It just got real, you booked a date to take your GMAT exam and now you are looking more into its sections and how to prepare for it. That means, during your preparations, some technical skills involving math, analytics and logic should be mastered. You have dissected the exam and its sections and now you are set and ready for your GMAT prep journey. But little do you know that these skills are not the only thing you will be gaining during your preparations. The GMAT is also about the soft skills that will make you stand out and thrive in your workplace.
When preparing for the GMAT, you are unconsciously acquiring these top five GMAT soft skills:
1. Decision-Making Skills
Faced with a number of solutions and choices for a specific matter, you are expected to be quick and think critically. Sure, that may be the case during the GMAT, but it also applies to the real world. In your workplace problems are bound to happen. When confronted with workplace issues, what matters is how the problems were tackled and faced. The GMAT is a great introduction to problem-solving under pressure. You are limited, time-wise, and you have to rely on your own abilities to find the best solution. In order to do so, you most likely use your reasoning abilities where you eliminate solution paths until the best option is left over.
2. Time Management Skills
Having too many tasks and assignments makes your To-Do list look a little too cluttered. However, you somehow manage to divide your work and assign certain time frames for certain tasks. During your GMAT preparation journey, you are forced to prioritize tasks over the others and to divide your work throughout the course of your prep journey. Time management is one of the most important GMAT soft skills that you can master with practice. Even when taking the test, time management is vital to achieving your desired GMAT score goal. The ability to equally divide time and give everything its well-deserved attention is a very important asset for the prosperity of your performance and the progress of your productivity in general.
3. Focusing Skills
The workplace is full of distractions and disturbances and staying focused and still being able to see what drives and motivates you can be challenging. Being able to concentrate for hours on end needs discipline and dedication. GMAT takers are no strangers to that. All the time put into studying and preparing is only sharpening their focusing skills.
4. Debating Skills
The GMAT is built around critical thinking and how reasonings and evidence are more than enough to make a point. Through the analytical writing assessment, GMAT exam takers are asked to analyze and evaluate an argument. Consequently, the AWA section requires test takers to communicate their thoughts in a critical and structured way. Your workplace may give you the chance to propose an idea and your reasons should be convincing enough for the team to adopt your proposal. The GMAT preparations help exam takers think outside the box when it comes to arguments.
5. Positive Attitude Skills
Sometimes seeing the rainbow during the rain is difficult. Yet, at times all you need is that little sparkle of hope that will keep you pushing. Studying for the GMAT can be frustrating but the act of positive thinking during the preparation journey will just be a habit unconsciously adapted. Whether it is working on a challenging project or just a bad day at work, your positive attitude will not only lift you up but lift your surroundings and motivate the ones around you.
While all these GMAT soft skills will be gained during your GMAT studies, the usage of a GMAT private tutor will help you reinforce and expand on such skills. Finding the right kind of GMAT private tutor can be a difficult venture, however, an effective private tutor is able to work with your strengths while finding individualized solutions to bettering your weaknesses.
Conclusion
The GMAT is not just an exam. The GMAT is the beginning of developing essential soft skills. It is the seed needed for you to grow and branch out. Yes, to others, it is just an exam, a pen and paper. However, the GMAT is the conscious adaptation of technical and important skills. But most importantly, it’s also the process of unconscious molding and strengthening of soft skills used in your workplace.
Contributor: Lilas Al-Sammak