The Flying Spaghetti Monster's quest for an MBA

2008 Update

2007-09-16T00:54:00.000-04:00

I got a ding from Darden for 2007 admission after I was waitlisted. I am applying again this year to the following schools (in order of application deadlines):

Tuck: Oct 10th
Chicago: Oct 17th
Michigan: Nov 1st
Columbia: rolling - my target date is December 20th.

I have a self initiated interview next week at Tuck. I will post my Tuck experiences in my next blog entry in a couple of weeks.

Waitlisted at Darden!

2007-03-23T18:46:00.000-04:00

I remain in limbo :-)

Darden Interview

2007-02-20T22:26:00.000-05:00

I had an interview and class visit at Darden yesterday. The interviewer was very friendly (even though she was dressed in an intimidating manner :-) ), and interview went smoothly.

I had a class visit before the interview, and what struck me the most was the camaraderie in the class. This was my first B-school class visit, and somehow I always had this preconceived notion of very serious, grumpy MBA students out to cut one another's throats. But it was the complete opposite! Everyone in the class was friendly toward each other and they were very cooperative. The case study method seems unstructured but I came away feeling that this is a great way to simulate the real world and more importantly, a fun way to learn.

I will be hearing from Darden in about a month. Meanwhile I am on vacation and having a great time in DC. I will go up to NYC in a couple of days and then head back home on Sunday.

Interview clothing

2007-02-18T19:54:00.000-05:00

Look what I found on the web when I was trawling for interview tips: Undressing for success! Feel free to post your comments and personal experiences :-)

BTW I am now disabling anonymous comments to deter spam comments.

Darden update

2007-02-12T23:47:00.000-05:00

My application status is complete and I am visiting Darden for a class visit + interview next week. After the interview, I'm traveling to DC and NYC and hanging out with a bunch of friends that I haven't met in ages. Woooohoooo!!!

I have only one egg in my basket, hope it makes a nice omelette ;-)

[Non-MBA] The sum of your experiences

2007-01-28T23:01:00.000-05:00

Just a random thought - I thought I'd post it here. How do you define the richness of your life? I don't mean your life right now, rather when you are eighty years old and look back on your life, what criteria would you use?

Many people try to live vicariously through their kids and grandkids. They link their success to the success of their kids, usually the conventional indicators - job, house, car blah blah blah. Others simply look at their bank balance. [I'm not dissing the importance of money, in fact I wouldn't mind being a rich lazy dilettante :-)] There are so many other things to consider - time spent being happy, a successful career, sex, circle of close friends, vacations etc etc.

It will probably be a combination of the things that I listed above and some more. But what I would value the most is the sum total of unique, different experiences. The more unusual the experience, the better it is. For example, last week I trekked alone in temperatures of -7 F (-21 C!) to get to a frozen waterfall. It was not particularly eventful, but I will cherish this day trip far more than a conventional vacation. In other words, what I don't want is a monotonous life.

I'm back!

2007-01-14T00:06:00.000-05:00

I am blogging again after more than 4 months! I had a crazy time (both at work and at home) the past few months, and could not spend much time on my MBA apps. I missed all the R1 deadlines, and I applied to only one school for the January deadline - Darden. I know that this is a risky move but Darden is a great school and I am quite optimistic about my chances there.

I did follow the other mba blogs on and off. Congrats to everyone who got admits, and best wishes to those still awaiting decisions!

Yours tenatacularly,
Flying spaghetti monster :-)

I'm out

2006-08-27T22:24:00.000-04:00

for a few weeks. There's too much happening at work and in my personal life right now. I haven't started any of my essays and I'll probably end up applying only in round 2. Anyway I hope to be back blogging in october!

slow and steady ...

2006-07-27T19:24:00.000-04:00

I received my official GMAT score report a few days ago. I got a 5 on the essays, and I can't really complain about it. I think it's good enough not to screw up my otherwise stellar app package :-)

I have made some progress on the school selection front. I have shortlisted 4 schools - Columbia, Chicago, Michigan and Tuck. All four are my "first choice schools" - meaning I don't prefer any one over the others. I will probably develop a preference later when I visit the schools. Regardless of my future order of preference, I will be delighted to attend any of these schools. If I feel confident of my application, I might drop one of the schools (not sure which one yet) and apply to only 3 schools.

I briefly considered adding MSU as a safety school but then dismissed the idea - I am going to do my MBA only once and I want to get the most out of it. I want a school with national (and international) recognition and with a diverse student body. Regional schools just don't have that.

I am making slow but steady progress with the app process. I hope to start my first draft of essays this weekend. I am doing it one school at a time - Chicago's seem to be the easiest to answer, so I will start with those. I have already approached one recommender and he was very supportive. I am yet to contact my second recommender but I am fairly certain that he will accede to my request. Neither of them is my direct supervisor, and I'll probably have to explain this in the additional info section of the application. I like my current job and am not willing to jeopardize it by telling my manager about my plans to go to school. I will eventually have to, but not yet.

Foreign languages

2006-07-22T00:37:00.000-04:00

I recently came to know that some European B-schools require students to be proficient in at least one foreign language. That's an awesome idea! I would like to see US B-schools introduce such a concept. In today's interconnected global economy, it is very important to be able to work with people from other parts of the world and learning a foreign language (any language) is a step in the right direction. Obviously, mastering French will not be of much use when dealing with Japanese suppliers but the experience of learning a completely foreign language will certainly help managers step up their learning curve while dealing with a foreign client or vendor. English is the current lingua franca of international business but it always helps to be proficient in more than one language.

I tried to learn French many years ago but gave it up after getting bored. However a couple of years ago, I enrolled myself in a German language class and was absolutely fascinated by the language. I cannot explain why I liked German (but not French) so much. Maybe because it's more regular? I also had absolutely no trouble pronouncing the harsh German sounds (most beginners give up at this stage :-)). I am by no means fluent in German but I can hold a regular conservation. I am sure that a native German would appreciate my efforts to speak his language and would forgive whatever grammatical errors I may make while speaking to him. It's my dream to be able to read Schopenhauer's "Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung" in its original German version. It will probably be many more years before my German is good enough to read nineteenth century German philosophy (how's that for setting high targets? :-)). But I am sure that it will be completely worth it.

GMAT recap

2006-07-20T22:13:00.000-04:00

I wrote the GMAT some time ago and did pretty well, scoring 750+. I found many resources on the web that helped me a lot in my preparations, especially Beat the GMAT. I want to summarize my GMAT prep, so that others who are going to take the GMAT soon can benefit from my experience.

Number of days between deciding to write GMAT and actually writing GMAT - 39
Estimated number of hours of preparation (not including mock tests) - 40
Number of prep tests - 13 CAT plus one paper based test (another 40 hours)
Study materials used -

1. Kaplan 800 book - I started off with this book. I highly recommend this to anyone aiming for a 700+ score.

2. Kaplan 2006 GMAT book + CD - I didn't read the book. I got this only for the CD containing 4 CATs.

3. GMAT OG 11 - needless to say, this one is a *must* for every test taker. I completed all SC questions, and most of RC and CR questions.

4. Princeton review GMAT 2006 book + CD - I got this one too only for the CD. PR gives you 4 additional online CATs at no extra cost if you get the book. I ended up doing one test from the CD and three online.

5. GMAT Prep tests - downloaded from www.mba.com. Like the OG, these are also absolutely essential.

6. An AWA essays book (I forgot the title) - I spent only about half an hour the day before my GMAT going through the "tips and tricks" section and a couple of sample essays.

QUANT:

I had an advantage in quant because of my background (I am an engineer) and I never bothered to prepare seriously for it. My only math preparation was as a part of the mock tests that I took. My time management strategy was as follows: divide the 75 minutes into 5 segments of 15 minutes each and answer 7 to 8 questions in each segment. I tried to be more cautious at the begining, double checking my answers.

VERBAL:

My grammar is not perfect, and initially I struggled to cope with sentence correction. Fortunately the GMAT tests only a very limited variety of grammatical errors and with practice I was able to get the hang of it. I spent about 90% of my prep time on SC.

Here are my prep scores in chronological order:

Peterson 1 : 670 (Q : 50 (+ 30, - 7), V : 32 (+ 25, - 17))
Peterson 2 : 740 (Q : 50 (+ 31, - 6), V : 40 (+ 32, - 9))
Peterson 3 : 730 (Q : 60 (+ 35, - 2), V : 38 (+ 33, - 8))
Kaplan 1 : 740 (Q : 50 (+ 32, - 5), V : 41 (+ 33, - 8))
GMATPrep 1 : 760 (Q 50 (+ 31, - 6) , V 42 (+ 31, - 10))
Kaplan 2 : 660 (Q 50 (+ 32, - 5) , V 36 (+ 29, - 12 ))
Kaplan 3 : 640 (Q 50 (+ 33, - 4), V 34 (+ 28, - 13))
Kaplan 4 : insufficient questions in the bin - score not accurate! (BTW I scored 680)
PR 1 : 760 (Q 51 (+ 35, - 2), V 44 (+ 32, - 9))
PR 2 : 750 (Q 51 (+ 34, - 3), V 43 (+ 35, - 6))
PR 3 : 760 (Q 50 (+ 34, - 3), V 46 (+ 37, - 4))
PR 4 : 780 (Q 51 (+ 35, - 2), V 47 (+ 36, - 5))
GMATPrep 2 : 770 (Q 51 (+ 34, - 3) , V 44 (+ 34, - 7))

The difference between my GMAT Prep 1 and 2 scores is only 10 points but there was a HUGE improvement in my "comfort factor". I attribute that mostly to my increased mental stamina. I had a very simple strategy - keep taking mock tests - and it worked for me!

I booked the test only after I was confident of my preparation. I didn't want to prepare under a deadline (I have plenty of deadlines at work :-)). I definitely wanted to finish my GMAT by July, but I would have postponed it had I needed to.

A very important caveat - what worked well for me may not work for you; it may even prove to be counter-productive. You should judge for yourself what strategies work best for you. All the best!!

GMAT - check!

2006-07-08T16:28:00.000-04:00

FSM, riding back home one sunny day on his motorcycle, realized that he wants to go to B-school next year. After many many hours of toil, he started to score consistently above 750 in his GMAT mock tests and impulsively decided to write the GMAT ASAP. His median score in all tests prior to the GMAT was 740 and his range of scores was 140. If his final GMAT score was five percent greater than the average of all his prior scores, how much did FSM score?

A. 555
B. 666
C. 777
D. 888
E. Insufficient data to answer the question

:-)

Yay! I am done with my GMAT! I booked the test only two days before I actually took it - luckily I was able to find a suitable appointment slot at such short notice. I got a score in line with my expectations (> 750). There were no surprises at all .. I guess I was kind of inured to whole exam process after an overdose of mock tests.

I spent all of 30 minutes preparing for the AWA section by going through a couple of sample essays that I randomly picked from a book (one each for the argument and issue essays). And guess what? I got one of those for my GMAT! That's a probability of 1 /115 :-) However I don't think that mattered much since I am a fairly competent writer and the essay questions are all quite "doable". I would like to reiterate what many others have said before me - if you are confident of your general writing skills, don't bother studying more than a couple of hours for the AWA. The only prerequisites to doing well on the AWA are good ol' common sense and a semi-decent grasp of English grammar.

The 10 minute break between sections is very useful. It is sufficiently long to recharge yourself for the upcoming section. I managed to exceed the break time on both occasions and lost some testing time. However I didn't bother about it because I felt completely refreshed before the start of each new section. I managed to finish both sections comfortably within the alloted time.

I had a very uneventful test session with no surprises whatsoever. Once I was done with the verbal section, I pretty much knew what score I was going to get (+/- 10 points). All in all, it was a satisfactory performance. I got the score that I felt I deserved, so I was neither delighted nor disappointed. The strongest emotion that I felt after the test was one of total relief at getting the GMAT out of the way, more so because my work schedule for next few weeks is going to be very crazy. I had to spend most of my vacation studying, but it was comptletely worth it!

In case you hadn't figured it out, the answer to the question at the top is E :-) (I am not disclosing my exact score because I don't want to compromise my anonymity).

PR tests

2006-07-02T23:40:00.000-04:00

Warning - an excessively detailed (~ boring) analysis of my test performances lies ahead, proceed at your own risk :-)

Princeton Review Test 1: 760 (Q-51 (+35, -2), V-44 (+32, -9))

Of the 9 questions that I got wrong in the verbal section, 4 were from RC, 4 from SC and only one from CR. I am quite pleased that I have improved in sentence correction and critical reasoning. I am not too concerned about RC because I usually do well in that section and this test seems to be an aberration. The sequence of wrong answers was: 8, 14, 26, 27, 32, 38, 39, 40, 41. I had plenty of time left but still got the last 4 questions wrong .. the questions were just too tough. The was a very subtle difference between two of the answer choices in each of the four questions. I don't think any amount of practice would have helped me spot those differences, and unfortunately I guessed wrong each time! However the PR CAT algorithm seems to be very generous when it comes to answering incorrectly towards the end, so I wasn't penalized heavily.

The quant section seemed very easy compared to Kaplan and GMAT Prep. I did make a couple of educated guesses but got both of them right this time. Unfortunately I can't expect the GMAT quant section to be this easy!

Princeton Review Test 2: 750 (Q-51 (+34, -3), V-43 (+35, -6))

The quant section was a bit weird - I got a few tough questions in the mid twenties, and then all of a sudden I got a string of ridiculously easy ones. This was an online test, so I wonder whether PR had inserted a few "test questions" in between that don't count toward the score.

Princeton Review Test 3: 760 (Q-50 (+34, -3), V-46 (+37, -4))

Two very tough questions in quant - got both of them wrong after wasting 6 minutes on each of them! There is NO way I could have solved them within a reasonable amount of time. I am a bit disappointed with myself because I should have identified these questions as "unsolvable" and moved on quickly. Though I didn't get into time trouble in this test, spending 12 minutes on two questions and getting both of them wrong is atrocious. The adaptive nature of the test should allow me to max the section even if I get a couple of questions wrong. My aim is not to get every question right, but to get the maximum possible score!

I am absolutely thrilled with my verbal performance - I got only 4 questions wrong (2 SC, 1 CR and 1 RC)!

vacation!

2006-07-01T19:37:00.000-04:00

Hurray! I am taking a few days off and getting out of here. Bad weather has ruined my original plan of riding to NYC. I could still drive there, but it's so much more fun on a motorbike. So I am thinking of going up north, to Ontario. I have this strange obsession with the idea of circumnavigating lake Superior, so I will probably do that. There are some great scenic routes in that region with very little traffic.

I don't like the idea of planned vacations - I just ride as long as I want to, and stop over at the first decent motel when I get tired. I usually take the back roads and stop frequently at small towns and chat with the locals over lunch or coffee. They offer the best tips on great places to visit in the nearby region - those that you would not typically find in coffee table books. This also means that my plans are super-flexible. If the weather forecast for Ontario is not good, I will go to Chicago (west), or Smoky mountains (south). I have one tentative destination in each direction :-)

Social life? What's that?

2006-06-24T01:38:00.000-04:00

I seem to have forgotten the meaning of that phrase! My life is a hopeless tangle of work and GMAT prep, with brief respites provided by the soccer world cup. I spent Friday evening cussing through yet another Kaplan test. It's almost as if I derive masochistic pleasure from it :-) Anyway, I have one more Kaplan test left and I will complete it this weekend. The artificially low scores of the Kaplan tests have served one very important purpose - preventing me from getting too complacent!

I plan to spend some time this weekend analyzing all the mock CATs that I have taken so far. I don't like analyzing tests ( it's like eating leftovers ;-) ) but I do realize that they are very important.

My assessment of my strengths and weaknesses is as follows:

Quant - I have never scored below 50 in any of the mock tests. My comfort level is very high and I rarely get into time trouble. Being an engineer does have its advantages! I find DS to be relatively tough, simply because it takes more time to analyse all the different permutations and combinations. I have decided not to spend any more time preparing for quant (except as a part of mock tests).

CR - I am good at it, but I still need lots more practice. I am usually able to eliminate 3 of the wrong choices easily, but I sometimes get stuck between the 2 remaining choices. I believe that of all the question types, CR requires the most concentration. I tend to make far more mistakes in CR questions towards the end of the test than at the begining. This could be due to my concentration getting affected by a combination of fatigue and the pressure of the clock ticking away. My strategy is to take more practice tests to increase my mental stamina and to review my time management so that I have a larger buffer towards the end.

RC - I don't think practising RC is going to help me, because I already have a strategy that works for me. I do make a few mistakes, but I feel that the law of diminishing returns has kicked in, and that I am better off spending my time on CR and SC.

SC - my bete noire! I am going to spend the bulk of my preparation efforts on this section. I plan to work through the OG bins and the 1000 SC document (you need to register first in order to download the file, but registration is free).

BTW, today's Kaplan 3rd CAT score - 640 (Q 50 (+33, -4), V 34 (+28, -13)). No surprises there.

I just realized that half of the words in this post are acronyms!

GMAT score estimator

2006-06-22T22:26:00.000-04:00

My GMAT prep update:

18th June - GMAT prep 1st CAT - 760 (Q 50 (31 correct, 6 wrong) , V 42 (31 correct, 10 wrong))
22nd June - Kaplan 2nd CAT - 660 (Q 50 (32 correct, 5 wrong) , V 36 (29 correct, 12 wrong))

An interesting observtion - I felt that my performances in the two mock tests were more or less identical. But my Kaplan score was exactly 100 less than my GMAT prep score, and the difference was entirely in the verbal section! The Kaplan quant section is probably a wee bit tougher than the GMAT prep, but they were quite similar to each other. The Kaplan quant questions that I got wrong were all because of my mistakes, and I didn't feel cheated (as I felt with the verbal section)! :-)

The explanations given for many of the Kaplan verbal questions are highly specious, and I seriously doubt whether the GMAT would test such questions. The worth of a mock CAT is measured by its similitude to the real GMAT test, and the Kaplan verbal section fails miserably if it's judged on this parameter. I don't want to alter my way of thinking just to improve my Kaplan scores if doing so could potentially affect my performance in the GMAT. I guess I will do what most others do - add a delta score to the Kaplan score to get the "real" estimate, or more likely just ignore the score altogether.

Oh yeah, here is the GMAT score estimator. You might want to take it with a fistful of salt!

I want my instant gratification!

2006-06-18T01:59:00.000-04:00

24 hours in a day are just not sufficient. I realize that I sound like a greedy little kid, but I want to pack so much more into my day! I took a sailing lesson yesterday and it was totally awesome! I learnt enough to realize that sailing is (a) great fun, (b) difficult to master and (c) very dangerous for a novice! I am tempted to continue the lessons regularly, but I just won't find enough time for them on a regular basis. I have to defer my gratification (sigh!).

Later on I took a Kaplan full length test and, as expected, found it much tougher than the others. There seems to be a general consensus on this, and so I was not very suprised. I tried to analyse why I found it tough:

Quant:

1. Ambiguities in a couple of questions - for example [spoiler alert!], one of the questions was something like this "What is the smallest possible ------ of two integers which are both greater than X?" It does not clarify whether the two integers are different or whether they may be identical. The answer is different for each of the two preceding cases.

2. Word problems are not perfectly phrased, so you have to make certain assumtions to solve the problem. The "reasonableness" of the assumptions required is questionable.

Verbal:

1. RC passages are ridiculously long and abstruse. This is my only major complaint with the Kaplan test (the other factors are not unsurmountable). There is little that anyone can do about these time sucking passages. The effect of the lengthy passages extends even beyond RC questions because I was forced to spend less time on other parts of the test.

2. Critical reasoning - negative logic questions, that are usually tougher and lengthier, are used often. For example, "If X is not Y, the which of the following must necessarily be FALSE?" This requires you to first rephrase the original statement, and then evaluate each of the 5 choices for the modified statement. Such questions are perfectly valid, but too many of them make life miserable :-)

In spite of my apparent discontent, I am actually very pleased with my performance. My scores were almost identical to my previous ones (740, Q 50, V 41), but I consider my performance to be much improved because this test was so much tougher. The GMAT surely cannot get any tougher than this, so my confidence is soaring! Perhaps the discontinuous learning curve does work (see previous post)!

The discontinuous learning curve

2006-06-16T20:27:00.000-04:00

I have often wondered about the best way to acquire new skills, and one of my favorites is the "don't try too hard" approach. This is basically a laissez faire attitude without much intervention from the left half of my brain. Do whatever you feel like doing and whenever you feel like it. This worked great for my tennis skills, and for most other things in life. However when the stakes are higher, this approach might be a bit too risky. I really don't care if I get thrashed 6-0, 6-0 in a game of tennis. But knowing how to turn and stop before skiing down suicide slope can make a big difference - the difference between having a great time and getting aquainted with all the X-ray technicians in the neighborhood :-)

The GMAT is definitely not a "life or death" issue, and I am not so concerned about having a 10 point mega-plan to "beat the GMAT". At the same time, I am investing a lot of time, money and effort into it and I don't like the prospect of having to take it again. I work best with a flexible plan, but I am trying to bring some structure into my preparations. I had made a very ambitious study plan a couple of weeks ago, but I am chucking it out now. I want to be able to stop studying once it gets boring and do something else to refresh myself. I hope that when I get back after a break, I will have undergone the mysterious "learning jump". This has happened many times earlier, and I am sure that most others have recognized the feeling when you suddenly, and for no apparent reason, get much better at something. I don't know whether there is a term for this phenomenon .. if not, I hereby call it "the discontinuous learning curve". So I am going to spend this weekend having fun and gloating over my new found talent for neologism. Let's see how it works out for for my GMAT preparation :-)

Of course, I realize that all this is just a way of rationalizing my decision to spend tomorrow riding and sailing, far away from anything remotely related to an MBA! But who cares? I am having fun tomorrow .. yaaay!!!

Booking the test

2006-06-15T18:25:00.000-04:00

1. When do I book the test? Should I fix the date now and prepare under a deadline, or should I book the earliest available date after I feel confident enough to take the test? I am in favor of the second option. I want the flexibility to be able to take the test as soon as I feel ready, and not have to wait in case I finish my preparations much before the G-day. I checked online, and there seems to be about a weeks lead time that is required for available test spots near my location. I also have a hard artificial deadline - July 31st. There is nothing magical about that date, it's just that I want to concentrate on other parts of my app from August.

2. Which day of the week do I take the test? I want to test on a Monday because I can relax and prepare myself mentally during the preceding two days. I don't want any work related issues distracting me. Marina had a different approach and it worked well for her.

3. What time of the day do I take the test? I am not a mornings person, so I will try to book as late in the day as possible. This is not so important for me though, and testing on a Monday will have higher priority.

It's all about marketing

2006-06-13T23:14:00.000-04:00

Achtung! This post is not related to MBA, at least not directly.

I observed target marketing in all its glory today at Mac. Have you ever observed a diet conscious overweight person at a fast food joint? She invariably looks at the nutritional information provided on the tray. And guess what product is ideal for advertising on that tray, right below the calories info? Yes .. it's Total Body Makeover endorsed by Oprah, whose audience typically consists of calorie conscious women!! So you have a celebrity endorsed weight reduction book in front of the "target" while she is eating a supersized burger with extra large fries and strawberry shake. The target probably feels guilty enough to stop at Borders on her way back and pick up a copy of that book. Marketing can be so effective, yet so cruel!

I am not fat (not by any stretch of imagination) and have nothing against fat people. But I am sick of the weight loss marketing programs that plague the TV channels and other media. And now they have infected my lunch tray!

school shopping

2006-06-12T20:42:00.000-04:00

I have decided to concentrate on only two things for now - school selection and GMAT. I am hopeless at multitasking and would rather concentrate only on finishing up my GMAT. But I also know that a specific list of target schools will motivate me much more than just an amorphous vision of a top B-school. So here's my approach to school selection:

1. Number of schools : 5 - 6. A minimum of 5 because I want to increase my chances of getting into at least one of the schools. More than 6 seems like a lot of application effort, and more worryingly, my recommenders might get tired of eulogizing me :-).

2. Back up (safety) schools? No way! I am not investing all this time, money and effort to get into a 2nd rung school. If not this year, I will try again later, but I won't settle for anything less than the best.

3. Shortlist:

Stanford - my dream school! No matter what happens, I am applying to Stan!
Michigan - geographical proximity makes a strong case for Ross. I have many friends in Ann Arbor, so Ross is a shoo-in.
Tuck - curriculum and school culture seem great, but it also has the smallest class size -> tough to get into. Will definitely consider.
Columbia - 3 words .. location, location, location! I have to check up on the school strengths and curriculum before deciding to apply.
Sloan/Harvard/Kellogg/Wharton - will apply to one or two of these, not finalised yet.
Yale/Stern/Darden - not sure
Chicago - unlikely.
Cornell/Duke/UCLA/Haas - very unlikely.

So I have decided on Stanford and Michigan and these were the easy picks. Choosing schools is probably the most important (yet often neglected) part of the application process. I plan to ride to NYC, Boston and Dartmouth in July to visit the schools located there. Unfortunately there won't be any students around at that time but I guess it's better than not going at all. I might also be able to meet an admissions officer and have my questions answered.

How accurate are test prep scores?

2006-06-11T23:00:00.000-04:00

I took another mock CAT today (Peterson's 3rd test), with mixed results. I aced the quant section scoring 60, but got only 38 in verbal, for a total of 730. I was prepared for the law of diminishing returns, but not for negative returns :-). I got hammered in sentence correction, with an accuracy of only 60%. Anyway, I am looking at this positively because SC seems to be the only part of GMAT that I suck at, so I know where to concentrate my efforts.

How accurately do these scores predict the actual GMAT score? Is it possible that my quant scores are inflated or that my verbal scores are understated? I suppose the only way to find out would be to take tests by different vendors and average them out. That should eliminate the possibility that my style of thinking perfectly matches (or perfectly mismatches) that of the test maker. Sentence correction questions are the least objective ones and they should, in theory, show the greatest variance between different tests. The official test software (GMAT prep?) is likely to be the most accurate indicator, so I am saving it for the week before GMAT.

I noticed an unusual pattern in my scores - Q 50 + V 40 totals 740, but Q 60 + V 38 totals 730. This seems a bit strange. Scoring more than 50 in quant does not have any effect on the total score. Can anyone explain how the individual section scores are combined into the total score? Is there a fixed formula? I couldn't find this information on the GMAC website.

GMAT preparations

2006-06-11T12:46:00.000-04:00

I decided to apply for my MBA only a couple of weeks ago. Since I plan to apply for R1 at all schools, I am considering taking the test in the last week of July. While this does not leave me with a lot of time to prepare for my GMAT, I don't think I need more than 8 weeks for it.

I started preparing with the Kaplan 800, and I was quite impressed with it. It also gave me a lot of confidence because the questions in that book are supposed to be the toughest possible ones and I was able to answer most of them. I took a couple of mock tests this week (Peterson's CAT):

Test 1 : 6/04/06 : 670 (Q : 50; V : 32) [Got into time trouble in quant]
Test 2 : 6/10/06 : 740 (Q : 50; V : 40) [Better time management; need to improve SC]

I am aiming for a 800. I realize that it is a very difficult score to achieve, but I am confident that I can do it. I took the GRE a few years ago and got perfect 800's in Quant and Verbal sections. GMAT isn't much tougher than the GRE, so I should be able to repeat my performance here :-)

WTF is this all about?

2006-06-11T05:16:00.000-04:00

This is a log of my MBA application process. I will try to record the entire admission process here - from "starting to think about applying for an MBA" to (hopefully) joining a school of my choice next year. This is going to be an emotional roller coaster, and I intend to have a blast on this ride!

I am using a nom de plume because this is a public blog. So, in honor of His Noodly Appendage, I christen myself FSM!