{"id":32656,"date":"2016-04-05T10:00:09","date_gmt":"2016-04-05T17:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/2016\/04\/how-to-explain-a-bad-grade-or-low-gmat-score\/"},"modified":"2016-04-05T10:00:09","modified_gmt":"2016-04-05T17:00:09","slug":"how-to-explain-a-bad-grade-or-low-gmat-score","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/how-to-explain-a-bad-grade-or-low-gmat-score\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Explain A Bad Grade Or Low GMAT Score"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Explaining<\/a><\/figure>\n

Evolution has no will. [Apologies to any Creationists out there, but just indulge us for a moment\u2026]<\/p>\n

If you think “the tornado” occurred because nature was feeling depressed one day, and took its self-image issues out on humanity, it would\u2026 not sit quite right. If that tornado was\u00a0hurtling toward your neighborhood\u00a0and\u00a0all of sudden ran out of momentum, sparing your home\u2026 sure, YOU<\/strong> might thank nature, but\u00a0your neighbor may curse nature for wiping his home off the map.<\/p>\n

Remember that, well, stuff happens<\/h3>\n

Take morality and will out of it for a second though, and understand that\u2026 stuff happens. Cells divide, asteroids crash into things, tornados\u2026 wreak havoc. Why? It can all be explained (a bit soullessly) by simple, clear, “scientific” explanations. Chemical, biological, physical THINGS<\/strong> line up to result in cause\/effect moments in time.<\/p>\n

Such should be the M.O. of an explanation of a bad grade or low GMAT score. Be soulless about it. Be scientific. Stuff happened that led to it, and here’s what that stuff is.<\/p>\n

Let’s boil the “excuse” down to two types: Personal and Professional.<\/p>\n

Personal reasons:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • supporting a family, or\u00a0taking care of a sick family member<\/li>\n
  • having recently immigrated to a foreign country<\/li>\n
  • etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Professional reasons:<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    • holding a full time job while in school<\/li>\n
    • lack of balance between job-related endeavor and coursework<\/li>\n
    • etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      The last thing that the an MBA admissions committee (we call them “adcoms”)\u00a0wants to read is a whiny set of long-winded excuses. So what’s the right way?<\/p>\n

      Confident. Candid. Concise.<\/h3>\n

      Do not be apologetic, just\u2026 explain it<\/strong>.\u00a0Don’t justify it, just explain it<\/strong>.\u00a0Don’t try to spin it, just explain it<\/strong>.\u00a0A clear, quick explanation ITSELF<\/strong> can earn you credibility, more so than your argumentation.<\/p>\n

      “I screwed up. Here’s what happened. Not an excuse, that’s just what happened. Here’s proof that I learned from it.”\u00a0Zip in, zip out.<\/p>\n

      Everyone has a bad grade, and lots of folks didn’t do so well on the GMAT. Don’t pretend that you are the coolest smartest person or the first-ever to have to work through college or support family. Just explain it coolly and crisply. This the one time you actually WANT<\/strong> to be a bit soulless. We’ll accept a destructive earthquake if we understand things like “fault lines.” Harder to swallow when Mother Earth tries to justify<\/em> it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Evolution has no will. [Apologies to any Creationists out there, but just indulge us for a moment\u2026] If you think “the tornado” occurred because nature was feeling depressed one day,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,817,775],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mba","category-admissionado","category-admission-consultants","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32656\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}