How to use the GMAT to Your Advantage in Business School
Whether you are considering a part-time MBA program or a full-time MBA program, returning to school after two years or ten, one thing nearly all prospective MBA students share is a dread of the GMAT or GRE.
But contrary to popular belief, a standardized entrance exam for business school isn’t just an annoying hurdle to clear and forget about—it can actually help prepare you for your MBA studies in several useful ways.
“At first it was a little shocking, but the process really helped me get back into the cadence of learning and studying again, not just watching TV in my free time,” says Scott. “When I started my MBA program, I was already back in the right mindset.”
“Learning how to balance that becomes very relevant when you are back in graduate school and dealing with many different priorities: studying and academics, the career-search process, school leadership positions, as well as the other social and personal aspects of your life,” says Erin.
Knowing how to quickly process a large amount of material is another key skill gained through the entrance exams that students apply to their MBA studies.
“Business school involves reading a lot of case studies,” says Scott, noting that in some courses, such as Competitive and Corporate Strategy, up to 80 percent of the material involves case-based learning. “Understanding how to filter information and pull out what is important in a short period of time is very valuable.”
“A lot of the case studies in business school require evaluating a business decision in a similar way—you are always analyzing a case and thinking about it critically,” says Mayank.
“Evaluating case studies is a skill that extends beyond business school,” points out Erin, who has worked in the consulting field, and notes that companies increasingly ask job applicants to analyze case studies during job interviews.
Even the grammar review required for the tests can help students later on. Mayank appreciated the exam’s verbal section that addresses sentence structure, especially because English is not his native language. “Studying for the test gave me a lot of good information about good sentence structure, how to leave out extraneous details, and how to make my writing more concise,” he says.
Taking entrance exams may never be a popular component of applying to business school, but it can and does help students once their MBA studies begin. “No one will say they love standardized tests,” says Scott, “but the GMAT does help prepare you for your MBA studies, and it will also help you decide if you are ready to return to school.”
Want more information on preparing for business school entrance exams? Download our free ebook, Avoiding the GMAT/GRE Blues.
Following up on our post with the 2016-2017 Indian School of Business essays, we wanted to offer some guidance to applicants who are targeting the ISB PGP in Management this admissions season. The ISB adcom has streamlined its essay set for this year, yielding only two required essays with some slight modifications compared to last year.
Let’s take a closer look at each of the ISB PGP essays for 2016-2017:
Essay 1: If we were to admit just One more candidate to the Postgraduate Programme (PGP) at the ISB, why should it be you? (400 words max)
This essay puts the onus on applicants to showcase their fit with ISB. Dropping the request for a single accomplishment (personal or professional) from last year’s essay topic, ISB opens the door for broader content. However, given the short word limit of this essay, applicants would do well to develop two, possibly three, hallmarks of their candidacy, as opposed to summarize everything that may already be covered elsewhere in the application. Rich anecdotes that show one’s abilities and impact will make a greater impression on the reader.
In deciding what to cover, we recommend that applicants consider the skill set, personal quality, or values that they most want to highlight. Some candidates might choose to emphasize their ability to drive impressive results and manage a team in meeting an objective, as these skills map onto future professional success in a fairly straightforward way. Meanwhile, other applicants might choose to highlight their integrity and authenticity by discussing a time they championed an unpopular position and influenced a decision-making process. Still others might want to showcase the innovation and resourcefulness involved in starting a new community organization or support group based on a shared need or interest they observed around them. In sum, applicants should first reflect on what they consider to be their greatest ways to add value to the ISB community, and select related accomplishments that enable them to put that contribution forward for consideration.
Effective responses will detail the accomplishment, explaining the larger context and the players involved before taking the reader through a brief step-by-step account of what the applicant did and what the positive outcome was. Applicants should also take care to address what they learned in the conclusion of their response. We recommend taking this one step further by closing the essay with a comment on how these lessons would translate to a contribution to class discussion in one or two specific courses, or to enhancing the offerings of a particular student club at ISB. This will help to signal your familiarity with the program, and strengthen your case for being that one last student that the adcom admits.
Essay 2: Describe your short and long term career plans. How does the PGP fit in with those? (300 words max)
This ISB essay section closes with this fairly straightforward career goals essay. Applicants would do well to sketch out the position they plan to seek immediately after their PGP studies, and to include some information about how they’ve become interested in that role and where they hope it might take them 5-10 years down the road. Of course, the majority of the essay should focus on the ways the PGP in Management from ISB would position them for success, so we recommend that applicants aim to cover their career goals in 100-125 words.
Applicants should then summarize the skills and areas of knowledge that they need to gain in order to accomplish their professional objectives, and provide a detailed treatment of the courses and other programmatic offerings at ISB that will help them to bridge that gap. It’s important to showcase your familiarity with the program in this response, as this will help to illustrate the extent of your interest in the PGP and your understanding of why it’s a good fit for you. If there’s a study abroad opportunity that appeals to you or a student club that organizes an annual conference that’s perfectly aligned with your goals, be sure to mention this. Effective responses to this question will include a good amount of ISB-specific details in this short response. Taking the time to learn about the program — by reviewing the school’s website, speaking with students and alumni, visiting the campus or attending an information session, and reading the Clear Admit School Guide to the Indian School of Business — will pay dividends here.
Essay 3: Please use this space to provide any other information not covered elsewhere in the application that could significantly impact your candidature at ISB.
Note: It is not necessary for you to write this essay. Please use this space only if there is something really significant that you would like us to know.
(200 words max)
The wording of this essay prompt — and the additional note stressing the fact that applicants do not need to respond — signals that this space should be reserved for addressing potential liabilities or concerns in an application, such as a period of unemployment longer than 3 months, poor undergraduate or GMAT performance, or other extenuating circumstances that have influenced your career path or application. Responses should be brief and to the point, providing explanations without making excuses, and calling attention to any mitigating factors or strengths that you wish to highlight in order to alleviate the impact of any liabilities.
Clear Admit Resources
Thanks for reading our analysis of this year’s ISB MBA essay topics! As you work on your Indian School of Business MBA essays and application, we encourage you to consider all of Clear Admit’s ISB offerings:
What a day! Ulrike Malmendier, the Edward J. and Mollie Arnold Professor of Finance at Haas & a UC Berkeley economics professor, was among nine Berkeley faculty members just elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. http://haas.org/1WehuWUI have never heard anyone say they were not admitted to a business school because they submitted the scores of this alternative test
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