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Introductory Note: Typically, Harvard Business School launches the MBA application season and then other business schools quickly follow suit. Earlier this week, HBS admissions director, Dee Leopold, announced that HBS would be releasing its essays during the final week of May. Meanwhile, Columbia Business School’s Admissions Director, Amanda Carlson, sent a message that she waits for no one. CBS officially released its essay questions today – you will find the questions and our analysis below.

This year, Columbia Business School (CBS) continues a trend that has developed over the past three seasons, once again reducing the number of words applicants can use to tell their story. Last year, CBS allowed applicants 200 characters with which to respond to its short-answer question and 1,250 words total for its three essays—not much room to showcase one’s strongest attributes and set oneself apart from the pack. Now, CBS candidates have a mere 100 characters for the short-answer question and 1,000 words for the three essays.

Unfortunately, this reduced word count does not make your task as an applicant any easier—especially when you have only one essay (Essay 3) in which to discuss something outside the professional/academic realm and reveal your more personal side. Hopefully, our essay analysis can help you strategize…

Short Answer Question: What is your immediate post-MBA professional goal? (100 characters maximum)

Do not pretend to be anything you are not. Reveal honest, ambitious goals that are also realistic.

These two sentences are 98 characters long. You can now see just how brief you need to be with CBS’s short-answer question. Yet you must still demonstrate that you can convey a point within such strict limits. So, we are sticking with the advice in our example. Do not misguidedly believe that admissions officers have a preference for specific professions or industries—they do not. Think about what you truly want to do with your career and state it directly. Then, be sure that the rest of your application provides evidence that this goal connects to your existing skills and profound interests, making your professed goal achievable and lending credibility to your statement here. If you can do this in 100 characters—and remember that we are talking about characters, not words—you will have answered this question quite well.

Essay 1: Given your individual background, why are you pursuing a Columbia MBA at this time? (Maximum 500 words)

Because the CBS admissions committee is asking “why” you have chosen to pursue an MBA, you can justifiably delve into your professional career and explain how you identified your need for this particular advanced degree. However, take care not to overwhelm the admissions committee with an unnecessary level of detail about your career history. We cannot emphasize this strongly enough—the admissions committee does not want a recap of your entire resume—moreover, such detail would use up valuable word count. Approximately 100–150 words on your past should be enough to provide appropriate context.

You could perhaps offer an anecdote that reveals an academic or experiential void on your part, or explain that now is the right time for you because you have just completed a lengthy assignment and are ready to transition to the next phase of your career. A number of good reasons exist for wanting to earn your MBA now—just make sure that in your essay, the story of your progression is clear and you demonstrate the momentum and advancement that have brought you to this point. You will then need to explain how and why an MBA will serve as a bridge to the next level of your career. Notice that the school very specifically asks why you wish to earn a “Columbia MBA,” so you absolutely must incorporate into your essay elements of the CBS experience that are pertinent to your candidacy. Do not just list classes, but give a reasoned argument that explains how your goals, timing and CBS all intersect to make this the right time and the right experience for you.

Because personal statements are similar from one application to the next, we have produced thembaMission Personal Statement Guide, which helps applicants write this style of essay for any school. We offer this guide to candidates free of charge. Please feel free to download your copy today.

For a thorough exploration of CBS’s academic program/merits, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to Columbia Business School. We also suggest that you visit the campus (a must if you live anywhere near New York) and use your network to connect with students to gain a firsthand understanding of the CBS experience.

Essay 2: Columbia Business School is located in the heart of the world’s business capital – Manhattan. How do you anticipate that New York City will impact your experience at Columbia? (Maximum 250 words)

Please view the videos below:

New York City – limitless possibilities

New York City – fast paced and adaptable

This question may seem challenging, but the key here is not to consider what New York City offers in general, but to instead focus on what you need from your educational experience and then address how this will be fulfilled or enhanced by the school’s location. We strongly encourage you to develop your core ideas before you watch the two videos the school provides as context for this question. Watching these videos first might lead you to deliver a canned or clichéd response, rather than honestly contemplating your needs and New York City’s ability to respond to them.

If you find that your sincere reasons for wanting to study in New York City are ones that others can also claim—such as proximity to Wall Street—you will need to do your homework and take your research a step further. Offering proximity to Wall Street alone would constitute a clichéd response, but taking your essay to a more granular level and discussing how specific experiential opportunities speak directly to your niche interests will allow you to “own” those resources and really personalize this brief, 250-word essay.

Essay 3: What will the people in your Cluster be pleasantly surprised to learn about you? (Maximum 250 words)

Stop now and consider what the admissions officers will know about you at this point from the other elements of your application they have already reviewed. They will probably have read your resume and thus gotten a sense of your career path to date. Your other essays should have provided an understanding of your goals and why you want to be at CBS and in New York City. They may have had some brief glimpses into your personality through these avenues, but this essay is your overt opportunity—albeit brief—to give the admissions committee a sense of your true character.

The key words in this question are “pleasantly surprised.” Although you certainly want to offer something surprising, you obviously do not want that surprise to be unpleasant. “Surprise” does not need to be understood as “shocked.” Do not think you need to totally revolutionize their understanding of you in a mere 250 words (though if you can, that is fine). Our point is that you should not worry if you have not climbed Mount Everest or launched a $50M venture capital–backed start-up. You are not expected to have spectacular achievement to share—CBS just wants to get to know you better by learning about an interesting aspect of your life. Whether you spent a month volunteering in Peru, helped put your sister through school or are passionate about flamenco dancing, these are all suitable stories, and one is not necessarily better than the other. What is important is that you show how what you do is manifest. You must offer a narrative that engages the reader in your actions and emphasizes how you conduct yourself.

We should note that you do not need to answer a question that was not asked. So in this case, you do not need to tie your response to CBS and explain how this aspect of your life will allow you to contribute to the school or your cluster. Not only is this unnecessary, but such attempts are also often transparent and cloying. If the school wanted you to include such information, it would have asked for it.

Optional Essay: An optional third essay will allow you to discuss any issues that do not fall within the purview of the required essays.

However tempted you might be, this is not the place to paste in a strong essay from another school or to offer a few anecdotes that you were unable to use in any of your other essays. Instead, this is your opportunity, if needed, to address any lingering questions that an admissions officer may have about your candidacy, such as a poor grade or overall GPA, a low GMAT score, a gap in your work experience, etc. In our mbaMission Optional Statement Guide, we offer detailed advice on when and how to take advantage of the optional essay, with multiple examples, to help you mitigate any problem areas in your profile.

Great Problem to Have: I’m In…Now What? (Poets & Quants)

After getting into business school, you enter a unique phase of your life. Here’s how one accepted MBA student spent the 7 months prior to the start of b-school.

What Don’t They Teach You At Business School? (Forbes)

Brian Kane, who holds a BBA and an MBA in marketing, shares some valuable “real world” skills that he didn’t learn in business school.

Does An MBA Make You Happy? The MBA Happiness Index 2013 (Forbes)

The results from a recent survey deliver an overwhelming message that the MBA itself is a considerable source of happiness.

Joseph Stiglitz on What Business Schools Teach That’s Wrong (The Motley Fool)

Nobel Prize-winning economist answers the question, “What is something that is taught in the modern business school that gives a flawed sense of how risk and financial markets work?”

Did we miss your favorite article from the week? Let us know what you have been reading in the comments below or tweet @ManhattanGMAT

When you arrive

There will be some kind of outer waiting area, followed by an inner office containing the biometric equipment and finally the “inner sanctum”: the testing room.

When you first arrive, you’ll be asked to read (and digitally sign) a bunch of legalese. Basically, you’ll promise not to share anything that you see with anyone else and you affirm that you’re only taking the test for the purposes of applying to business school. You have to sign this document or you won’t be allowed to take the test.

You’ll also be asked for your ID. Check the guidelines to determine what kind of ID you must bring. Further, when you’re registering for the test, make sure that the name and birthdate you enter into the registration system match exactly what’s written on the piece of ID you’ll use to enter the test center.

But wait! You’re not done with security yet. They’ll take a digital photo of you. You’ll also have the veins in your palm digitally scanned—turns out our palm veins are even more unique than fingerprints. Who knew?

Finally, before you enter the inner sanctum, you’ll be asked to place all of your belongings (except for your ID) into a locker to which you will have the key. Everything goes in this locker: your wallet or purse, your money, your mobile phone, your keys, everything. Do not bring any study notes into the test center with you; your test will be cancelled immediately even if you simply leave these in your locker! Don’t use any electronic devices at any time—not your phone, not your iPod, nothing. Do not write anything down during the breaks, even if you’re just writing down your grocery list. Don’t give them any reason to think that you might be cheating.

Starting the test

You’ll be given a 5-page booklet of laminated paper on which to take notes. If you use up the booklet, raise your hand and a proctor will come to see what you need. He or she will give you a new booklet in place of the used one.

If at all possible, try to plan your scrap work such that you need no more than those 5 pages during one section. Then, ask for a new booklet at the end and you’ll start the Quant and Verbal sections with a fresh booklet each time.

During the test, you are allowed to request a new note booklet at any time, even if you haven’t finished using up the last one. I have heard reports of some proctors refusing such requests; if this happens, ask again (politely). Tell them that you specifically asked ahead of time and that GMAC (the organization that owns the GMAT) confirmed that you do not need to use up a test booklet in order to request a new one. They know that it’s an advantage to be able to switch the booklets at the breaks rather than in the middle of a section and they don’t want to prevent you from having that advantage.

You’ll also be allowed to take some tissues into the room with you, but not your own tissues. You’ll have to use the tissues provided by the test center. If you need more, raise your hand and the proctor will bring you more. Note that you aren’t allowed to have an unlimited supply; someone could conceivably write information on tissues and conceal them.

If you’re concerned about noise, you’ll also have the option to use earplugs or noise-cancellation headphones. You can’t bring your own; the test center will provide these.

Now, here’s one of the things that I’ve heard surprised some recent test-takers: you are not permitted to write down notes or set up your scrap paper before the test starts. When you sit down, the proctor will start up the test. There is a short sequence at the beginning where you read some test instructions and select the schools to which you plan to send your scores.

You can try to jot down some timing benchmarks or a few formulas while these pre-test sections are up, but the proctors may tell you to stop. If so, listen to what they say. Don’t plan to be able to spend any time at all writing things down ahead of time. Strip your desired notes down to the bare minimum needed—and practice writing efficiently!

Breaks

When break-time rolls around, you have a choice: you can take the break or you can continue on with the test. (I strongly recommend that you take the break.) And here’s the second item that I’ve heard people express a lot of surprise about lately: you cannot stay in your seat during the break. You either take the break, in which case you must leave the room, or you keep going with the test.

The break is 8 minutes long—but, wait, you don’t have your watch! It’s in your locker. The testing center is required to have a clock on the wall in every room; when you first arrive, check for a clock in the outer waiting area. If no clock is visible or if the clock has stopped working, say something to the proctors right away!

As soon as you get out to the waiting room, look at the clock. Plan for about 6 minutes (because it takes about a minute to get out of the room and another minute to get back in).

Then open up your locker and have something to eat and drink. Walk around. Stretch. Touch your toes and do a few jumping jacks. Use the restroom. Don’t sit down, don’t start reading a magazine, and don’t start thinking about… well, anything really. Not the test, or how you’re doing on the test, or what you’re going to do after the test is over. Just try to empty your brain and think only about what you’re actually doing: stretching, eating, drinking. If you have a favorite song, play it in your head.

When you head back into the testing center, they’ll scan your palm again and also match you against your digital photo. This takes a minute—plan for it.

How else can I get ready?

GMAC has posted a short video showing how the test center works; I highly recommend watching this video ahead of your test date. The mba.com site also contains other resources about what to expect on test day (follow the link in the previous sentence). If you are even a little bit nervous about the test (and most of us are!), read through everything. The more you know about what to expect, the better prepared you’ll be to handle your nerves on test day.

At the event, Gina finds herself liking every guy that she meets: “Guy #1 is smart and successful, so it makes sense that he’s proud of his accomplishments. Guy #2 is really funny and clever. The waiter just didn’t understand his jokes.” Tina, on the other hand, has a very different impression of these guys: “Guy 1 has been bragging about himself the whole time, and seems arrogant. Guy 2 thinks he’s funny, but he’s actually being cruel and making fun of people.”

At the end of the event, Gina can’t decide which of the guys she likes best, because she’s found reasons to like all of them… and she’s overlooked any reasons not to like them. Tina, however, was looking for reasons not to date these guys, so she noticed the dealbreaker flaws. She manages to whittle the list down to one guy whose personality matched hers.

Of course, dating is subjective, and what might be a dealbreaker for one person might be fine for someone else. On the GMAT, though, there are definitive right and wrong answers, and we have to learn how to spot the wrong ones.

Look for Dealbreakers

When it comes to Reading Comprehension on the GMAT, you want to act like Tina, not Gina! You will often be presented with questions whose answer choices all seem to have appealing qualities. If you’re looking for what makes an answer right, you may overlook certain critical flaws, and talk yourself into a wrong answer. If you’re looking for what makes an answer wrong, though, you’re a lot more likely to notice those deal-breaking flaws!

Take a moment to read the following passage from GMATPrep®:

The professionalization of the study of history in the second half on the nineteenth century, including history’s transformations from a literary genre to a scientific discipline, had important consequences not only for historians’ perceptions of women but also for women as historians. The disappearance of women as objects of historical studies during this period has elements of irony to it. On the one hand, in writing about women, earlier historians had relied not on firsthand sources but rather on secondary sources; the shift to more rigorous research methods required that secondary sources be disregarded. On the other hand, the development of archival research and the critical editing of collections of documents began to reveal significant new historical evidence concerning women, yet this evidence was perceived as substantially irrelevant: historians saw political history as the general framework for historical writing. Because women were seen as belonging to the private rather than to the public sphere, the discovery of documents about them, or by them, did not, by itself, produce history acknowledging the contributions of women. In addition, genres such as biography and memoir, those forms of “particular history” that women had traditionally authored, fell into disrepute. The dividing line between “particular history” and general history was redefined in stronger terms, widening the gulf between amateur and professional practices of historical research.

Now take a look at the following question, and ask yourself what you like about each answer choice:

Which of the following best describes one of the “elements of irony” referred to in the highlighted text?

A.      Although the more scientific-minded historians of the second half of the nineteenth century considered women appropriate subjects for historical writing, earlier historians did not.

B.      Although archival research uncovered documentary evidence of women’s role in history, historians continued to rely on secondary sources for information about women.

C.      Although historians were primarily concerned with writing about the public sphere, they generally relegated women to the private sphere.

D.      The scientific approach to history revealed more information about women, but that information was ignored.

E.      The professionalization of history, while marginalizing much of women’s writing about history, enhanced the importance of women as historical subjects.

There were definitely things to like about each answer choice, right?

• In A, the historians of the late 19^th century were more scientific-minded, and there was a contrast to earlier historians.
• In B, it’s true that they uncovered documentary evidence of women’s role in history.
• C is totally true – the passage says, “women were seen as belonging to the private rather than to the public sphere.”
• D is also true – the documents revealed new information about women, but it was “perceived as irrelevant.
• In E, I agree that history was being professionalized, and that women’s writing was marginalized.

So, how do we choose which answer we like best? Well… we don’t! Instead of looking for what you like, look for what you don’t like – the dealbreakers.

A.      Although the more scientific-minded historians of the second half of the nineteenth century considered women appropriate subjects for historical writing, earlier historians did not.

It was actually the earlier historians who considered women appropriate subjects. The late-19^th-century historians didn’t. A is out.

 B.      Although archival research uncovered documentary evidence of women’s role in history, historians continued to rely on secondary sources for information about women.

These historians used new methods that “required that secondary sources be disregarded.” B is out.

C.      Although historians were primarily concerned with writing about the public sphere, they generally relegated women to the private sphere.

This one still seems to be true. “Historians saw political history as the general framework,” etc.

D.      The scientific approach to history revealed more information about women, but that information was ignored.

This one also still seems to be true. We’ll come back to these.

E.      The professionalization of history, while marginalizing much of women’s writing about history, enhanced the importance of women as historical subjects.

Women’s writing was marginalized, but women were not considered important subjects: “disappearance of women as objects of historical studies…”, etc. So, E is out.

So we’re down to C and D, both of which seem to be true. Let’s check back in with Gina and Tina…

The difference between “true” and “correct”

When Gina spoke with Guy #3, she asked him, “Is there anything in your life that you regret, or that you’re not proud of?” He answered, “Well, when I was back in college… wait, did I tell you that I went to Princeton? I majored in econ, and graduated cum laude…” and then he went on to tell her all about his college experience. She walked away thinking, “wow, that’s really impressive!”

Tina later asked him the same question, and got the same response. Because she was looking for dealbreakers, though, her reaction was very different from Tina’s. “He said some interesting things, but he didn’t answer the question that I asked. He must have something to hide, or he’s not a good listener.”

On RC, you’ll often encounter answers that sound good – they might even be completely true – but they don’t answer the question. Here, our question was to find an “element of irony.” We’ve already determined that answer choices C and D are both true, but do they depict irony?

In C, the fact that historians write about the public sphere and relegate women to the private sphere is true, but it’s not ironic. In fact, it’s perfectly expected. C doesn’t answer the right question, so it’s a wrong answer – even though it’s factually true!

In D, the fact that changing historical methods both uncovered more information about women, but also shifted focus away from women as historical subjects is ironic. D is the correct answer – not because we like it the best, but because we had strong reasons to get rid of all of the other answers.

I’m sure you’ve heard people say, “don’t be negative! Look for the positive in every situation.” That may be good advice in life, but you actually want to do the opposite on the GMAT! Focusing on the negative – what’s wrong, questionable, not provable, etc. – will help you to move more quickly and effectively through the answer choices.

* GMATPrep® text courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Usage of this question does not imply endorsement by GMAC.

If 5a + 7b = k, where a and b are positive integers, what is the largest possible value of k for which exactly one pair of integers (a, b) makes the equation true?

To see the answer choices, and to submit your answer, visit our Challenge Problem Showdown page on our site.

Discuss this week’s problem with like-minded GMAT takers on our Facebook page.

The weekly winner, drawn from among all the correct submissions, will receive One Year of Access to our Challenge Problem Archive, AND the OG Archer, AND Our Six Computer Adaptive Tests ($92 value).

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Catch up on some business school news and tips with a few of this week’s top stories:

Business School Rankings (About.com Business School)

Here’s the low down on how business schools are ranked, the types of rankings, and how to find and use the most reliable systems.

An MBA Mom’s Survival Guide (Poets & Quants)

Find out what’s like for a mom with two kids and a management consultant husband to decide to go to business school.

Prospective Students May Want to Attend A Business School Graduation (Graduate Guide)

For prospective business school students, attending a commencement could help you learn a lot about various MBA programs and give you the chance to listen to some notable speakers.

MBA Applications Surge at Top Schools (Bloomberg Businessweek)

The three-year decline in applications to the top business schools appears to be over, reports Bloomberg.

Did we miss your favorite article from the week? Let us know what you have been reading in the comments below or tweet @ManhattanGMAT

Yes, I’m being sarcastic. I don’t think anybody finds this passage “fun.” : )

In fact, that’s why I want to look at another problem with you—this thing is kind of a nightmare!

Okay, if you haven’t already, read the Meteor Stream passage. Note that this comes from the free set of questions in GMATPrep® (not from the practice CATs). Here’s the link to the first question we did (though you don’t need to try that one before continuing with this article).

Click the first link in the previous paragraph and open up that passage in a separate window (I’m not going to show it here because it’s so long!).

Ready for the question? Give yourself about 1.5 minutes to answer.

The Question

“The author states that the research described in the first paragraph was undertaken in order to

“(A) determine the age of an actual meteor stream

“(B) identify the various structural features of meteor streams

“(C) explore the nature of a particularly interesting meteor stream

“(D) test the hypothesis that meteor streams become broader as they age

“(E) show that a computer model could help in explaining actual astronomical data”

Solution

This is a detail question, so we’re going to use our notes and any clues in the question stem to know where to look. The question stem gives us one huge clue: it refers specifically to the first paragraph.

Next, the question says “in order to.” This language typically points to a Why question—that is, why did the author talk about or include something? In this case, the question asks why someone conducted the research described in the first paragraph.

Take a look at your notes. Mine are below, but everyone will have somewhat different notes.

Hmm. The first paragraph described meteor streams… that’s not research, though, just information. Next, the passage talked about building a computer model to show some stuff. That must be the research. Okay, time to dive back into the text and figure out why the research was done!

Re-read the text

Scan until the text starts describing the research:

“A recent computer-modeling experiment tested this hypothesis by tracking the blah blah blah.”

Tested this hypothesis? What hypothesis? Go back one more sentence:

“Astronomers have hypothesized that a meteor stream should broaden with time as the blah orbits are perturbed by blah. A recent computer-modeling experiment tested this hypothesis by tracking the blah blah blah.”

All right, got it! They built the model in order to test the hypothesis. That might be enough to answer the question or the answer might reference the actual hypothesis: they built the model in order to test whether the meteor stream broadened with time.

Now, are you sure that this is it? Maybe there’s more about why later in the paragraph. Should you keep reading?

You’ve got one “why” idea, so check the answers. If that one doesn’t do it, then you can keep going in the paragraph, but don’t try to find every possible answer first.

Test the Answers

Look for language that goes along with this idea: to test the hypothesis that the meteor stream broadened over time.

“(A) determine the age of an actual meteor stream”

This doesn’t match, but it’s still tempting. Why? Oh, right, because the later two paragraphs do actually talk about the age of a meteor stream, and the very last thing the passage does is to calculate the age of the Geminid. But that’s in paragraph 3; this question asks about paragraph 1. Eliminate answer (A).

“(B) identify the various structural features of meteor streams”

The early part of the passage does seem to describe some structural features, but the goal of the computer model research wasn’t to identify all of the various features. Rather, the researchers wanted to test a certain hypothesis. Eliminate (B).

“(C) explore the nature of a particularly interesting meteor stream”

It’s true that the researchers used a particular meteor stream, the Geminid, in their computer model, but this isn’t why they undertook the research in the first place. Rather, they undertook the research to test a specific hypothesis; they just happened to choose the Geminid for their research. Eliminate (C).

“(D) test the hypothesis that meteor streams become broader as they age”

Yes, this is what the passage says: “the astronomers hypothesized that a meteor stream should broaden with time” and the researchers built a computer model in order to test that hypothesis.

“(E) show that a computer model could help in explaining actual astronomical data”

It’s true that the computer model did ultimately seem to help explain some things, but the passage doesn’t say that this is why the researchers chose to build the model.

The correct answer is (D).

Note that a couple of the answers might have been appropriate for a “what” question: what did the model show? It predicted a certain structural feature (the pipe shape), so answer (B) might have worked for a different question. What was the final result of all of the described research? They were able to predict the actual age of the Geminid—answer (A).

Key Takeaways for Why Questions

(1) First, figure out where to look; the clues will be in the wording of the question itself. In this case, they mentioned a specific paragraph, but they also gave important direction when they asked not what happened but why something happened.

(2) Whenever possible, know what you’re not looking for as well. On why questions, don’t fall into the trap of picking a “what” answer. In addition, when they mention a particular paragraph, don’t pick an answer that discusses something mentioned only in a different paragraph.

* GMATPrep® text courtesy of the Graduate Management Admissions Council. Usage of this question does not imply endorsement by GMAC.

Researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara recently published the results of a study following 48 undergrads seeking to boost “cognitive performance.” Jan Hoffman details the research in a blog post over at The New York Times; here’s a summary.

The Motivation

“We had already found that mind-wandering underlies performance on a variety of tests, including working memory capacity and intelligence,” said Michael D. Mrazek, (quoted from the NYT blog post)

Ah, yes, “mind-wandering.” We’ve all had this experience. We’re taking a test, the clock is ticking, and we keep finding ourselves thinking about something other than the question we’re supposed to be answering right now. Maybe we’re stressing about our score. Maybe we’re thinking about applications. Maybe we’re even distracted by work, significant others, family, or other issues that have nothing to do with the test!

How do we stop fixating on other things and concentrate on the task at hand? This study tried to find out.

The Study

First, the students were given one verbal reasoning section from the GRE (fairly similar to the GMAT, except that the GRE emphasizes vocabulary more heavily than grammar). They also completed a task that measured their working memory. These tests are the “baseline” results.

The students were split into two groups; let’s call them Group M and Group N.

Group M attended meditation classes four times a week; these students learned lessons on “mindfulness,” which focuses on breathing techniques and helps to minimize distracting thoughts.

Group N attended nutrition classes, designed to teach these students healthy eating habits.

Afterwards, the students were given another GRE verbal section and another task to measure working memory. The performance of students in group N stayed the same; the nutritional studies didn’t make a difference.

Group M students, however, improved their GRE scores by an average of 12 percentile points! Here’s the best part: the study took just two weeks. You read that correctly: these students improved their verbal scores by 12 percentile points in just two weeks.

The students also reported (subjectively) that they were better able to concentrate the second time around; they felt that their minds wandered less than they had before.

How did that happen?

The hypothesis isn’t that the students became smarter or learned more in that timeframe. Rather, the mindfulness techniques helped the students to perform closer to their true potential by reducing negative thoughts or habits that were interfering with performance. Think how much better you could do if you could turn off, or at least minimize, all of those distracting thoughts that interrupt you when you’re trying to concentrate!

How can I use this?

That short, two-week timeframe is both good news and bad news. The good news is that you can achieve results without having to study meditation for 6 months. The bad news is that we don’t know whether this provides just a short-term boost—the effects may fade over time.

So let’s speculate that the effects will fade unless you keep up with a regular meditation schedule. Let’s also assume that most people aren’t going to make meditation a regular part of their daily life; most will try it for a time and then drop it.

Here’s what to do, then: start learning some of these mindfulness techniques about 8 weeks before you plan to take the test. Give yourself enough time to learn what to do and then make these meditation sessions a part of your regular study schedule until you take the test. (If you’d like to continue after that, great!)

Here’s a resource to get you started: the Mindful Awareness Resource Center at UCLA. They offer free meditation lessons and podcasts. They also periodically offer a 6-week online course (for a small fee, less than $200 at the time of this publication); in addition to the pre-recorded classes, you’ll be able to participate in live chats with an instructor. If you’d rather meet with someone in person, whip out your fingers and run a google search for your local area.

Take a deep breath, exhale, and start learning how to minimize distractions and concentrate on the task at hand. Good luck!