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GMAT Tips

Test tips from leading prep firms for applicants studying for the GMAT.  If you know your strengths and weaknesses, browse by test section: AWA, Quant and Verbal.
Published: November 7, 2017
GMAT Tip: More On Data Sufficiency
While many folks in the U.S. celebrate the arrival of Thanksgiving (or an excuse to watch American football and pig out on decadent sweet and savory treats), there are others who cringe at the idea of cooking an extravagant multi-course feast. If you’re wondering what late night calls to the Butterball turkey help line have to do with data sufficiency, there are some remarkable parallels between the two that might make for better studying (and happy friends and family on Turkey Day). • Take stock of what you have (& avoid last minute trips to the store). Before you Read more
Published: October 24, 2017
GMAT Tip: Relieving Test Anxiety in the Last Week
Everyone gets nervous and anxious in the weeks and months leading up to test day, but what about the last week or two leading up to test day? If you’ve been sticking to a study plan and schedule, you may still be looking for ways to up your test day game. • Inventory what you know. Don’t worry about trying to learn new material. You’ve already put in the time, so organize and review what you already know. Do shorter drills that focus on specific question types, topics and levels of difficulty. Think through your plan of attack Read more
Published: October 17, 2017
GMAT Test Week Advice: 3 Things to Avoid
You’ve prepped for months, sacrificed happy hours and quality time with your friends and stayed up late and risen early just to get in an extra few drills. Much like an endurance athlete, you’ve put in the time, and the only thing left to do is execute. Often the hardest part of the days leading up to test day is doing nothing and clearing your mind. In this week’s GMAT Tip, we take a look at three things you shouldn’t be wasting your time on during that week (and on test day). 1. No Excuses. We’ve all had Read more
Published: October 10, 2017
GMAT: The Importance of Drills
If you’ve ever played a sport, you probably have a love-hate relationship with drills. Whether it was running pyramids at the track, shooting countless free throws, or taking batting practice until you thought your shoulder would fall off, you probably didn’t feel yourself getting better in the moment. If you’re like most, you probably got excited to scrimmage so you could have a tangible measure of improvement (and the satisfaction of beating your peers). GMAT drills and practice tests function in a similar way; practice tests are the bright and shiny measures of progress while drills get resigned (or often Read more
Published: October 3, 2017
GMAT Tip: How to Master Critical Reading Questions
When I was a kid, all I wanted was a cool mono-syllabic last name. People would fumble through my clunky last name and inevitably layer some hybrid of odd accents in all of the wrong places. I just wanted to play lacrosse and hear “Go Capps” or “Go Carp!” Since I couldn’t change my name, I wished for a good nickname instead because let’s be honest, that can be even cooler. But you can’t pick your nickname, so I ended up getting labeled “JC” (my initials). When you go to a Catholic high school and your nickname is a shared Read more
Published: September 26, 2017
GMAT Tip: Decoding Data Sufficiency
There’s probably no other GMAT question type that instills more fear in candidates than data sufficiency. It’s unique to the GMAT and evaluates a candidate’s ability to discern when s/he has enough information to come to a conclusion. And those who are able to efficiently and successfully tap into those higher-order reasoning skills are ultimately rewarded accordingly. Let’s take a look at a few tips to help you decode data sufficiency: Familiarize yourself with the answer choices.   Just like the AWA and every other section, the instructions and more importantly, answer choices for data sufficiency don’t change. Your inclination Read more
Published: August 29, 2017
GMAT Tip: Finding Your Motivation
If you ask any runner why they run, you’ll get a different answer.  Some run to lose weight while others run for the community and social aspect, but at the end of the day everyone has something that gets them up and out of the door when the conditions aren’t ideal (sadly everyday can’t be sunny with no humidity and with infinite amounts of free time!)  Running isn’t unique in this regard; the road to achieving GMAT success can be equally challenging especially if you don’t have some end goals fueling you every day. You likely have thought through many Read more
Published: August 22, 2017
Tips for Productive GMAT Prep
Whether you’re a day or a month into your GMAT preparation journey, you know how important it is to have a plan and to be able to manage your time well.  If you start researching the GMAT online, chances are you’ll come across the following two questions pretty frequently: 1) When is the best time to take the GMAT and 2) How long should I prep? You won’t find a short perfect answer to either question here (or a truly-helpful short answer anywhere), but you will find some guidance to help you identify the best time to prepare and some Read more
Published: August 8, 2017
GMAT Tip: 5 Things Undergrads Should Do to Prepare for Business School
As summer starts to wind down, many college students are frantically trying to squeeze in a few more weekends at the beach before heading back to the dorms and classrooms. But for anyone thinking about business school or a graduate management degree, there are 5 things you can do before graduation to help you prepare for business school (or any graduate program). 1. Consider enrolling in “free” quant. Take a look at your current transcript and course load. If you’ve managed to make it through your undergraduate experience (intentionally or not!) without setting foot in the math department, you might Read more
Published: June 28, 2017
New GMAC Report: Is the GMAT Getting Easier?
Is the GMAT getting easier? That’s the question that the Graduate Management Admission’s Council (GMAC), a non-profit organization of leading graduate management schools, set out to answer in their recent market intelligence report: The GMAT Exam Is Not Getting Easier: The Fallacy of Score Increases and the Impact of Score Preview. The 26-page white paper is the first in an annual series that will serve as a sort of quality assurance (QA) report for the GMAT. Read more
Published: February 6, 2017
Four Easy Steps to Improve Your Test Scores from ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business
Sponsored Content Your performance on the GMAT or GRE is an important indication of potential success in a rigorous graduate program. As such, you’ll spend weeks, or even months, preparing for your entrance exam. And despite all that preparation, mistakes are inevitable. There are, however, ways to minimize mistakes. Consider the following tips to improve your likelihood of success on test day. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare This is an obvious one. With all the test prep services and practice quizzes available, there’s no reason you should be unpleasantly surprised by the types of questions you face on test Read more
Published: October 4, 2016
GMAT Tip: The Logic in Sentence Corrections
You’re great at grammar, right? You know your idioms, correlative conjunctions, and indirect objects by heart. You could probably teach about past present and future perfect tense to a room full of eighth graders. But, when faced with the Sentence Correction section, you’re still getting 65% or 70% of questions right. If you’re fantastic at grammar, what gives? Most test takers fail to recognize that, frankly, the GMAT is not assessing your ability to effectively mark up paper with a red pen. Even English teachers and copywriters find themselves in a pickle when it comes to the sentence Read more
Published: September 12, 2016
GMAT Tip: It’s Always the Same with Exponents
When evaluating exponent questions in the quantitative section, many test takers freak out when faced with seemingly messy but frequently appearing problems. “Do I need to know logs?” “Wait, is this testing something from Calculus?” Have no fear – while exponents show up often on the GMAT, how these questions show up is repetitive, requiring that we take the same steps over and to solve them. Key things we need to know when it comes to exponents: When we multiply numbers containing exponents, we add the exponents… but they must have the same base. For example: 2^2 + 2^2 = Read more
Published: September 5, 2016
GMAT Tip: Don’t Apply Your Outside Knowledge
The way that we tackle the GMAT Critical Reasoning section (or, you know, most of the GMAT) requires we have the unique mindset of pretending we are totally clueless, but also a keen expert who can find the gap in assumptions made by a critical reading prompt. What do we mean by clueless? Let’s start with one of our favorite Critical Reasoning questions: Numerous ancient Mayan cities have been discovered in the Yucatan peninsula in recent decades. The ruins lack any evidence of destruction by invading forces, internal revolts, or disease, and appear simply to have been abandoned. Some archaeologists Read more
Published: August 8, 2016
GMAT Tip: The IR Matters
Many test takers spent the vast majority of their preparation working towards improving in the Quantitative and Verbal Reasoning sections, only taking a day or two to skim through the Integrated Reasoning sections, and almost always skipping the IR section on practice exams. Not giving the Integrated Reasoning section due diligence and/or just a tenth of preparation time may be detrimental for a competitive application. Set up as an experimental section, many b-school experts felt that the IR would never become a valid aspect of a GMAT application. But more recent surveys indicate that IR is, in fact, becoming an Read more
Published: July 26, 2016
Corrections for The Official Guide for GMAT® Review, 2017
The below information about The Official Guide for GMAT® Review, 2017 is from the Graduate Management Admission Council—the makers of the GMAT exam. This content was originally posted on The Official GMAT Blog. Official Guide for GMAT Review Corrections We recently released The Official Guide for GMAT® Review, 2017 and we have discovered that this version contains a number of typos that occurred during the publishing process. We understand that these errors may make it difficult to understand certain content and could affect the study experience for the GMAT exam. Below, we’ve outlined options that provide updated materials. For complete details and a full list of Read more
Published: May 9, 2016
GMAT: Consider Algebra, not Arithmetic
Many test takers fail to make the connection between not being permitted to use a calculator on the quantitative section of the GMAT and, well, not making intensive, calculator-required calculations. The reality is, when you are working through a question and think a calculator is needed and/or there is some simplistic, obscure formula is required, you are not using the right strategy. This proves most true for arithmetic questions, when tedious calculations take test takers down the road where an algebraic approach should be considered instead. Let’s look at an example: 5^10 + 5^10 + 5^10 + 5^10 Read more
Published: April 25, 2016
So, You’re Terrible at Integrated Reasoning…
Since its release on the June 2012 exam, the Integrated Reasoning portion of the GMAT has had some test takers stumped. This 30-minute, 12 question section is oddly scored on a 1 to 8 scale, and no partial credit is given, even for multi-part, multi-answer questions. For the past several years, it was a matter of debate on whether business schools evaluated applicants on the basis of the Integrated Reasoning section. Admissions offices can be slow to adapt to changes in standardized tests, waiting for enough points of comparison to consider whether the change corresponds with other ways that applicants Read more
Published: April 4, 2016
Probability Tip: Three Strategies That Aren’t Used Enough
Some GMAT instructors will say that students often place too much emphasis on studying for Probability and Combinatorics, rather than spending more time focusing on the heavy lifters of Algebra and Arithmetic. Like it or not, GMAT students get fixated on combinatorics and probability because a) these questions are never, never as straightforward as remembering and plugging into the permutation or combination formula and b) these problems have the illusion of being easy and attainable. But these sticky types of GMAT questions are notorious time wasters, driving test takers deep into a rabbit holes without consideration the right strategies. In Read more
Published: March 14, 2016
GMAT Critical Reasoning Tip: Mind the Gap
Let’s start this post with a critical reasoning question: When a group of people starts a company, the founders usually serve as sources both of funding and of skills in marketing, management, and technical matters. It is unlikely that a single individual can both provide adequate funding and be skilled in marketing, management, and technical matters. Therefore, companies founded by groups are more likely to succeed than companies founded by individuals. Which one of the following is an assumption required by the argument? Before we dive into the answer choices, let’s start by wrapping our heads Read more
Published: March 7, 2016
The Managerial Approach To Sentence Correction
For most examinees, GMAT Sentence Correction can look a lot like a typical workday: you face a series of tasks and decisions that seem a bit daunting and quite a bit out of your control or expertise. But remember: the whole reason you’re taking the GMAT is to eventually become a high-level manager, and what effective managers do is determine where they’re best able to add value and then focus on that. The same ideology should be true of your Sentence Correction approach! Elon Musk is able to spearhead initiatives in space travel, electric cars, and (perhaps soon) revolutionary public Read more
Published: January 18, 2016
GMAT Tip: Know Your Conversions
Powerball fever took over the U.S. in recent weeks, and it culminated in an aspirational post last week when someone suggested that if the winner split the $1.3 billion equally amongst 300 million Americans, it would give each person $4.3 million. While the post went viral, the reasons why were surprising to many folks. Let’s take a look at the quick math… 1.3 billion divided by 300 million. That’s a lot of zeros, but it doesn’t take advanced math to write out the computation: 1,300,000,000 / 300,000,000 = 4.33 4.33 DOLLARS, not 4,300,000… Or 4.33 Read more
Published: December 7, 2015
GMAT Tip: Don’t Let Misplaced Modifiers Derail Your Score
It’s getting to be that time of the year. For the sake of being somewhat politically correct, it’s the slightly-chillier-time-of-the-year-that’s-directly-proportional-to-increased-gift-giving. If you work most 9-to-5 jobs, there’s likely some type of end-of-calendar-year celebration planned which can be make or break time in office social circles. You want to sit next to Brad from Marketing who is super dreamy and knows more about The Walking Dead and Shark Tank than the producers while avoiding Mark from Finance who can be heard a mile away because he jingles orange Tic-Tacs in his shirt pocket. Wait, is it Marketing who is dreamy or Read more
Published: November 9, 2015
GMAT Tip: Pros & Cons of New GMAT Features
It’s nice to have choices (would you have ever choose a free response test over multiple choice?), but sometimes too many choices can be overwhelming. The Graduate Management Admission Council rolled out some new GMAT features this year that give you more choices than you could have previously imagined. While most test takers are rejoicing at the options, let’s take a closer look at some of the pros and cons of the newfound choices: 16 day retest policy (replacing 31 days): Test takers (and schools) were doing cartwheels when this update was announced because every year there are Read more
Published: October 26, 2015
GMAT Tip: Relieving Test Anxiety in the Last Week
“The hay is in the barn.” Before you start thinking you’re reading the wrong blog, this isn’t about farming or agriculture. The saying means that all of the hard work has been done, and all that’s left to do is execute. Everyone gets nervous and anxious in the weeks and months leading up to test day, but what about the last week or two leading up to test day? If you’ve been sticking to a study plan and schedule, the hay should be in the barn, but you may still be looking for ways to up your test day game. Read more

MBA Applywire

6
December 25, 2024 2:16pm ET
Applying: Duke / Fuqua, Emory / Goizueta, Georgetown / McDonough, Indiana / Kelley, Michigan / Ross, UNC Kenan-Flagler
Intake Year: 2025
Pre-MBA Career: Strategy consulting
Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Commercial Banking Companies: Bain , BCG , Deloitte , Ernst & Young , KPMG , McKinsey , PWC , Bank of America , Capital One , Citibank , PNC Bank , Wells Fargo
GRE: 323
GPA: 3.48
Years of Work Experience: 6
12
December 25, 2024 10:52am ET
Applying: Berkeley / Haas, Carnegie Mellon / Tepper, Columbia, Cornell / Johnson, Duke / Fuqua, Indian School of Business, Indiana / Kelley, Michigan / Ross, Northwestern / Kellogg, UCLA Anderson, UT Austin / McCombs, UVA / Darden
Intake Year: 2025
Pre-MBA Career: Supply Chain Management
Post-MBA Target Industry: Other
GMAT: 655
GPA: 3.3
Years of Work Experience: 4.5
Location: India
Post MBA Location: USA
Notes:

Extensive Supply chain experience across Telecom and Aviation industries. Currently working with United Airlines in Supply Chain. Lots of international exposure and experience.
2
December 25, 2024 7:51am ET
Applying: Duke / Fuqua, UVA / Darden
Intake Year: 2025
Pre-MBA Career: Indian Chartered Accountant, Completed Undergrad and Grad in commernce (A and A+ grade)Fund Controlling - PE(Goldman Sachs) and IIF(JP Morgan)
Post-MBA Target Industry: Asset Management, inc. HF Companies: Blackrock , Goldman Sachs , JP Morgan Asset Management
GRE: 320
GPA: A+
Years of Work Experience: 5.5
Location: India
Post MBA Location: US, UK
Notes:

I got waiver from Darden and applying to fuqua with GRE score. Planning to apply to only two schools in current round 2.
Post MBA goal is to transition career from accounting based role to front end asset management roles.
5
December 23, 2024 7:48am ET
Applying: Duke / Fuqua, Emory / Goizueta, Georgia Tech / Scheller, UNC Kenan-Flagler, Vanderbilt / Owen
Intake Year: 2025
Pre-MBA Career: Sports
Post-MBA Target Industry: Consulting, Family Business, Other Companies: Accenture , Deloitte
GMAT: 655
GPA: 3.89
Years of Work Experience: 3
Location: South
Notes:

NCAA DI Athlete
Selected for the industry's inaugural women's leadership academy
Variety of volunteer work in and out of my work industry
6
December 23, 2024 12:19am ET
Applying: Cornell / Johnson, Michigan / Ross, MIT Sloan, UCLA Anderson, UT Austin / McCombs, UVA / Darden
Intake Year: 2025
Pre-MBA Career: Construction & RE (2nd Gen Entrepreneur)
Post-MBA Target Industry: Investment Banking, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Asset Management, inc. HF, Family Business Companies: Citibank , Credit Suisse , Morgan Stanley
GRE: 326
GPA: 3.80
Years of Work Experience: 5
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MBA LiveWire

December 30, 2024 12:21pm ET
Interview Invite to Dartmouth / Tuck
Round: Round 2
Received via email on November 19, 2024
GPA: 3.6
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Finance
Application Location: Houston
Note:

Applied just after R1 (guaranteed interview window for R2)- my GMAT waiver was not approved in time for R1.
30M Indian national working in O&G trading. Mechanical Engineering undergrad in India(4.0 equivalent GPA) and Master of Science degree from Duke University (3.6 GPA).
Chose to do the in-person interview at Tuck. Tuck is the only school I applied to this year and excited/nervous on how things will go. Hoping the waiver won't significantly ding my candidacy as I am from an ORM group.
December 30, 2024 9:55am ET
Accepted to MIT Sloan
Round: Round 1
Received via phone on December 11, 2024
GPA: 3.6
GMAT: 760
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Healthcare
December 30, 2024 9:52am ET
Accepted to U. Chicago Booth
Round: Round 1
Received via portal on December 04, 2024
GPA: 3.6
GMAT: 760
Program Type: Traditional Two-Year
Target Career: Healthcare
Application Location: Boston
December 29, 2024 11:08pm ET
Accepted to Cambridge / Judge
Round: Round 1
Received via email on October 16, 2024
GMAT: 708
Program Type: One Year Program
December 29, 2024 11:06pm ET
Accepted to Oxford / Saïd
Round: Round 2
Received via email on November 07, 2024
GMAT: 708
Program Type: One Year Program
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