Kaplan GMAT Blog - Latest Comments

Re: GMAT Math Shortcuts: Dividing by 3

indian — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 04:57:51 -0000

U can repetitively add till u get a single integer if it is divisible by 3 there u go... :)
5889 = 5+8+8+9 = 30 = 3 + 0 = 3 divisible by 3 ...

Re: 5 Reasons to Consider Working Overseas

danica003 — Wed, 29 May 2013 04:44:26 -0000

Thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts about working overseas. It's nice to work abroad since you can explore new opportunities and challenges as well.

Re: ATTENTION Graduating Class: Congratulations! You’ve Got More Studying to Do.

Raj — Sat, 25 May 2013 13:07:05 -0000

I have a doubt.
Do B-Schools entertain Old GMAT scores even if they are 5 years old ?
i know GMAC officially allows the score for 5 years , but I was under the assumption that B-schools like a score not mroe than 2 years old.
Could you please correct me if i am wrong ?

Re: ATTENTION Graduating Class: Congratulations! You’ve Got More Studying to Do.

Christopher Mizhquiri — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:11:00 -0000

cool and nice info! :D

Re: Online MBA rankings

pratima — Wed, 15 May 2013 05:22:53 -0000

It was a great read about
online MBA ranking. I agree that business school ranking is always influential. Thanks for sharing interesting and informative post.

Re: Overlapping Sets on the GMAT

David — Tue, 07 May 2013 00:47:01 -0000

This blog post contains a painful error - the question asks "what percent of the male readers are unmarried," but the author answers a different question: "what percent of the readership is both male and unmarried." Granted he got the answer to that question right, but getting the right answer to the wrong question is still the wrong answer.

Re: GMAT Ratio Problems: Avoid the Algebra

Vijay — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 01:47:54 -0000

thanks, its a nice strategy

Re: Integrated Reasoning: 9 months in

Sushant — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 16:41:54 -0000

Hello, thank you for sharing your thoughts on this. I recently gave my GMAT on 25-MAR-2013 and scored 710 (Q50 V35 AWA5 IR2). As you can see my IR score is disheartening. In my earlier attempt I was better at IR5 - 670 (Q49 V32 AWA5 IR5). The new IR score (IR2 with 12 percentile) worries me.

I am planning to apply at UC Berkeley for Part-time/Evening MBA. Having 11 years of IT experience, I am okay with GMAT score 710 (Avg GMAT score for Haas part-time MBA is 692), but I am not sure whether such a low IR2 score will damage my application/admission chances. Is it worth giving GMAT again ONLY for improving IR score? Please help.

Re: Business School Spotlight: The Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California

EYang — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 01:24:14 -0000

Great school. Proud Grad 2001. The Merage faculty is top-notch, and the education I received gave me the foot in the door to transition into the high tech industry. From there I springboarded into a successful entrepreneurial career.

Re: Does my GMAT Integrated Reasoning score matter?

jimmyjamesm — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 03:15:12 -0000

Just took the test yesterday. IR was literally the only section I feel that cheated me. I thought I was doing great and when I looked up at the time I was only halfway done with 10 minutes left! I finished every other section with time to spare mind you! There is very little study material out there right now that can help you with this section. 10 questions for 30 minutes seems about right. I literally just filled in the bubbles on the last two questions. I felt like a guinea pig and it probably frazzled me enough to affect my scores in the later sections. Oh well, I still got a good score!!!!

Re: Use The MBA Admissions Office as a Resource

Jackie Buchy — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:23:08 -0000

Great points here! I work in the graduate admissions office at George Mason University. We are always glad to help applicants out with technical issues and questions. Having a qualified applicant miss out because of paperwork or a technical glitch would be the last thing we would want to happen.

Re: GMAT Prep: Attitude is critical

Edward — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 22:39:13 -0000

Yes, I absolutely agree. Attitude is everything for anything you want to do. GMAT prep is really really demanding process. In addition to that, make sure you pick the tool that fits for your GMAT prep.

Re: Student Loan Debt Market: Too Big To Fail

some — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:06:27 -0000

this is great blog

Re: GMAT Prep: Attitude is critical

Tarini Sharma — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 08:32:42 -0000

Yes indeed really helpful article !!!
I have just started preparing from this study material i found for GMAT verbal section and it is really really helpful.
the books are amazing, concepts explained well
i m loving the time i study from them

http://www.wiziq.com/course/15...

Re: Mastering Comparisons in GMAT Sentence Correction

Srishti — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 06:56:08 -0000

Hello, I am preparing for GMAT exams and sentence correction being
the weakest section I am trying to locate similar sites and blogs for
GMAT sentence correction tips and questions that may help me. Thanks for the valuable tip, it helped me a lot to solve GMAT questions. Also, can you let review this particular book for me - GMAT Sentence Correction 3rd Edition Book that I saw at
http://www.wiziq.com/course/16....
I am planning to buy it. thanks in advance.

Re: GMAT Prep: Attitude is critical

Shan Rose — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 23:48:24 -0000

Good post about GMAT it is very useful for students

questions on the GMAT

Re: GMAT Arbitrage

Balraj Sidhu — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 12:23:33 -0000

well that was seriously instructional, smart and informative.

Re: Your English Teacher Was Right: The Perils of Plagiarism on Your MBA Application

Lucas Weingarten — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 15:49:44 -0000

Great post, Jenny! Reminds me of one I did last spring. (http://blog.kaplangmat.com/201...

Hard to believe there is anyone out there with the gall to attempt something like this, let alone hundreds of them every year. One thing to note, however, is that a lot of people plagiarize without intentionally doing so simply because they are unaware of the rules. An aptly named website, http://plagiarism.org/, is a good resource and there are many, many more out there.

Don't let your writing hurt you when all it is designed to do is help you. Ignorantia juris non excusat.

Cheers,
L.

Re: Great News for MBA Grads

Anis@MBA Programs — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 08:28:27 -0000

It's a great news, graduates can find a job more easily and their starting salary exceed their expectations.

Re: MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Have to Talk About How Much I Love You!

David P. Baldwin — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 15:30:57 -0000

That and my poor spelling...

Re: MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Have to Talk About How Much I Love You!

David P. Baldwin — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 15:30:24 -0000

My
statement would be... Refresh those skills and knowledge that I once knew and
hope to learn something more advanced knowledge or way of looking at things
that I don't currently possess. It is
not for the increase in income since I have for years made more money that the
average MBA. This is probably to honest so I would not get in...

Re: MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Have to Talk About How Much I Love You!

D'oh! — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 11:53:10 -0000

This article is complete nonsense. In an MBA admission essay there is one objective only: (getting in), That is achieved by demonstrating two things: How the program and its other students will benefit from admitting you, and how completing the program will improve your business career. This essay segment appears to me to directly accomplish all of that.

Re: MBA Admissions Myths Destroyed: I Can Write My Own Recommendation

Marvelous Essays — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:29:52 -0000

Topic: Please comment on the context of your
interaction with the applicant. If applicable, briefly describe the
applicant's role in your organization. (250 words)

In January 2011, I joined Valuation Services and Reporting Group
serving in the capacity of senior manager to the company. Margarita
Zavidonova, a team leader of a business analyst team began reporting to
me on the same day. Four other team leaders also report to me. We hold
weekly team meetings with the team leaders to discuss ongoing projects,
future projects and taking in everyone’s suggestions. I interact with
Margarita during the week as required and also hold meetings to discuss
important issues. The discussions and meetings allows us to be
coordinated as we make decisions where required. My approach involves
guiding or providing directions to Margarita who then conducts
independent work together with her team and then communicates project
developments to me.

The business analyst team headed by Margarita has a mandate to
analyze, document, and automate reporting procedures for various risk
reporting procedures run by the global middle office (GMO) group. In
bargain, Margarita is in charge of communication between our group and
the Global Middle Office group and for project planning

Topic: How does the candidate's performance compare to other
well-qualified individuals in similar roles? (250 words)

Margarita Zavidonova has worked with TD for 11/2years. However, I
have worked with her for the last 10months. She is of exceptional
performance. She has headed a team that has achieved quite a commendable
number of initiatives like; delivery of multiple risk calculation
reporting solutions for business clients, visualised and documented a
framework for more than 60 existing risk policies, recently started
working on a major risk data governance initiative and also assisted
with a significant trading system migration. Considering the quantity,
quality and speed of projects carried out by Margarita’s team, I am
pleased with her above average character and performance. Together with
working as a team leader, margarita contributes as a business analyst.
Her work efficiency is remarkable too. She can easily conduct and
combine planning activities, team training, staff work reviews and
regular business analyst tasks. Recently, she has simultaneously been
working on reviewing documentation for the new Data Governance Project
(GDP), planning GDP activities and creating a schedule for the year
ahead, consulting the development team, reviewing her staff’s work and
following up on completed applications ready to go into production. Her
ability to do various tasks at a go is definitely rare and above average
in the industry.

Margarita’s skills in communication are also excellent. Her dealings
with clients at all levels are great. She is courteous and
accommodating.

Therefore her performance is way above average compared to other well-qualified individuals serving in the same capacity.

Topic: Please describe the most important piece of constructive
feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances
and the applicant's response. (250 words)

Margarita Zavidonova is extremely focused on satisfying customers’
requests and delivering quality product on time. She is keen on
maintaining the image of a great service provider and is therefore very
demanding of herself and her team. Since i started working with her, i
have recognized her passion to get things done properly. However, she is
easy on clients and accepts their rushed and non-standard requests. For
instance, clients from the Global Middle Office (GMO) group placed a
request which demanded unusual ways of extracting input data for reports
or non-standard report naming. Margarita did well in fulfilling all of
their requests.

Standardization of reporting processes is in our best interests. With
standard reporting format it is easier to implement and maintain report
calculations. I have spoken to Margarita explaining this situation and
that all special client requests should be avoided so as quality is not
compromised at all costs. She agreed to this approach but raised some
concerns that in some rare cases, GMO clients truly need customized
reports due to the nature of their businesses. An example is one of the
Dashboard reports her team worked on was in a special format which
facilitates understanding by the senior management.

We held numerous discussions and consultations and concluded that:
special requests from regular or new customers will get go-aheads and be
fulfilled if they add extra value to the business and if they fit the
stipulated project plan. Margarita together with her team now works with
the new approach in all of the new projects. In case a request for a
report in an unusual format is received, discussions with the clients
are held to come up with the best strategies to standardise them before
the next stage of work commences.

Re: The Pros and Cons of a Part-Time MBA

Maria Smith — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 13:04:43 -0000

Nice post about Practice for GMAT is is very helpful for students

Re: GMAT Face Validity

Rose Lee — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 05:34:23 -0000

Good information about GMAT. its need is still required. some useful material about GMAT Value and Worth
for Students to share