London Business School

With the GMAT out of the way, its time to think about the Schools. Although the MBA application process is pretty daunting, I am (sadistically) looking forward to doing my essays. The MBA process is not for the half-hearted and I am fully committed to the process. Hopefully this positive mindset will help me!

I visited London Business School (LBS) in March of this year for an information session after work. LBS is ranked 2nd globally by the FT and 5th (non-US!) by Business Week. Some discrepancy there but I think it's widely acknowledged as a top 10 business school. Certainly in Europe you would think of LBS and INSEAD as the top two.

The information session began with a member of their faculty showing a list of companies (GM, Yahoo, RBS) against another list of companies (Honda, Google, HSBC) and asked the audience what differentiated the two lists. This developed into a discussion about the importance of management, innovation and ultimately strategy, which in part contributed to the differing fortunes of the companies in the two lists. It was a nice way of highlighting the value of an MBA, and was pretty thought provoking. Some mathematical and verbal "riddles" followed (which I won't spoil for those who are going to an information session). Very interactive so far, just as I imagine a class would be at LBS. Finally it ended with 5 LBS students, being brought to the front and talking about their experiences and answering questions. A nice mix of students, clearly very bright and very driven people! There were drinks afterwards, where people could ask further questions. All in all, a worthwhile session. LBS seems like a very international school with great diversity amongst its student population and strong networks in finance (GS).

I was also very impressed with the "after-care" service. I receive monthly MBA newsletters from LBS and was also given contact details of a current LBS student if I had any further questions. Naturally I called, and she was very helpful in answering my fairly basic questions at the time on the GMAT, references & the culture of the school (this was my first school visit after all!). In conclusion, thumbs up LBS. If you are looking for an "international" school, with good financial pedigree and want to experience life in London - LBS would be a good fit.

GMAT - Section by section

As promised, here are my thoughts & experiences regarding each section of the GMAT:

Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA)

As I am a native speaker and have written countless essays at University, I did not prep much for this section. To start with, I read the sample essays in the OG books. Then remembered the following structure for my essays, which you can read in the link here. Fairly standard stuff, just remember the following:

• Use standard essay construction - introduction, points and conclusion.
• Use evidence & examples to reinforce your point.
• On the Issue section - take one view - agreement or disagreement
• Proof read your essay

As practice, I wrote the GMAT prep essays 1-2 weeks before the exam. On test day itself, I spent 20 minutes writing on each section, then the remainder of the time proof reading. Proof reading is pretty useful so as to (i) eliminate typos (ii) correct your grammar so that your phrases read well and (iii) to make sure you aren't repeating points or words.

I scored a 6.0 on this section.

Problem Solving

My general sentiment on problem solving is don't get lulled into a false sense of security. As I worked through my OG book, I got almost all the questions right.... if given enough time. There in lies the problem, if given enough time. As I started the Prep software, I still maintained the same mentality of wanting to solve every problem, yet time pressure and the ramp up in the difficulty of questions did not allow for this. So get into the habit of doing questions timed & if a question appears to take ages to solve there is normally some kind of shortcut (whether its prime factorisation etc).

For general tips in speeding up your PS skills check out the flashcards on beatthegmat and also have a read through GMAT hacks. You will pick up lots of useful tips from these 2 resources. I found them especially useful regarding factorisation which was one of my weak points. Also remember your DST Triangle (i.e. Distance = Speed x Time)! If you get into the habit of quickly translating word problems into equations, such as DST and similarly the PRT Triangle (Rate = Production/Time) it will definitely save you time on the real thing. If you read my last post, you will see I had a nightmare on my first question! So don't be afraid to let the occasional question go, even if you have been eating them for breakfast in your prep!

Also find a strategy that works for you, whether its plugging in numbers or treating everything algebraically, do whatever comes to you naturally.

Data Sufficiency

Ahhhhhh good old data sufficiency. Gave me so many problems when I first started. Again the 2 resources I posted will give you many tips but let me quickly reiterate the fundamentals:

• While reading the question, write down what you are required to prove sufficient. Is it a specific value or a Yes/No equation?
• Learn the answer stems A,B,C,D and E. A complete NO BRAINER.
• Treat each answer stem separately. NO BRAINER.
• Don't waste time trying to solve the actual equation! You just need to prove the information provided is sufficient to solve!

Now obviously, knowing the answer is better than guessing. But I found DS to be one of the topics where educated guessing can reap fruitful benefits. Now don't see this as my endorsement to go into the DS section and simply try and "wing" it. Do as much prep as possible. But if you are stuck/pressed for time on the real thing - this is the section where you can make up time. Chances are, you are doing well on the exam and are confronted by a difficult DS question. If you are able to eliminate, say statement B, you are left between (A, C or E). Similarly if you can eliminate both you are left with (C or E ~ a 50% chance). In my experience, especially difficult diagram questions, the answer is rarely E. Statements often look more sufficient than they actually are. So bear this in mind if you have to make an educated guess.

As you do more and more questions, I recommend you Google the questions you got wrong (especially from the GMAT prep). You will pick up loads of neat tricks by reading the forums, I know I certainly did! Let me just use an example to illustrate:

Question:

Each employee of Company Z is an employee of either Division X or Division Y, but not both. If each division has some part-time employees, is the ratio of the number of full-time employees to the number of part-time employees greater for Division X than for Company Z?

1). The ratio of the number of full-time employees to the number of part-time employees is less for Division Y than for Company Z.

2). More than half the full-time employees of Company Z are employees of Division X, and more than half of the part-time employees of Company Z are employees of Division Y.

Daunting at first look. But not if you know this tip:

If a data set can be split into two groups, and one of the groups has a ratio HIGHER than the overall ratio (the weighted average) for some 2 characteristics, then the other group has a ratio LOWER than the overall ratio for those 2 characteristics - and vice versa.

This makes intuitive sense (to me at least) as if one ratio is lower than the weighted average then the other ratio should be higher to compensate for this. Statement 1 simply states that Yf/Yp ratio is less than the Zf/Zp ratio, using the rule above we know this to be sufficient. Similarly Statement 2 can be interpreted as Xf/Xp ratio is greater than the Yf/Yp ratio. So the ratio for X will be greater than the ratio for both. So Sufficient. Answer is D.

Now the question above is just an example of the types of DS tips you can pick up while researching your weak points. There are many others out there that you will pick up as you work through your questions.

One other thing to note is in the OG, as you look up your answers, they almost always solve the questions. Don't get into this mindset of solving. Think sufficient. If you solved every DS question you would run out of time! Think in terms of "Right 2 unknowns, ahhh statement one gives me one equation, the other equation is presented in the question. 2 simultaneous equations, 2 unknowns, sufficient. Same for statement two. Ahh ok D".

So, do lots of prep. Pick up tips. Be exam smart. Conquer DS.

Sentence Correction

Initially I found sentence correction to be an incredibly frustrating/annoying experience even as a native speaker. The saying is true to some extent, "GMAT English is not normal English". If I wasn't a native speaker, I would recommend investing in some 3rd party books such as the Manhattan Sentence Correction book (which seems to get good reviews) as well as checking out Spidey's SC Notes. Over time, you will begin to recognise certain clues which can help you decipher SC. Look for the following:

• Subject-Verb agreement
• Learn your idioms
• Parallelism
• Does the modifier make sense?

I found it best not to try and over complicate matters. I tried to focus on the four things above and in doing so was able to eliminate answers which were patently incorrect. This often would lead me to the correct answer. If I was in some doubt, say between two answer choices, I tended to go with the more succinct/concise answer. In general, I would advise you to read all the questions and eliminate, eliminate, eliminate till you have the correct answer.

Critical Reasoning

Not much to say here. Other than write down what the question is looking for before reading the passage - i.e. assumption, strengthen, weaken, infer etc. Then actively try and think of what a sensible answer would be as you read through. Sometimes you will find this answer (or something similar) in the answer choices! If not, go through a process of elimination, as many of the answers are outside the scope of the passage (i.e. irrelevant), and choose the answer which makes most sense to you.

Reading Comprehension

Some people like to write brief notes as they read through. I did not. My reasoning was that it (a) wasted time and (b) was unnecessary as my brain could remember the general structure of the passage without the need to write it down. In terms of mindset when approaching these type of questions I would recommend the following:

• Do not skim read. If you read a sentence and it doesn't sink in - read it again!
• Try to keep a mental framework of the passage as a whole. For example paragraph one is the theory, paragraph two is the counter-evidence, paragraph 3 is an alternative theory.
• Read as if you are interested in the passage! What do you mean you don't find Native American land plots fascinating???
• Avoid answers that have STRONG words in them (i.e. the author's argument is seriously flawed). Try and go for the more BALANCED answers (i.e. the author's argument is well founded though incomplete).

Well, I think that's it. Hopefully my ramblings were of some use to you! Time to move onto the "hard part" - the essays! I am still happy to answer questions so make a post at the bottom if you have one.

Test Day (!)

Hi again.

Just going to give a quick-ish account of how my actual test day panned out. I will in my next post try and give certain strategies specific to each section (AWA, Numeracy and Verbal).

Right where to begin.......okay lets start with what you should do with yourself the day before your test! Now ideally before your test, you want to be well rested, in a positive frame of mind and focused. I ran through GMAT Prep 2 the day before my exam (for the second time) to keep my mind sharp. I scored 760. After going through the questions I got wrong, I decided to relax and spent a couple of hours watching the Wimbledon Final. It was a great match, felt a bit sorry for Roddick, but great to see Federer make history by winning 15 grand slams at the age of 27. Especially liked Roddick saying "Sorry Pete (Sampras) tried to hold him off as long as possible!" in his interview. I did a couple of SC questions in the evening, and went to bed early at 10pm.

You know yourself best, so do whatever relaxes you, whether its going to the gym, watching a movie or listening to music. I couldn't see any harm doing a couple of questions or running through a prep the day before just to keep the mind sharp. I would not suggest a massive cramming session either. After all, the GMAT is just not the type of exam you can "cram" for. There isn't a mass of information to digest. You either know the principles and techniques or you don't.

My test was scheduled at 12.45pm and despite sleeping early, I woke up @ 9am feeling TIRED. I think I had a broken sleep, waking up a couple of times, it was probably unconscious anxiety - nevertheless these things cannot be avoided sometimes! I proceeded to have a shower, and ate a hearty breakfast (eggs bacon mushrooms mmmmmm). Bought a Coke on my way to the test center for caffeine and sugar and also a Red Bull (open in case of emergency - I thought to myself).

My local test center is in London. I got there an hour early and they asked me if I wanted to take it early as they had free slots. I thought "Why Not?" and decided to go for it. To my shock......I was not allowed to take any drinks in. No Water, no Coke and no Red Bull. They suggested I could drink during my breaks. I then asked for some ear muffs to block out any noise and to help me concentrate. They had run out. I also asked for an additional notebook. I wasn't allowed. Now I assume these annoyances are specific to the London test centre (aka Prison) as I had read these little tips from other test takers on the GMAT forums. I didn't get particularly rattled but it wasn't exactly a warm welcome.

I sat at my seat. Took my shoes off to relax. No my feet didn't stink! AWA section. I had written a couple of practice essays on the GMAT prep software but nothing marked. I followed a fairly traditional structure on both argument and issue questions (will talk about this more in later posts). Nothing dramatic to report here, wrote each in about 20 mins and proof read for 5+ mins. Still awaiting the scores, but it felt like it went okay. Now at the end of the AWA section I wrote the following on my notepad:

Now the above is a tip I picked up from www.beatthegmat.com. The left side represents the numeracy section and shows on question 5 you should have 66 minutes left, question 10, 56 minutes left etc. The gap here is 10 mins per 5 questions. The right side represents the verbal section and is exactly the same principle instead the gap between 5 questions is 9 minutes. Timekeeping is very important on the GMAT. You get heavily penalised if you do not finish the test so referring to the above is a good way of keeping track of how much time you have left.

Right onto the numeracy section. Question one - seems like a simple algebra rearranging problem. Do the workings on my pad, and look up.......cannot see the answer listed! Redo my workings......still cannot see the answer. I think to myself "this is the first question, 50% get it right, 50% get it wrong, surely you can get the answer". Before I know it 5 minutes have elapsed. An important lesson here is sometimes you have to let go of your pride and just make an educated guess. That's exactly what I did but I wasted far too much time before doing so. I also don't buy into this "get the first 10 questions correct at all costs" business. You have to devote an equal amount of time/effort to all questions and it is imperative to finish the test (at all costs). I managed to make up the time on some easier PS questions and some DS questions where the principles came to me quickly. Whenever I saw a difficult question from that point on, I did not spend too long on it, 1-2 mins max, then making an educated guess. I did not notice the test getting progressively harder either......I felt it was a mixture of easy/moderate and difficult questions throughout.

Who knows if I got that first question correct? But by referring to my notepad for timing, making educated guesses where I needed to, and nailing those questions I knew how to do, I finished in time and scored 49 (88 percentile). Now of course......I didn't know this at the time. I was glad I didn't lose the plot after the Question 1 debacle and was able to finish the test but it did not feel like I had aced the section either.

Took a break. Went outside drank some Coke. Went to the toilet splashed my face with water.

Now onto the verbal section. I don't have a great deal to write here. It felt slightly harder than the GMAT prep but I am certain that was more down to the pressure of exam conditions rather than genuinely more difficult questions. My timing was fine and I worked through the test. There were 2 long RC passages and 2 short ones. I scored 40 or 89 percentile. I'm sure many of you out there are perfectionists. But sometimes you have to realise, you cannot get every question on the GMAT correct so don't fret if you are not 100% certain of an answer. Choose what you think is best and move on.

I click "finish" on my screen. My initial assessment is......."Please Please over 700" but I am not certain at all. The score comes up.........730 - Q49 V40 overall 96 Percentile. Happiness. Relief. Silent fist pump. I am.........Roger Federer (for about 2 seconds).

The GMAT defeated - 730

Hello All. As you can see I have not posted for a little over 2 months. However I return with good news from my hiatus. 730 on the GMAT!!! Woop!!!

In my upcoming posts, I will dissect my entire GMAT "experience" which hopefully will provide some useful insights for aspiring candidates.

Lets get cracking.

How important is the GMAT?

As I have mentioned previously, the GMAT is only part of your application. If you score extremely high but your essays are woeful you probably will not get into your school of choice. Conversely, if you score slightly below par and your essays are outstanding you still have a shot. The main thing to take away, is try your best to get a decent score (700+) and focus on making the rest of your application (essays/references etc) really stand out. Also bear in mind, even if you get a terrible score you can always retake. Thankfully, I managed to get a 730 first time round.

My background

You can read about my background in my first post. I would say I'm a pretty smart guy but not exactly a genius. Regardless, being smart certainly does not guarantee a good GMAT score. You need to have adequate & thorough preparation and "learn" how the exam is tested. I would say that I am equally strong in both maths and verbal and my score certainly reflects that (49 Quantitative and 40 Verbal). For non native speakers I can imagine that the verbal section might be quite tricky and so you may have to prep more on that section than I did. To put it plainly, being smart will not guarantee you a good score but thorough preparation will. (NB being a genius certainly does no harm. So if you are one, well done.)

Preparation

As you can see from my last post I began studying for the GMAT in mid-April. So a preparation time of 2 and a half months. However my first 2 months of study would be what I describe as "casual". Not in terms of effort or time spent, but in terms of approach. Let me explain.

Typically I would spend about 40 mins to one hour after work, from Monday to Friday. I normally started around 9pm, and would do a series of questions from my official guide book. My approach was casual, as I did not actively note which types of questions I got wrong and I did not time myself. I also listened to music as I did my questions (Pop, Rap and RnB if you are interested). On weekends I would do about 3-4 hours a day, again just running through questions. This approach is initially acceptable, to familiarise yourself with the types of questions asked, but in hindsight is NOT an effective way to study. I would recommend only doing this for a month or so, lets call it the "familiarisation process".

Once this process is over, its time to devise a proper revision plan, which strategically identifies which areas you are weak in and to strengthen those areas accordingly. I strongly recommend visiting www.beatthegmat.com and reading through their Strategy section. Here are my general tips:

• a casual familiarisation process is fine, but do not maintain this approach for too long!
• begin timing yourself while doing GMAT questions and note which types of questions you typically get wrong. Study these weak areas accordingly.
• do lots and lots of questions - eventually you will begin to recognise the "style" of question enabling you to answer it quicker and in extreme cases make educated guesses when stuck.
• download the CAT software from www.mba.com and take the practice exams.
• read www.beatthegmat.com - they have lots of useful resources including free flashcards for all topics and recommended study plans.

I only started adopting this approach in the last 2 and a half weeks of my preparation. Data Sufficiency (DS) and Sentence Correction (SC) were my weak points (like most people) whereas I had few if any errors on Reading Comprehension (RC) and Critical Reasoning (CR). I began focusing on specific areas where I had problems such as complicated factor and rate questions in DS. I will go through my thoughts on each section later on. First lets look at my prep material.

Having read the forums extensively, I have seen candidates that use around 10+ GMAT prep books. While I am not necessarily saying this is over-kill, I did not adopt this approach (after consulting with several MBA students). By all means if you feel you are especially weak in certain areas, such as SC, feel free to buy books that cover this material in more depth. Nevertheless, this is the prep I used:

• Official Guide 11
• Official Guide 12
• Official Guide Quantitative and Verbal Review
• GMAT Prep software off www.mba.com

That's it folks. In some ways my prep is slightly unusual in comparison to other candidates as I decided not to flesh out my revision with any 3rd party books. Let me re-iterate that I am not saying this is the best approach but rather this is the approach that I found worked for me. One thing that I will say though, is, there is no substitute for the OG books. They replicate the same principles and "types" of questions you find on the real test, and although their difficulty is somewhat easier that the test itself, they are an invaluable resource.

This leads me onto my second point. The real GMAT exam and the GMAT Prep Software contain more difficult questions than the OG books. I only realised this 2 and a half weeks before my exam, when I took the mock prep exam and found it noticeably more difficult than any questions in the OG. This was a bit of an "Oh crap" moment for me, and I did not even finish my first mock exam, quitting out of frustration. However I found a useful document from www.beatthegmat.com which provided a large sample of numerical questions used on the GMAT prep test with suggested workings (link here - couldn't find the original source on the forum). I studied the approach adopted on the questions I struggled with (DS), and slowly but surely began learning how the GMAT was trying to test (or trick) us.

So I recommend working through the OG but bear in mind, the prep software contains noticeably more difficult questions, and accordingly is more representative of the real thing. Also run through the prep software a couple of times as different questions will pop up. I ran through Prep 1 twice and Prep 2 twice. Like many people have suggested it is probably a good idea if you sit through the Prep and treat it as a real exam, doing the AWA section and not to take any breaks. I will admit though.........despite my best intentions I did not manage this. I typically did the AWA took a break. Then did the numeracy, took a break (30 mins to one hour) then did the verbal section.

From my previous experience in Uni, I knew I had the stamina to take 3 hour exams, so deep down when the pressure was on, I knew I was not going to fade away or have a blank mind. Also in my defence, the summer has been incredibly hot, and I was unable to physically sit by my computer 3 hours straight! Nevertheless good sense dictates, sit down and treat your mock exam as the real thing. (Unless like me you know you can sit 3 hour exams and would rather just endure the pain once, rather than 3-4 times over). My scores from GMAT prep were from the 740-760 range. This gave me confidence but I was fully aware they had been achieved in a relaxed environment with ample breaks.

So in summary:

• OG books are a must. But remember the real thing contains harder questions.
• GMAT Prep Software is great preparation. Do this multiple times over.
• Using these 2 resources identify which areas you are weak in. Keep practising until you can quickly interpret what the question is asking for, the best methodology for solving and how the GMAT is trying to trick you (because its evil).

More to come in later posts........