![\"Manhattan](\"\/\/cdn2.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2017\/06\/handle-gmat-stress-without-freaking-out-elaine-loh.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding! <\/i><\/b>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n <\/i><\/b>Have you spent months studying for the GMAT? Taken a class? Done <\/span>private tutoring<\/span><\/a>? Do you have an <\/span>error log<\/span><\/a>? Do you have a strict study schedule? Have you done everything absolutely right and the looming test is still FREAKING YOU OUT?!?!<\/span><\/p>\n GMAT stress is totally normal, so please stop beating yourself up for feeling it. It\u2019s okay to have anxiety about this test\u2014the GMAT is actually a pretty big deal. But, let me ask you, why would you not prepare for and deal with GMAT stress just the way you prepare for and deal with Quant and Verbal problems? Meaning, you can\u2019t just show up on test day, take some deep breaths, and expect that the test stress you\u2019ve been feeling for months will magically go away. You need to do mentality work along with your studies of special triangles and grammar rules.<\/span><\/p>\n Full disclosure: I\u2019ve always been the type of person who thought that affirmations were hokey. When I tried to meditate, I\u2019d fall asleep\u2014or be really stressed out about wasting time. I always believed that if you just put your mind to it, you could conquer anything. Now, I realize that I used to equate my \u201cmind\u201d with my \u201chard work.\u201d These are two separate things entirely!! You\u2019ve been doing the hard work of the GMAT, but the mind needs equal attention.<\/span><\/p>\n Everything I\u2019m going to write after this is what I tell any student who asks me for help with GMAT stress. I will tell you, I have seen REAL DIFFERENCES between the people who do this and the ones who don\u2019t. I haven\u2019t conducted a scientific study or anything, but anecdotally, it seems to work\u2014even for those who don\u2019t believe in being able to change their mindsets. You just have to fake it til you make it.<\/span><\/p>\n The first thing I recommend is checking out Hal Elrod\u2019s <\/span>The Miracle Morning<\/span><\/a><\/em>. I know, the title sounds cheesy! But bear with me. In fact, you don\u2019t even have to read the whole book, you busy, stressed-out person. You can listen to the 15-minute Blink of the book. (Do the free trial of the <\/span>Blinkist app<\/span><\/a> and listen to a brief summary of the book.) There are six things you are supposed to do every morning. I\u2019m going to talk about two of them. I\u2019ll leave it to you to learn about the other four.<\/span><\/p>\n Make it a daily practice. The good news is that you don\u2019t need to do it very long to feel the benefits of meditation. Seriously, Google a 3-minute meditation. Do it every morning, and maybe before bed if you can remember to do it. If you want to be hardcore, do this <\/span>15 minute meditation<\/span><\/a> created by fellow Manhattan Prep GMAT instructor <\/span>Logan Thompson<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Again, do it every day. How do you do affirmations? Easy. Write down five affirmations (e.g., “I am better at Quant than I think.” “My GMAT stress actually helps me perform better.” “Sentence corrections are my jam!!\u201d). Repeat these affirmations out loud every day, once in the morning, once at night. You can stick them on Post-Its on your bathroom mirror. Put them wherever you\u2019ll see them and be reminded to say them out loud. Don\u2019t worry about feeling silly.<\/span><\/p>\n This is not part of the Miracle Morning, but I would also write down three ways to deal with stress during the test (e.g., \u201cWhen I get stressed, I will close my eyes, take 3 deep cleansing breaths, and count backwards from 10. Only then will I get back to the problem on the screen.\u201d) Read these over at least twice a week. Maybe when you’re looking over your error log!!<\/span><\/p>\n And that\u2019s it. A few simple minutes a day, and your score improves. Don\u2019t believe me? Check out this <\/span>study<\/span><\/a> that found that two weeks of mindfulness practice correlated with a 16% increase in score on the GRE. This mentality work is not just to feel better, it is in service of your score. So do it. (And feel better too!)<\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t like this method? Check these other blogs on handling test stress:<\/span><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/articles\/managing-stress-techniques.cfm<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/articles\/managing-stress-tips.cfm<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n What\u2019s your secret to beating GMAT stress? Let us know in the comments!<\/span><\/i> ?<\/span><\/p>\n Want some more genius GMAT tips from Elaine? Attend the first session of one of her\u00a0<\/i><\/b>upcoming GMAT courses<\/i><\/b><\/a> absolutely free, no strings attached. Seriously.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Did you know that you can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GMAT courses absolutely free? We\u2019re not kidding! Check out our upcoming courses here. Have you spent months studying for the GMAT? Taken a class? Done private tutoring? Do you have an error log? Do you have a strict […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":156,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[873,929,52871,9],"tags":[53069,53070],"yst_prominent_words":[53868,53653,53779,55039,53877,53635,53781,53775,56993,56999,53778,56996,56997,57000,56994,56998,53637,56995,53784,53867],"class_list":["post-13907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-current-studiers","category-gmat-prep","category-gmat-strategies","category-taking-the-gmat","tag-gmat-stress","tag-test-anxiety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/156"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13907"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13907\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18387,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13907\/revisions\/18387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13907"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"Manhattan](\"http:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2017\/06\/el-6-need-help.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSo, here we go.<\/b><\/h4>\n
Meditation<\/b><\/h4>\n
Affirmation<\/b><\/h4>\n
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\n![\"Manhattan](\"https:\/\/d27gmszdzgfpo3.cloudfront.net\/gmat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2017\/01\/elaine-loh-150x150.png\")
Elaine Loh<\/a> is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in Los Angeles, California. <\/em><\/strong><\/i><\/b>She graduated from Brown University with a degree in psychology and a desire to teach others. She can\u2019t get enough of standardized tests and has been a test prep tutor and teacher for over half her life. <\/em><\/i>Check out Elaine\u2019s upcoming GMAT courses here<\/a>.<\/em><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"