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If you were to read a skilled writer’s work (in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times or New Yorker, for example), you would find articles that are characterized by “connectivity.” Simply put, a skilled writer ensures that each sentence is part of a chain—each sentence depends on the previous one and necessitates the next. With this linkage in place, the central idea is constantly moving forward, giving the story a natural flow and making it easy to follow. Although you do not need to write at the same level as a professional journalist, you should still embrace this concept, because it is central to excellent essay writing. With a “connected” essay, you will grab and hold your reader’s attention.

You can test your essay’s connectivity by removing a sentence from one of your paragraphs. If the central idea in the paragraph still makes complete sense after this removal, odds are you have superfluous language, are not advancing the story effectively and should revise your draft.

Try this exercise with a random selection from the New York Times:

“For many grocery shoppers, the feeling is familiar: that slight swell of virtue that comes from dropping a seemingly healthful product into a shopping cart. But at one New England grocery chain, choosing some of those products may induce guilt instead. The chain, Hannaford Brothers, developed a system called Guiding Stars that rated the nutritional value of nearly all the food and drinks at its stores from zero to three stars. Of the 27,000 products that were plugged into Hannaford’s formula, 77 percent received no stars, including many, if not most, of the processed foods that advertise themselves as good for you. These included V8 vegetable juice (too much sodium), Campbell’s Healthy Request Tomato soup (ditto), most Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choice frozen dinners (ditto) and nearly all yogurt with fruit (too much sugar).”

If you were to delete any of these sentences, you would create confusion for the reader, proving that each sentence is connected and vital!

When it comes to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. In this weekly blog series, Manhattan GMAT’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense.

Welcome to December, the most stressful time of the year for GMAT takers.  Around this time, many potential business school applicants are wondering what they can do if their second round deadlines are approaching and they have not yet achieved the score they want. Back in September, I wrote a post on this topic, giving general suggestions. Here, I offer some concrete things you can and cannot do if you are in this tricky situation.

What you CANNOT do

You can try some things—but you should not expect miracles. If you tell me that your test is in less than two weeks and you want a more than 100-point improvement… you should also start examining your other options. These could include accepting a lower score, changing the schools to which you apply or postponing your candidacy to a later round or a later year. Some people, thinking through this, end up deciding that they would rather wait a year anyway and take their time with the whole application process.

As a general rule, unfortunately, not a lot will change over a period of a few weeks. If, on the other hand, you have four to six weeks, you might be able to lift your score a decent amount (50 or so points).

What you CAN do

I want to make very clear that there is no guaranteed way to lift your score in a short period of time—if such a thing existed, I would be very, very rich. You do have options you can try, though.

Timing

Timing problems can improve in a four- to six-week time frame. Something like 98% of people have timing problems. Many people think their timing is fine because they do not run out of time on the test, but this does not mean that they have good timing.

If you are not convinced that you do have a timing problem, use this article to analyze your most recent Manhattan GMAT (MGMAT) CAT.

Okay, now read the “In It To Win It” article to “reset” your overall mind-set. Next, start fixing your time management today, particularly what is discussed in Section 4 (One Minute Sense).

You will not completely fix your timing issues in a short time frame—but if you can get better, that might just help lift your score.

Content

Next, if you have not already done so, use the first article I linked to in this post to analyze your most recent MGMAT CAT(s). Compare your list of strengths and weaknesses to a list of the most commonly tested topics and question types. (I will provide a list here, but note that this can change over time!) Look for things that are of “medium” weakness and also commonly tested; these will give you the biggest return for your time investment.

As of now, here are the things that tend to be tested most commonly on the GMAT:

• Algebra: anything to do with equations (linear, quadratic), including translating words into equations; exponents
• Number Properties: positive, negative, odd, even, divisibility, prime
• Fractions, Decimals and Percents: fractions and percents (especially in “word” form)
• Word Problems: statistics (average, median), general word problems that need to be translated to math
• Geometry: triangles, polygons
• Sentence Correction: modifiers, meaning, parallelism
• Critical Reasoning: Find the Assumption, Strengthen, Weaken, Inference
• Reading Comprehension: Inference, Specific Detail, Main Idea

Set a Plan

Do not try to do a little bit of everything. Pick a subset of things and tackle those strongly. You also likely have to change your study methods—your current methods have not gotten you far enough.

Did you know that most of your learning actually comes after you finish working on a problem? You learn from your review and analysis of your work after you are done!

This article discusses how to analyze a practice problem. Unless you are getting to this level of understanding, you are wasting a lot of very valuable time. Want examples of how this actually works? Take a look at the MGMAT blog for more.

Finally, be realistic. You might be able to achieve a more than 50-point increase in four to six weeks, but this cannot be guaranteed. Plan for multiple possible outcomes. If you do not get the score you want, what would you prefer to do?

Mission Admission is a series of MBA admission tips; a new one is posted each Tuesday.

For some reason, Thanksgiving weekend in America tends to signal the beginning of the rush toward second-round business school application deadlines. Many candidates who are just beginning to contemplate their MBA applications tend to call us and ask, “How many schools can I apply to at this stage?” or “Am I too late to start my applications for Round 2 now?” Unfortunately, there is no clear-cut answer to these questions.

First and foremost, you should focus on quality before speed. As a candidate, you are far better off completing applications to three schools with 100% effort than to five schools with 60% effort. MBA admissions offices will notice sloppy mistakes, and they will consider that you did not pay your full attention to your application and may therefore not really care all that much about their program.

One thing some candidates forget—or do not realize in the first place—is that they do not need to commit to a specific number of schools up front. We typically suggest that candidates master one application and then apply what they have learned to the next. Applying to five schools simultaneously can generally be problematic, but if you make significant progress on one school’s application and then begin work on the next, you can be confident that you will complete each one with a degree of excellence.

The ideal number of target schools varies from candidate to candidate, and depends on each one’s professional and personal schedule, written communication skills, risk profile, ambitions, etc. You should approach your applications methodically, recognize what is realistic and then work aggressively—but not haphazardly—toward your ends.

You may have heard the old journalistic maxim “Show, don’t tell,” which demands that writers truly illustrate the actions involved in an event or story rather than just stating the results of what happened.

Tell (Results Oriented):

“I arrived at ABC Bank and took on a great deal of responsibility in corporate lending. I managed diverse clients in my first year and earned the recognition of my manager. Because of my hard work, initiative and leadership, he placed me on the management track, and I knew that I would be a success in this challenging position.”

In these three sentences, the reader is told that the applicant “took on a great deal of responsibility,” “managed diverse clients” and “earned recognition,” none of which is substantiated via the story. Further, we are given no real evidence of the writer’s “hard work, initiative and leadership.”

Show (Action Oriented):

“Almost immediately after joining ABC bank, I took a risk in asking management for the accounts left behind by a recently transferred manager. I soon expanded our lending relationships with a children’s clothing retailer, a metal recycler and a food distributor, making decisions on loans of up to $1M. Although I had a commercial banking background, I sought the mentorship of our district manager and studied aggressively for the CFA exam (before and after 14-hour days at the office); I was encouraged when the lending officer cited my initiative and desire to learn, placing me on our management track.”

In this second example, we see clear evidence of the writer’s “great deal of responsibility” (client coverage, $1M lending decisions) and “diverse clients” (a children’s clothing retailer, a metal recycler and a food distributor). Further, the candidate’s “hard work, initiative and leadership” are clear throughout.

The latter is a more interesting, rich and humble paragraph—one that is more likely to captivate the reader. By showing your actions in detail, you ensure that your reader draws the same conclusions, because the necessary facts are included to facilitate this. Essentially, facts become your evidence!

Harvard Business School (HBS) is well known for using the case method, through which virtually all of the school’s classes are taught. Rather than resting on their laurels with regard to teaching the case method, however, HBS faculty members work hard to stay at the top of their game. Complementing the school’s tradition of faculty-to-faculty mentoring, in 2004, HBS established the C. Roland Christensen Center for Teaching and Learning (named for the late HBS professor) to promote and support teaching excellence and innovation. The center conducts research on pedagogical innovation and teaching effectiveness related to gender and diversity issues, and helps faculty members refine their teaching styles and techniques. The center also offers professors classroom observations and the opportunity to do pre-class planning, receive within-term troubleshooting/post-term feedback and conduct case and course development.

For more information on HBS or 15 other leading MBA programs, check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guides.