Well, this is the Nth year that I've been admitted to a business school, but with my family recovering from near bankruptcy, it wasn't easy to say no to great business schools that I was admitted to in the past. However, I finally decided that enough was enough, and told this particular school that I would be going. Although, I am still a little short of funds, but I'm not going to let that little detail stop me this time.

Anyways, I got my acceptance letter from Simon Business School sometime back. They even offered me a 70% scholarship+ISLP combo. And the great folks of the Simon's Admissions committee also sent me a box full of goodies - getting the goodies out of the clutches of the customs officials was a task in itself.

So, I just thought I should share this moment on my blog, since I haven't updated it in a long time. Here are the pics of the box of gifts sent to me by Simon Business School. Thank you guys for this, this is amazing:

You must have heard that admissions committee members go through a single application within 18 minutes. In that time, they'll read your application including essays, recommendations and resume. And try to get a clear picture of who you are and why you want to go for an MBA.

At the end of 18 minutes, they will either walk away with a clear picture of who you are, or they’ll forget about you immediately after they’ve read your application. 

Being memorable is up to you. A great resume will help you achieve that goal.The resume is not the first thing that comes to mind when one starts applying to business school. But it should be.

One page resumes

As most top schools mention in their application instructions, a resume should not be more than one page long, maybe two if you’ve the accomplishments to justify the length.

Accomplishments not responsibilities

Also, the resume should not be about your roles and responsibilities within the organization. Rather, it should be about the ‘accomplishments and achievements’ in each position. How did you impact the organization? And can you quantify your achievements?

Customized to each school

Some business schools provide a specific resume template to be followed. Others provide a list of things that should ideally be provided in the resume. Finally, resumes should be customized by you at least somewhat since each school has a different requirement.

Focused Brand

Think about it. Obviously your resume should be highly focused. But it should also be in line with the essays and other details you provide in your application. So, say for school A, you used a story about how you won a multi-million dollar contract. Your resume should at least have a quantified mention of that story. For school B, you may have used a story about how you handled a certain crisis. Your resume should then reflect that in the resume as well. It’s not always possible to put everything on one page. So, you have to make sure you double check everything and stay focused on on your brand.

Get Time on your side

Create a readable resume. Write crisp short sentences, with quantified achievements. Use action verbs – if you don’t know which ones, simply Google “Harvard resume action verbs”. The eyes read faster when they move from top to bottom. So create a resume that can be easily traversed by the eye from top to bottom, but that still manages to capture your accomplishments.

Get Feedback

Always get feedback. If people around you tell you, “it’s great”, be very worried! You may need to find someone else to take a look. Plus, simply forget about your resume for a few days or weeks (preferably) and then take a look. You’ll see a lot of scope for improvement. Keep reworking till you are satisfied!

Round 1 is almost over. If you are not done with your applications, don't rush to finish it now. There is another round right around the corner - Round 2!

Round 2 is the round in which schools get the bulk of their applications. This is also the final round for most international students. This is also the final round for most types of financial aids. Needless to say, if you want to give yourself maximum leverage, make sure you put your best foot forward in round 2 instead of rushing in to submit applications in round 1.

Its better to create a killer app then to create an OK one.

So, what do you need to know about Round 2:

1. Events: Most schools will visit a city near you before the R2 deadlines! There are a number of online and face-to-face events conducted by the MBA tour, the economist, and other such organizations. If you haven't attended one yet, you need to do that now!
http://www.thembatour.com/bschool/calendarEvents.html
https://success.economist.com/products/online-fair

2.  Webinars: Attend school webinars when possible because videos presentations are less distracting and you can research better.

3. New Students: R2 is also the best time to contact new students (from the latest fall batch- if schools allow). These students can tell you their experiences better because memories are fresh about the first month at a new school campus.

4. Luxury of Time: R2 also gives you time to build an even stronger bond with your inner circle including recommenders, reviewers and other brand champions. You can also take a step back from the hellish schedule of R1 to get a better sense of the big picture.

5. Priorities: Even though you have plenty of time, this is not the time to apply to 5 more schools. Depending upon how you did in Round 1 in terms of interview invites and other success metrics, you may now need to ensure that you modify your strategy a bit. Learn from your mistakes. And then apply to the schools that fit the bill. Remember, you really shouldn't be looking to apply in R3. So, R2 is it! Make sure you remember that R2 is your last round.

R2 is the golden ticket for most people. If you have had a great experience interviewing and now know yourself better, then R2 will be a breeze for you. All the Best!

CR(Critical Reasoning) is my favorite sub-section on the GMAT. Firstly, because I had 100% accuracy on CR. But more importantly,  I got to dissect a well formed argument.

You don't have to read loooooong passages and neither do you have to correct sentences. Some say, you can't prepare or practice for CR, but that's not true. Although, you do get diminishing returns after a point. So just practice until you have your techniques mastered.

Strengthen/Weaken type questions are fairly common. And so it is imperative that we know how to solve these questions correctly, with 100% accuracy. Let us see how we can achieve that level of accuracy on such questions:

The key is Identifying Assumptions.

Facts/Premises + Assumptions = Conclusion(s)

If you can identify the assumptions, you can make an argument stronger or weaker. Most people try to "Prove" that the conclusion is some how wrong, which is the wrong approach. Conclusions are never drawn wrong. They are based on facts/premises and assumptions.

So obviously, either the facts are wrong or the assumptions are wrong. Unlike certain news channels, the GMAT test makers never get facts or premises wrong. You cannot attack the facts given in a GMAT argument! Remember that!

What is left for us to attack then? Assumptions.

Assumptions can either be strengthened or weakened.

How? You ask.

By providing additional information that either supports or negates the assumption.

That's it. That's the key. All GMAT CR Strengthen/Weaken questions rely on you identifying the assumptions correctly. Once you identify the assumptions, all you have to do is go through the answer choices to strengthen or weaken the argument.

ONLY one choice will do the trick. Others will either do the opposite or will not have any bearing on the argument at all! So, use your superpower of elimination to cut through the noise and find the correct answer choice.

If you practice this with 30 questions, you won't get another S/W question wrong.

Everything revolves around the return on investment. Ultimately, schools either can or cannot keep up with the trends. MBA programs have been evolving continuously for the past many years, but for some reason a specific crowd of applicants no longer sees 2 year MBA programs as viable.

To know more about how MBA programs are at crossroads, you can read this book: Rethinking the MBA

The crowd that is moving away from the MBA programs is aged 21 to 25, has little work experience and big dreams. Granted young professionals and recent graduates may not be thinking about ROI, but they definitely know that competition is fierce when it comes to full time MBA programs and the odds are stacked against them.

I mean how does one compete with VPs of important divisions at Fortune 500 companies with just a college degree? And how does one compete with a Serial Entrepreneur with 8 different successes with just one year of "so so" work experience? Yes, apples are compared to apples, and ultimately Admissions committees do compare Consultants with Consultants, but who do you think wins - the consultant with 5 years of stellar work ex or the young associate consultant who just started out at a small company?

On top of that, being 2 years out of the work force really doesn't sit well with students who already realize how hard it is to pay the bills with a humanities degree.

Luckily, European and Asian schools gave such students a solution to their problems. The Masters in Management program.

Its generally a one year program that really prepares you for the business world. You spend less money, time and effort than you would in a 2 year MBA program and you start working at a respectable annual salary of $90k at a major corporation. Sounds like a lucrative proposition if you ask me.

Plus, you compete with people just like you. The number of applicants is less. And getting financial aid is just as easy, if not more.

Here are the FT rankings for MiM programs for 2015: Link

If you sort the numbers, you realize that ROI is high for all programs. Let us set aside Indian and German programs since the cost of living is relatively low in these countries. To make it fair, we will use salary data from Swiss Business school, University of St. Gallen to calculate ROI:

ROI for USG= 89000/55000 = 1.6  (in the very first year!)

ROI for HBS=120000/200000 = 0.6 (again first year)

Let us also not forget that other than Switzerland most of the other countries on the list have much lower living costs. Many schools charge nominal fees. And almost all of the European schools allow you to work for upto 20 hours per week slashing the costs even more.

If we decided to look at a German school such as WHU Germany the ROI comes out to be ~2.5 and that is just one year.

Now you may say, but wait a minute, maybe students don't get placements. And you would be wrong. Placements are 100% for many schools! While about 20 schools on the list have promising placement stats of 95% or more, most of the schools have figures in the 90-100% range.

Let us also not forget that it takes up to 10 years to pay off a US full time MBA loan. Here are some more though provoking payback figures published on Top MBA: Link

So, if you are young, inexperienced, do not wish to be burdened by heavy loans or simply cannot afford a 2 year MBA, perhaps you should look at MiM programs. Besides, a euro-trip never hurt anyone!

Probability questions are one of the most hated kind of questions on the GMAT. After all, the "probability" of getting the answer right (if you are a Poet) is pretty low. Although, under timed conditions, many Quants struggle to get it right too.

First of all, you don't need to worry too much about any one topic on the GMAT. It's just not worth the hassle to fret over something that might not even show up on test day! Still, if you want to get Probability questions right, I am going to give you some very basic tips that will at least help you narrow down the answer choices and eliminate the wrong ones.

So what is probability? Its the mathematical representation of "chance".

Basically, if I gave you a coin and told you to toss it just once, you will either get heads or tails. So, if I ask, what are the chances of getting heads, you might say 50%. How did we calculate that? Simple.

Number of total possible outcomes: 2 (Heads or Tails)

Number of favorable outcomes: 1 (Heads)

Simple divide number of favorable outcomes by number of total outcomes, or

Number of favorable outcomes           = Probability
Number of Total possible outcomes

1   = 0.5     Multiply this by 100 to get probability in percentage, i.e. 0.5 x 100 = 50%
2

Now, what if you don't have the time or don't really need to calculate probability?
How do you guesstimate?

Golden Rule: Always calculate the total number of outcomes first! That's it!

If you have the denominator, you will be able to eliminate a couple of choices in most questions.

After that you may or may not be able to calculate the number of favorable outcomes, but you would be able to guess better.

Yesterday, I had an extremely crucial Skype call to attend. But, for some reason technology decided to give me the slip and I wasn't even able to connect. It WAS a major setback considering that I worked for a long time just for that ONE call. Luckily, things turned out well, but even before they had turned out well, the way I reacted was amazing. For some reason, the incident had fired me up instead of making me feel disappointed.

My thought process was: Even if I get 30 seconds, I am sure I will be able to get my message across.

And I noticed that reaction and thought to myself, "What is going on? Is this how I always react to setbacks? With more energy and determination?" And the answer from all levels of my conscience was a resounding YES!!!

That's the reaction that GMAT test takers must have when they face setbacks on the way to their dream score!

Then, a friend of mine shared a link to Tim Grover's book and said I might find it useful:
Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable

Of course, I have followed Tim for a long time, but never read the book. For the uninitiated, Tim Grover is the man who trained Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Dwayne Wade (along with countless others), and helped these amazing super-performers become "Unstoppable". There a lot of "Self-help" Gurus out their, but how many can claim to have churned out superstar after superstar?

When I was done with the book, it struck me - everything that Tim says in his book applies to GMAT as well. I mean ultimately, most first time GMAT test takers do not score their dream scores. Usually, there is a major gap between what they score and what they would like to score.

Some people close the gap quickly, and others don't.

Here's how the "Top Performers" score that elusive score after failing the first time (and how Tim's advice applies to performance on the GMAT):

1. By thriving under pressure: That's the reason 2 people who score same in practice, end up scoring different scores on Test Day! Nervousness kills performance on the GMAT!

2. By not recognizing failure: It is highly common to have to retake the test. But, most people give up after their first attempt! High performers "expect" that a retake may be necessary and simply consider any setbacks as bumps in the road.

3. By controlling the uncontrollable: Emotions, Timing, and Intellectual Stamina - these are the 3 things that need to be controlled. You can't be emotional or egoistic about some question that you couldn't answer. You must have a proper timing strategy so you don't run out of time near the end. And you must have trained yourself to sit through 4 hours of GMAT without running out of gas. Those who make a come back on the GMAT, control these apparently uncontrollable things.

By the way, on the GMAT, the test makers are your "Competition". They will try to trick you every step of the way, they will try to get in your head, and they will place a number of obstacles in your way. But, ultimately, you will triumph.

So heed Tim's advice and become Unstoppable!