GMAT Tip: Unofficial Guide to the Official Guide – Part 1 » Clear Admit: MBA Admissions Consultants Blog

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Soojin Kwon Koh (Michigan)
Randall Sawyer (Cornell)
Beth Flye (Kellogg)
David Simpson (LBS)
Liz Riley Hargrove (Duke)
Linda Meehan (Columbia)
Bruce DelMonico (Yale)
Peter Johnson (Berkeley)
Isser Gallogly (NYU)
Mae Jennifer Shores (UCLA)
J.J. Cutler (Wharton)
Jake Cohen (INSEAD)
Rod Garcia (MIT Sloan)
Mary Miller (Columbia)

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Application Deadlines
Below are the upcoming deadlines for admission to top-tier schools.
Feb 10: INSEAD R3
Mar 1: Michigan / Ross R3
Mar 3: CBS
Mar 3: LBS R3
Mar 4: Kellogg R3
Mar 8: Cambridge / Judge R4
Mar 8: CMU / Tepper R3
Mar 9: Duke / Fuqua R3
Mar 9: Penn / Wharton R3
Mar 10: Berkeley / Hass R4
Mar 10: Chicago Booth R3
Mar 10: Yale SOM R3
Mar 15: NYU / Stern R3
Mar 17: UCLA / Anderson R3
Mar 19: UNC / Kenan-Flagler R4
Mar 30: Cornell / Johnson R4
Mar 31: UVA / Darden R3
Mar 31: INSEAD R4
Apr 1: UT-Austin / McCombs
Apr 2: Dartmouth / Tuck R3
Apr 2: Oxford / Saїd R3
Apr 7: Stanford GSB R4
Apr 8: Harvard R3
Apr 14: CBS

Essay Topic Analysis
Below are links to our comments on some of the top programs' essay topics.
The Career Goals Essay
Berkeley / Haas*
Chicago Booth*
CMU / Tepper*
Columbia*
Cornell / Johnson*
Dartmouth / Tuck*
Duke / Fuqua*
Harvard*
Indian School of Business*
INSEAD*
London Business School*
MIT / Sloan*
Michigan / Ross*
Northwestern / Kellogg*
NYU / Stern*
Oxford / Said*
Penn / Wharton*
Stanford GSB*
UCLA / Anderson*
UNC / Kenan-Flagler*
USC / Marshall*
UT Austin / McCombs*
UVA / Darden*
Yale SOM*
* denotes '09-'10 commentary

Categories
Use categories to access all that has been written on each of the topics. We have categorized by school and by subject matter.

Interview Reports
A selection of interview field reports from fellow applicants posted to the MBA Admissions Wiki. Add your reports when you are finished with your interviews.
Chicago
Columbia
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Harvard
Kellogg
Michigan / Ross
MIT / Sloan
Stanford
UNC / Chapel Hill
Virginia / Darden
Wharton
London Business School

GMAT Resources
MBA.com
Manhattan GMAT
GMAT Club
Princeton Review
Test Prep New York
Kaplan
Beat The GMAT
Knewton

Writing Resources
Guide to Grammar and Writing
The Internet Grammar of English
English Usage, Style and Composition
The Economist Style Guide
Paradigm Online Writing Assistant

School Rankings
Rankings are a good way to start your research on various MBA Programs. Keep in mind each uses a different methodology.
Business Week
Economist
Financial Times
Forbes
USNews
Wall Street Journal

Career Guides
The following resources should be useful to those who want to research the careers open to them after (or before) earning an MBA.
Vault.com
Wetfeet

Business School Resources
The following are business resources offered by a variety of leading Business Schools. It's useful to subscribe to these resources, especially for the schools to which you are applying.

MBA Programs: North America
If an MBA Program is not listed, please e-mail and we will be happy to list it.
Berkeley / Haas
Boston College / Carroll
Carnegie Mellon / Tepper
Chicago
Columbia
Concordia
Cornell / Johnson
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Emory / Goizueta
Harvard
HEC Montreal
Indiana / Kelley
Michigan
MIT / Sloan
Northwestern / Kellogg
New York / Stern
North Carolina / Kenan Flagler
Notre Dame / Mendoza
Pennsylvania / Wharton
Queens
Stanford
Syracuse / Whitman
Texas / McCombs
Thunderbird
Toronto
USC / Marshall
UCLA / Anderson
Vanderbilt / Owen
Virginia / Darden
Washington University in St. Louis / Olin
Western Ontario / Ivey
Yale

MBA Programs: Rest of the World
As there is some variety in the length of international MBA programs, we have denoted the length of the program next to its name (1 = one year; 2 = 2 years). If an MBA Program is not listed, please e-mail and we will be happy to list it.
AGSM (Australia) 2
Cambridge / Judge (UK) 1
CIEBS (China) 2
Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (China) 1
Cranfield School of Mgmt (UK) 1
ESADE (Spain) 1 or 2
HEC (France) 2
Hult (UK) 1
IESE (Spain) 2
IMD (Switzerland) 1
INCAE (Costa Rica) 2
INSEAD (France) 1
IPADE (Mexico)
ISB (India) 1
London Business School (UK) 2
Manchester Bus. School (UK) 2
Melbourne (Australia) 2
Oxford / Said (UK) 1
Rotterdam (Netherlands) 1
Tsinghua IMBA (China) 2
University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) 1

Additional Resources
Here we link a host of additional resources available across the web. E-mail info@clearadmit.com to have resources added to this list.
AACSB International
Association of MBAs
Beyond Grey Pinstripes
EFMD
gradschools.com (worldwide)
Infozee
International Student Loans
mba.com (GMAT Scores)
MBAInfo
mbaleague.blogspot.com
MBAzone
MBA Jungle
TOEFL
Top MBA

MBA Tipline
We encourage admissions officers, students and applicants to alert us of interesting news and developments, please send an email to news@clearadmit.com so we can blog it.

Blog Archive

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Wednesday, December 02, 2009

GMAT Tip: Unofficial Guide to the Official Guide – Part 1

Today’s GMAT tip comes from the folks at Kaplan. In this article, Kaplan teacher Brian Fruchey shares advice on best practices for using the GMAC Official Guide:

The GMAC Official Guide is a fantastic book. (So fantastic, that when students enroll in a Kaplan GMAT course, we buy a copy for them!) While the book is stuffed full of good questions, make sure that you use it appropriately. Case in point: the GMAC does not indicate the relative “toughness” of a particular question. Realize that, if you are looking to score 600 + on Test Day, you will have to supplement your studying with additional material. The following outlines strategies on how to use the Official Guide for the following sections:

1 – Background of the GMAT (Sections 1,2, and 3)

The GMAT is a different kind of test than you have probably ever taken before. The first three sections of the OG (lingo for the Official Guide) provide the background a new test taker needs. We suggest to really memorize sections 1 and 2. Knowing what the GMAC says about the test will help put the rest of the content and strategies into a framework.

Section 3 is a diagnostic test. This is a really great way to jump into the content of the GMAT. I would advise you to not focus on the timing considerations at this point. Set a couple hours aside and work through each of the question sets. The diagnostic test is divided by question type (Problem Solving vs. Data Sufficiency) – don’t let this trick you. The real GMAT is not clearly subdivided.

Finally, make sure you go over the explanations after the section. Knowing why a question is wrong is a lot better than just knowing that a question is wrong – working through your right and wrong answers is really the beginning of your GMAT preparation.

2 – Math Review (Section 4)

Ok. So you just finished a diagnostic test. You have reviewed your questions and have learned about the test. Hopefully, the quantitative section wasn’t awful. However, no matter who you are, you probably found at least a couple of the concepts difficult.

Section 4 of the OG outlines the math that you will need to know for the GMAT. While the OG does not go into extreme detail, it is very important for test takers to know what is being tested on Test Day. I would advise testers to review this material and make sure they are comfortable with each of these concepts. However, also realize that the test focuses on a couple of the concepts far more than other concepts. Your study program needs to distinguish where you should focus your energies – the OG basically introduces the concepts.

3 – Content Structure (Sections 5 – 9)

Sections 5 through 9 are the heavy content sections. The GMAT views the test through a prism of question types. I view the test differently – through a prism of competencies, since a competency can be tested through several different question types. This makes learning the GMAT that much easier when you can see there are only a few things test takers truly must know. Since the OG is a GMAC book and not a strategy-based program, you will be looking at the questions by individual question type.

Each of these content areas contains a great deal of questions as well as instructions on answering the questions. Use these questions to refine and develop your test taking ability. At the very least, before you take the real GMAT, make sure you have cleaned out all of these questions and reviewed the explanations.

4 – Analytical Writing Assessment (Section 10)

Finally, the last section of the book deals with the Analytical Writing Assessment (or AWA). Please read this section in detail to understand explicitly what the GMAT wants you to write. They are pretty clear about the structure. If you are concerned about the AWA section (the score is looked at!), make sure you practice with the sample prompts in the book. Additionally, the book outlines some suggested scores for sample essays. Before reading the samples, set a timer for 30 minutes and try to write the sample yourself. Comparing your essay to the sample ones in the book will give you a decent idea of how your score might stack up.

The OG is a great resource. It’s an essential piece of any GMAT preparation program. In a later post, I’ll talk more about how the OG differs from other resources and how you can study specific question types from past actual GMATs.

For more information on Kaplan, download Clear Admit’s independent guide to the leading test preparation companies here. This FREE guide includes coupons for discounts on test prep services at nine different firms!

# posted by Clear Admit @ 8:00 pm in GMAT News, GMAT Test Prep Company Series, GMAT Tips, General

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