Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.
With MBA interview invitations continuing to arrive at this time of year, we thought it would be appropriate to discuss some challenging interview situations. Most business school interviews are straightforward opportunities for an interviewer to learn more about a candidate’s personal and professional backgrounds, goals, reasons for selecting a specific school, and leadership/team experiences. Yet interviews can vary dramatically from school to school, and sometimes they include a few peculiarities. So, what constitutes a “tough” interview, and how can you best navigate one?
Stoic interviewer: Some interviewers can be unemotional, refusing to give you any indication as to whether you are making a positive impression or not. And amid the intense pressure of an interview, you may perceive this lack of clear positive response as a sign of actual disapproval. The key to managing such a situation is to tune out the interviewer’s lack of emotion. Focus on your answers and do your best to not be distracted by anything about the interviewer, ignoring everything except the questions he/she is posing. “Reading” the interviewer in real time can be challenging, so you should instead concentrate on showcasing your strengths.
With regard to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this blog series,Manhattan Prep’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense.
Is the GMAT topic of number properties driving you crazy? This concept covers things that we often call “basic”—topics that we learned in middle school (or earlier), such as divisibility, factors and multiples, odds and evens, positives and negatives, and so on. I assure you, though, that number properties questions on the GMAT are anything but basic.
I strongly urge you to develop a solid grounding in this topic, particularly because the test writers are so good at disguising what these problems are really testing.
You will need some kind of book or e-book that covers this topic thoroughly, but I have some resources to help you get started.
Start with this article, “Disguising—and Decoding—Quant Problems.” We talk about how the test writers disguise material that you probably do already know, and how we can learn to “decode” the problem or strip away the camouflage.
With regard to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this blog series, Manhattan Prep’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense.
When was the last time you thought, “I studied this! I should know how to do it!”? For me, it was sometime within the past week. I knew that this problem was not beyond my reach! Meanwhile, the clock was ticking away, and all I could focus on was the fact that I could not remember something that I should have been able to remember.
That horrible, sinking feeling is universal: we have all felt it before and—unfortunately—we are all going to feel it again. How can we deal with this?
What does the “But!” feeling really mean?
When you catch yourself thinking
But I studied this…
But I should know how to do this…
If I just had a little more time, I am sure I could figure it out…
I have already invested so much time—I do not want to give up now…
… all these really mean is I do not actually know how to do the problem right now.If I did, I would not feel any of the “But!” feelings. I would just do the problem.
With regard to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this blog series, Manhattan Prep’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense.
Have you been studying for the GMAT for a while now but find yourself struggling to lift your score? Perhaps you have some problems of which you are unaware, or you are studying in an inefficient or ineffective way.
This article includes links to a number of additional articles. If you see something that applies to your situation, follow the link!
Almost everyone has timing problems; many people think they do not, but they are wrong. If you have been studying for a while but your score does not seem to be changing much, then one of the culprits is probably timing. Another common sign: your practice test scores fluctuate up and down.
*Please note: You are viewing an essay analysis from the 2016-2017 admissions cycle. Click here to view our collection of essay analyses for the current admissions season.
The UCLA Anderson School of Management has been asking applicants about their short- and long-term goals for as long as we at mbaMission have been publishing essay analyses, but not until 2014 did the school incorporate its three defining principles into its essay question. Last year, Anderson tweaked the query to address candidates’ goals for their time in the MBA program as well. The school does so again this season, having made no changes whatsoever to its lone essay question, leading us to assume that last year’s prompt elicited the kind of application essays the admissions committee wants to see. Given that Anderson requires only the one essay—which is limited to 750 words, despite having to cover three distinct periods of an aspiring MBA’s life—you must be sure to make the most of your interview, short-answer responses, recommendations, and resume to ensure that the school gets a full and well-rounded picture of you as a candidate. As for that essay, read on for our advice on how to best address the school’s query.
Essay 1: We believe that the best results are achieved when you share success, think fearlessly and drive change. With this in mind, what are your goals at UCLA Anderson and in your short-term and long-term career? (750 words maximum)
Although you should view the first sentence of Anderson’s essay prompt—which presents the school’s defining principles of “share success, think fearlessly, drive change”—as informative, you actually do not need to write specifically about sharing success, thinking fearlessly, and/or driving change. These themes can be implied within and by the stories you share, and you can choose to allude to just one or two of the three qualities; you do not necessarily have to address all three.
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Is the GMAT topic of number properties driving you crazy? This concept covers things that we often call “basic”—topics that we learned in middle school (or earlier), such as divisibility, factors and multiples, odds and evens, positives and negatives, and so on. I assure you, though, that number properties questions on the GMAT are anything but basic.
