I’ve been studying for the GMAT for about a month now and I feel like I’m almost burned out. My test date is going to be some day in October, so I still have more than two months to go. It’s just so difficult to stay motivated and energized throughout this process. My social life wasn’t that great to begin with and the GMAT has made it somewhat nonexistent. Going into this, I knew there would be a number of sacrifices:
3 Months of My Life – Knowing that my GMAT studying, while intense, would end at some point made it much easier for me to commit and make this one of my goals. That said, I still need to give up 3 months of my life. Lately, I’ve barely had time to go see movies and have dinner with friends. (Though I’ve promised some friends that I’ll be watching Inception with them this weekend) It’s tough turning down your friends in exchange for working on math problems about triangles and memorizing grammatical idioms. Even my Xbox has gotten little traction this past month. Hopefully I’ll be able to look back at these three months and take solace in the fact that I’ll never have to do this long-term test prep study ever again.
My Career – My focus on work has been slowly deteriorating, as I try to get out by 5 pm every night to allow more time to study. Me taking the GMAT and going to business school is essentially a middle finger to my current job and a promise to myself that I will find something better the next time I play career musical chairs. While I honestly don’t dislike my job that much, I know I need one with better career potential.
My Hygiene – Don’t worry, I’m still showering regularly. But my apartment and the inside of my car are definitely a mess. It’s tough to fit in laundry, dishes, and other chores when you have a pile of GMAT books strewn about your floor and hundreds of OG problems still left to complete.
My Health – Before the GMAT, I often attended classes at the high end gym my company pays for. I was also playing tennis for 6 hours a week. Now both of those activities have diminished significantly on my schedule. I haven’t picked up my tennis racket in more than a month. My weak tennis game is probably powder puff by now.
This Blog – Blogging and business school are probably my two top passions right now. The problem is, whenever I blog, I feel like I’m cheating on my GMAT studies and vice versa. The GMAT obviously takes precedent, so if you notice the quality of my posts going down… 🙂
Photo Credit: rutlo
hey
found your post really useful
am going through the same right now
health, fitness , social life – > all is up for a toss.. but the silver lining would be a good score on the GMAT
all the best to you
Pd
Hi their,
It seems that you are totally broken down. Only few months left and that every thing would be fine. I know how it feels because I have also given GMAT. But now I thank GOD that I tested myself.. If you need any help please mail me or log to gmat-strategies.com
Thanks Pranjali. I’ve found that its good to just vent sometimes. Anyway, best of luck on the test. 🙂
Hang in there! There’s a ridiculous amount of work needed to get into/graduate from business school but compared to the other graduate degree programs, it often seems to have the highest ROI.
You could try waking up early to study for the GMAT, I know a lot of people who did that for the CPA and GMAT and were pretty successful since after a long day of work its pretty hard to want to open your GMAT prep book.
Also, you make it seem that you enjoy tennis but haven’t had the time lately… I’d recommend trying to play it once a week or something. I did that with ultimate frisbee and it was a great way to de-stress and look forward to something besides being entirely focused on the GMAT.
Good luck on the test prep!
Thanks for the tips Franklin. I’ll definitely try out studying in the morning. As for tennis, I definitely should get out there more. To be honest, I’ve probably been using the GMAT as an excuse not to play. But since health is a priority for me, a once a week goal sounds reasonable.
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