How to Approach the GMAT

A beginner’s guide to GMAT Materials:

The first thing any MBA aspirant should do is visit official MBA/GMAT site …spend some 2-3 hours there. (or even 2-3 days!) & read as much as you can. The information published there is unbiased, genuine, authentic, eye-opener & myth-breaker.

Then you should download a sim CAT GMAT test available there: name is GMAT Prep; it’s of ~25MB size.

The site mba.com will help you understand: what’s GMAT in general terms, its significance, its structure and the way company conducts the test worldwide.

(I will not go into GMAT structure in detail since that’s not the purpose of this article. Let’s focus on resources/study materials for GMAT! )

You’ll obviously need some books to prepare for GMAT. GMAC, the organisation that sets GMAT test, published three books recently, known as official guides.

They are: (Follow the link to read reviews about these books)

they are nicknamed as orange, purple and green guides respectively. (Note that the article first published in early 2007/late 2006; today OG 12th edition & 2nd edition of Verbal & Math guides are available You can check the detailed review in my GMAT books review page.)
Official guide 11th edition is THE book you should start with and end your preparation.

You should trust these guides along with GMATPrep software (mentioned in 2nd para).

Although these guides and a simulation software for CAT (computer adaptive test) are fantastic for the practice problems, they don’t provide study strategies…

In short: when it comes to problems solving in practice sessions, nothing beats above mentioned materials. But for strategies and tactics (read shortcuts! ) you need to look for some extra materials.

Other books I would recommend:

Kaplan GMAT 2008 Premier Program (w/ CD-ROM) (Kaplan Gmat (Book & CD-Rom)) (latest edition with CD : best buy /2006 edition will also do ( both are same) : comprehensive book, covers everything)
Cracking the GMAT with DVD, 2008 Edition (Graduate Test Prep) or Click here for older and cheaper version by Princeton review (Caution: it doesn’t have C A T in its DVD; good strategies & comprehensive, covers everything though )
Kaplan GRE & GMAT Exams Math Workbook: Fourth Edition (Kaplan Gmat Math Workbook) ( very elementary good for starters & weak at math : not recommended )
Kaplan GMAT 800, 2007-2008 Edition (Kaplan Gmat 800) (for advanced students who want to score higher I purchased it; caution: AWA essay section not included )
Sentence Correction GMAT Preparation Guide (Manhattan GMAT Preparation Guides) (PURE GOLD I CANT WRITE MORE :A MUST HAVE BOOK FOR ‘weak in SC’ )
All books from Manhattan GMAT store. Lately I have become a fan of Manhattan GMAT thanks to Stacey Koprince.

(I’ll write an article exclusively for recommended books some time soon.) By the way, these books offer good strategies to attack GMAT; they’ll show you how to approach each section and each problem individually.

But then for taking the test in one go you need to have a patience, faith and stamina. & for that, you need to take as many GMAT simulation tests/ CATs as possible.

[Note: Do not rush and sign up for just any sim CATs available on would wide web.]

Following are the GMAT prep companies you should trust: Reason : they have done enough research to come near to the real GMAT test… (still they are not as near as GMAT Prep or POWER Prep)

[Note that I am not talking about GMAT coaching institutes but the online resources for practice tests ]

mba.com (nearest possible)
manhattangmat.com (?near? quant tough)
800score.com (easier)
kaptest.com (tough)
pricetonreview.com (neutral)

They offer good Sim GMAT tests.

Note that I have not mentioned about other books or other sites for practice tests which simplymeans they are NOT worth your time & money. Caution: This has exception of Veritas Prep. I haven’t had chance to review their products.

Now let’s have some non-brand materials,

Materials those are freely available on cyberspace and have no copyright issues.

BeattheGMAT’s flashcard (best flashcards you could get )

Grammar Notes:

Sahil’s Grammar Notes
Spidey’s Sentence Correction Notes & some more docs such as Rajat-nda’s notes.

You will get above documents anywhere online, just search around on GMAT related forums. The reason why I am so selective in mentioning about the resources is, people just take any darn test or soft copies of books available on internet just to end up in pracitsing non-GMAT questions.

Therefore I am with trusted and reputable resources. I insist…

DONT WASTE YOUR TIME IN STUDYING AND PRACTISING WRONG SETS OF PROBLEMS.

…still if you want more practice problems then download thousand series by scoretop

1000 SC
1000 CR
3000 RC

Again, these documents are available freely everywhere on internet. Note that documents do not have explanations to the problems. You will have to join some GMAT realated online forums to discuss those problems. I am not pro-1000 series doc as such but I feel these documents are one of a kind. You’ll never get such a great no. of questions compiled in a single document and that too absolutely free!

[OK! After some time getting into GMAT prepeparation/studying environment, you should start realising the easy methods to solve the problems, you should be able to discover some shortcuts. Key is you should examine the strategies that are discussed in prep books and use them according to your needs & study-style.] If you see these signs you know that you’re going in the right direction. All the best 🙂

Post GMAT course for getting admission into MBA programs

While prepping for GMAT you should also be aware of the b-schools you want to apply. You must have a long term plan & You should do some research on the b-schools that suits your long term goal.

For such informations you have b-schools’ own web-sites which give all information about MBA programs you desire/along with plenty of other good sites:

Dave’s MBA Journey

Hjort’s b-school corner from GMAT Club Forums :

There are MBA admission consultants, ready to give you free advice & assessment. Check them out!

Accepted.com

ClearAdmit

Stacy Blackman Co. blog

Above blogs update several times a week; keep tab on all these site & be informed. I think that’s enough for now. Feel free to comment. & yes, subscribe, spread the word! for world peace!
PS: If you like this article, you might like to take a look at this one too: GMAT in a month: strategy.

BeatTheGMAT! [part II] the donations

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[from part I]
Please note that I do not represent beattheGMAT. I am NOT on the board there (…not an admin nor one of the moderators)
I am merely a member of the site and a well wisher. 🙂

Eric, has been very generous, full of positive energy and very enthusiastic about the GMAT in all. More than a year ago he started his GMAT preparation and kept a journal during his preparation. The blog he published is about beating the GMAT in eighty days. After his blogs success, last year he declared two scholarships to GMAT aspirants from the money he earned through his blog.

To-day he runs GMAT forums called beattheGMAT! He’s raising the donation for the scholarship his site offer (check part One) . And this year the scholarships are going to be much bigger and wider. The donation you make would help fund monthly mini scholarships along with the two mega annual scholarships (that are happening in spring) .

Now you all lazy bumbs out there stop reading and start moving. Go to your paypal account and make a donation. Every penny you donate, be it $10 or $1,000 makes difference.

Thankyou.

Lets beat the GMAT!

Reflection to MBA tour

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My some of friends asked me to write some detailed account about the tour experience and my reflection on it.

So I am adding one more article here. You might find this bit rude but thats the way it is.

The atmosphere in fair hall was supportive. I mean, you feel nervous before entering into the fair but once you have entered you are relieved.

You should avoid being idiot and ask stupid questions to the college representatives. Since the real turn off to the people standing on other side of stall is lack of preparation of visitors. You can learn a lot by simply overhearing the conversation.

Another turn off is when a visitor says that she hasnt taken the GMAT yet. The representatives then fail to gauge your level and hence fail to give good advice. It also shows that you are not that serious candidate among all others.

Now on personal experience:

I was at Columbia desk for most of the time. No person from NewYork City had come to represent Columbia there. All people were Alumni settled in Mumbai. Couple of them were not present in the hall virtually. They were much bsuy attending their phone calls than attending visitors at their desk. 😉

The Alumni were trying to comment to visitors query as neutral as they could and ending up in no real, significant and informative reply. No inside info. The guy was even hesitant to reply-straight a question as simple as whether living in NYC is more expensive than other college campus.

But still it was an experience talking to real Alum of such a big shot school.

Some visitors were not aware how big the name Columbia is and thus asking questions like whether she would get a good placement after MBA from CBS. I moved to next desk
lol.

Some of the school representatives were so desparate to talk with visitors that they were literally calling each person and telling them about their university, giving them brouchers. And all. Yes I became a victum ot such college too. Now I have this broucher in my hand which I am not at all interested reading it. I have something better to do with this pamphlates. Yeah! I am in train right now. I am writing this (rough) article on this broucher. I dont have a notebook to write.
Lol

World MBA Tour at Mumbai.

1 Reply

OK. I am lit’l nervous right now, since now onwards there’ll be two persons who know me ‘in person’ will read my blog. Till yesterday there was nobody. Yes, I met these guys at World MBA tour.

I was saying NO NO to the tour till the day before the event. (Even today I know, it’s bit early for me to visit such forums. As of now I am planning to apply for class of 2011?) But on last day I said OK. My cell phone was on repair & had to go to the city to get it; also I wanted to meet an online buddy, coincidentally he was going to attend the fair. These reasons were enough for me to come to the city and attend the fair. But there was one more and rather important reason to attend the event.

All these days, months, I have been reading about these b-schools, was checking their websites reading numerous blogs and various online forums, I was contented with the stuff I have about this GMAT and international MBA thingie. But the knowledge (information) I have (had) is 2^nd hand information. I never attended such event before; never visited any b-school and never a seminar or as such. Never seen a person, a b-school guy in flesh-n-blodd; how she walks, talks, presents. That”s about it. So this was the time so I thought to visit the fair.

I got a VIP pass from pagalguy.com. I appreciate this and I promise the forum ( here in public) to help and contribute, intellectually any way I can. Thank you pagalguy.com!

Since I decided to go to fair on last day, I was not prepared, neither mentally nor logistically or materialistically. I asked Iday the other day about what to wear. I know it’s a stupid question, but I think, this comes to everybody’s mind when he’s nervous or visits such events for the first time. ( and therefore I am covering this later in the post) I think formal wear + tie would be OK.

The day started and I realised that I dont have the list of the schools attending the fair. I requested in forums to provide the link. Apurv sent me the link. Thanks Apurv. I printed the list, invitation & the VIP pass.

Oh! Did I mention that my home is three hours away (by train 130 kms) from Mumbai? It was noon & I had missed 3 trains already. I was bit tensed since it was 6^th dec. the death anniversary (is that a word?) of one of the founders ( actually principal founder) of constitution of India, Dr. B. R Ambedkar. People from all places of India come to the city and gather at a place called Chaitya Bhumi. (it’s in Dadar)

Train had already travelled more than 1500kms and was ultra crowded when it arrived at my station …as expected. I had no space to move my hip by an inch! I went to city STANDING all the way. Apparently the local train from Virar was not that crowded I managed to get a window seat!

HOW I APPROACHED TO THE FAIR (READ: PREPARE)

Then, in local train, Aim-WSC had some time to check the printed list. I’d shortlisted some schools. The main attraction was the Columbia. (Yeah! theres C in my userid!) I went to library @1725. checked www, checked some websites of the schools I shortlisted. I didnt check Columbia’s since I knew already what I want to ask. After checking the websites I again shortlisted the schools. The no. of schools reduced to very small number then.

When I checked the websites, I checked the tuition fees, living expense, fin- aid & scholarship school can offer, & approx. ranks of the schools from say BW & FT and lastly ROI. Now what ( /all) I wanted to ask there (and inquire about) at fair is alumni network and demographic distribution of alumni

By 1800hrs I was out of library heading to the fair. Am I late? Event started @1700.

The attire.

From the reception counter on the way to the Hall I received many leaflets that I blindly put into my purse.

Purse? No! it was a jute hand bag actually, which some people including myself sometimes think it as awful. At least when you go to such ^posh^ area, you become even more conscious. I didn’t wear a tie. I had thought to wear it in library; ( library is my second home in the city) but on the way, in local train I met a college kid who was also going to fair wore scrappy shirt and pair of jeans. I said heck! I dont have to wear a tie. The reason: I am not gonna make any ”impact” there or something, I am just gonna sort of window-scan the b-school counters that’s it! So no tie for me, it’s still in the jute bag. A plain shirt, trouser with belt and leather shoes. A hand bag in hand & a pen in a pocket. That’s it. Perfect.

The Fair

The first counter I saw in the hall was Columbia’s. I nodded assertively and smiled.

By the way did I tell you Dr.B.R. Ambedkar was from Columbia University. (probably the first Indian!!) It was bit crowded so I moved on without stopping @CBS. I checked entire hall (two halls actually). You can gain a lot just by overhearing the conversation, provided you blindly jumped in such forums without doing your homework. I checked U at Buffalo, state U of NY. Enquire about financing options. I shortlisted few more state colleges which I cancelled to visit once I was in the hall. I already knew most of the answers, rep was giving.

I would have been happy if Kellogg had come to the tour. The Kellogg site disappointed me big time (and maybe that’s why theres no K in my userid :D)

Some other big schools came, like Chicago GSB, Tuck, Darden. But I was not interested. Thankyou.

Now remains wharton and Columbia.

I just looked at big W’s stall, the most crowded one. Sigh! I never wanna go there. I know A to Z of W’s website. Heck I have been checking the site since I got the internet connection @home. I know I am crazy. But there are many crazy people around here, reading my blog :p

I had a healthy talk with one of the CBS alumni. ~20mins I was @ CBS stall.

Asked some questions about blogging ( yeah that’s right. You wanna hear it?) also whether adcoms do investigative job & check applicants other online activities? @ MySpace, forums or @ blogs et al.

The answer is NO. unless you specify about it in you essay. The other alumna also gave me strat on how to deal with such situations. Haa haa though I have no bad record in cyberspace it was for my other online buddies 😀

Overall the visit paid off.

Met Rohit and Sonam, these guys work for pagalguy.com thumbs up once again thanks for the pass, fellas.

My online buddy was in seminar which I missed. I attended some of the last part of the seminar which was cool. No regrets though, since I was talking with CBS people then.

I met the online buddy there were two of them. And together we complete another round in the hall. On return I saw a familiar face at the other side of the counter. I greeted him and asked whether we have met earlier? Yeah! the person has done MBA from of that particular school. I am so happy, Now. I was not aware that this guy is one of the alumni of my one the fav. School. THIS IS A BONUS.
And the best part is he’s in the same industry that I am interested in. that’s triple bonus!

BONUS BONUS BONUS.

Things I regret for:

Not attending seminars, they were good and boy! it was Matt Symonds. yet was free of cost.
Not taking down the address/ visiting card of alumni with whom I talked. But I know I will meet him sometime in future (the bonus guy, yes very stupid of me, not taking his card).
And most importantly for not asking question to alumni about the total expense in MBA education. What I mean is, is there some truth in Forrest gumps BW finding?
You can discuss about it here. Is really Harvard or to say any top notch school�s that expensive? $345000?

I think alumni are best persons to answer this.

So all you readers/ bloggers out there please tell me the answer, sicne I forgot to ask about it in the fair.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE ATTENDANTS:

Make best of your trip. Do good homework.
Bring a pocket notepad.
Check with alumni & if day is good, ask for visiting card.
Believe in yourself attire is not that important afterall, the place’s always crowded. But if you’re expecting instant interview, or have taken appointment of any adcom/person: wear suit. (And if it’s New Delhi: always wear the suit)
The fair also showcase huge no. of scholarships for various MBA programs, get the forms filled & all the best!

BeatTheGMAT! [part I] the scholarships

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There are so many GMAT preparation websites. Most of them provide quality content. And then threes are some fake websites. Lets not talk about those sites. Lets assume all renowned GMAT preparation sites and forums are genuine and provide quality content.

Among them,

· there are some sites who charge $$ to their prospective clients/ students/ GMAT aspirants/ members for the so called premium content they provide.

· Then, there are some semi-free websites who provide mediocre content to their general members and premium quality content to their ^VIP^ members.

· Then, there are some sites that are absolutely free. They share everything; all content / material with their members.

· And finally, there are some sites who provide not only all content/ material free of cost but they also offer $$ to their members.

Wait wait wait!. Does this fourth category really exist?

If yes then I am in!!

Yeah! Dig more and youll find that there are no such sites present on the world wide web except one…the name is beattheGMAT!

Yeah! You heard it right. Its www.beattheGMAT.com

BeattheGMAT! Offers monthly $mini-scholarship$$ and two mega yearly scholarships to GMAT aspirants who are members of the site.

So register now!

TO BE CONTINUE…

What it takes to be the best B-school

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dear b-schools, DO YOU HAVE IT IN YOU? (lolz :p)
Check this out!!

I have a question. People normally talk about “Top Business Schools”. My question is which exactly are the top business schools around the globe ? What qualifies a school to fall in this category ?

Baccardisprite answers:

It’s a good question.
My answer / definition, both arguable and debatable is – A top business school (below in no particular order):

is almost immediately recognized and recalled (instant oohs… and aahs…) i.e a well-known university or legacy brand that has built itself over many years of the success enjoyed by its alumni (both of the university and the business school)
offers it’s students a superior allround academic, social and cultural experience
(in a stable/good economy) opens professional doors for the students in the form of strong access to its closest job market with less regard to a students back-ground, origin, or citizenship or in some cases even pre-MBA experience – in other words the opportunity to change elements of one’s career (industry, function and geography). Example – a Top US school to the US job market. An INSEAD all over Europe and the UK. An LBS in London.
has a strong, legacy network of alumni who are known for their willingness to help current graduates
has career services that possesses the street-credibility to bring top companies from various industries to campus; therefore the oppportunity for MBAs to meet, network and interview with; and offers the right king of training, advice and guidance for students to confidently go off-campus to find their jobs
offers you the ability to experience a program with smart (or smarter), ambitious, knowledgeable and wise peers.

These are the things I wanted from my school. Below are the schools that largely fulfil these criteria. These regularly turn up in the rankings NOT because the magazines think so but because they have built themselves over years of success and investment of time, money, and effort to the criteria stated above:

USA – Stanford, Harvard, Wharton, MIT-Sloan, Chicago, Kellogg, Columbia, Michigan, Tuck, Duke, Darden, Haas, Yale and a few others I might have missed.

Canada – Richard Ivey, Rotman, Queens and York – good because they’re good schools and I understand that Canada has recently started offering MBAs the opportunity to work in Canada for 2 years after graduation (this needs to be confirmed).

EU – INSEAD, London Business School, IMD + more recently the European schools that made it to the UK Government’s HSMP list of school’s whose MBA graduates are eligible for a work-permit (NOT tied to employer) in the UK.

Asia Pacific – IIM (A/B/C) – now with the PGPX which is likely to be a success, ISB, INSEAD (Singapore), U-Chicago (Singapore EMBA for more experienced people in the region), Ivey (Part time in Hong Kong), CEIBS (Shanghai).

Notice that I would NOT rank the top 2 Australian Schools here until /unless Australia offers a good opportunity for Internationals to work in Australia after the MBA. Currently not the case as Australia is generally unwelcoming to non-Aussies or non-permanent residents. Unless the country offers an automatic opening to work there or at least a short term chance to work without having to be sponsored, this is NOT a good place to study.

If someone has recent updates that show an improvement to this, please share.

Given their weak career services I would also NOT rank NUS & NTU (Singapore) and CUHK and HKUST (both in Hong Kong).

Hope this helps everyone.

COURTESY NOTE:
Taken from B-schools-Assistance desk thread of pagalguy.com. (very heavy and informative thread by the way!

the thread is mostly controlled by the big-guy.

This guy, (calls himself baccardisprite) lives in Switzerland (spelling check :p).
Whaterver he writes is pure gold, product extracted from is wide work-experience (more than hundred months of international work-experience.) and twelve months of heavy duty MBA from one of the top b-schools in the world. JohnyCAGE recommends to go through all articles he posted.
I have extracted some of his thoughts on what it takes to be the best business school.
(reference link)

Johny learns to blog