I watched a few people playing a friendly cricket match in a ground the other day. The batsman hit the ball. It went to a nearby fielder, and even before the fielder had had time to reach the ball, the whole fielding team – the bowler, the other fielders, the wicketkeeper, everybody – started shouting:
“Come on! Quick! Quick! Quick! Get it!”
They wanted the fielder to collect the ball quickly and try to run out the batsman who had started taking the run.
Now, I ask you: if you were that fielder, what do you think would help you in that moment? The ball is coming toward you, the batsman is taking a run, you’re already under pressure to collect the ball properly and throw it accurately to try to get a run out. You don’t want to misfield it.
In that situation, on top of everything, when all your teammates are shouting at you, “Come on! Quick!”—do you think that helps?
I can say for myself: I would rather they all be quiet and let me try to do my job properly in that moment. Their shouting doesn’t motivate me. It only adds pressure.
And I find when people are preparing for the GMAT, they end up making the same mistake that the fielders were making. Just that, they don’t add too much pressure on someone else. They add too much pressure on themselves.
GMAT candidates already know that the GMAT is important. Many think that an MBA is perhaps the only viable way to make a significant jump in their career. Many believe that an MBA goal will remain distant until they get a good GMAT score. Many Indians also have to deal with the whole “marriage situation” – so it often becomes a race against age too.
So, there is already a lot of pressure typically associated with the GMAT.
And in addition to all this, I find people add so many additional stressful conditions on themselves:
“I have to ace the GMAT in the first attempt.”
“I have to get it done within the next 3 months.”
“I have to apply in Round 1.”
“I have to score higher than the median scores of the B-schools I’m targeting.”
”Failure is not an option.”
”There is no plan B”
(These are all things I have heard from GMAT candidates.)
I ask you:
- Do you think adding these conditions adds pressure?
- Do you think adding this extra pressure helps?
In my experience, I’d say:
- Yes, adding the extra conditions adds pressure.
- No, adding this extra pressure overall does more harm than good, if any. It makes the objective harder to achieve.
Even elite athletes go through this.
I love this interview of former men’s tennis world number 1 Andy Murray in which he talks about a mindset shift he had an year before he finally won the Wimbledon. You can go through the interaction on YouTube if you’d like. I’ve added the key excerpt (from 1:51 in the video) verbatim here.
Interviewer:
Was there doubt in your mind that you would actually get Wimbledon?
Andy Murray:
Yeah, I mean, after Wimbledon last year, I thought there was a good chance I may never win a Grand Slam. In some ways, it was actually good for me to accept that, because then I was able to deal with it a bit better. It kind of relieved some of the pressure on myself, because for years I was thinking:
“It’s going to happen. I’ll do anything it takes to try and make it happen.”
But then, when it actually got into my head that:
“This might not happen,”
I actually started to play better. It took a bit of pressure off myself.
Interviewer:
You almost made peace with the level of expectation?
Andy Murray:
Yeah. It had been so long since a British man had won a Grand Slam – whatever it was, seventy-odd years – that I actually came to terms with the fact that I may not do it.
And once I did that, I actually started to play better.
Think about that for a moment. Here’s a world-class athlete with years of preparation and public expectation weighing on him, who found that only when he accepted the possibility that it might never happen did it actually happen.
What if you did the same for your GMAT?
What if you gave yourself permission to take longer if needed? What if you allowed yourself to retake it if needed? What if you let yourself aim for your best while dropping the “I have to do it, there is no other option” pressure?
It’s counterintuitive, but
- In order to save time, I’m asking you to give yourself permission to take more time if required.
- In order to get a better score, I’m asking you to be okay with getting lower scores.
- In order to hopefully clear the GMAT on the first attempt, I’m asking you to give yourself permission to take multiple attempts if needed.
Don’t add extra pressure in a situation already filled with pressure.
Let the GMAT preparation take the time it needs. Let yourself take the time you need.
Just like the fielder, just like Andy Murray – you might just perform better once you drop the shouting in your head.
And in case you’re afraid that if you remove these extra conditions, you’ll get too relaxed about GMAT overall, can I ask you to try it out for sometime? If you find that you are indeed slacking off if you are more accommodating of your potential “failures”, sure bring the pressures back. But, I highly doubt it’ll ever come to that. I believe:
There is already sufficient pressure associated with the GMAT prep. There’s no need to add more.
Here’s an article I wrote about GMAT and anxiety that you could find relevant: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/conquering-test-anxiety-unseen-battle-anish-passi/