Profile Evaluation Request

[Aspirant]

Hello mbaMission Consultant,

Hope I can get your opinion on what my chances are of getting admitted to my top B-School choices: Harvard, Wharton, and Sloan.

But before that, allow me to, so to speak, spazz out a little. It's always been a dream of mine to attend one of the aforementioned business schools, and I can't believe that I'm finally inching towards that dream!

Anyway, below is a crisp summary of my profile:

College: #1 University in SEA Country
- Class Valedictorian
- Summa Cum Laude (3.95)

Work Experience 1: Marketing Intern, #1 Consumer Goods Company Globally, Singapore
- Apr 2012 to Jun 2012 (3 months)

Work Experience 2: Recruitment and Matriculation Associate, Teach for the [Country]
- Oct 2012 to Apr 2013 (7 months)

Work Experience 3: Sales and Operations Manager, #1 Multinational Global Oil and Gas Company, [Country] Based
- May 2013 to Mar 2015 (1 Year & 11 Months)

Work Experience 4: Pricing and Demand Analyst, #1 Global Oil and Gas Company, [Country] Based
- Apr 2015 to Present (6 Months)

Areas of Concern:
- I SUCK at standardized tests. I guess that's why I need all the help I can get from MGMAT. Pretty sure I can get a 51 in quant if I invest enough time, but I'll probably get like a 25 in verbal. I'm one of those people who finds something wrong with every choice in the SC portion; I'm also not the fastest reader. Will give you updates on how well or poorly I do in my CATs once I end up taking them.
- However, I am afraid of taking the CATs cause a low score might discourage me from trying to improve my score. Is it a good idea to finish all the MGMAT coursework prior to taking my first CAT? That way, I won't end up having that low of a score on my first try.
- I'm thinking of vying for the class that starts in Sep 2016. Is that too soon for me? Excluding my internship, I'll have 4 years of work experience by then.
- By the way, I'm gay in a third-world country. Does that help my application? Hehe!

Apologies if I edited out the specifics. Wasn't comfortable having all this information posted in a public forum.

Thank you. :)

[mbamissionjenK]

Hello,

Thanks for posting and sharing your story.... lots of interesting aspects to it. ;)

As of now I noticed the following strengths in your profile:

-GPA & valedictorian; academic performance; extracurriculars
-recognition and accomplishments in your work experience thus far
-commitment to the community and Teach for (xyz) experience
-sure any type of diversity is a small plus in the class, depending upon the other applicants that year etc
-Amazing race is not a huge plus per se but it is a unique/memorable life story to share ;)
-I assume international experience

Potential challenges:

-GMAT based on what you are saying (but don't discount it until you try!) ;)

-work experience at present could sound a bit fragmented/not too long at any one place.... 4 years total is sufficient but ideally some more time in this role; might be alright by time you apply... feel free to check back in down the road a few more months etc


Re: the GMAT, and your prep approach, as someone with years of GMAT teaching and tutoring experience, I would not advise waiting to take your first CAT until the 'end' of your studies.... there are a large # of practice CATs included in your prep for a reason... for practice! Don't think of them as assessments, think of them as training. If you were training for a race (or Amazing race ha!), you would do simulated races/you'd want to do realistic trials close to the actual race day right? Well same thing with the GMAT... yes you need to learn your content and practice specific drills and q' types etc, BUT the best way to get better at the GMAT is to DO the GMAT.... realistic exams, multiple times, in actual timed conditions and on the computer, scored in adaptive way, etc, to develop your skills.

The GMAT IS quite different from paper and pencil tests or other standardized tests you may have done in the past.... again why it's important to get more experience with it. Don't stress about an early practice test score.... remember you aren't doing those early tests for a score, you are doing them for TRAINING and learning and developing skills, and also a bit to get an assessment of strengths and weaknesses and what to work on. And you WILL see a large improvement from early PT's to later ones, and usually from your last PT to the rest test.

Hope that helps! Good luck!

[Aspirant]

Update: After a month of on and off studying (maybe 50 hours?), I finally mustered up the courage to take a practice exam. I had an okay time answering both sections, but midway, I knew I wasn't going to break 700. Anyway, I got a 640 (Q44, V34). I'm pretty happy with this score, as I expected to get like a 25 in Verbal, and I've barely studied quant.

For Verbal, I got around 90% of the RC questions right, quite weird as I've always thought of this section as my weakest. In SC, I only got around 40%, which I'm pretty bummed about because I could do the OG SC problems with 80%-90% accuracy. Guess I should brush up on this section a bit more. For CR, I got around 60% without studying. Hoping to pull this up!

I've read the following books:
1. MGMAT Basic Quant
2. MGMAT Basic Verbal
3. MGMAT SC
4. MGMAT RC

I'm going to start studying Quant now. Hopefully, I can raise my score to the 49-51 level after finishing the 5 quant books of MGMAT. After that, I'll go read the PowerScore CR Bible.

Will keep you guys posted.

[mbaMissionKate]

Hi there-

This is Kate, I'm jumping in for Jen since she's on leave right now. Thanks for the update on your GMAT prep! I'm glad you took a practice test (like ripping off a bandaid, right?) As Jen encouraged you, that practice will really payoff down the road. And that's great news about your score being higher than you expected, especially if you hadn't studied Quant much. Try to get up to at least a 46Q / 35V and then any points above that will be a bonus!

Definitely keep us posted on how it goes and if we can answer any questions down the road!

[Aspirant]

Just thought it'd be nice (and value-adding to some) if I updated this.

After six months of on-and-off studying, from Mar 1, 2015 to Aug 31 2015, I finally took my GMAT this morning and scored a 740 (49-41).

As mentioned in the posts above, I'm not really a great test taker. Sure, I can get high grades in school, but standardized tests have always been my Achilles' heel. I did not, however, allow this weakness to stop me from pursuing my dream of going to either Harvard or Wharton, so I studied -- a lot. Below is a brief synopsis of my journey towards a humble 740 (49-41). I hope that at least some of you glean insights from it.

Materials Used
MGMAT SC - Apr 2015
MGMAT RC - Apr 2015
MGMAT Quant Regimen - May 2015
PowerScore CR Bible - May 2015
Veritas Quant Regimen - Jun to Jul 2015
eGMAT SC - Aug 2015
GMAT Club Problems - Aug 2015

Test Scores
MGMAT CAT 1 - 640 (44-34) - Apr 2015
MGMAT CAT 2 - 660 (45-35) - Jun 2015
MGMAT CAT 3 - 670 (46-35) - Jul 2015
MGMAT CAT 4 - 620 (39-37) - Aug 2015
GMAT PREP 1 - 710 (49-37) - Aug 2015
GMAT PREP 2 - 700 (49-37) - Aug 2015
ACTUAL GMAT - 740 (49-41) - Sep 2015

As you can see, I did not start off with really good scores. After studying for about a month, I managed to muster up the courage to take my first MGMAT CAT. Because I had really low expectations for myself then, I was happy to see a 640. After getting this score, I slowed down my studying for two months, as work picked up. When I noticed that I was neglecting my GMAT prep, I took another CAT, and my score increased to 660. At this point, I realized that studying does actually help increase one's score in standardized tests. (I previously thought that for standardized tests, no matter how much you study, your score will stay the same. Sort of an insecurity of mine).

Anyway, after taking that CAT I studied religiously for three straight months. On average, I studied probably around 10 hours a week for the first two months and 20 hours a week for the last month. The more I studied, the higher my score got -- save for MGMAT CAT 4, I have no idea what happened then.

When I took my first GMAT PREP 1 in Aug 2015, I finally hit the 700 mark, and the scores above tell the story from there.

Good luck, everyone! Don't think I'll make R1 apps, so I'll shoot for R2.

[mbamissionjenK]

CONGRATS!! Super excited for you, you should be feeling quite proud! Thanks for sharing your story for others to see. Good luck and let us know if you would like assistance on applications at any point, we offer a variety of services to help you maximize your chances, write compelling essays, and present yourself in the best possible light. www.mbamission.com