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10 Jan 2018, 10:01
| FROM Magoosh Blog: What Should You Do If You Belong to an Overrepresented MBA Applicant Group? |
 I recently received a question – or more of a complaint – from a client who was concerned with his status as an Indian male working in IT. This individual was considering changing his location on his application – he was born, raised, and still lived in India, but his family had lived in Zurich for four years, starting when he was six, and he wanted to focus on that. And he wanted to highlight his job as a restaurant manager, rather than his extensive experience and education in IT. At Accepted, we get questions like this all the time, so I thought it would be appropriate to post the answer that I gave this particular young man. B-schools have been known to “group” applicants by ethnic, gender, and professional categories for administrative purposes, but that certainly does not mean that they are accepting and rejecting candidates based solely on those labels and groupings. Moving beyond labels – if you can do it, so can the adcom The purpose of the admissions process is to allow the admissions committee an opportunity to get to know you as an individual – beyond labels. It’s your job to show the adcom that you are not simply another face in the crowd of Indian (or American, for that matter) IT males, but that you are a unique, category-less group of ONE. You are not Indian, not American, not Indian-American, not IT, and not male; you are YOU. Don’t get hung up on the group or the label. Instead focus on ways you can draw out your individuality. It is true that you will need to work on this harder than, say, an entrepreneurial woman from a village in the Himalayas, but that’s not to say it can’t be done. Come to life with a strong, passionate essay We explain to our clients that their goal is to craft killer essays. Similarly, you must write essays that come alive with your personality, your diverse interests and talents, and your not-to-be-overlooked strengths and passions. Those kinds of essays prove that your candidacy is equal in competitiveness to our Himalayan applicant. That was my response to our Indian IT male friend, but it can be applied to anyone who is getting bogged down in the labels and losing focus on the process of individuating. Think about what sets you apart from your group. Highlight your uniqueness Highlight your uniqueness in your essays, and the adcoms will get a clear look at how you – not your group – will contribute to your chosen MBA program or profession. Last but not least, don’t stress. Just because you are an Indian IT guy (or a member of some other common subgroup in the applicant pool), doesn’t mean that you don’t possess other unique qualities that will make you an attractive candidate at top b-schools. You are unique, whether you realize it or not, and our expert admissions consultants can help you identify your individuality and highlight it in your applications. Check out our MBA Admissions Consulting Services to learn how we can help you stand out from the crowd and get accepted to business school! This article was originally posted on Accepted Admissions Blog. The post What Should You Do If You Belong to an Overrepresented MBA Applicant Group? appeared first on Magoosh GMAT Blog. |
10 Jan 2018, 14:01
| FROM Magoosh Blog: GMAT Score for UCLA Anderson School of Management |
The UCLA Anderson School of Management offers four MBA programs: a full-time MBA, a fully-employed MBA, an Executive MBA, and a Global Executive MBA. Below, we’ll be examining their most popular degree, the full-time UCLA MBA, including information on the curriculum, the application process, and the average GMAT score for UCLA’s prestigious program. Photo by Downtowngal UCLA Anderson MBA Curriculum UCLA Anderson MBA students will begin their studies with a nine-course core curriculum based upon statistics, accounting, economics, marketing, finance, organizational behavior, and leadership classes. At the end of the first year, students will begin taking elective courses, allowing for career specializations in areas like brand management, entertainment, entrepreneurship, health care management, real estate, sustainability leadership, and others. Second year students will also complete a capstone project, which focuses on applying MBA knowledge to the real world. While there are six capstone options available, there are two that are most common:
The UCLA Anderson School accepts applications in three rounds throughout the year. Exact dates vary year to year, but the Round 1 deadline is typically in early October, Round 2 in early January, and Round 3 in mid-April. MBA UCLA applicants will be expected to fulfill the following requirements:
The average GMAT score for UCLA Anderson School students is 716. The GMAT score range for the middle 80% of students is 680-750. The average GPA is 3.5. Suffice to say, Anderson students are an academically robust cohort. The average graduating class size is 360. Students have an average 5 years of work experience. Tuition alone is about $56,909 per year for California residents, and $58,588 for non-residents. The estimated annual total tuition and fees (including room/board, travel, student health plan, etc.) comes to $95,431 for California residents, and $97,110 for non-residents. UCLA MBA Ranking The UCLA Anderson School regularly ranks within the top 25 U.S. programs, and top 40 international programs, making it quite prestigious. UCLA Anderson U.S. Rankings Bloomberg19th Economist6th U.S. News15th Forbes15th UCLA Anderson International Rankings Economist6th Financial Times32nd GMAT Score UCLA Summary Four out of five Anderson School students have GMAT scores between the 84th and 99th percentile, so you’ll need to sharpen your test-taking skills to give yourself the best chance at admission. If you’re determined to take the GMAT for your UCLA Anderson MBA, you can begin the process by following these four simple steps:
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12 Jan 2018, 14:01
| FROM Magoosh Blog: Yale School of Management GMAT Score |
The Yale School of Management (SOM) is an elite department at one of the United States’ oldest universities. Below, we’ll take a closer look at Yale’s MBA program, including information on the curriculum, application process, and the average Yale School of Management GMAT score. Photo by Checkmate24 Yale School of Management Curriculum Yale’s unique “integrated curriculum” prepares students for multi-faceted roles within an organization by focusing on how areas like marketing, strategy, accounting, and finance are all connected to one another. First year students can expect to study not only the individual functions of different business roles, but also the intersections and overlap between these specializations. In their second semester, Yale students will begin taking elective courses to develop a specific expertise in a field of their choosing. Students are even welcome to take courses from Yale departments outside the SOM. All Yale SOM students must also fulfill a global studies requirement, which involves international study and/or travel. Yale MBA Application The Yale School of Management accepts applications in three rounds throughout the year. The round 1 deadline is in September, round 2 in January, and round 3 in April. SOM applicants will need to fulfill the following requirements:
Yale MBA Rankings Since Yale began offering MBAs in 1999, the department has quickly grown to one of the most prestigious in the world. The Yale School of Management is regularly ranked within the top 15 programs of the United States, and top 20 programs internationally. See selected rankings below: Yale MBA U.S. Rankings Bloomberg16th The Economist11th U.S. News9th Forbes13th Yale MBA International Rankings The Economist11th Financial Times15th Yale GMAT Score and Stats The SOM student cohort represents an academically renowned community. The median Yale School of Management GMAT score for admitted applicants is 730. The Yale GMAT score range for the middle 80% is 690-760. The median GPA is 3.69. Combined with a 17% acceptance rate, these stats make the Yale SOM quite competitive. Total tuition and fees come to $66,650 per year. Yale also recommends students budget around $22,000 for room and board, $1,000 for textbooks and supplies, and $2,490 if university health insurance is needed. Because the average admitted student has a Yale GMAT score in the 96th percentile, you’ll need to become very comfortable with the exam to give yourself the best shot at admission. If you’re determined to take the exam and earn a Yale GMAT score, you can begin the process by following these four simple steps:
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17 Jan 2018, 10:04
| FROM Magoosh Blog: GMAT Score for University of Michigan MBA (Ross) |
The University of Michigan Ross School of Business is a top ranked establishment that offers five MBAs, each geared towards students in various levels of their careers. In this post, we’ll be discussing their most popular degree—the full-time MBA—including information on the curriculum, application process, and the average University of Michigan GMAT score needed for this esteemed program. Photo by MichiganRoss University of Michigan MBA Curriculum First year University of Michigan MBA students will commence their studies by focusing on a core curriculum based upon accounting, economics, statistics, strategy, management, marketing, and leadership courses. At the end of year one, Ross students will undertake the signature Multidisciplinary Action Project (MAP). During the MAP, teams of students will work together for seven weeks to solve a specific problem at a nonprofit, corporation, or public organization. At the end of the class, teams will present their ideas to the executives of the selected company. Second year students will focus on elective courses, allowing for career specializations in areas like social enterprise, real estate, healthcare, entrepreneurial management, or environmentally sustainable business. During their final term, students are encouraged to spend a full semester or half-semester studying abroad at partner schools in Europe, South America, or China. After completing the MBA program, 98% of Ross graduates receive a job offer within three months. University of Michigan MBA Application Process The Ross Business School accepts applications in three rounds throughout the year. Exact dates vary year to year, but the Round 1 deadline is typically in early October, Round 2 in early January, and Round 3 in mid-March. Applicants are expected to complete the following steps:
The internationally acclaimed Ross School consistently ranks in the top 15 U.S. programs, and top 25 international programs. See selected rankings below: University of Michigan MBA U.S. Rankings Bloomberg12th The Economist12th U.S. News11th Forbes12th University of Michigan MBA International Rankings The Economist12th Financial Times23rd University of Michigan GMAT Score and Stats The average University of Michigan GMAT score for MBA students is 716. The range for the middle 80% is 670-760. The average GPA is 3.5. The student cohort itself has a graduating class size of about 422. Admitted students have, on average, 5 years of work experience. Annual tuition is about $62,300 for Michigan residents, and $67,300 for non-residents. With the Ross School’s acceptance rate of 25% is higher than almost all other American business schools ranked within the top 20 programs. Nevertheless, you’ll want to optimize your application to enhance your chances of acceptance. If you’re determined to take the GMAT, you can begin the process by following these four simple steps:
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16 Feb 2018, 10:01
| FROM Magoosh Blog: MBA Applicants: How to Get Accepted in 2018-19 |
 It’s time for my annual harangue/plea/rant. If you are planning to apply Round 1 in the fall, but have not yet thought about why you want an MBA, taken the GMAT/GRE, researched schools, or evaluated your qualifications, please please please keep reading. And then get started! I would like to help you avoid the harried hassle and diminished application quality that accompanies rushed applications. Just to be clear: Rushed applications are started just a few weeks before the deadlines by applicants who cogitate, procrastinate, or just start thinking about applying late in the cycle. Instead, follow the example of those many applicants who start their applications months before applying and who work steadily to complete them by their deadlines. Those people are getting started now. My 20+ years in this business tell me that those who start the application process 9-12 months before they apply:
Those better prepared applicants – they are your real competition. And the best way to compete is to start the race now. Not tomorrow. Not next week or month or quarter. Now. Start Your GMAT or GRE Prep Once you determine that you have a goal that requires an MBA, start preparing for the GMAT or GRE. Don’t wait for the summer or “later.” Your test score is a critical element in your application. Choosing schools without knowing that number leads to all kinds of aggravation, stress, and unpleasant surprises. Every year I get calls, emails, and comments from applicants who bombed the GRE or the GMAT and don’t have time to retake it. They are torn between applying to the programs they really want to attend but where their test score (and perhaps other elements) are less than competitive, and applying to programs where they are competitive but where they aren’t dying to go. It’s a dilemma you can avoid by allowing yourself the time to retake the GRE/GMAT, if necessary. Lower than expected test scores can throw a major monkey wrench in your plans when you take the test within two months of your target deadlines. However, if you bomb it in the spring, you will still have months to prepare again and retake the exam before the deadlines – even the first round deadlines. Where to Apply: Dartboard vs. Intent And then there are the applicants who don’t understand the importance of fit in the application process. They just know they want an MBA from a Top X-ranked school. They may or may not have a specific goal or reason to pursue an MBA, and they really could just as easily be throwing darts at a list of schools to determine where to invest their time and money. Or maybe they just started too late to do the research and reflection that they could’ve and should’ve done had they started earlier. Like now. In any case, this superficial approach could lead to rejection, a very expensive mistake, or a less than optimal MBA experience. Apply purposefully to specific programs that support your goals and at which you are competitive. Don’t apply to rankings. You won’t attend rankings. You’ll attend a graduate business school. Writing is Rewriting & Requires Time Some of you know why you want an MBA, have good reasons for selecting the school you will apply to, and will get the GMAT or GRE score that you want the first time you take the exam; so you may be feeling a little smug. Okay, so you got the first part of the application process done. Fantastic! However, if you slack off and wait for the last minute to complete your applications, you will end up hurrying the writing process for your essays, short answer questions, and resume, or the practice/filming process for video options on your application. Either way, you will end up rushing. Bad idea. And bad ideas lead to bad results. Writing – whether long essays, short essays, scripts, activity descriptions, or resumes – benefits from time. Temporal distance between revisions improves critical analysis and editing. In contrast, scrambling to slap something together leads to sloppy thinking and writing. Getting the GMAT or GRE out of the way, thinking profoundly about fit, and starting your essays early are all important steps, but you can’t just assume that ticking items off your checklist will get you into b-school. You need something more comprehensive than that… A Holistic, Purposeful Approach to the MBA Application Process Now is the time to proceed purposefully, methodically, and thoughtfully so that you submit a superior MBA application to the most appropriate schools at the most desirable deadline for you. I’m going to help you keep this one by laying out the process holistically from January through September so that you can present a superior application. It’s not just the test score or the GPA or the years of work experience or solid extracurriculars. It’s all of the above. I’ve mapped out the process for you here.  Click here to view full sizeIf you are aiming for the Round 1 deadlines, you can download the PDF, print it, and tape it on your mirror, wall, fridge, or wherever you’ll regularly see it. Alternatively we have created a public Google doc that you can copy and paste and modify to suit your needs. Then using the timeline as a guide, add the above tasks to your calendar. And do them. If you follow this MBA timeline, your MBA dreams will not be a mad, breathless sprint to the finish line, but a long, steady jog that allows you to successfully complete the MBA application marathon. You are unique, whether you realize it or not, and our expert MBA admissions consultants can help you identify your individuality and highlight it in your applications. Check out our MBA Admissions Consulting Services to learn how we can help you stand out from the crowd and get accepted to business school! This article was originally posted on Accepted’s Admissions Blog. The post MBA Applicants: How to Get Accepted in 2018-19 appeared first on Magoosh GMAT Blog. |
04 Apr 2018, 10:01
| FROM Magoosh Blog: The GMAT Gets Shorter! |
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GMAC, the brilliant folks who create the GMAT, have decided to shorten the length of the GMAT exam. Starting on April 16, 2018, there will be six fewer Quant questions and five fewer Verbal questions on the GMAT. (Clearly, they’ve decided that “less is more”!) Here’s our summary of what’s changing and how it affects you, but you can also read GMAC’s FAQ on the most recent changes. What’s changing on the GMAT
One change, though, that you definitely should take to heart: GMAT has made the pre-exam “tutorial” available online. You can watch it any time. Definitely, definitely watch that at least once when you are calm and relaxed at home. Do NOT put off watching that video until you are stressed out, sitting in the test center, ready to take your GMAT. Get it out of the way early, so you can keep your focus on test day. What will not change on the GMAT
Should you change your test date in response to this news? I would recommend that you be cautious and circumspect about changing anything. If your test day is April 16, 2018 or later, then you have absolutely nothing to gain by moving it earlier. By doing so, you would make your life more difficult while gaining not one iota of an advantage. Bad move. If your test date is before April 16, 2018, then consider your situation. If you already have been following a study plan and you feel confident about your schedule, don’t upset the apple cart simply for the sake of saving 23 minutes. If, on the other hand, you feel your studies would benefit significantly from a few more weeks of preparation and you feel you have a legitimate reason to delay your GMAT anyway, then move it back. Of course, another thing that doesn’t change is that high quality GMAT preparation can help you improve your score significantly. That’s precisely how Magoosh can help you! The post The GMAT Gets Shorter! appeared first on Magoosh GMAT Blog. |
17 Aug 2018, 09:02
| FROM Magoosh Blog: The Official Guide for the GMAT Review 2019: Should You Buy It? |
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What is the Official Guide for GMAT Review? The Official Guide for GMAT review is a book, or rather a three-book set: a main GMAT Official Guide book , and two smaller books, one focusing on Quantitative and the other focusing on Verbal. These books are available for purchase in the MBA.com store. And yes, Magoosh does recommend buying the main GMAT OG, and possibly the Verbal and Quant books too. We recommend these books because the practice material is of the highest possible quality. Each official guide book for the GMAT are published by Wiley, a major academic publisher. The content itself is designed by the same team that makes the actual GMAT exam. As you may know, GMAC, the folks who create the GMAT, recently released three volumes of The Official Guide for the GMAT 2019. I review these new editions of the Official Guide for the GMAT in this book review. The Official Guide for the GMAT 2019 The three new volumes are as follows:  1) The Official Guide for the GMAT 2019 (sky-blue trim and title on cover) 2) The Official Guide for the GMAT Verbal Review 2019 (purple trim and title on cover) 3) The Official Guide for the GMAT Quantitative Review 2019 (aqua-blue trim and title on cover) FACT: Each one of #1-3 of these replaces a corresponding 2018 version published about a year ago. FACT: Each one of #1-3 has about 25% new content, compared to its 2018 correlate.  Another new Official Guide? As readers of this blog may know, I have the utmost respect for the GMAT exam as one of the finest standardized tests. Consequently, I have the highest respect for the content creators and psychometricians at GMAC who design this test. I have met some of these people, and they are impressive. Having said that, GMAC is a company, and, like any company, it leverages what it can to generate profits. In the “old days” (up until several years ago), they would publish a new OG every 3-4 years, and often they would have a particularly good reason to do so. For example, they published the OG13 when they were introducing the Integrated Reasoning section in 2012: that was a 100% legitimate reason to update the OG. For the past several years, they have published a new OG every year, and they are rushing each new edition out at a pace far faster than that of other standardized test OGs. This new-OG-every-year rhythm is driven more by profit-seeking than by any legitimate pedagogical concern. It’s basically a ploy to separate the vulnerably anxious test-taking population from as much of its money as possible. Caveat emptor. I will point out that the OG 2019, like the OG 2018 and OG 2017, offer all the questions from the book online, if you want to practice them on a computer rather than on a hardcopy. Furthermore, that online question bank is where they keep the practice Integrated Reasoning questions. Should I buy the new Official Guide? Criticisms aside, should you, the student studying for the GMAT, buy these new books? If you are just starting your studies for the GMAT and haven’t bought any official materials yet, then yes, you should buy some version of the GMAT OG, and you might as well buy the newest one available. If you already have an earlier edition, such as the OG 2018, the OG 2017, or even the OG13 or OG2015, and are already working through it, then I would not advise you to buy another version. If you master everything any of those volumes, that’s enough for a high 700s score. After all, the GMAT itself hasn’t changed since the introduction of IR in 2012. The new OG may be marginally more GMAT-like, but I am NOT going to say that it’s so much better than previous editions that you should run out to buy the new one. Undoubtedly, the marketers at GMAC would love it if a large number of students thought that way, but, with all due respect to the people at GMAC, I want to discourage this line of thinking. One other reason to buy the new guide is you have already finished working through the OG2018 and need more practice questions: about 25% of the questions are new, not repeats from the previous edition. Similarly, if you exhausted an earlier edition studying for a first take of the GMAT, and now you need to study for a retake, then the new questions in one of the other earlier editions would help you. What about the Verbal Review and Quant Review? These are similar enhancements over the earlier editions. If you only have about a month to study for the GMAT, you probably wouldn’t have time to do any questions other than those from the OG. Even in some of our three-month study schedules, folks barely have enough time to learn and review the content they need to master — they don’t have time for these extra questions. If you are a practice-question maven who has already raced through the OG and need more official questions, or if you exhausted the OG on your first take and now you want to practice for a retake, then these books are an excellent source of official practice questions. If you already have the earlier editions, by all means, use those first. Only buy these new books if you don’t already own the earlier editions. What’s Special about the GMAT OGs? So why buy any GMAT Official Guide? Well, for one, as I mentioned, these books have absolutely 100% the most authentic practice questions you can find anywhere. All of the Official Guide practice sets are created by the same folks who make the real exam, and are even taken from actual past tests. Past tests are the only source for the Verbal, Quant, and IR questions, though. You won’t see any of those questions on a current exam. However, you will see the AWA questions from the OG on the test. The GMAT Official Guide actually includes a complete list of the AWA prompts you might see on test day, as does the official GMAT website. And speaking of AWA, the GMAT Official Guide includes something you can’t get from their official website: the official scoring guide for the AWA essay. In addition to that unique material, the OG’s descriptions of test structure and logistics are more accurate and complete than anything you could find elsewhere. This book does have some minor shortcomings. The tutorial and advice portions of the book are short and dry. And the answer explanations are frequently inadequate. Often, the explanation essentially just says “Answer A is right because it is; answers B,C,D, and E are wrong because they’re wrong.” So you’ll want to supplement your GMAT Official Guide with tutorials and answer explanations from a reputable third party such as Magoosh. OG 2019 Book Review: Summary Understandably, most students studying for the GMAT want to do everything in their power to prepare. By all means, use the best resources, follow proven study schedules, and pursue the habits of excellence (without which the resources and study schedules are considerably less valuable!). All that is very important. Nevertheless, don’t feel compelled to leap for your credit card every single time GMAC publishes a new edition of something. The OG 2019 is a collection of absolutely excellent GMAT practice questions, but so are the two previous editions. If you are starting from scratch, you might as well start with the newest. If you already have an earlier GMAT OG, trust the one you have. If you have any experience with using any of these new books, we would love to hear from you in the comments section below. Bonus: Magoosh has developed GMAT Companion to help you use the Official Guide more effectively. Check it out! The post The Official Guide for the GMAT Review 2019: Should You Buy It? appeared first on Magoosh GMAT Blog. |
20 Aug 2018, 13:01
| FROM Magoosh Blog: 2019 Best Business Schools |
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This post was updated in August 2018 to reflect the most recent rankings. If you’re interested in pursuing your MBA at a top business school, then you’re in luck. The lovely people at the US News and World report recently released their Best Grad and Business School rankings for 2019. “But, we’re barely eight months into 2018,” you say. “How do they already have the 2019 rankings?”  Well, the US News and World Report uses the same methodology each year to survey all 480 master’s in business programs accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International. Of the 387 respondents this year, 127 supplied enough information to be ranked. All rankings were calculated in 2018. This report’s rankings take into account such criteria as program assessments by peers and recruiters, graduate employment rates and placement successes, mean starting salaries for graduates, student selectivity, the mean GRE and GMAT scores of accepted applicants, and the program’s acceptance rate. If you’re an all-around exceptional applicant (we’re talking top GMAT scores, excellent academic and work achievements, and clear goals for how you plan to use your MBA), then this list is definitely for you. So, without any further ado, here are the best business schools of 2019. US News & World Report’s 2019 Top Business Schools: Top 10 MBA Programs: No surprises here. In fact, the top ten list is very similar to previous years’. Harvard Business School (read more about our take on Harvard GMAT Scores) and University of Chicago (Booth) tie for the top spot, with University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) as first runner up. 1. Harvard University (tie) 1. University of Chicago (Booth) (tie) 3. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) 4. Stanford University 5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan) 6. Northwestern University (Kellogg) 7. University of California, Berkeley (Haas) (tie) 7. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (Ross) (tie) 9. Columbia University 10. Dartmouth University (Tuck) Top 25 MBA Programs: 11. Duke University (Fuqua) (tie) 11. Yale University (tie) 13. New York University (Stern) 14. University of Virginia (Darden) 15. Cornell University (Johnson) 16. University of California, Los Angeles (Anderson) 17. Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) (tie) 17. University of Texas – Austin (McCombs) (tie) 19. University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler) 20. Emory University (Goizueta) (tie) 20. University of Southern California (Marshall) (tie) 22. University of Washington (Foster) 23. Rice University (Jones) (tie) 23. Washington University in St. Louis (Olin) (tie) 25. Georgetown University (McDonough) The Best MBA Program for You This year’s list includes everything from small, private universities to large, public schools. When viewing these rankings, don’t think that you absolutely have to apply to a top program, or that you must spend the money on a private university in order to get an amazing business school education. But keep in mind that, in the business world, b-school brands can carry a lot of weight. Finding the MBA program that’s a good fit for you is no easy feat. You are going to need to take into account the specifics of each program — things like location, cost, size, student body, reputation, and program fit. Plus, you’ll want to factor in your personal goals, and where you’d like to see yourself, career-wise, in five and ten years. Remember that some MBA programs are intended for young professionals, with little work experience, while others are intended for mid-career professionals. Some focus on entrepreneurship more than others. Some have more hands-on job training or a better career center. Weighing the pros and cons takes time and energy, and possibly the help of an admissions expert. When looking at this list to narrow down your b-school options, be sure to think about your personal story, your past experience, and the skills you’ll need to achieve your career goals. You can worry about your GMAT score later… (But in the meantime, take a look at the average GMAT scores of these top programs.) The post 2019 Best Business Schools appeared first on Magoosh GMAT Blog. |
24 Aug 2018, 11:02
| FROM Magoosh Blog: Manhattan GMAT Advanced Quant (Book Review) |
 Gimmicks abound in test prep marketing and products, and there’s no shortage of books that will promise you a “top score” in Quant. Is Manhattan GMAT Advanced Quant one such gimmick product? For the most part, the answer to that question is “no.” This book is not gimmicky, but rather a solidly useful math resource that many students can benefit from. But the book isn’t perfect, of course–no test prep book is. Let’s take a closer look at this book, its features, its merits, and its minor gimmicks. The Structure of the Book Manhattan GMAT Advanced Quant has an organized, patterned layout. Appropriately, you could almost call the setup of the chapters mathematical. The introduction is playfully labeled “Chapter 0.” Next come four chapters that focus on the two major question formats in GMAT Quant: Problem Solving and Data Sufficiency. Chapters 1 and 2 cover principles and strategies/tactics for Problem Solving. And from there, Data Sufficiency gets its own principles and strategies/tactics chapters. In Manhattan terminology, “principles” refer to broad approaches that apply to all or most problems in a given question format. Principles discussed include making sure you understand every bit of information in the problem, doing your work on scratch paper, etc…. Strategies/tactics in this book include backsolving, picking numbers, eliminating answer choices through logic, and so on. The four chapter rundown of the principles, tactics, and strategies for top accuracy in PS and DS is labelled as “Part 1” of Manhattan GMAT Advanced Quant. Part 2 consists of Chapters 5 through 8. The second part of Manahattan GMAT Advanced Quant covers a variety of math concepts and ideas that are equally important in Problem Solving and Data Sufficiency. This part can be seen as a general field guide to GMAT Quant. Immediately after that comes the similarly holistic Part 3. Part 3 consists of just one long chapter. Chapter 9, called “workout sets,” is exactly what it sounds like. This final chapter is an extended section of GMAT Quant practice problems. The Good Excellent writing This may sound of secondary importance in math instruction. But if you’ve ever read an unbearably dry math tutorial, you know how important good writing is. Manhattan GMAT Advanced Quant is conversational, easy to understand, and breaks down concepts clearly and helpfully[/*] Good examples This book uses a lot of terms and ideas you may not have seen elsewhere. But it defines every novel idea clearly, with examples of how these ideas can be applied to real GMAT Quant questions. For instance, in Chapter 0, the book talks about the idea of using your “top-down brain” and your “bottom-up brain.” The book doesn’t just explain that “top down” refers to deductive logic while “bottom up” refers to intuition and snap judgments. It also has multiple flow charts showing how these two kinds of human thought can be used together to solve difficult math problems, step-by-step. Covers all the strategy bases Every aspect of math approach and strategy is in here. I can’t think of a single “go to” trick of my own as a tutor that this book doesn’t also teach. And the book had countless additional insights I now plan to share with my students. Very GMAT-like practice questions As with other Manhattan materials, the Quant problems here are spot on. A wide variety of question types are represented, with focus on medium-and-harder difficulties. And within that range, the format, conventions, and tone of the practice sets match very well to the real GMAT. Insightful answer explanations The answer explanations are thorough, accounting for the reasons behind every right and wrong answer. In addition, multiple approaches and strategies are explored in the explanations. I would say that the explanations here are even more complete than the also-wonderful Quant explanations in other Manhattan books. The Bad Relatively light on academic content The formulas, theorems, patterns and so on that are used in GMAT Quant are touched on here, but they aren’t really the focus. Admittedly, in the introduction, the writers say this book is for test-takers who are already fairly knowledgeable about math, and want to up their game. But even the best GMAT Quant students can forget a formula or math fact now and again. So an index reviewing the academic facts would have been a nice addition to the book. The book is more ‘general purpose’ than it claims to be This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But when the introduction indicates that the book is only for people who’ve scored a 47 or higher in GMAT Quant, it’s a bit misleading. Manhattan GMAT Advanced Math, when paired with other Manhattan GMAT math books that are more content heavy, could be helpful even to beginner and intermediate GMAT math scholars. Further Reading and Resources This book is just one of many possible resources you can use as you reach for your GMAT target score. For a full list of the books and resources Magoosh recommends, be sure to check out our Best GMAT Books and Resources page. The post Manhattan GMAT Advanced Quant (Book Review) appeared first on Magoosh GMAT Blog. |
27 Aug 2018, 11:02
| FROM Magoosh Blog: Nova’s GMAT Prep Math Course (Book Review) |
 The Nova Review is Finally Here! A lot of students have been asking Magoosh’s experts for their opinion of Nova’s GMAT Math Prep Course. I purchased this book so I could take a closer look at it and give it the full review it deserves. The verdict? This is a potential source of extra GMAT math practice for serious students. But Nova’s GMAT Math Prep Course also has some serious downsides you should be aware of before you decide to buy it. The Pros of Using this Book We’ll start with the advantages of this book. When the advice and tutorials are good, they are really good. One thing I especially like is the fact that this book devotes an entire chapter to practice with graphs, charts, and tables. I’ve had so many students ask me for a good collection of infographic-based GMAT-quant practice. And with Nova, I’ve finally found one. Students will also really appreciate the detailed answer explanations, which show multiple alternate ways to tackle problems. A number of other very helpful tutorials await readers in the pages of Nova’s GMAT Math Prep course. The practice questions also cover a very GMAT-like range of concepts. And most of the practice questions are close–if not perfectly matched–to what you’d see on test day. The Cons of Using Nova for GMAT Math Practice When advice or material is “off,” it’s way off. For example, this book tells you that the first five questions in the GMAT Quant section are especially important to your score and that you need to take extra time on them. This is a myth that the makers of the test have repeatedly tried to debunk. Nova also says that defined function problems (where a special symbol is a stand-in for a math operation) are common on the GMAT. This is debatable at best. More glaringly, the advice in the “Elimination Strategies” chapter is pretty much all incorrect. Do not eliminate an answer that repeats a number from the problem, or eliminate an answer that says there is not enough information… and really, do not follow any advice from that section of Nova’s GMAT Prep math course. Editing and organization leave a lot to be desired here as well. The book is riddled with typos, especially in the math notations. This can make some practice problems confusing. Moreover, the assigned difficulty levels for the problems are off. You’ll find some surprisingly hard problems labelled as easy, and some easy problems inexplicably categorized as “very hard.” Problems are miscategorized in other ways as well. There’s a factorial problem in the function notation practice set, to give just one example. Another issue is that question quality is less than perfect. Certain practice problems do not follow GMAT conventions. The wording of the problems can be more convoluted than it would be on the GMAT. And sometimes the geometric figures can be blatantly not “to scale.” On the real GMAT, Problem Solving geometry figures will always be to scale, unless otherwise noted. On occasion, you’ll also see answer choices that are very close together in value, while the figures in real GMAT answer choices are more likely to be spaced apart. Most worryingly, this book deliberately includes a number of problems that would be harder than anything on the GMAT. In the introduction, the book says you need to master harder-than-GMAT problems in order to do well on the test. But in reality, the opposite tends to be true. A focus on any sort of non-GMAT-like problems–too easy or too hard–will be a distraction from preparing for real testing conditions. The overly hard problems and harder-than-average mix of problems in this book can be… well… a problem. Further Reading and Resources This book is just one of many possible resources you can use as you reach for your GMAT target score. For a full list of the books and resources Magoosh recommends, be sure to check out our Best GMAT Books and Resources page. The post Nova’s GMAT Prep Math Course (Book Review) appeared first on Magoosh GMAT Blog. |
28 Aug 2018, 11:02
| FROM Magoosh Blog: Powerscore GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible (Book Review) |
 An LSAT Powerhouse Tries its Hand at GMAT PowerScore built its reputation as an LSAT company with its LSAT Critical Reasoning Bible. For those who don’t know, the LSAT is the GMAT Critical Reasoning section on steroids. So when I first purchased the PowerScore GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible, I had high hopes that PowerScore would really know how to dissect one of the most difficult question types on the GMAT. PowerScore did not disappoint. This is, overall, an excellent book for building GMAT CR skills, although it does have some minor flaws. The Good The PowerScore GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible is both thorough and insightful. This book includes extensive lists of keywords that can help you identify different things the CR passage authors are trying to do. There lists of keywords that help you distinguish between passages that make arguments and passages that give sets of facts. There are also keyword lists to help you identify claims, premises, alternative viewpoints, and so much more. In addition to those lists are pages and pages of insightful tutorials. But perhaps the most uniquely helpful feature of this book is its series of “mini-drills.” These sets of practice exercises help you build different GMAT Critical Reading skills, such as identifying conclusions, correctly recognizing the tricks hidden in the incorrect CR answer choices, and so on. In addition to this, the practice questions are very realistic. Every CR problem I looked at was well-designed, and would fit in perfectly on a real GMAT exam. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who needs to improve in CR. It’s also a good resource for those who are already good with GMAT Critical Reasoning questions, but want to perfect their game. The Not-So-Good With all of that said, this book does have a downside or two. The arrangement of information, for example, is a little “busy.” PowerScore fills the margins–outside of the main text–with notes and diagrams. All information in the margins is in a different, less bold font. This makes some important information hard to follow and easy to miss. Moreover, the overall organization of the information can be a little confusing and arbitrary in places. For example, chapter 12 of the book focuses on numbers and percentages as they appear in a variety of CR question types. This chapter actually interrupts a series of chapters on specific question types. The following chapter goes back to covering question types, but arbitrarily groups argument evaluation, cannot-be-true, and principle question types together. If you want to focus your own studies on specific aspects of CR, you may need to read the table of contents or glossary/index very carefully to find what you’re looking for. Further Reading and Resources This book is just one of many possible resources you can use as you reach for your GMAT target score. For a full list of the books and resources Magoosh recommends, be sure to check out our Best GMAT Books and Resources page. The post Powerscore GMAT Critical Reasoning Bible (Book Review) appeared first on Magoosh GMAT Blog. |
22 Oct 2018, 08:01
| FROM Magoosh Blog: How Important Is It to Buy the Most Recent GMAT Books? |
 When I was in college I hated buying textbooks. Balancing my limited student budget in the first place felt pretty miraculous, and then classes would start and BAM there went another $100, $200, even $300, just to buy the books I needed to take the classes that I had already paid to be in. I hated buying these expensive books so much that I would spend hours and hours scheming about how I could get them for cheap or for free: I’d hunt down people who’d already taken the class and try to cut them deals for their used books. I’d sign up for obscure eBook free trials in the depths of the internet so I could download PDFs of the books I needed (and probably some computer viruses too). I’d even ask to borrow my professors’ copies for a few hours and just take photos of every single page on my phone.  Not the best way to study… But the simplest way to save money was to buy older editions of the books I needed. Sometimes buying older editions of textbooks was fine; maybe the current edition on our class syllabus just had a new foreword, and I could borrow a friend’s copy for the day and then be in the clear. But sometimes it became a problem. I once bought an old version of a Statistics textbook that ended up having an entirely different set of math questions than the ones we were supposed to do for homework. The trick was to know when I could get away with a used book (or an iPhone photo of used book) and when I actually needed to dish out the money for the shiny new edition. If I knew for sure that I really needed the new book, dropping the cash on it didn’t hurt quite so much. The GMAT is a lot like this. There are tons of GMAT books on the market (have you read our reviews?), and new GMAT study material is always being released, along with the odd new edition of an established GMAT prep book. The trick is knowing when you need the hot new edition, and when you’re okay with the one being resold on Amazon for 80% off (or the one lurking in your parents’ closet).  Spot the outdated GMAT study materials! Is last year’s GMAT study material truly outdated? Each year, there’s a new wave of GMAT books crashing onto our bookshelves at Magoosh. Publishers are keen to be as up-to-date as possible, as close to the current version of the GMAT as possible, and so they regularly churn out new editions of their prep books. A few bits of text get switched out, some practice sets get augmented with new questions, and, if we’re really lucky, an extra practice test makes an appearance. Naturally, test-takers gravitate towards the newest GMAT books – after all, you’re trying to give yourself the best shot at scoring well on the test – and last year’s editions become little more than tinder. That’s perfectly reasonable; it’d be a shame to spend all your time on money on material that’s not even relevant to what you’ll see on test day, wouldn’t it? You can probably guess my stance on this, based on my college textbook anecdote: You do not always need to buy the newest editions of the GMAT study materials. More often than not, the newest edition of a GMAT book is essentially identical to that of the year before. The covers tend to change noticeably (thrilling new colors!), but the contents stay unabashedly unaltered. Simply put, you can’t assume that a new GMAT book is better than an old GMAT book. Often, they’re equally helpful. So you don’t need the newest GMAT books? Well…here’s the caveat: sometimes the test does change, and so the books have to change, too. And when that happens, it’s vital that you start with the most up-to-date material. In the case of the GMAT, the last major change was the addition of the “Integrated Reasoning” section in June of 2012. Books from before that update are, without question, inferior to newer books. And even today, companies are adding new Integrated Reasoning material to their offerings as that section becomes gradually more important to test-takers and admissions offices. Yet, for the most part, if you’re looking at GMAT prep materials published in 2015 and other resources published in 2014 or 2013, whether it’s from Manhattan GMAT or from GMAC themselves, most of what’s inside will be the same. That’s largely due to the nature of the test. The GMAT is standardized because admissions offices need to be able to compare scores across different versions of the test, including question banks used across different years. By nature of being standardized, the test cannot change drastically without public acknowledgement of the change. You might note that this is precisely why Integrated Reasoning is (for the time being) not taken very seriously by most test-takers or admissions committees; because it’s a new section, it’s not possible to compare current applicants to those who took the test before 2012. Because changes to the GMAT make the new scores harder for schools to use, GMAC changes the test as little as possible, and practice material changes similarly rarely. Of course, look for the differences between editions before you buy, and don’t buy books that are from before the last public change to the GMAT. But in general, it’s not so important to have the most recent edition – it’s likely the same as last year’s. What’s the best GMAT prep book to buy new? While GMAC changes their exam as little as possible, small changes to the test occur each year: minor shifts in content, slight changes in question format, that sort of thing. Many independent publishers of GMAT books don’t check for these smaller changes. And even when GMAT bookmakers do check for tiny, subtle changes to the exam, they may not notice changes. Or they may misinterpret or exaggerate small changes to the test, creating updated materials that aren’t quite GMAT-like. Still, there is one source for GMAT books that will accurately show any small recent changes to the exam: the GMAC itself. Every year, GMAC releases a new set of the three official GMAT books: The Official Guide for GMAT Review, The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review, and The Official Guide for GMAT Quantitative Review. Because these books are made by the same company that makes the GMAT itself, they will perfectly capture any minor changes that are made in a given year. Still, buying the very newest official GMAT guide isn’t all that important. In fact, it can pay to buy an older official GMAT prep book instead. Used GMAT study resources from GMAC are plentiful and affordable. With the money it takes to buy a brand-new official GMAT prep book, you could purchase multiple used GMAC-created GMAT books from the last few years. This gives you a lot more practice material to work with. New changes to the GMAT: Will they make current GMAT study material and GMAT books obsolete? In 2016, GMAC launched a pilot program for a reformatted version of the GMAT. The pilot program went well, and the new experimental format for the test has now become the standard. Basically the GMAT now includes a “Select Section Order” feature for all test-takers. This change (as the name suggests) allows you to decide which order you want to take the GMAT sections in. As you can see, even though this is a big change for the GMAT, it doesn’t actually affect the content on the test. Subject material, question format, and difficulty haven’t changed. It just allows test-takers to choose the order in which they take the sections of the test. Because the content has remained the same, the formatting change definitely doesn’t make pre-2017 GMAT books obsolete. If you’re taking practice tests in older print books, you can simply skip around and go through the sections in the order you choose. The CDs that come with the older books could become outdated, as they don’t have a “pick your order” option, but this is a pretty minor inconvenience – especially since web-based platforms for GMAT test practice (such as our very own Magoosh GMAT) should be able to adapt pretty quickly. So to answer the big question… Do you need to buy this year’s newest GMAT book? No, you do not! A combination of older print books and updated online GMAT prep should be fine, as long as the print books were published after 2012. You can use the money you save to buy even more GMAT prep material, put it back in your savings, or, you know, be like me and spend it all on Spotify and fancy juice. Happy studying! ?  Enjoy this juice, you earned it. Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in December 2014 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness. Special thanks to Molly Kiefer for her contributions to this post. The post How Important Is It to Buy the Most Recent GMAT Books? appeared first on Magoosh GMAT Blog. |
08 Jan 2019, 11:02
| FROM Magoosh Blog: What Kind of Math is on the GMAT? Breakdown of Quant Concepts by Frequency |
 The biggest secret to GMAT Quant success is a simple one: identify and study the correct Quant concepts. But what are the GMAT math topics? And which ones are the most important? To answer all of these questions, I looked at official GMATPrep tests 3 and 4, and the Official Guide for the GMAT Review 2019. Read on to find out what I learned from analyzing the GMAT quantitative topics in these 766 official questions. What Kind of Math is On the GMAT? Here is a GMAT Quant section breakdown (with category descriptions as needed):
Word problem interpretation is the most frequent concept, showing up on well over half of the questions. Integer properties and arithmetic come second, appearing on nearly a third of all of the questions. GMAT Quant Section Breakdown The table below lists GMAT Quant concepts in order of most-to-least frequent. (And again, the most frequent concepts are obviously the most important!) Click the topic names to read on a given topic in more detail. In the case of data interpretation, the link goes to an IR resource that is also relevant to Quant. You can treat the table and its links as a GMAT Quantitative syllabus of sorts. Follow the links to learn everything about arithmetic, geometry, and proportion, everything about probability, stats, and counting, etc… Just about anything you’d need to know can be seen or accessed in the table! GMAT Quant conceptPercentage frequency Word Problems58.2% Integer properties and arithmetic31.1% Algebra16.3% Percents, ratios, and fractions13.7% Two dimensional geometry10.6% Statistics6.3% Powers and roots6.3% Probability and combinatronics5% Inequalities4.7% Sequences3.2% Coordinate geometry2.9% Data interpretation0.9% Three dimensional geometry0.8% Functions0.4%  Note: Some questions tested multiple concepts and were thus counted more than one time in more than one category. As a result, the percentages in the chart above add up to more than 100%. GMAT Question Type Breakdown for Quant: The Takeaway As you can see in the table above, not all GMAT Quant concepts are created equal. Certain GMAT Quant topics will definitely appear more often than others. A Word on Word Problems Clearly, the GMAT loves to test its Quant concepts through word problems. Word problems can overlap with just about topic: statistics, algebra, inequalities, you name it. There can even be coordinate word problems and absolute value word problems! So make sure you build math-related reading comprehension skills as you prepare for the exam. The Very Most Important GMAT Quant Topics Several other high-frequency Quant concepts stand out when you look at the table above. Word problems, integer properties, arithmetic, algebra, percents, ratios, fractions, and geometry are the most important. These topics all are clearly vital to GMAT Quant success. The Not-So-Important Math Topics Lower on the chart, you can see some concepts that seem a good deal less important. Sequences, the coordinate plane, three dimensional objects, functions, and data interpretation don’t occur all that often; these topics have minimal importance in GMAT Quant. A Second Look at Data Interpretation Not so fast though. Let’s take a closer look at that last “unimportant” GMAT Quant concept I mentioned. Although it is clearly not that important in the GMAT Quant section, data interpretation is still a big part of the GMAT as a whole. Remember, the Integrated Reasoning section consists primarily of math data interpretation questions. So be sure to study this concept as part of your overall GMAT prep. The GMAT Quant Section Breakdown in Greater Context Speaking of other sections of the GMAT, make sure you understand where these Quant concepts fit into the test as a whole. The GMAT maths syllabus should be seen as part of the syllabus for the entire exam. So be sure to check out my colleague Rachel’s Complete Hassle-Free Guide to the GMAT test. Or for a quicker snapshot of the most common question, GMAT-wide, see Mike’s “Most Common GMAT Topics and Questions.” The post What Kind of Math is on the GMAT? Breakdown of Quant Concepts by Frequency appeared first on Magoosh GMAT Blog. |
05 Feb 2019, 14:02
| FROM Magoosh Blog: What’s the Difference Between the Executive Assessment and the GMAT? |
 Are you an experienced manager who is considering entering an MBA program? You may be able to take the Executive Assessment (EA) rather than the GMAT. But how is the EA different from the GMAT? And how can you make sure it’s the right exam for you? What is the Executive Assessment? The Executive Assessment (EA) is an admissions exam designed for executive MBA programs. The test features Quant, Verbal, and Integrated Reasoning questions. The EA is similar in structure to the GMAT, and is made by the same company that makes the GMAT. What is the difference between the Executive Assessment and the GMAT? The Executive Assessment and the GMAT are both made by the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC). In spite of this, these two tests have a number of distinct differences. Most importantly, the EA is designed for applicants to Executive MBA (EMBA) programs. An EMBA is a type of MBA specifically geared toward established, experienced managers who want to advance their careers to even higher levels. So what does this alternate test for seasoned executives look like, compared to the GMAT? I’ve outlined the key differences in the table below. Test structure: Executive Assessment vs. GMAT name of examEXECUTIVE ASSESSMENTGMAT Total time90 minutes3 hours and 7 minutes Verbal section30 minutes, 14 questions65 minutes, 36 questions Quant section30 minutes, 14 questions62 minutes, 31 questions Integrated reasoning30 minutes, 12 questions30 minutes, 12 questions AWANo AWA section30 minutes, 1 question Adaptive difficulty?NoYes Other Differences in Content and Difficulty Most obviously from the table, the Executive Assessment is easier than the GMAT. Note that the EA is shorter and lacks an AWA section. There is another aspect of the EA that easier too: its math content. On the EA, you see fewer of the harder math topics from the GMAT. For example, probability, statistics, and combinatronics are less common on the Executive Assessment. The Similarities between EA and GMAT Structure The range of Quant and Verbal topics on these two B-school admissions tests are largely the same. Although certain challenging math concepts are less frequent on the Executive Assessment, the GMAT and the EA have the same range of Quant concepts. The question formats are the same as well; the tests share a comparable mix of Problem Solving and Data Sufficiency. And for Verbal, the mix will be exactly the same. Both the EA and the GMAT have comparable proportions of Critical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension and Sentence Correction questions. Moreover, the IR sections are exactly the same between these two tests. Ultimately, you can think of the Executive Assessment as “GMAT Lite.” The EA has all the same elements as the GMAT, but stripped down to a more basic, “softer” version. Who can submit EA scores, and which schools accept them? While the EMBA is designed for Executive MBA programs, other non-Executive MBA programs sometimes accept the EA from experienced applicants. To give just one example, UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business accepts EA scores for both its EMBA program and its weekend MBA program. As long as you have at least 10 years of experience, you can submit EA scores when applying for either of these degree paths. Berkeley’s requirements are fairly typical. You will generally need about a decade of managerial experience to be EA-eligible at most B-schools. (The GMAC itself has no minimum experience requirement for EA registration, however.) The EA is accepted at quite a few schools around the world. For a complete list of universities and programs that use Executive Assessment scores, go to the official EA website. How to Study for the Executive Assessment The Executive Assessment has its own section on the GMAC homepage. This official EA website includes an EA preparation page. On that page, you can access a small selection of free practice questions and purchase additional EA practice materials. However, you don’t necessarily need to use any official EA prep. GMAT prep materials will also do just fine. If you decide to go that route, I recommend official GMAT practice from MBA.com and practice from Magoosh GMAT. When using GMAT resources for EA prep, just remember to focus on an EA-like mix of GMAT math questions. For a detailed look at the mix of math on the Executive Assessment, consult the official EA Math Review. The post What’s the Difference Between the Executive Assessment and the GMAT? appeared first on Magoosh GMAT Blog. |
01 Jun 2019, 21:02
| FROM Magoosh Blog: GMAT Accommodations: GMAT Extended Time and More |
 GMAT accommodations are available for test-takers with disabilities. GMAT extended time is one of the most common offerings, but other assistance is available too. Read on to learn more about GMAT accommodations. How many different GMAT accommodations are there? Can I get a complete list? There’s more to GMAT accommodations than just GMAT extended time. There are many possible accommodations for test-takers that qualify. You can find all of the necessary details here: Accommodations for Test Takers with Disabilities. Other accommodations supported by the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), the makers of the test, include:
The steps for applying for GMAT accommodations can be found on the GMAT’s official “Register as a Test-Taker with Disabilities” page. In brief, here is what you need to do.
Test-takers with disabilities should send completed a GMAT Test Accommodations Request Form and all supporting documentation to Pearson VUE at one of the following addresses: Fax: +1 (952) 681-3681[/*] Mail / Courier Service: Pearson VUE Attention: GMAT Disability Services 5601 Green Valley Drive, Ste. 220 Bloomington, MN 55437 USA How to use Magoosh to simulate GMAT extended time You can add GMAT extended time to your Magoosh GMAT practice tests. First go to the Account tab on the upper right and choose Profile:  Then select the green Edit Account Information button on the bottom left:  And then select the time change you want:  NOTE: Special thanks to Matt Slayton in Magoosh Student Help for doing the initial research and assisting with the writing. The post GMAT Accommodations: GMAT Extended Time and More appeared first on Magoosh GMAT Blog. |
07 Jun 2019, 17:02
| FROM Magoosh Blog: The Official Guide for the GMAT Review 2019: Should You Buy It? |
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What is the Official Guide for GMAT Review? The Official Guide for GMAT review is a book, or rather a three-book set: a main GMAT Official Guide book , and two smaller books, one focusing on Quantitative and the other focusing on Verbal. These books are available for purchase in the MBA.com store. And yes, Magoosh does recommend buying the main GMAT OG, and possibly the Verbal and Quant books too. We recommend these books because the practice material is of the highest possible quality. Each official guide book for the GMAT are published by Wiley, a major academic publisher. The content itself is designed by the same team that makes the actual GMAT exam. As you may know, GMAC, the folks who create the GMAT, recently released three volumes of The Official Guide for the GMAT 2020. I review these new editions of the Official Guide for the GMAT in this book review.  The Official Guide for the GMAT 2020 The three new volumes are as follows:
FACT: Each one of #1-3 has about 25% new content, compared to its 2019 correlate. FACT: The most recent edition comes with both an online and mobile app version of the questions. (The 2019 edition had online but not mobile access.) Another new Official Guide? As readers of this blog may know, I have the utmost respect for the GMAT exam as one of the finest standardized tests. Consequently, I have the highest respect for the content creators and psychometricians at GMAC who design this test. I have met some of these people, and they are impressive. Having said that, GMAC is a company, and, like any company, it leverages what it can to generate profits. In the “old days” (up until several years ago), they would publish a new OG every 3-4 years, and often they would have a particularly good reason to do so. For example, they published the OG13 when they were introducing the Integrated Reasoning section in 2012: that was a 100% legitimate reason to update the OG. For the past several years, they have published a new OG every year, and they are rushing each new edition out at a pace far faster than that of other standardized test OGs. This new-OG-every-year rhythm is driven more by profit-seeking than by any legitimate pedagogical concern. It’s basically a ploy to separate the vulnerably anxious test-taking population from as much of its money as possible. Caveat emptor. Accessing the Electronic Versions of GMAT Official Guide 2020 I will again point out that the OG 2020, like the OG 2019 and OG 2018, offer all the questions from the book online, if you want to practice them on a computer rather than on a hardcopy. Furthermore, that online question bank is where they keep the practice Integrated Reasoning questions. And, as I also mentioned, the newest edition offers a mobile version of the app. Frustratingly, however, instructions on how to access the books’ questions via app are vague. And by “vague,” I mean non-existent. At first, I tried to search the official website for GMAT prep (MBA.com) for the app, but the only app I found there cost $4.99 and was for the 2015 edition of the OG, while the 2020 GMAT Official Guide references a free app that would obviously be for 2020. Finally, after poking around a good deal on my Google and on my own phone’s app store, I realized that the app was not hosted on the official GMAT website at all. Instead, you’re supposed to use the Wiley Efficient Learning App via Google Play or iTunes. This makes sense in retrospect, since the book tells you to go to wiley.gmat.com for the web-based practice questions, and that URL actually forwards you to the GMAT section of the Wiley Efficient Learning website. But directions for the mobile app certainly could have been clearer to say the least. Should I buy the new Official Guide? Criticisms aside, should you, the student studying for the GMAT, buy these new books? If you are just starting your studies for the GMAT and haven’t bought any official materials yet, then yes, you should buy some version of the GMAT OG, and you might as well buy the newest one available. If you already have an earlier edition, such as the OG 2019, the OG 2018, or even the OG13 or OG2015, and are already working through it, then I would not advise you to buy another version. If you master everything in any of those volumes, that’s enough for a high 700s score. After all, although the GMAT test was changed to a shorter format in 2018, the GMAT questions themselves haven’t changed since the introduction of IR in 2012. The new OG may be marginally more GMAT-like, but I am NOT going to say that it’s so much better than previous editions that you should run out to buy the new one. Undoubtedly, the marketers at GMAC would love it if a large number of students thought that way, but, with all due respect to the people at GMAC, I want to discourage this line of thinking. One other reason to buy the new guide is you have already finished working through the OG2019 and need more practice questions: about 25% of the questions are new, not repeats from the previous edition. Similarly, if you exhausted an earlier edition studying for a first take of the GMAT, and now you need to study for a retake, then the new questions in one of the other earlier editions would help you. What about the Verbal Review and Quant Review? These are similar enhancements over the earlier editions. If you only have about a month to study for the GMAT, you probably wouldn’t have time to do any questions other than those from the OG. Even in some of our three-month study schedules, folks barely have enough time to learn and review the content they need to master — they don’t have time for these extra questions. If you are a practice-question maven who has already raced through the OG and need more official questions, or if you exhausted the OG on your first take and now you want to practice for a retake, then these books are an excellent source of official practice questions. If you already have the earlier editions, by all means, use those first. Only buy these new books if you don’t already own the earlier editions. What’s Special about the GMAT OGs? So why buy any GMAT Official Guide? Well, for one, as I mentioned, these books have absolutely 100% the most authentic practice questions you can find anywhere. All of the Official Guide practice sets are created by the same folks who make the real exam, and are even taken from actual past tests. Past tests are the only source for the Verbal, Quant, and IR questions, though. You won’t see any of those questions on a current exam. However, you will see the AWA questions from the OG on the test. The GMAT Official Guide actually includes a complete list of the AWA prompts you might see on test day, as does the official GMAT website. And speaking of AWA, the GMAT Official Guide includes something you can’t get from their official website: the official scoring guide for the AWA essay. (Admittedly, a version of the score guide is buried on the GMAC website, but the wording is slightly outdated, and the guide is inconveniently separate from all of the other materials on MBA.com). In addition to having the only full, updated guide to GMAT AWA scores, the OG’s descriptions of test structure and logistics are more accurate and complete than anything you could find elsewhere. This three volume set does have some minor shortcomings. The tutorial and advice portions of the book are short and dry. And the answer explanations are frequently inadequate. Often, the explanation essentially just says “Answer A is right because it is; answers B,C,D, and E are wrong because they’re wrong.” So you’ll want to supplement your GMAT Official Guide with tutorials and answer explanations from a reputable third party such as Magoosh. OG 2020 Book Review: Summary Understandably, most students studying for the GMAT want to do everything in their power to prepare. By all means, use the best resources, follow proven study schedules, and pursue the habits of excellence (without which the resources and study schedules are considerably less valuable!). All that is very important. Nevertheless, don’t feel compelled to leap for your credit card every single time GMAC publishes a new edition of something. The OG 2020 is a collection of absolutely excellent GMAT practice questions, but so are the two previous editions. If you are starting from scratch, you might as well start with the newest. If you already have an earlier GMAT OG, trust the one you have. If you have any experience with using any of these new books, we would love to hear from you in the comments section below. Bonus: Magoosh has developed GMAT Companion Workbook and a GMAT Official Question support forum to help you use the Official Guide more effectively. Check it out! The post The Official Guide for the GMAT Review 2019: Should You Buy It? appeared first on Magoosh GMAT Blog. |
16 Aug 2019, 18:02
| FROM Magoosh Blog: How Long Should You Study for the GMAT? (Take the Quiz!) |
 How long should you study for the GMAT? Effective GMAT prep takes a lot of time, regardless of your skill level. Average GMAT students can expect to spend 100-170 hours studying, over the course of 2-3 months. The very top scorers on the GMAT often spend more than 170 hours, with study plans lasting up to 6 months. You may be wondering if studying makes that much of a difference in your score. Well, official studies show that it really does! According to GMAC (the test-maker), 62% of test-takers begin studying at least four weeks ahead of their test date–and there’s a direct correlation between the time you put in and your score. On average, those who received scores of 500+ studied at least 60 hours. To find out exactly how long you’ll need to get the score you want, take the quiz! Then, come back to the post and we’ll talk about some factors which may come into play when considering how long to study for GMAT. Take the quiz!  How Long Does It Take to Study for the GMAT? Narrowing It Down It’s really easy to answer “How long to prepare for GMAT?” by saying it depends, but that’s not helpful for test takers creating GMAT study plans! Instead, let’s consider some of the factors that affect the amounts of time you need for GMAT prep. How much do you enjoy tests? The first consideration to answer how long you should study for the GMAT is simply: how good are you at the whole standardized-test thing in general? Some people regularly ace standardized tests. Others regularly flub them. This is an estimation—at a gut-level, how comfortable are you, and how successful have you been, with the whole standardized-test thing? Consider as well how well you do on longer tests; . How much of a point increase do you want? Let’s say you have taken a , relatively cold, with little prep, and got some score. We’ll call this a baseline score. What is your target score? How much do you want to improve from this cold-take baseline? Let’s say, with moderate prep, you could improve 50 points over a relatively cold-take. That’s readily do-able. Improving 100 points—that’s more of a challenge. Improving 150 or 200 points or more—that will take exceptionally diligent work, including more practice tests and practice questions. You’ll need to sustain this GMAT study plan over quite some time, and even then, an improvement of this magnitude is not guaranteed. How competitive are the programs you’re applying to? If you’re not sure how much of a point increase you need, do some research into the way the schools you’re applying to use GMAT scores. For some business schools, GMAT scores are super important. Others may not even require the test (though chances are, at least one program you’re looking at will). Looking at admitted students’ average GMAT scores and going in-depth on admissions websites can help you answer this question. How long do you have for GMAT prep? A three month study plan, with 1-2 hours of GMAT study time per weekday and a single 3-4 hour study session on each weekend (about 10 hours per week)—that I would call moderate study, probably enough to produce for most people a 50-100 point increase over a relatively cold-take score. Again, this assumes eight hours of sleep a night, a healthy lifestyle, and a normal college-graduate level of learning and remembering. If you want to improve substantially more than 50-100 points, extend your GMAT study time for longer time than three months. In general, the more you can spread your study out over a long period—say, six months—the more time you will have to return a second and even a third time to each topic. This will take advantage of how the brain learns and processes. Repeated exposure helps to encode material into long-term memory. How much time do you have? Let’s face it: what we want to do and what we can do are often two different things. How many days you should study depends in part on how many hours per day you can study. Let’s say that 1 hour a day for six months would be very approximately equivalent to six hours of studying a day for one month. The caveat, of course, is most people have real limits concerning how much they can focus. Many also have limitations on how much info they can absorb and assimilate in a single day. Can you put in six hours a day of quality, high-focus study time, day after day, for a month? If so, that’s fantastic. However, for most people—not only because of the practical constraints of job and family, but also because of the cognitive constraints on focus and assimilation—the best option would be less-time-per-day over a longer number of days studying for the GMAT. How strong are your skills already? Consider the two big categories—math and verbal. On a 1-10 scale, how would you rank your relative aptitudes in each? This may play into extra time over and above the time you spend studying specifically for the GMAT. What are your weak areas? And how weak are they? If you would rate either of the above categories three or below, that’s a red flag. That’s an indication you need extra GMAT study time and thus an extra head start. This is a big curveball in the how-long-do-I-study-for-the-GMAT question! If you are a math whiz but weak in verbal, and most especially if English is not your first language, then yes, pursue a moderate study schedule, say, a three-month study schedule for folks stronger in math, and in addition to that, READ! Read at least an hour a day—two hours a day would be better. Reading the high-brow material recommended at that blog will accustom your ear to advanced grammatical constructions typical of GMAT Sentence Correction, and will help you practice the analysis skills you will need on both GMAT Critical Reasoning and GMAT Reading Comprehension. Ideally, you will begin this daily reading habit well before the rest of your GMAT studying—a year or more. Where will you get the time to do all this reading? Well, if you sharply reduce TV, video games, and other forms of electronic entertainment, you actually will be doing your brain a favor. If you are relatively comfortable in verbal, and you haven’t even looked at math since an unfriendly farewell a few years back, then you need to study math, starting pretty much as soon as you finish reading this post. You don’t get a calculator on the GMAT Quant section, so practice mental math—every day, you should add & subtract & multiply & divide in your head. Get remedial books published for high school students, “Algebra Review”, “Geometry Review”, and start reading. Look for every possible application of math in your life. Think areas of rooms, grocery bills, gas mileage, and the like. Do the real world math. Ideally, all this focus on math should begin months before you embark on, say, a three-month study schedule for folks stronger in verbal. In both cases, this extra focus you give one area or the other should be considered over and above how long you study for the GMAT. These are the extra number of hours you need to study for the GMAT. So How Long Should You Study for the GMAT? As you can see, studying for the GMAT is a highly personalized process affected by a number of factors. If you’re still not sure, go back to your quiz results and take a look at the study schedules in more detail. The study schedules will give you more information about what GMAT test practice looks like, and more of a sense of what’s required to really ace the exam on test day. The post How Long Should You Study for the GMAT? (Take the Quiz!) appeared first on Magoosh GMAT Blog. |
16 Sep 2019, 15:02
| FROM Magoosh Blog: How to Understand Your GMAT Score Percentiles |
This post has been updated to include GMAC’s most recently published GMAT score percentiles, which represent a sample of more than 700,000 students who took the GMAT from 2014-2017. How do you figure out what your GMAT percentiles are? After all, there’s a lot to take in when assessing your GMAT scores and decoding your GMAT score report. First off, you’ve got a raw score in both the Verbal and Quantitative sections. Then there’s the ever-confusing Integrated Reasoning score. Then, you’ve got an Analytical Writing score. And, if you’re still with me, there’s the Total Score! So what precisely matters when it comes to GMAT score percentiles? We know it’s hard to keep your brain from seeping out your ears when trying to get a handle on your score report, but we’ve broken down everything you need to know about GMAT score percentiles in the following tables and explanations. The Basics of GMAT Percentiles[/*] [*]GMAT Score Percentiles Chart[/*] [*]GMAT Quant Percentiles[/*] [*]GMAT Verbal Percentiles[/*] [*]GMAT AWA Percentiles[/*] [*]GMAT IR Percentiles[/*] [*]How Does GMAT Calculate Percentiles?[/*] [*]GMAT Percentiles for Top Schools[/*] [*]Takeaways about GMAT Percentiles[/*] [/list] retake the GMAT (and, unfortunately, pay the GMAT exam fee once more). Knowing the percentiles lets you know if you’ve merely achieved an average GMAT score, or if you’ve shot through the roof with your scores. GMAC produces this information on GMAT score percentiles tables, and for your convenience, we’ve broken these scores down below.  information on GMAT score calculations!) PercentileScorePercentile (cont'd.)Score (cont'd.) 99%760-80031%520 98%75029%510 97%74027%500 95%73025%490 94%72023%480 90%71021%470 88%70018%460 85%69017%450 82%68015%440 80%67014%430 77%66012%420 73%65011%410 68%64010%400 66%6309%390 63%6208%380 59%6107%370 56%6007%360 52%5906%350 49%5805%340 46%5704%320-330 42%5603%290-310 39%5502%250-280 37%5401%220-240 33%5300%200-210 averge GMAT scores for top programs. As you can see from running down this list, they all tend to be above 700–sometimes well above 700, as in the case of Columbia (736–wow!). Put this in terms of percentiles using the chart above. A 700 on the GMAT is in the 88th percentile, while a 736 would be around the 96th percentile. From this information, we can draw the conclusion that top schools need top scores. Rankings don’t correspond precisely to score percentiles–but in this case, it’s pretty fair to say that if you’re applying to a top-10 school, a score in the top 10% of GMAT test-takers (i.e. placing you in the 90th percentile above) is definitely a helpful tool. At this point, you may be wondering about the number of test-takers who get each top scores each year–what’s the competition like? Some simple calculations can help us figure this out. If around 250,000 test-takers take the exam each year (as they did in 2017-2018), that means around:
How to Understand Your GMAT Score Percentiles appeared first on Magoosh GMAT Blog. |
25 Sep 2019, 15:02
| FROM Magoosh Blog: How to Understand Your GMAT Percentiles |
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This post has been updated to include GMAC’s most recently published GMAT score percentiles, which represent a sample of more than 700,000 students who took the GMAT from 2014-2017. How do you figure out what your GMAT percentiles are? After all, there’s a lot to take in when assessing your GMAT scores and decoding your GMAT score report. First off, you’ve got a raw score in both the Verbal and Quantitative sections. Then there’s the ever-confusing Integrated Reasoning score. Then, you’ve got an Analytical Writing score. And, if you’re still with me, there’s the Total Score! So what precisely matters when it comes to GMAT score percentiles? We know it’s hard to keep your brain from seeping out your ears when trying to get a handle on your score report, but we’ve broken down everything you need to know in the following tables and explanations. The Basics of GMAT Percentiles[/*] [*]GMAT Score Percentiles Chart[/*] [*]GMAT Quant Percentiles[/*] [*]GMAT Verbal Percentiles[/*] [*]GMAT AWA Percentiles[/*] [*]GMAT IR Percentiles[/*] [*]How Does GMAT Calculate Percentiles?[/*] [*]GMAT Percentiles for Top Schools[/*] [*]Takeaways about GMAT Percentiles[/*] [/list] retake the GMAT (and, unfortunately, pay the GMAT exam fee once more). Knowing the percentiles lets you know if you’ve merely achieved an average GMAT score, or if you’ve shot through the roof with your scores. GMAC produces this information on GMAT score percentiles tables, and for your convenience, we’ve broken these scores down below. information on GMAT score calculations!) Click here for the GMAT Score Percentiles Chart PercentileScorePercentile (cont'd.)Score (cont'd.) 99%760-80031%520 98%75029%510 97%74027%500 95%73025%490 94%72023%480 90%71021%470 88%70018%460 85%69017%450 82%68015%440 80%67014%430 77%66012%420 73%65011%410 68%64010%400 66%6309%390 63%6208%380 59%6107%370 56%6007%360 52%5906%350 49%5805%340 46%5704%320-330 42%5603%290-310 39%5502%250-280 37%5401%220-240 33%5300%200-210 averge GMAT scores for top programs. As you can see from running down this list, they all tend to be above 700–sometimes well above 700, as in the case of Columbia (736–wow!). Put this in terms of percentiles using the chart above. A 700 on the GMAT is in the 88th percentile, while a 736 would be around the 96th percentile. From this information, we can draw the conclusion that top schools need top scores. Rankings don’t correspond precisely to score percentiles–but in this case, it’s pretty fair to say that if you’re applying to a top-10 school, a score in the top 10% of GMAT test-takers (i.e. placing you in the 90th percentile above) is definitely a helpful tool. At this point, you may be wondering about the number of test-takers who get each top scores each year–what’s the competition like? Some simple calculations can help us figure this out. If around 250,000 test-takers take the exam each year (as they did in 2017-2018), that means around:
How to Understand Your GMAT Percentiles appeared first on Magoosh GMAT Blog. |
27 Sep 2019, 09:02
| FROM Magoosh Blog: How to Calculate GMAT Scores |
 Photo by Kelly Sikkema Need to calculate a potential GMAT score from a practice test? Are you looking to retake the GMAT and wondering what score to aspire to? When you take the official GMAT, you’ll see your sectional and overall scores immediately. But what should you do if you’re taking a at home? How can you calculate your GMAT score? Magoosh has the only GMAT score calculator you need! First, enter your Verbal and Quant scores in the calculator below. Calculate! Then, read on for more about how your GMAT score is calculated, what your quant score and verbal score mean, how business schools use the GMAT test, and more! How does GMAT scoring work? On the GMAT, you’ll answer questions in four sections: Verbal, Quantitative, Integrated Reasoning, and the AWA. The number of questions you answered correctly in Verbal and Quant are then turned into a score of 0-60 in each section. Finally, these 0-60 scores are combined and scaled to give you your overall score on a 200-800 scale. In other words, the “total” GMAT score report only combines your Verbal and Quantitative section scores, but doesn’t take your IR or AWA scores into account. Remember this key fact as we take a closer look at GMAT scoring, because you’re going to see a lot of different score types! GMAT Score Calculator Calculate! How accurate is this GMAT score calculator? The GMAC is very tight-lipped about their scoring algorithm. However, we’ve taken a look at our previous students’ scores and have found that this app calculated GMAT scores with reasonable accuracy on the 200-800-scale. This GMAT score calculator is not a perfect predictor, but it is a pretty good estimator. Remember, your score may vary depending on which GMAT (or GMAT practice test) you take. GMAT Score Chart If you want to take a closer look at how we’ve predicted the 0-60 sectional scores to an overall, 200-800 point GMAT score, here’s a handy table you can review! V 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 Q % 40% 44% 47% 52% 57% 59% 62% 66% 69% 71% 76% 81% 83% 85% 30 19% 470 480 490 500 500 510 520 530 530 540 550 560 560 570 31 20% 480 490 500 500 510 520 530 530 540 550 560 560 570 580 32 22% 480 490 500 500 510 520 530 530 540 550 560 560 570 580 33 25% 500 500 510 520 530 530 540 550 560 560 570 580 580 580 34 26% 500 510 520 530 530 540 550 560 560 570 580 580 590 600 35 28% 510 520 530 530 540 550 560 560 570 580 580 590 600 600 36 31% 520 530 530 540 550 560 550 570 580 580 590 600 610 610 37 34% 530 530 540 550 560 560 570 580 580 590 600 610 610 620 38 36% 530 540 550 560 560 570 580 580 590 600 610 610 620 640 39 37% 540 550 560 560 570 580 580 590 600 610 610 620 630 640 40 41% 550 560 560 570 580 580 590 600 610 610 620 630 640 640 41 43% 560 560 570 580 580 590 600 610 610 610 620 640 640 650 42 45% 560 550 580 580 590 600 610 610 620 630 640 640 650 650 43 50% 570 580 580 590 600 610 610 610 630 640 640 650 660 670 44 52% 580 580 590 600 610 610 620 630 640 640 650 660 670 680 45 57% 580 590 600 610 610 620 630 640 640 650 660 670 670 680 46 60% 590 600 610 610 620 630 640 640 650 660 670 670 680 690 47 63% 600 610 610 620 630 640 640 650 650 660 670 680 690 690 48 69% 610 610 620 630 640 640 650 660 670 680 680 690 690 700 49 75% 610 620 630 640 640 650 660 670 670 680 690 690 700 710 50 86% 620 630 640 640 650 660 670 670 680 690 690 710 710 720 51 96% 630 640 640 650 660 670 670 680 690 690 700 710 720 720 V 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 Q % 89% 91% 94% 96% 96% 98% 99% 99% 99% 99% 99% 99% 99% 30 19% 580 580 590 600 610 610 620 630 640 640 650 660 670 31 20% 580 590 600 610 610 620 630 640 640 650 660 670 670 32 22% 590 600 610 610 620 630 640 640 650 660 670 670 680 33 25% 600 610 610 620 630 640 640 650 660 670 670 680 690 34 26% 610 610 620 630 640 640 650 660 670 670 680 690 690 35 28% 610 620 630 640 640 650 660 670 670 680 690 690 700 36 31% 620 630 640 640 650 660 670 670 680 690 690 700 710 37 34% 630 640 640 650 660 670 670 680 690 690 700 710 720 38 36% 640 640 650 660 670 670 680 690 690 700 710 720 720 39 37% 640 650 660 670 670 680 690 690 700 710 720 720 730 40 41% 650 660 670 680 680 690 690 700 710 720 720 730 740 41 43% 660 670 670 680 690 690 700 710 720 720 730 740 750 42 45% 670 670 680 680 690 700 710 710 720 730 740 750 750 43 50% 670 680 690 690 700 710 720 720 730 740 750 750 760 44 52% 680 690 690 700 710 720 720 730 740 750 750 760 770 45 57% 690 690 700 710 720 720 730 740 740 750 760 770 780 46 60% 690 700 710 720 720 730 740 750 750 760 770 780 780 47 63% 700 710 720 720 730 740 750 750 760 770 780 780 790 48 69% 710 710 720 740 740 750 750 760 760 780 780 790 800 49 75% 720 730 740 740 750 750 760 770 780 780 780 780 800 50 86% 720 730 740 750 750 760 770 770 780 790 800 800 800 51 96% 730 740 750 750 760 770 780 780 790 800 800 800 800 How do I read the GMAT score chart? Use this chart to find out how your section scores create your overall score. This way, you can see what score you need in each section to calculate your dream GMAT score. For example, different combinations of Verbal and Quant scores can be mixed to get you an overall score of 700–see what section you’re strongest in and aim to boost your score as much as possible in this area to get the overall score you want. With that said, Verbal scores do “count” for slightly more of the overall score (GMAT test-takers tend to be stronger in Quant), so work on boosting your score in this area to get the strongest possible overall score! What are the percentiles along the rows and columns? Since high Verbal scores “count” for slightly more than a high Quant score, a Verbal subscore of 40 would be in the 90th percentile, definitely in the top 10%. By contrast, a Quant subscore of 40 would be only the 39th percentile, not even in the top 50%! The two subscores are definitely not equivalent. This in part reflects a vast asymmetry in the GMAT test-taking pool: many more GMAT takers in an international market excel in math and struggle in verbal, so commanding performances in math are reasonably common, whereas commanding performances in verbal are less frequent. To see how your total score translates to your GMAT percentile, check out our article on calculating GMAT percentiles. What will my official GMAT score report look like? After you take the exam, your GMAT Score Report will have the following components:
As soon as you finish your GMAT in the test center, you will get almost the entire GMAT score report right away—everything except your AWA score, because that requires a human grader to review it. When you leave the high-security Pearson testing room, they immediately hand you a printout of your results before you even can retrieve your stuff from the lockers. Then, about 20 days later, you will get the whole shebang, everything you already know plus the essay results, either electronically or by snail mail, whichever you chose. The total GMAT score report sent to adcoms will include all GMATs you have taken in the past five years, except the ones you have canceled. There is no trace of any cancellations on your score report (this last fact is new, a change from pre-2016 policy). How does my GMAT score factor into admissions? All scores, sectional and total, are reported to B-schools. However, the overall GMAT score is currently way more important in admissions than any of the other scores. The AWA & IR scores generally count for less. Still, that doesn’t mean you can ignore them! If you flub either one, admissions might see that as a red flag. It’s important to note that your GMAT score is just one factor admissions committees at business schools use. Other factors include your previous relevant work experience, undergraduate academic performance, and your essays. If you want to see how your GMAT scores measure up, check out our post on evaluating good GMAT scores. Obviously, the higher the score, the more options you will probably have. It may be that, to some extent, you can offset a lower college GPA with a stellar GMAT score report. Solid GMAT exam prep, such as Magoosh, can raise your GMAT grade substantially. In fact, Magoosh has a 50-point score increase guarantee: if you have already taken an official GMAT once, then Magoosh guarantees that if you use the product extensively, your score will increase by at least a minimum of 50 points (many users see much larger increases). That’s extraordinary: such an increase can bring you from 660 (77th percentile = top 25%) to 710 (90th percentile = top 10%)! By all means, strive to do the best you can do. At the same time, it’s important to be realistic about your abilities and the time & energy you have to prepare. If your first GMAT score was a 460, then with concerned effort, you will be able to get up into the 500s and maybe even the 600s, but it may be that a GMAT score in the high 700s is unrealistic for you, and that’s OK. Always strive for your personal best, it’s hard to compete with everyone out there. The goal of the GMAT is to get you into business school; the goal of business school is to get an MBA; the goal of an MBA is to get into management positions in the business world. Many folks who are wildly successful in upper management in the business world had less than stellar GMAT scores and went to less prestigious business schools. Conversely, some folks are brilliant test takers and ace the GMAT, but then wind up not so successful in the rough and tumble business world. A big part of success is being canny enough to know how to leverage your particular gifts to the greatest effect. Trust the unique combination of gifts and talents you bring, seek to learn the skills that will most complement and bring forth who you are, and learn to recognize the environments in which you can most effectively thrive. Do the best you can do on the GMAT, and trust that this will be good enough to lead you to where you need to be in the big picture. Should I retake the GMAT? We have a few thoughts taking the GMAT again that can help you figure out whether to retake the exam—and help you ace the GMAT the next time around if you do. Business school admission is a competitive process; in order to compete well with the pool of applicants you will be up against, scoring above 600 will help your chances.  For more resources, I would recommend reading these following sites: I’d love to hear what you think about this topic and our GMAT score calculator. Feel free to leave a comment below! The post How to Calculate GMAT Scores appeared first on Magoosh GMAT Blog. |
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