How do I Improve my GMAT® Vocabulary?

The Graduate Management Admission Test®, dubbed as the GMAT®, is a test that is required for all undergraduate business students who want to apply for admission to and enroll in a graduate business school. To improve your GMAT® vocabulary, you will have to do extensive research and practice. Having control of your anxiety before and during the test will also help to improve your vocabulary.

Use available resources to strengthen your vocabulary. The internet has many business reference articles that you can read through, subsequently helping to improve your GMAT® vocabulary. Alternatively, you can visit your school’s library and read textbooks on business analytics and studies pertaining to qualitative and quantitative research.

Regular reading on business methods, especially on subjects pertaining to mathematics and analytical thinking, can help to improve your GMAT® vocabulary. The first part of the GMAT® test, noted as the Analytical Writing Assessment, will test your command of business writing. Consecutive parts of the test, like the Quantitative section, will call for careful mathematical analysis, while the Verbal Ability section will check your overall command of business vocabulary. Extensive research and analysis of business documents will also improve your GMAT® vocabulary, as well as your analytical aptitude and quantitative research capabilities.

If there are certain words or business concepts that are foreign to you, then try your best to take time to read up and familiarize yourself with them. Look up word definitions in a dictionary and make flash cards by writing the unfamiliar words on an index card, with the definition of the word on the other side. Every time you have some downtime, bring out the index card and diligently study the words, which will help you memorize the words and their corresponding definitions.

Gather your friends who are prospective GMAT® test recipients. Using the index cards, play a game of trivia with your friends. You can also encourage conversations about current business events, making a point to use correct words and business phrasings during the conversation. This is a passive, yet relaxed way of imprinting vocabulary words into your memory.

Reduce anxiety before and during the GMAT®, making sure that you stay control of your thoughts and emotions. Anxiety has been known to hinder memory performance, substantially stunting your ability to recall vocabulary words and business phrasing. Before you take the GMAT® test, eat a hearty breakfast and take a quick glimpse of your index cards and business articles. If during your test you feel extremely anxious, take deep breaths to regain composure.