Hi Nomad2461 yes you can use the 300 word optional essay for this purpose, however there are 7 essays in this application and they might raise an eyebrow as to why you weren't able to integrate your International motivation and perspective into those essays. Also this would limit your ability to use the optional essay to explain any areas of concern. I would honestly recommend that you do your best to integrate the international orientation, motivation and experience into the body of the essays.

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Thank you MBAPrepCoach. I will structure my essays accordingly.

One more question - what is the expected length of the motivational essays? Some of them mention 300, 400 and 500 words. Is an excess of, say 20-30 words acceptable? Or will I be penalized for exceeding the word limit?

You still have quite some time for the 2nd or even the 3rd round. Why not crash course for one more month and then submit?
That being said, 690 can be sufficient for INSEAD I believe; depending on your profile.

In the end it is about the highest overall score right? I would just post this and in parallel try to make your case (through education, work experience) that your quant background is indeed solid.



Thanks for your reply - I’m in a position in which I need to apply for R1 due to pending decision for another school. Actually I was half considering not reporting this 690 score due to the drop in my quant. But I think the absolute increase may still help - do you think?

gy88 INSEAD is one of the very few schools that allows you to submit multiple scores. I think that you should keep it. However if your essays are not at the height of perfection then it's probably in your best interest to wait for Round 2... not so sure that the GMAT is necessary to retake unless you are Chinese or Indian. If so, I definitely would

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Thanks mba coach for your valuable advise- definitely keeping the score then, although I’ll probably have to address my max 63% score in Quant between the two tests. Also I’m not of Chinese or Indian nationality. Will work hard on polishing up the rest of my application then ! Thanks again


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gy88 I'm glad to hear that you are not significantly over-represented and so that will help with the GMAT score being slightly under par. If you are under-represented it probably should just be absolutely fine.

With regards to the quant the raw score is not embarrassing. The percentile is a little on the low side but that just means you were in a very competitive group.

Some things you could do.. .use space in the optional essay to point to your aptitude for numeracy in other ways.... one would be to highlight solid grades obtained in quant courses in college, or discussing quantitative aptitude required for your job.

And if you have the time and feel the need you can do MBA math. 12 hour online self-paced program that basically certifies you as good enough at math.

I want to highlight that applicants often think they need to be good enough at everything they have to be meeting some specific, high threshold for every single thing...and while you do need to be strong in most areas (the 4 criteria) math is just not going to win the game for you and that's okay.

So really focus and think about what is your source of competitive advantage here? What really sets you apart from anybody else who could apply to that school. Really spend some time thinking about your brand and also what you could contribute to that no one else could...the perspective...the experiences...the aptitudes. How could you enrich the experience for your colleagues?

It's really more about a dazzling them with what you DO have than trying to remedy weaknesses; I hope you feel me on this.

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Thank you I appreciate your appreciation it's a little bit difficult to get the video question situation down to a Time number but what I will say is that I think you should have an idea of what you might say for all the questions that you can prepare for in advance. It changed it all the time but I have a fairly comprehensive list of them on the thread from last year January batch. And I think the blog article on my website is actually Justice updated if not more so. Just get an idea of what you would say honestly. If it's something that's a little bit more complex I would encourage you use the STAR method.. situation task action result

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gy88 thank you but were you able to locate the blog that has the insead video questions?

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Thanks MBAPrepCoach. I will keep this word limit in mind. I have a couple of questions regarding recommenders
1. Can recommenders be mentioned one at a time?
2. Once submitted as a recommender (and not the submission of the full application) can it be changed?
3. What is the usual deadline for recommenders to finish writing their answers
4. The supporting document mentions "additional letters". Can this be used to give more LoR? If yes, then what is the format that they should follow?

Lots of questions, but I am just getting done with my essays and a little anxious about the recommenders now.