Targeting INSEAD and other top PhD programs

Hi Hullas

You are welcome.

Yes official mocks, like GMATPrep and additional paid ones are the best there is.

I would not recommend any other beside mocks of actual creators of the test, but then again almost nobody listen this

When you finish with all official ones available, if you still think you need additional ones, then Manhattan mocks are the next best thing in my opinion.

If you take Manhattan mocks, you may find their Quant on the harder side, which is actually a good thing, it will serve as good prep.

That means if you score lower on Manhattan you should not worry, it is normal.

Official mocks are the best score predictor.

They are also best way to learn how test creators actually think and no other third party company can match this.

But, Manhattan mocks and prep materials will be second best thing on market, for people who think they need them.



Good Luck with prep

Good! That would help you.

As has been said before, helps if you have it, doesn't hurt if you don't. RA is better. TA is almost useless. Even RA is only useful if you actually helped with the research.

No. Nobody cares.

Absolutely not. If you are applying to top US or European schools, they don't care 2 hoots about your corporate/consulting experience. They should - a PhD in Management (esp OB), by definition, should value your experience. Sadly, most academics don't.

It's better than nothing, but not necessarily hugely overlapping with academic research.

That could be your ticket, esp. if you published in a peer-reviewed journal.

corpguy!

Thank you so much for your advice here! Current challenge is a good GMAT score
I am also applying to UNSW Australia since they are pursuing a lot of research, I am interested in

Yes - that should be the approach. Find an overlap with your research interest.
Sydney is a great city, btw. It helps.
All the best.

Hello Folks

Thanks for your advice earlier, I have applied to a few PhD programs. The outcome is due for UNSW application this week and I find my research application to have overlaps with faculty interests.
For the rest of the applications, GMAT is a requirement and that is where I need your help. Score of 650 came as a bit of shocker to me since my last 3 mocks were 740, 690, and 710 (all new mocks) and I never scored below 48 in any mock ever. However, my official score was 46 only

I am not sure, if I apply to INSEAD and HEC-P with this score or should I consider another attempt. My profile is as below -

Background-

I am a McKinsey consultant by profession based out of New Delhi India. I was working in the organization practice particularly around culture and change management for our clients. It involved survey setups, data collection and analysis and finally workshops etc. to implement change
I completed my MBA in Human Resources, about 2 years back from Symbiosis University, wherein I was a University Gold Medalist with a GPA of 8.9/10 (4.0/4.0). Currently, I have left my job as I wanted more time to prep for PhD applications and consulting left me crunched for time. My motivation to pursue PhD stems from the interest in research areas and creation of further knowledge. I have well experienced the delivery side of frameworks and theories

I guess, 650 may be acceptable in UNSW but not in INSEAD.
I know 4 people who made it to INSEAD PhD program (another one WL), and all had 700+
Having said that, the requirement for HR may be a bit relaxed. I think you have time to retake GMAT.
Also, try to get in touch with someone in INSEAD and get their perspective.
All the best!

I certainly would retake. It's not impossible to be accepted by a good school with 650, but certainly you will be much weaker than a lot of applicants in that regard.

I always say that scores from mock tests are not to be trusted. Even the score I got from an official mock test one day before the actual test was way off the mark. No mock test was a good predictor for me, and I did take many of them.

rudraphd I agree with you and hence contacted one of the students for advice and she was of the same opinion as you BrazilianPhD. 650 makes it tougher to be screened than 700+ of even 680/690. She said 80%ile checks that box.

Thank you both for your guidance

So I am taking another shot at it but if mocks don't give me a good picture, how will I even know about my performance?
Then everything is test and day dependent

I am sort of lost , so as to how to focus on my quant to reach that Q50 - In 50% of the mocks I was hitting that score

Well, I'm not sure whether my experience will be useful or not, since it was a long-term strategy and you don't have that much time left if you're going to apply soon.

I took an official test about 1 year before applications, with little preparation. I didn't expect a good score, but at least I'd know how far I was from my goal. I had taken a couple of mock tests before that, I guess, and the results looked weird to me.

Instead of focusing on the score I was getting from mock tests that seemed unreliable, I focused on how much I was improving. I had a spreadsheet showing the percentage of questions that I was getting right, for each category (easy, medium, hard). So, I was able to track my improvement in each category over time.

After about 8 months, it was clear to me that I was getting a much higher percentage of questions right. I also knew my strengths and weaknesses. And I had a much better strategy for the exam, something that I didn't have before.

So, I didn't know what score to expect, but at least I knew it should be much better than my previous official score. I saw that I wasn't making dumb mistakes with easy questions, and that I had a pretty good performance with medium questions. For the hard questions, I knew the types of questions that required a long time for me to solve, that I should be very careful about, that I should just skip because I usually spent too much time on them and still got the wrong answer, or that I had a good chance of getting right.

If you kept track of your performance over time like me, you can use that to see when you achieve much better results and feel when you are ready for another attempt. You should also be able to focus on what needs to be improved, and not waste time with things in which you are already good enough. What topics, what levels of difficulty you should pay more attention to. But if you didn't keep any records like that, then maybe it is too late to start now.