Hi everyone,
I start this review after being selected for the september 2022 intake of the HEC Paris MBA. This is a great achievement I would like to share with anyone willing to read it and I am incredibly happy to get this MBA starting. First things first, let's recall all this journey from it's beginning.

My profile :
my name is ilias, I am 29, married and father of a son. I am a nuclear engineer working for a well-known french electricity utilities company since 6 years. I graduated in 2015 and I also have another master degree in International Relations obtained in 2019 and followed online while working.

I started prospecting for MBA's after my last master in 2019. I quickly understood that the biggest working part to get ready to apply would be the GMAT. I bought the OG's and made this typical beginner's mistake : I dived directly into it and started doing questions and questions, trying to understand the philosophy behind this test. After 4 months of such a preparation, I took a first GMAT test in a center. The night before I didn't sleep well and during the same day I poured a liquid on all my OG books while revising last minute. I can recall such a detail because It really made my day worse. At the end of the test I got a poor 520. It was a shock to me and I knew I hade to requestion all my strategy if I wanted to reach a 700+ score. To complete the frame, before this first try, I didn't even know that I can take mocks to prepare, so I took none of it.
I have let this topic on hold for few months and I decided to invest in my prep and started reading reviews about prep websites.
October 2020 I bought an access to Magoosh website and I started my preparation from scratch. I watched every single video and I did all questions possible. I meticulously started an error log book and set a planning to be ready to take the GMAT 3 months later.
After the said months, I took two mocks and I reached a score of 590 and 620 at best. It was clearly insufficient to take the real GMAT.
Same experience, I decided to postpone my GMAT preparation as I felt I would never reach my target score. So, from january 2021 to may 2021, I did a lean six sigma certification to boost a little more my CV.
June 2021, I started again my GMAT prep. This time I was determined to push the boundaries and be disciplined to reach my target score. I bought the crash course plan from GMATWhiz. I have read great reviews and the price was acceptable.
So during the whole summer, I took part of the weekly video meetings to solve verbal questions and quant questions. My weakness was clearly in verbal because I was a non-native speaker. I trusted the process and followed every single recommandation given from the teacher, Sunita, for the verbal part. I also gave great confidence in the recommandation given from the artificial intelligence program of the GMATWhiz software.
At mid-preparation which was around august, I decided to take a mock : I obtained a very encouraging 670. This score gave me strength to work more and more on my weaknesses rather than focusing on everything already learnt.
I took another mock on september and I reached 660. At this time, I decided to take the real GMAT test as application deadlines for round 1 were really fast approaching.
So I took the GMAT online test at home, and I really loved this experience. The comfort of working from home relieved me from a lot of stress as it is an environment I know.
After a week of taking the GMAT, I received the result : 640.
As it was not a score I was aiming I felt a little disappointed. I promised myself I would continue my preparation but I also decided I would apply with such a score.
I applied to a single school, which is HEC Paris because it was the right program for me in terms of location, program length, reputation etc.
After following all the process, I received in later october the great notice : I was proposed a seat into the HEC Paris MBA program.

This journey is a tribute to all people who feel depressed and think GMAT is everything in an application. My example shows that it is just a part of the whole profil assessment.
I would like to really thank all GMATWhiz team because their course gave me the right approach I was desperately looking for while dealing with the GMAT standardized test. Focussing on my weak part, getting disciplined, having an error book and working hard, where my keys to improve my score. I would also like to mention the great work made on the GMATWhiz software : It is incredibly powerful to spot the key areas one should work on.
Thank you for reading me,
Cheers,
ilias

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