How to Prepare for the GMAT?
- 5 Sections
- 96 Lessons
1. Planning & Expectations
18 Lessons
- 1A. Timeline & Expectations
- How long does it take to prepare for the GMAT?
- How to create your timeline for GMAT prep?
- Is your prep going slower than expected? You’re not alone!
- Expect hiccups in your GMAT journey
- 6 Months for GMAT Preparation! Am I dumb?
- How much GMAT aspirants suffer because of this prevailing misconception!
- How GMAT Timeline Expectations Can Sabotage Your Prep Journey
- 1B. Strategy & Approach
- The Meaninglessness of Test Preparation
- Starting with GMAT Prep? Let Me Tell You About My Wedding Dance Preparation
- The Stages of Test Preparation
- Don’t swim against the tide of GMAT
- Learning Debt: The Real Reason Learning Feels Hard
- If you have limited time for GMAT prep, what do you need to keep in mind ?
- What can a GMAT aspirant learn from the story of a bamboo tree?
- Why Your GMAT Prep “Strategy” Isn’t Really a Strategy (And What to Do About It)
- CJ’s Guidelines to make the most of GMAT Club
2. The Psychology of GMAT Preparation
25 Lessons
- 2A. Self-Relationship & Inner Critic
- Don’t Be A Bad Boss
- The Need for Compassion in GMAT Prep
- Handling Self-doubt during GMAT Prep
- I won’t ever accept myself if I don’t get my target score
- B-school rejections, Self-rejection, and a Conversation on the foolishness of calling yourself foolish
- 2B. The Emotional Aspect
- The emotional side of GMAT Prep
- Do you get demotivated very easily?
- Handling the Emotional Aspect of GMAT – Webinar #1
- Handling the Emotional Aspect of GMAT – Webinar #2
- Handling the Emotional Aspect of GMAT – Webinar #3
- Handling the fear of failure through self-acceptance – A webinar
- Handling the fear of disappointing others – A webinar
- 2C. Mindset Patterns
- Why do we madly want to succeed or earn others’ approval?
- Counterintuitive advice – Expecting yourself to fail is the way to succeed
- Do you have it in you to get your target score?
- An extreme example of Learning Mindset
- Want to score high on GMAT? Then, be less serious about it!
- Your encouraging words could mean you have a judgment or an assessment mindset
- Problem → My reaction to the problem → My judgment about my reaction
- The Green Light Principle: Why MBA Aspirants Self-Sabotage (And How to Stop)
- Why We Keep Thinking About Failure and How to Break Free
- From Checking ETA to Checking In with Myself
3. Science of Effective Practice
34 Lessons
- 3A. Why Practice Alone Fails
- Practice won’t lead you anywhere!
- Practice won’t help you if this condition is not satisfied.
- The Reason Your Score Has Plateaued
- Why Some GMAT Students Struggle Despite Endless Practice: The Two Types of Learners
- The GMAT Skill-Challenge Equation: Why Just Practice More Doesn't Work for Everyone
- Scored Low on the GMAT After Studying Everything? Here is the Real Problem.
- 3B. Deliberate Practice Framework
- How To Practice
- What helpful practice looks like
- Co-incidental Vs Conscious Learning
- How to maximize your learning?
- How to Practice GMAT Verbal Questions: Moving From Hopeful to Deliberate Learning
- Why is your GMAT score stuck? Because there is no learning in your learning rituals
- The Hygiene of Learning: The Unseen Prerequisite for Growth
- The Ambience of Learning – The #1 reason you are not learning
- 3C. Learning from Mistakes
- Your analysis could be hiding your problem
- Is overthinking your problem? Here’s the solution
- When, What, and How to learn from GMAT Questions
- Why should I delve deep into questions that I will never see on my test?
- Using Japanese technique to get to the root of your problems
- Three Stages of Making Mistakes
- Why “I’ll Read More Carefully” Is Not the Right Takeaway
- Stop Making Useless Takeaways: How to Actually Gain from Practice
- 3D. Understanding Your Barriers
- Using understanding of triggers to reduce mistakes
- A common mistake GMAT aspirants make
- A common mistake is to practice all the sections every day
- Using principles of Habit formation in GMAT prep
- Why is it hard to change our habits?
- When He Gave Up, He Scored His Best
- Beyond GMAT Concepts: Understand Your Triggers
- Using understanding of Enabling Skills to find the root cause of your problem
4. Speed, Timing, & Measurement
16 Lessons
- 4A. The Timing Myth
- Have you completely misunderstood the timing problem?
- How to reduce time per question? Is timing yourself the solution?
- A comprehensive solution to your timing problem in GMAT Verbal
- Your GMAT Speed Isn’t the Problem. Your Error Rate Is.
- The Slow Path to a Fast GMAT Score: Understanding ‘Rush’
- 4B. Speed Building
- How To Improve Speed
- How to eliminate options quickly in GMAT Verbal?
- The Best Time Management Strategy
- My student used to take 1 hour to read 2 sentences! What can we learn from him ?
- 4C. Measuring Progress
- Are you also measuring yourself the wrong way?
- How To Measure Practice
- How Many Questions To Practice?
- The GMAT Goal Trap: Why Counting Hours and Questions Fails And What to Track Instead
5. Additional Thoughts
3 Lessons
The longer you prepare for the GMAT, the more you realize: the problem isn't what you know — it's how you're approaching the preparation itself.
This course focuses on exactly that. The mindset. The process. The psychological barriers that textbooks and question banks don't address.
If you've been preparing for 3-4 months or more and feel stuck despite "doing everything right," this course will help you see what's actually going wrong.
Please note: This course doesn't cover subject-matter content (Verbal, Quant, or DI). It's entirely about how to prepare, not what to study.
Questions? Comment on any lesson — CJ typically responds within 24 hours.
This email from a student preparing for the GMAT for more than 2 years captures precisely what this course is trying to achieve.
