GMAT saga (pt 2; the materials)

So once I knew that I had to study I decided to go out and buy some material and join some websites inorder to get to a worthy score.

Here's a materials of things I bought:

Official Guide

(commonly referred to as the O.G.). This was very helpful in the math for me. and the new OG will be even more helpful to future test-takers since it has been vastly improved. If you are going to buy one book, buy this one (old and new one). Used on Amazon they can get pretty cheap. I saved up doing a lot of these problems for the very end, and then for the week before the test I would just sit at home and do problem after problem. I would do 100 at a time to build up stamina. In the end I learned a great deal from the other materials, and then honed my skills with this. Also, their review of the fundamental material is very complete, albiet very dry, I think knowing that material, which wasn't covered anywhere else, earned me a few extra points.

Princeton Review:

Prince, you helped me out not-so-much on the SATs, and you let me down again for the GMAT. This book is aimed at people who don't want/need to do that well. If you're shooting for 700+ then this book ain't for you. THOUGH, the CD included it in does very accuratly predict your score. Some people said they had trouble with the software, but everything worked for me.

GMAT Rescue(www.gmatrescue.com)

This was a great website with great resources. Most of the books out there have the same take on the material, which is usually good, but it was nice to go to a place that had a little different way of teaching the things needed to know. Their math section was great. They gave a good indepth overview of the fundementals needed to kick GMAT butt, and they also have great material on the dreaded probability questions (which really saved me during the real test). Also, their verbal material was outstanding. They give you great statagies for attacking all the different problem types. I needed help in Sentence Correction and Analysis Problems (forget the name), but I did fairly well in Reading Comp. In addiation they sell you a document with answers to all the AWA questions along with another document covering 800 or so Sentence Correction problems (definally one of my major weak areas)

Old Paper Tests

I also bought old paper tests from the GMAT people, and found these helpful. Remember, don't let these screw up your timing, since it is different than the adaptive.

GMAT saga (pt 1)

So being an engineer who did very well on the GRE, I was pretty confident that I would ace the GMAT. Around this time last year I downloaded the offical GMAT software and gave the tests a whirl.

I ended up with an evenly balanced 500 :( so I decided it was time to figure out my weaknesses and study up.

Lots of studying and study material later I ended up with a fairly well balanced 770. Remember, Stanford loves to ding people with 800 ;) so unless you know you can achieve the almost unheard of perfect 810, don't try that hard ;)

In my next few posts I'll discuss how I prepared for the different sections.

My Visiting Experiences

Last year I managed to visit most of the MBA programs I was interested in. It seems that most people don't do this ahead of time, but I wanted to get things out of the way to focus on GMAT and applications.

UMich: Liked the school. Nice people. One thing was, it seemed like everyone there was unhappy they weren't at a better school. Cold as hell. I don't doubt that students get great jobs but it sucks traveling out to the mid-west to go hire people. Also, they are sitting on a ton of cash, and they're going to do great things with it later... I'm worried that there will be an attitude of "screw the present, let's just plan on what to do with all that money"

Wharton: Very nice place, friendly people. Huge class size made things seem impersonal. Not sure how well it aligns with my goals of running a small/mid sized non-tech company

Sloan: It is true what they say, Sloan students are VERY friendly and they don't seem to be arrogant. Also they are one school that the students don't seem to care that they aren't at HBS or Stanford

Stanford: Great school. I think they can get me where I want to go. The people in the class are incredible superhumans. Maybe I have enough interesting things to be among them.

Harvard: All sterotypes are true

Berkeley: Very nice people. Lots of people that didn't get into Wharton. Less of the 6'4" Ibanker type here than anywhere else.

The European school. Great schools, for Europeans of people that want to work in Europe. It is a romantic notion, but I want to play it safe and not make that leap yet.

So here's the scorecard right now

Wharton: ADMIT!
Sloan: Interviewed
Berkeley: Going to interview

Next time.. The GMAT..

First Post

Hello everyone.

I am an aspiring MBA applicant who is almost done with her quest. I'll start with what is happening right now, then I'll give you some background about how I got here.

It is the Christmas Eve and I am happy. A few days ago I received a offer from Wharton. I'm not sure if I'll go there yet, but it does take some pressure off. I've interviewed at Sloan, and I am still waiting for an invite for Berkeley. Also, my Harvard and Stanford apps are almost done and ready to go out for R2.

Everyone loves stats:

F 29
GMAT: 770
Work Experience: 7 years of engineering
Undergrad: top-10


My next steps are to keep my friends, family, co-workers, and my anonymous readers informed about my current progress. Also, I will try to recap the rough and tumble journey that led to my Wharton (and hopefully X, Y, and Z) acceptances.