VinG

The day of reckoning has finally arrived. You’ve practiced long enough,  honing your skills against similar opponents. The last few months have all been leading up to this moment. You’ve gathered whatever knowledge or insight you could gain into the way the adversary operated. Your strategies have been formulated.  Time to pit yourself against the machine- you got that right- it’s a battle of wits against a machine. You are going head to head with the GMAT engine, prepared by the folks at MBA.com. 

My preparation for the exam started three months prior to the actual d-day. I pored over all the forums, from MBA.com through Pagalguy - looked up the suggestions given by high scorers. Some sounded insane, and some downright condescending. As if, you are gonna take it easy on exam day! The butterflies would have gone into hyperdrive mode, by then, in your stomach. That’s only natural. I came across a guy who had mentioned chocolates and another one who had mentioned using an energy drink. I had my concerns on the effects of combining the two, on exam day. Thankfully I tried it on the penultimate day. It was not something I’d do normally.

However, I was still standing, and not doubling up or running around like Hammy the squirrel from Over the Hedge. This was a good sign. I also took a couple of tests to keep the momentum going.  The last test I took was on the day before the exam. I had set aside the final test of the GMAT prep software, for this purpose. Of the two practice tests provided by the makers of the exam, I had taken one quite early...

Do you constantly feel that you were made for better things in life? That you are constantly underachieving? Do you wake up every single morning, feeling...? Just knowing that you can do a better job than your boss? If only you were equipped with the right tools, do you think that you can put other high fliers in your company to shame? No... I’m not paraphrasing the opening sequence of the movie - Wanted, before the dorky McAvoy was courted by a bad-ass Angelina Jolie… If you nodded your head in the affirmative for the questions, maybe it’s time you considered an MBA, and thereby moved up the value chain.



There’s never a perfect time to get an MBA, just like tying the knot or getting your butt kicked by the town bully.However there are a few factors that might positively influence your application. Like experience and versatility.

Right now, there might be a few, make that quite a lot, of people who are second guessing their earlier decision to enter the MBA rat race. With the recession not quite bottomed out yet, it’s hard to refute their concerns.

Look on the bright side though. When the business world gets mauled beyond recognition, you are safe within the confines of a school environment. It’s similar to a ringside view with live commentary in a boxingmatch. You watch the rank novice getting bashed up, again and again and yet again. Someone suddenly suggests that the newcomer should have acted in such a way. Someone contends...

Now that you’re convinced of your reasons to pursue an MBA, the next step would be to decide which school and what intake you want to aim for.A large majority of students aim for the September intakes, when the majority of B-school admissions occur. The focus was always focused on US schools. The spring admissions have been considered to be fewer in number and financial support harder to get during that period.

However, with the B-school umbrella now spread over Europe, Asia and Australia too, September is not the only realistic option left for aspiring management gurus.  Many schools around the world have rolling admissions- in which they consider applications all year round. Some schools have one batch starting in September and another starting in Jan/March.It comes down to your choice of college and your convenience, to finally decide which intake to target.

As a rule of thumb, it’s a good idea take your GMAT at least a year before you plan to join a B-school. If you plan to aim for the September intake, June/July would be a good period to appear for your GMAT test. The admission process in most of the top b-schools is carried out in two or more rounds. You can almost be sure that the good ones start considering candidates by August, for the next September’s intake. Just to state an example, the deadline for the first round for HBS (Harvard Business School), last year was in August. 

Now, the following is something that goes along with common sense, and is also advice that I heard from admissions officers, all over. Applying in the first round gives you a superior chance of...