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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.

Recently, someone asked me: what is the most common “fatal mistake” people make when studying for the GMAT? I’ve managed to narrow it down to two.

Don’t prioritize accuracy over efficiency.

“Accuracy” = answering questions correctly. “Efficiency” = time management. Most people worry much more about getting things right than they do about managing their time well. Here’s the thing: the GMAT is explicitly testing you on your ability to set priorities and make decisions about what’s worth your time. Those are actual business skills!

In other words, expect to see questions that are too hard for you to do in the average time frame. You should actually have to choose to bail on a small number of questions—if you don’t, then you’re doing something wrong.

If you continue to try to get everything right while taking a CAT, you will almost certainly score lower (possibly much lower) than you are capable of scoring. Read the Scoring section of Manhattan GMAT’s free e-book The GMAT Uncovered Guide. (If you have any kind of account with Manhattan GMAT, even a free one, then the e-book is already in your student center.)

Don’t confuse “doing” with “learning.”

When you start the timer and tackle a set of questions or a practice test, you are not learning! You are using everything you have already learned to test yourself—to see whether you really learned what you thought you learned. Let’s call this “doing” or “testing yourself.”

The “smart” students (“smart” in a test-taking sense) know or discover that you learn by reviewing—you need to analyze your work on the problems and analyze the problems themselves. What do I mean by “analyze”? Here’s one article that talks about analyzing problems. Here’s another that talks about analyzing practice tests. These two articles are not comprehensive, but they should give you a good idea of the difference between “doing” and “analyzing.” I have spent 5, 10, even 20 minutes analyzing a single problem—and that was after I already figured out the answer.

So make sure that you’re not just doing but also learning!

Harvard Business School (HBS) receives more than 9,000 applications each year. How will you ensure that your essays will grab the attention of an overworked HBS admissions officer? In our newest presentation, Writing Standout HBS Essays, we will help you conceptualize your essay ideas and understand how to execute them, so that your experiences truly stand out. You do not need to be actively working on a $5 billion deal or have won an Olympic gold medal to get into HBS. You just need to have done the everyday things remarkably well, and you must make sure that your essays reflect your actions.

mbaMission Senior Consultant Jessica Shklar will lead this session and will remain online afterward to answer any additional questions about HBS’s essays and other admissions issues of importance to you.

Date: Thursday, May 31, 2012
Time: 9:00 – 10:30 p.m. ET
Location: Online
Price: Free!

To register for this event, please click here.

In our “What I Learned at…” series, MBAs discuss the tools and skills their business schools provided as they launched their careers.

Mili Mittal is a former mbaMission consultant and now the CEO and cofounder of mor.sl, a recipe recommendations platform designed to help busy professionals cook. mor.sl was recently featured in TechCrunch. Mili received her MBA and a Certificate in Entrepreneurship from the Haas School of Business at the University of California–Berkeley (UC Berkeley Haas) in 2010. In Part 4 of this four-part series, Mili describes the close relationships she formed with professors and mentors at Haas, and how they continue to support her today.

In my previous posts, I have mentioned a lot of professors whose classes were instrumental in teaching me about and enabling me to practice entrepreneurship fundamentals while in school. But I haven’t talked much about how much these professors influenced the direction of mor.sl and how incredibly important they’ve been and continue to be on our journey.

I don’t know about you, but when I was an undergrad, I never built really strong relationships with my professors. There was distance between the students and professors at my school, and only with a very few did I feel comfortable talking about anything but homework. At Berkeley, I had the opposite experience—perhaps because I was older and had a stronger sense of purpose and maturity, but perhaps because the professors there were interested in forming connections with their students.

At Haas, in part because of the small class size and mostly because of the professors’ dedication, I could drop into the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship almost any time I wanted and catch the ear of professors John Danner, Jerry Engel or David Charron. Professors like John offer to take you to lunch to chat about your start-up’s challenges and help you overcome them. Professor Sara Beckman encouraged students in her “Design and Systems Thinking for MBAs” class to talk with her outside the classroom about ways to help incorporate design thinking into the Haas curriculum.  Professor Steve Blank took precious time to meet with students outside of class to discuss their unique start-up challenges, too. These professors weren’t just there to “drop knowledge;” they were there to invest in their students. Every interaction with my professors (well, most) felt like a discussion with a partner.

And professors aren’t the only ones who can turn into mentors. For example, Berkeley has an Executive in Residence Program. Through this program (and through my participation in the Berkeley Board Fellows Program), I met David Riemer, the former vice president of marketing at Yahoo! David became a mentor—advising me on my career path, my start-up strategy and more. He continues to do so to this day.

Together, these individuals have helped shape the direction of my path and of mor.sl, not because they had to, but because they wanted to. Will you need mentors when you’re in business school? If so, take the time to visit your target programs and meet with professors to see if they’ll be there for you the way my Haas professors have been there for me.

Harvard Business School (HBS) kicks off the MBA application season again, and this time it is doing so with a significant overhaul of its entire application. HBS has shrunk its written requirements from four mandatory essays of 400 to 600 words to two essays of 400 words each, but has added a new post-interview 400-word write-up (for the approximately 25% of applicants who are selected to interview), giving interviewees a mere 24 hours to submit their “last word” to the school.

Managing Director of MBA Admissions Dee Leopold has long held that essays play too prominent a role in the business school admissions process, but does giving candidates just two essays (analyzed later in this post) truly reduce the emphasis? We suspect that having only 800 words with which to make a lasting impression on the admissions committee, candidates will worry that they do not have enough space to successfully convey a full picture of themselves. We therefore expect that applicants will fret even more than usual over their essays, debating whether the two stories they have chosen to share will be sufficiently powerful and compelling, and giving their essays an incredible amount of attention. Meanwhile, to make up for this lack of space—and thus allay their fears that they have not shared enough information about themselves in their essays to persuade the admissions committee to admit them—they will likely “stuff” their resumes, interview sessions and recommendations with as much crucial information as they can squeeze in. In some ways, then, HBS is just forcing candidates to play a game of “whack-a-mole”—the school is trying to push information out of the essays, but the information will undoubtedly pop up elsewhere!  As long as the admissions process is competitive and requires that applicants submit qualitative data, candidates will seek to gain an edge any way they can.

Here is our analysis of HBS’s essay questions for this year—we hope it will give you that edge. And remember, you can always contact us for a free consultation: www.mbamission.com/consult.php.

Two required essays:

1. Tell us about something you did well. (400 words)

Many candidates will worry that the one thing that they “did well” will not stand up against what others in the applicant pool will have to offer. Although some candidates will be able to differentiate themselves with tales of spectacular accomplishments (earned an Olympic medal, cashed in a start-up, etc.), most will have to rely instead on how they did their thing particularly well to differentiate themselves.

Remember, the end result of the thing “you did well” and that you are showcasing in this essay is only part of your story. So, you should take care not to lead with that end result; if you do, you will kill the mystery—and with it, the admissions reader’s interest. For example, if you write, “I am proud of having earned the earliest promotion ever at my firm,” your reader immediately knows the climax of your story and has little incentive to keep reading to learn more about you and what you have to offer. Where is the opportunity for discovery when you know the conclusion up front?

You want the reader to learn about you and what you “did well” to earn that (in this example) remarkably early promotion. Therefore, you should focus on telling your story from the beginning, leading the reader through your actions and decisions, which will ultimately reveal how you “did well.” Similarly, definitely avoid starting your essay with the statement “One thing I always do well is…” For one thing, such a declaration conveys an immodest—if not cocky—tone, and for another, you can be sure that other candidates will begin their essay this way and that the admissions committee reader will almost involuntarily lose interest. Start your essay by telling your reader exactly what you did—just launch into your story and let the conclusion come where it should, near or at the end.

This essay question may seem a bit confining at first, but the vagueness of the phrasing actually makes it rather “applicant friendly,” leaving you with more freedom and flexibility than you might initially realize. You don’t need to focus on a single fact/experience (like the “earliest promotion” example we offered), though you can certainly do so. With this essay, offering a rather broad answer is a legitimate option. For example, if you were a particularly talented mentor, you could tell more than one story of how you helped someone else develop their talent particularly “well.” Or perhaps if one thing you “do well” is standing up to consensus, you could share more than one anecdote that reveals this strength.

Before you even dream of starting to draft your essay, though, you will need to brainstorm very thoroughly. Do not try to “game” this question and anticipate what the admissions committee wants to hear—there is no “secret code” that will unlock the key to a spot in the next HBS class. Instead, think long and hard about what you truly do well and who you are as a person. Ponder your core experiences—what is the common thread that connects them? In the end, you may describe a single experience in your essay, or you may offer more. The key is that the story you tell be sincere and true to who you really are.

2. Tell us about something you wish you had done better. (400 words)

Several of the directives we have offered for HBS’s first essay also apply to this one. Do not start with “I wish I had done X better,” and do not begin with “My deepest regret is (insert conclusion!)” Again, your success in writing this essay will come down to sharing with the admissions committee how you do things.

Clearly, the phrasing of the question requires you to honestly reflect on your past experiences. And being truly honest does not involve making a brazen and/or disingenuous statement (“I earned the earliest promotion, but I wish I could have gotten it even earlier!”) that is really just an attempt to indirectly highlight a strength instead. The admissions committee members are smart and will see through this ploy immediately. We can virtually guarantee that anyone who does not admit some form of weakness or deficiency in this essay—some sincere area in which they hope to improve —will end up on the school’s “ding” list.

So, what should you write about?  Again, brainstorming is key. Think about your experiences and your regrets. Even think about times when you achieved something that was significant but yet still suboptimal in some way, or a time when you experienced a consequential stumble along the way (not a fake stumble that did not hurt!). Think about your core character traits and what you could work on or change. Can you identify a pattern or trend in your behavior? If you could have managed a project better, join the club. But when you think about how exactly you managed the project poorly or suboptimally, what core trait does that reveal? Where else can that characteristic be found in your past?

When you write this essay, do not try to hide or talk around your shortcomings in the situation you are describing, in fear of exposing your chosen vulnerability. The admissions committee members want to understand who you are—to do this, they want and need to hear your honest voice. You don’t need to beat yourself up or be overly critical, but the school wants to know that you have the maturity and insight necessary to recognize areas in which you can improve and the willingness to do so.

One final warning—do not pander! Avoid the temptation to end this essay with a trite statement about how this situation would be improved with an HBS education. It will come across as cloying and transparent.

Have the Last Word: The Post-Interview Reflection (conditional on being interviewed)

From the admissions committee: “Following the interview, candidates are required to submit a written reflection using our online application system. This must be submitted within 24 hours following the completion of the interview. Detailed instructions will be provided to those applicants who are invited to the interview process.”

Within 24 hours of interviewing, you must submit some final words of reflection. Some applicants may find this requirement intimidating, but we encourage you to view this additional submission as an opportunity to delve into new aspects of your profile and share them with the admissions committee.  Because your HBS interviewer will have read your entire application before your interview and could therefore ask you questions based on information in your resume, essays, recommendations, etc., he or she just might provide an opening for you to discuss new elements of your profile in this post-interview reflection. Hypothetically, then, if you could not find a way to work the story of a key life experience of yours into your essays, but your interviewer touches on this story or a similar one in your meeting, you may now have the license and opportunity to do so.

During your interview, your focus should definitely be on the interviewer’s questions and your responses. However, be prepared to jot down all of your interview responses as soon as the conversation is over. A helpful approach may also be to write up a few bullet points about parts of your profile that do not appear in the other parts of your application—and thus that the admissions committee is missing—as you prepare to write your reflection statement. With only 24 hours, you will need to be organized in advance and ready to make an impact one last time.

As more becomes known about this portion of the admissions process, we will update this section of our analysis.

Mini-Essay:

Finally, in addition to the two required essays, applicants must also write a brief career essay, which is asked in the online application. Candidates will first be asked to select a target post-MBA industry and function, and then must answer the following question: How does pursuing an MBA support your choices above? (500 characters)

HBS is limiting its essays this year but has snuck in one more important one—a mini-essay of 500 characters (that is roughly four sentences). In this short space, HBS wants to know you are serious about your studies—that you understand your target industry/function well and can relate your need for an HBS MBA to your desired advancement. But do not make this an “HBS is great” piece. What the school wants to understand is that the academic value of your MBA is what is key to achieving your goals.

(By the way, the paragraph above is exactly 500 characters, the length you have for this mini-essay.) For more information on how to demonstrate that your past experiences offer transferable skills that will logically lead to your future goals, please download our free Personal Statement Guide.

For a thorough exploration of HBS’s academic program/merits, defining characteristics, crucial statistics, social life, academic environment and more, please check out the mbaMission Insider’s Guide to Harvard Business School.

At mbaMission, we always encourage candidates to show their experiences rather than tell the reader conclusions. For example, a candidate may mistakenly choose to tell the reader: “I performed exceptionally well in my job and was promoted.” In this case, the reader is left wondering: “What did he/she do so well to earn that promotion?” The reader needs to understand the whole story for the conclusion to be “proven.”

We find that candidates occasionally think they are providing the whole story when they are in fact offering only a single data point:

Example 1: “For me, as an avid paraglider, extreme sports are not just a hobby but a way of life.”

In this case, the conclusion—that the candidate “lives” for extreme sports—is not substantiated. One data point is not enough to “prove” this conclusion.

Example 2: “For me, as an avid paraglider and budding heli-skier, extreme sports are not just a hobby but a way of life.”

With the addition of the mention of a second activity, the applicant’s case becomes more compelling.

Example 3: “For me, as an avid paraglider, budding heli-skier and experienced cliff diver, extreme sports are not just a hobby but a way of life.”

This series of three examples makes the candidate’s passion for extreme sports undeniable.

Of course, we have used a simplified example here and would suggest that a candidate put his/her experience into action and show the passion via experience—“Leaping from a ten-meter cliff, I…”—depending on the context of the essay.