tests « Master Admissions

April 4, 2012

Why You Should Take a Test Prep Course

Filed under: Application ideas — Tags: Admissions, analytic ability, best MBA consultant, business school, GMAT, GRE, MBA, quant score, quant skills, test anxiety, test prep, test taking strategy, tests — admin @ 9:34 pm

I'm surprised that so many students who want to go to graduate school don't feel the need to take a test-prep course. Most of them are well worth the investment.

I can’t stand standardized tests. They test only one thing: test-taking ability. But they are here to stay, and students who want to earn their MBA , or other top professional program from a top school, should get really high scores. Especially in quant.

Both the GMAT and the GRE, the former being the primary business school entry hurdle, are computer adaptive tests. That means that more correct responses will lead to harder questions. So those who suffer even the slightest anxiety about the test are faced with another layer of uncertainty. First, there’s the voice that says, “I am afraid I don’t know the material.” Then there’s the voice that says, “I don’t have enough time to answer” and now there’s the voice that says, “this question is easier than I had expected…so I must be doing badly!” It’s exhausting.

This is Your Brain on Anxiety
The brain doesn’t like these conversations. Neuroscientific research has taught us that such anxiety hijacks our ability to think. In very simple terms, limbic system, (the part of the brain that tells the body to breathe, pump blood, and run away from predators) disrupts the “working memory.”

A test prep course, or, if you prefer, a one-on-one tutor, can help you reduce that anxiety, and at a minimum, improve your ability to recall information.

Let’s look at the benefits one-by-one.

1. You will learn the material – the test looks for analytic ability, especially in the quantitative section. You need to brush up on your math. Certainly you can do it from books on your own, but the test is designed to trip you up. Call it mean-spirited. The knowledge itself is important, but you want somebody to walk you through the way to think about the problem.

2. You’ll improve your timing – It’s a timed test, so you need to be very efficient in your responses. You cannot skip a question and you cannot go back. At a minimum, a course or tutor can help you become familiar enough with the material so you can use your precious minutes figuring out the answer rather than figuring out the question.

3. Focus – Standardized tests are about the process of taking the test as much as they are about the material. A good course and a good teacher will teach you how to approach your studying and your test taking. You should take advantage of the prep coach or company’s resources to learn how to master the process.

4. Discipline – You cannot cram for a test like the GMAT. According to Doug Barg, a former master GMAT teacher at Kaplan and a very smart guy, you should study for at least three months, preferably six. Check out his classic blogpost here. If nothing else, a course will help you break up the studying so that you will not only learn, but retain more. A course will also encourage you to take more practice tests than you will on your own. It just works that way.

5. Confidence – A course will help you be more confident. It will help you practice, which should help you feel more confident. And the more genuinely confident you are, the better you’ll score.

It’s possible that you do not suffer from anxiety; not everyone is that high strung. In that case, a course can only help you improve even more dramatically by familiarizing yourself with material and test process. And you are being measured against all other test takers, many of whom will have taken a course. You are competing; why wouldn’t do whatever you can to get the edge?

A formal training program with a teacher or coach is worth the investment. There are lots of classes, online courses, tutors, coaches, and more. I know trainers at Manhattan GMAT, Kaplan, Veritas, Test Prep NY (good for test anxiety), Knewton, and new players like Magoosh (interesting! worth checking out) I also know some awesome individual tutors. I can get you discounts on some of them, introduce you to others, or just talk it through. Just email me at betsy@masteradmissions.com for a chat.

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May 12, 2011

Get Your Quant Skills MBA-Ready

Filed under: Application ideas,Inspiration — Tags: Admissions, business school, pre-MBA, quant skills, tests, Tuck MBA — admin @ 8:20 am

Not every student applying to business school has her math foundation in order. I surely didn't. But fortunately, I was so unfamiliar with basic number crunching that I forced myself to take undergraduate courses even before applying for an MBA program. Sitting in class and absorbing material is surprisingly uplifting. It also helps prepare you for the business school experience. And getting A's was new to me.

You can also study on your own, and I've listed some options below.

Get Yourself a Good Grade

If you are in the United States, check your local state school extension program. For example, when I was applying, I decided to make up for my lack of prerequisites by taking seven courses from the University of Virginia’s extension program in the DC area. I have candidates who have done well at other extension programs, such as the University of California Berkeley program.

If you are overseas or traveling a lot, an accredited online course from a real school may work for you. Don’t fall for unaccredited schools that advertise all over the Internet. Try schools that are real, such as major state schools or known names such as Boston University, Johns Hopkins University, Indiana University or the University of North Carolina. Also, take the course for credit—you want an official transcript – you’d be surprised what an extra document from a real school with lots of A’s can do.

If You Just Want to Be Serious

If you already have a pretty good GPA (3.4 or above) from a strong undergraduate program, you might want to supplement your academic experience with some quantitative or business stats courses that do not give you a college-level grade. You can learn the fundamentals to be able to sit in an MBA classroom and keep up. One brand-name option is Tuck’s Online Bridge Program, designed, as they say on their website, “for recent liberal arts graduates, PhDs, and other high-potential employees with little or no business education or experience.” The program offers modules in accounting, finance, managerial economics (decision science) and more.

For those who might think they are bad in quantitative courses, the MBAMath program might be for you. MBAMath is an online course that is also recommended by a number of MBA programs for students who are already admitted. It is self-paced and allows you to make lots of mistakes. The program’s philosophy is “getting it right eventually, rather than getting it right the first time.” You do get a form of a transcript, which might counterbalance poor grades.

If you have no business experience at all, and want to challenge yourself, you might want to look at the Certified Associate Business Manager Designation. This designation is offered to those who complete a full pre-MBA curriculum. This program is a big commitment, and if you want to re-invent yourself as an educated, focused, directed business school candidate, this option is definitely worth considering.

These are but a few of the choices available -- if you do your research, you'll probably find a whole lot more than I've been able to dig up here. But the important point is to make the effort. Show your initiative, show your ability to learn from your mistakes, and go forward.

Remember, you can't learn less.

Betsy Massar is Founder of Master Admissions, a graduate admissions consulting firm. Her recent article on women and leadership was published in Forbes.

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March 9, 2011

GMAT, GRE, LSAT and Your Brain

Filed under: Chicago Booth,Harvard Business School,Inspiration,Stanford GSB,Wharton — Tags: Betsy Massar, business school, GMAT, graduate school, GRE, Harvard Business School, LSAT, Stanford Business School, Tags: test scores, tests, Wharton — admin @ 7:42 pm

Starting to think about taking the GMAT, GRE or LSAT? This is actually the time to start looking into courses, figuring out whether you want to take a class or get a private tutor, or whether doing the online/whiteboard route works for you. You can find variations that suit your timeframe, learning style, and temperament.

Test Anxiety is Normal
Taking tests is a subject that is near and dear to my heart. I want you all to know that I was a TERRIBLE test taker. My SAT scores were so low that I was laughed out my top choice undergraduate schools. (I eventually had to transfer into Vassar from a state school). So when I was thinking about applying to graduate school, the hold-it-all back side of my brain flipped out. Eventually, I ended up teaching that emotional bundle of neurons to shut up and let me be the test taker I thought I ought to be. And it worked: I scored in the 93^rd percentile, with roughly equal math and verbal scores. Oh, and I got into HBS, Stanford Business School, Chicago, Wharton, and Darden. Cool, huh?

I’ve been thinking about this experience because I’ve been reading an old classic of leadership training, Emotional Intelligence, by Daniel Goleman. He describes a situation a lot of us know only too well: test anxiety. He describes, in scientific detail, an emotional hijacking. This is where the limbic system, (the part of the brain that tells the body to breathe, pump blood, and run away from predators) disrupts the “working memory.” So if you’ve ever been in a situation where you sit down at a computer screen in a noisy and unpleasant test center, here’s what’s probably going on.

The prefrontal cortex is the brain region responsible for working memory. But circuits from the limbic [most primitive brain part] brain to the prefrontal lobes [the rational/working memory part] mean that signals of strong emotion – anxiety, anger, and the like—can create neural static, sabotaging the ability of the prefrontal lobe to maintain working memory.

This limbic system is the hotbed of emotions. The limbic system, which includes the amygdala, if you’ve ever heard of it, is screaming to you as you look at the test questions, “Run away, it’s too scary! You will fail!”

Well, guess what. That amygdala is useful sometimes, but it tends to overreact. And that’s where the thinking, reasoning brain comes in. The prefrontal cortex tells the panic-stricken limbic system that all is not out of control.

The problem is that the cortex sometimes takes awhile to figure out that it needs calm your hysterical primitive, running from-the-burning-house brain. You are sitting in a noisy and fear-inducing test taking center. You know you should be spending no more than two minutes per question. And you are not even conscious of all this stuff going on inside your grey matter!

You Can Get Over It
The task is to teach yourself how to speed up the “thinking brain’s” work and quell those fears. It takes lots and lots of practice, and it can be done.

I’ve got lots of suggestions, and most of them can be found in a previous article I wrote called “Train Your Brain for Test Success: Mastering Test Anxiety.” But if you want to cut to the psychological chase, pick up a copy of Dr. Ben Bernstein’s Workbook for Test Success. He’s an experienced psychologist who knows how to put that amygdala back in line.

If I figured out how to do it, anyone can. I personally know a few standardized testing (GMAT and GRE) tutors whom I like, and rather than shout out here, I am happy to take your calls and make recommendations. Take a breath and good luck!

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July 20, 2010

The GMAT (or GRE) and Tunnel Vision

Filed under: Application ideas — Tags: Admissions, business school, Cornell, Georgetown, GMAT, MBA, tests, Wharton — admin @ 10:31 am

It seems like I haven’t blogged in a while, and for that I apologize. This past week I went back to the east coast and got to meet with admissions officers from some excellent schools: Georgetown, Cornell, and Wharton. Each has its own strength – in Georgetown’s case, I would say the location is a very big plus, Cornell has a wonderful social enterprise program, and Wharton is, well, Wharton.

But while meeting schools’ admissions officers was important (and a great part of my trip), I learned something that I wanted to write about here about the GMAT, inspired from conversations with Doug Barg. Doug is head of the GMAT faculty at Kaplan in Philadelphia, but he is so much more than that. He is, on Twitter, “GeeMatters” and blogs and he really knows how to teach.

One thing that stood out in our conversation is a story this GMAT expert told me about focus.

The Key: Focus

Focus is critical for standardized tests. I’ve written about it a number of times, including a paper called “Train Your Brain for Test Success.” Focus keeps you on track so that you pay attention to the question at hand, and not the worrying voices in your head. Focus helps you answer the question quickly, and not second-guess.

When the stakes are really high, sometimes its hard to focus. Doug told me about a student who taught himself to focus by thinking about his former colleague in the US Army whose job was to diffuse bombs. How did he prevent IEDs or landmines from blowing up? Focus.

Says Maj. Chris Hunter, a counter-terrorist bomb disposal specialist expert in the British Army:

"When you walk up to a bomb to neutralise it by hand, the adrenaline is flowing and you go into tunnel vision mode to try to dispel any fear you’ve got. Adrenaline helps," he says. "You’ve got to steady your breathing and can feel the drum beat of your heart."

Was the soldier born that way? Probably not. He trained, over and over, practiced when where the stakes were much lower, to keep his focus. It can be learned.

OK, not everyone has such nerves of steel, but we can be inspired by the soldier’s training.

When you study, practice on your focusing techniques. Channel the Explosive Ordnance Disposal guy. Practice that tunnel vision. You’ll waste a lot less energy, and maybe even feel like you’ve saved the world.

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April 19, 2010

10 Tips for Getting into Business School — Tip 2 Take Inventory

Filed under: 10 Tips,Application ideas,Berkeley Haas,Stanford GSB — Tags: Admissions, Berkeley Haas, business school, Duke Fuqua, GMAT, MBA, MIT Sloan, Stanford GSB, tests — admin @ 7:34 pm

Welcome to the second of my 10-Tip series to help you in your campaign to get into business school. The first tip encouraged you to start early – because indeed, it is a campaign, and the earlier you start thinking about the whole process, the easier it will be to put this massive project together. I cannot recall anyone I have ever met in my life who has said, after all is said and done, “That was a lot easier and took a lot less time than I thought!”

Tip 2 encourages you to take inventory. Business school admissions committees look for self-awareness, and what better way to figure out what you’ve already got and what you need, but an inventory list. It’s ok to be lacking in certain areas, by the way. No candidate is absolutely perfect. Believe it.

Fill in Your Weak Spot: Career Progression

Let’s start with your work experience. What kind of a track record of success have you demonstrated in your career so far? You don’t have to have invented the iPad, but you should have made a difference in your work environment. Were you put on the fast-track? Promoted faster than expected? Were you responsible for changing the way your group does business? The varieties of ways you can have made a positive difference on your workplace are endless. The important thing is to identify a pattern of excellence in your nascent career.

Often admissions officers talk about career progression – being able to explain how you went from point A to point B. Does it make logical sense? If there’s something missing from that progression – say you work for a government entity that doesn’t accelerate promotions – can you gain more responsibility in another way, even if it requires taking on extra work? Maybe you need to round out your leadership experience by leading a team, inside or outside the office. If there’s no easy opportunity in the workplace, you can look to your community or entrepreneurial activities to round things out. Remember to push your own limits – show that you know how to do something that goes beyond what is required.

Fill in Your Weak Spot: Academics

If your grades are good, but not great, you might want to take some business courses to show the admissions committee you know how to sit in a classroom and excel. I’m a big fan of the alternative transcript; I had a terrible undergraduate GPA myself. Once I focused on what I wanted to do with my life, I took night classes in math, statistics, accounting, finance, marketing, and received all A’s. This not only showed the admissions committee that I had the discipline and smarts to take all these classes and juggle a workload, but that I was interested and committed to a business education.

Even if you have a great quantitative/business background, you might want to round out your education with a course that’s unexpected, like in interpersonal communications, oral presentation skills, or theater. It turns out that these skills are core skills required of business school students. For example, Stanford GSB Duke Fuqua and MIT Sloan business schools consider improv part of the curriculum. It may sound crazy, but all of these tools help the geek in us so we can be more creative in our problem solving.

Fill in Your Weak Spot: GMAT Scores

Unfortunately, there’s no substitute for strong GMAT scores, and it helps to score over the 80% percentile on the quantitative portion of the test. (That’s the benchmark Berkeley Haas uses to determine which students need to take a math prerequisite.) If you haven’t taken a prep course, I highly recommend it. It’s worth the investment. If you are having trouble, find a tutor to help you learn how to take the test. The test-prep companies have a stable of great people, or you can go to a specialized tutor If you are still having trouble, explore other options like a test anxiety expert.

Inventory Yourself

As you go through the inventory of what you bring to the admissions table, you may find yourself overwhelmed. Don’t panic. Slow it down. If you really want it, but aren’t ready yet, this may not be the right year for you. Performing an inventory tells you how compelling your case is right now. If you want to beef up your profile, let’s get started. But you’ve got to first figure out what you’ve got, and what you need. This end of the admissions process is up to you.

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November 18, 2009

GMAT tests how you take a test

Filed under: Application ideas — Tags: Admissions, GMAT, MBA, test anxiety, tests — admin @ 3:20 pm

In recent weeks, I've heard from disappointed GMAT test takers that they scored well on the practice tests, but bombed out during the actual test. That usually means they have to study all over again, retake the exam, and spend time worrying about data sufficiency when they could be refining their essays or making sure their recommenders are in line.

An admissions officer gave me this GMAT tip: do your practice exams in a really noisy place. The test center has a lot of distractions, and it is different from your cozy home. A student the admissions officer knows knows tested well at home but not as well in the test center. The student was a frequent flyer, so each time he had to travel, he went to the airport several hours early and practiced in the boarding lounge.

He nailed the GMAT.

The test center can be noisy and annoying. It's just one of the distractions you need to deal with.

Here's another case -- one student, who is a decent writer, obsessed about mistakes she may have made on her AWA while she was doing the quant section. An "A" student in calculus, she was disappointed by her first quant results, but ended up getting a 5.5 on the AWA. Her worries definitely led her astray.

If you have test anxiety, consider learning some techniques. Dr. Ben Bernstein, a performance coach, has written a book called <i>The Workbook for Test Success.</i>. Look for it on Amazon Workbook for Test Success. Or his own website http://workbookfortestsuccess.com.

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July 18, 2009

The Dreaded GMAT

Filed under: Application ideas — Tags: Admissions, Applications, business school, GMAT, MBA, tests — admin @ 2:51 pm

I’m no fan of the Graduate Management Admission Test, the GMAT. It’s a tricky, exasperating standardized test that sorts MBA aspirants into two categories: Those that have to worry about their scores and those that don’t.

Critics proclaim that the test doesn’t measure success in business or business school and that the format (or content, or delivery, or something…) unfairly challenges certain groups of test takers. I won’t take the other side of that argument, because they may be right.

The Graduate Management Admissions Council, the power behind the GMAT, argues that the test is predictive and does give schools a uniform method for measuring applicants. They also may be right.

Whether admissions officers agree with the results or efficacy of the test, it is here to stay.*

You are the Customer
A number of very good test-prep companies offer materials, classes and/or one-on-one coaching. I strongly urge you to take advantage of their offerings, and I have great news for you: As the potential client, you are in the driver’s seat.

Kaplan, Manhattan GMAT, Princeton Review, Veritas, and the super-tutors at Inspirica are just some of your options. There are other specialized companies in different locales (India sports a slew of cool tutoring programs), and you can find freelance consultants in most major cities.

Because the test and its outcome (not to mention the financial and time commitment) are so important, you should put on your consumer hat and look for the best deal for you.

Finding the Right Trainer
A few days ago, I accompanied an aspiring MBA applicant to a free class given by one particular vendor. A few things struck me about my prospective learning experience. At first, I couldn’t understand the teacher because he talked too fast. But I figured I could get over that, and I eventually figured out how to follow his verbal pace. But the problem was that he was such a great test-taker—and so were all the other potential instructors—that I felt like my teacher was a different species than me.

Frankly, I am intimidated by people that test off the charts. I am never going to be like them. My brain works in a different way. What’s plain as day to them is not plain as day to me. They’ve never had the personal experience of looking at a problem and drawing a complete blank.**
I’m going to stick my neck out here and say that a teacher doesn’t have to score a perfect 800 to help a student get what they want. You may want the people who develop the tests to have gotten a perfect score; that’s great. But I don’t know if the person in front of me teaching my class, or tutoring me one-to-one needs to be such a genius.

I recommend attending a number of free seminars, and even if you are in a major city with lots of test schools, go online and see how a virtual course works. You are the consumer. You have a choice and not every teacher is the right fit for you. Remember, test companies are businesses competing with each other. It is their job to tell you why you should work with them. You are the client, and you have every right to find an instructor and a course structure that fits your style and your needs.

You have to find a teacher that speaks your language. Someone that knows what your goals are. The teacher I saw kept talking about scoring in the 99th percentile, or about 780. If that’s what sells prep courses, I can understand the emphasis on near-perfect scores. But you don’t need to get a 780. In fact, you may not need to break a 700.

Just Get it Over the Net
Schools publish average or median scores, but as anyone with a rudimentary understanding of statistics knows, those numbers don’t tell you the whole story. Look at the middle 80% of what students are getting. For example, the middle 80% at Chicago was 660-760 (ranked in the top 5) and the middle 80% at NYU Stern was also 660-760 (ranked top 10). The middle 80% at the University of Washington was 640-750 (ranked top 35). Get the picture?

You simply need to do well enough so the GMAT isn’t an issue. I like to think it’s like tennis: you need to get it over the net. You want a good, solid score. The goal, especially for those of us who aren’t great test-takers, is to figure how to make it so the whole process doesn’t intimidate you. You don’t need a scary-smart teacher. The test is intimidating enough as it is.

Like everything else with the MBA application, it’s better to start early so you are, as Milton Friedman would say, Free to Choose. Some classroom courses are given only every two months, so if you want to take the test before October, you may need to sign up for a course before it gets away from you. GOOD LUCK!

* Some schools now accept the GRE, or Graduate Record Exam, in lieu of the GMAT. In either case, students can benefit from prep courses and/or tutoring.
** I took the test awhile ago, and since graduating from Harvard Business School (got slightly below the median for my entering class), completely forgot everything I had to learn for the test. So it was as if I was starting afresh when I went to the prep class.

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