed,\u201d\u00a0for our friends at\u00a0Beat the GMAT. Check out the BTG site for fresh material and ours for \u201creprints.\u201d The following piece was penned by mbaMission Founder, Jeremy Shinewald: Because the GMAT is the sole piece of data that is truly consistent from one candidate to another, many MBA &hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-i-should-quit-my-job-for-the-gmat\/\">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":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-admissions-myths-destroyed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Should Quit My Job for the GMAT | 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\/admissions-myths-destroyed-i-should-quit-my-job-for-the-gmat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Should Quit My Job for the GMAT | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"mbaMission\u00a0hosts a weekly blog series, \u201cAdmissions Myths Destroyed,\u201d\u00a0for our friends at\u00a0Beat the GMAT. Check out the BTG site for fresh material and ours for \u201creprints.\u201d The following piece was penned by mbaMission Founder, Jeremy Shinewald: Because the GMAT is the sole piece of data that is truly consistent from one candidate to another, many MBA &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-i-should-quit-my-job-for-the-gmat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-12-27T17:17:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2010-10-07T14:08:51+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":"Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Should Quit My Job for the GMAT | 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\/admissions-myths-destroyed-i-should-quit-my-job-for-the-gmat\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Should Quit My Job for the GMAT | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","og_description":"mbaMission\u00a0hosts a weekly blog series, \u201cAdmissions Myths Destroyed,\u201d\u00a0for our friends at\u00a0Beat the GMAT. Check out the BTG site for fresh material and ours for \u201creprints.\u201d The following piece was penned by mbaMission Founder, Jeremy Shinewald: Because the GMAT is the sole piece of data that is truly consistent from one candidate to another, many MBA &hellip; Read&nbsp;More&nbsp;&nbsp;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-i-should-quit-my-job-for-the-gmat\/","og_site_name":"mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","article_published_time":"2009-12-27T17:17:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2010-10-07T14:08:51+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\/admissions-myths-destroyed-i-should-quit-my-job-for-the-gmat\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-i-should-quit-my-job-for-the-gmat\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeremy Shinewald","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/74216774a1761e746e2426c9c8171f5f"},"headline":"Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Should Quit My Job for the GMAT","datePublished":"2009-12-27T17:17:45+00:00","dateModified":"2010-10-07T14:08:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-i-should-quit-my-job-for-the-gmat\/"},"wordCount":380,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Admissions Myths Destroyed"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-i-should-quit-my-job-for-the-gmat\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-i-should-quit-my-job-for-the-gmat\/","url":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-i-should-quit-my-job-for-the-gmat\/","name":"Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Should Quit My Job for the GMAT | mbaMission - MBA Admissions Consulting","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-12-27T17:17:45+00:00","dateModified":"2010-10-07T14:08:51+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-i-should-quit-my-job-for-the-gmat\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-i-should-quit-my-job-for-the-gmat\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/admissions-myths-destroyed-i-should-quit-my-job-for-the-gmat\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.mbamission.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Should Quit My Job for the GMAT"}]},{"@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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