I hate GMAT!

On a faithful day at my place of work, a discussion came up regarding schools where one could study for an MBA degree. The CEO of my organization is an alumnus of the prestigious Lagos Business School (LBS) and always sings praises about the quality of education and practical experiences he had gathered while studying for his MBA about two decades ago. I then decided to ask him about the requirements to enroll in an MBA at Lagos Business School. He said ‘oh, it’s very simple. All you need first is to sit for a GMAT test…” at this point, I stopped hearing every other thing he was saying about the admission process.

My mind was like, let us stop this process immediately if any form of examination is involved. I just don’t want to stress my life at this point in time. All I desire is to earn a degree from a university with a big name and recognition so as to have a higher chance of earning more income.

My CEO said a lot more after the mention of the entrance exam or something like GMAT “I am not even sure what I heard again”. While I was busy nodding and exclaiming at the things he was saying, my mind was far from the discussion. I had automatically shut down at the hearing of the word ‘GMAT’.

I was so bothered about the entrance examination being the major prerequisite for admission, to the point that my mind could no longer process the rest of the admission requirements such as the tuition fee – which some people consider to be the most difficult requirement.

I tried to regain my thoughts and started paying attention again to some other great things that my CEO had to say about LBS. He recalled great events and relationships that he built while studying at the school. In fact, my organization had recently won a multi-million-dollar business project based on a relationship that my CEO had with one of his MBA cohorts from LBS. This example and many other great examples cited by him made me conclude that I would love to be a part of this great institution of learning as a business executive.

After about two weeks of browsing the internet for GMAT practice questions and tutorials, my confidence level began to improve gradually and I developed techniques that improved my learning across the various subject areas that one could come across in most GMAT assessments. I watched YouTube videos and subscribed to many channels to the point where my YouTube account became littered with various forms of practice and tutorial video suggestions.

I committed to practicing GMAT questions and watching tutorial videos for about an hour daily for the space of two months. I kept to this routine for the first three or four days after which I began to miss and postpone. By the end of the first week, I had gone back to my usual life. But I quickly reminded myself once again a week that if I must attain a great level of success, I must learn to discipline my thoughts and actions.

To be continued in the next post. You can read more about my journey to LBS and my experiences in my MBA program so far.