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With regard to the GMAT, raw intellectual horsepower helps, but it is not everything. Manhattan Prep’s Stacey Koprince teaches you how to perform at your best on test day by using some common sense.

In the past, we have talked about what to try if your deadlines are rapidly approaching and you do not yet have the score that you want. What if you decide to postpone the exam and possibly your B-school applications?

First, a pep talk. You made a choice; you did not “fail.” You could, for example, choose to apply this year but lower your standards in terms of where you apply. In fact, depending on your goals, this may be better than waiting a year to try to get into a “better” (or at least more highly ranked) school.

On the other hand, let us say that you are only willing to spend more than $100K if you can get into a certain “level” school, and your GMAT score is holding you back. In that case, postponing for a year may be the way to go. Any “helpful” friends or family members who say, “Hey, I thought you were applying to business school!” can be told, “It is actually a smarter career move for me to wait until next year.” They do not need to know that the GMAT had anything to do with that decision.

So how do you get that score?

There is no guarantee you will get a certain score. Now that you have given yourself some more time, though, put together a smart plan that will give you the best possible chance.

Take a break

If you are already burned out (and most people in this situation are), take a breather. The best thing you can do for yourself right now is clear your brain and ratchet down the stress levels. Come back to the GMAT with a fresh perspective in January.

Set up a plan

Whatever you were doing before was not working for some reason. You need to figure out why so that you can then figure out what kind of plan will work for you.

First, what was your broad study plan/pattern? Were you working on your own or with friends? With a class? With a tutor?

Second, what materials were you using and how were you using them? How were you actually studying/learning when you were not in class or with a tutor?

If you had/have a teacher or tutor, contact them for help with this step. Make sure to provide detailed information about how you were working on your own and any ideas you have about what was and was not working. Also ask other experts for advice—post on some forums, speak to other teachers or tutors, and so on.

The article Developing a GMAT Study Plan contains a number of useful resources to help you figure out next steps. Note that the article is a two-parter. I have linked to the first part here; the second half is linked at the end of the first part.

Read the rest of this entry  

Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose a business school. However, the educational experience you will have is what is crucial to your future, and no one will affect your education more than your professors. Today, we focus on Gregory B. Fairchild from the University of Virginia (UVA) Darden School of Business.

As an academic director of public policy and entrepreneurship at Darden, Gregory B. Fairchild (MBA ’92) is charged with promoting ways in which business leadership can connect to broader societal issues. Fairchild, who is the Isidore Horween Research Professor of Business Administration, also serves as the associate dean for Washington, DC–area initiatives and the dean and CEO of UVA Northern Virginia. He specializes in entrepreneurship, business strategies, and business ethics, and he researches ways to create value in underserved areas. Virginia Business magazine has included Fairchild in its “Top 25: People to Watch” feature, and both CNN/Fortune and Poets&Quants have named him one of the best business school professors in the world. Fairchild has received the UVA Public Service Award for Faculty for teaching business courses to prison inmates.

Fairchild has received a number of teaching excellence awards at Darden, including recognition as an outstanding faculty member. One graduate we interviewed called Fairchild’s classes “exhilarating” and noted that he reviews his students’ resumes and can tie someone’s background to the topic of the day. She added that he is “scarily good” at cold calls and “won’t let go until he has dug all of the facts out of you.”

For more information about Darden and 16 other top-ranked MBA schools, check out our free mbaMission Insider’s Guides.

Do you want to make a career pivot but are not sure how to approach it? Career switching is possible, even in tighter job markets, but your success will depend on your ability to convince your target audience that you can add value to their organization. 

Here are five practical steps to make yourself a more compelling candidate and improve your chances of success when switching careers:

1. Become an “insider.” Read extensively about the industry you are interested in, learning about your target company’s position in the market and the products and services it offers. Develop an opinion on key trends and players. Gain an understanding of the skills and areas of knowledge required for the job and the hiring process.
2. Think broadly about the relevance of your background. Identify any potential connection to your target area of interest. For example, if you are interested in consumer products, maybe you have operating or investing experience in the consumer industry. Or perhaps you work in an adjacent industry, interact with a key industry vendor, or are just a devoted customer of the company and admire its business model.
3. Build new technical skills or acquire hands-on experience.Volunteer for assignments outside your core responsibilities at work. Take online certification classes. For example, if you want to become an investment banker, learn financial modeling from Wall Street Prep.
4. Present your interest in a persuasive way. Think about the “why”—what appeals to you about this role or industry, and in what ways are you qualified for it? Hook your listener quickly; clearly convey how you could contribute to the role. Read our Tell Me About Yourself blog post for more tips.
5. Cultivate new relationships.Invest heavily in networking to confirm your interest in the company or industry, gather information on the recruiting process, and learn the requirements for the role.  

With all of this, remember to set realistic goals. Career switches often happen in baby steps. Consider shifting to a new industry, function, or location, but not all three at the same time.

We wish you much success—stay positive, diligent, and persistent. You might receive a lot of rejections before you achieve your goal, but take the opportunity to learn from each of them. They will make you an even better candidate.

Many MBA applicants—such as male investment bankers and Indian software engineers—worry that they are overrepresented in the candidate pool. Applicants cannot change their work histories, of course, but they can change the way they introduce themselves to the admissions committee. Consider the following examples:

Example 1: “As an investment banker, I…”

Example 2: “Managing a team to code a new software product for ABC Corp., I…”

In these brief examples, the candidates blatantly introduce the very overrepresentation they would like to minimize. Many applicants feel they must start their essays by presenting their titles or company names, but this approach can immediately make the reader pause and think, “Here we go again.”

Overrepresented business school candidates should therefore consider the opening lines of their essays especially carefully. Rather than stating the obvious, an applicant might instead immerse the reader in a situation or present a special aspect of their position.

Example 1 (launching into a story): “At 5:30 p.m., I could rest easy. The deadline for all other offers had passed. At that point, I knew…”

Example 2 (stand out): “While managing a multinational team, half in Silicon Valley and half in Pakistan, I…”

In the first example here, the banker candidate avoids drab self-introduction and instead plunges the reader into the midst of a mystery that is playing out. In the second example, the software engineer candidate is introduced not as a “coder” but as a multinational manager. Of course, every applicant’s situation is different, but with some effort, your story can be told in a way that avoids the pitfalls of overrepresentation.

Watch this video for even more tips for overrepresented MBA applicants:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tJ5D8D_PpE]

Many MBA applicants feel that they are purchasing a brand when they choose a business school. However, the educational experience you will have is what is crucial to your future, and no one will affect your education more than your professors. Today, we focus on Adam Brandenburger from New York University’s (NYU’s) Leonard N. Stern School of Business.

An expert on game theory and its practical application to business strategy, Adam Brandenburger was voted the NYU Stern MBA Professor of the Year in 2006, and in 2008 he received an NYU Excellence in Teaching award in recognition of his teaching and course development work. From 2011–2014, he served as vice dean for innovation at NYU Stern, and he is now the J.P. Valles Professor at the school. His latest book—called The Language of Game Theory: Putting Epistemics into the Mathematics of Games (World Scientific, 2014)—contains eight papers coauthored by Brandenburger and his colleagues over a period of 25 years.

Students with whom mbaMission spoke reported being consistently impressed by his capacity to make the complex simple in the classroom, stating that Brandenburger is able to take the “complicated, theoretical and intangible” world of game theory and make it “easy to understand and practical.” Brandenburger holds additional appointments at NYU as global network professor, distinguished professor at the Tandon School of Engineering, and faculty director of the university’s Shanghai Program on Creativity and Innovation.

For more information about NYU Stern and 16 other top-ranked business schools, check out our mbaMission Insider’s Guides.