GMAT: The first step to a graduate management degree.

Over the course of the next few days, I would be describing the steps involved in pursuing a graduate management degree, well at the least the steps that I took to grab an admit with 50% tuition waiver @ Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Please note that this is in retrospection and these must be considered as journal notes and is to be considered neither the _only_ way nor the _best_ way, but merely a way. However the mistakes that I have made must and should be avoided as much as possible!!

GMAT: The first frontier

The first step to a graduate management degree is the GMAT Test. The Graduate Management Aptitude Test is a computer adaptive standardized test. There are a lot of details explained various GMAT resources. To save redundancy in information, I will just link up to those resources in my list of links and utilize the space for giving my perspective/gyaan on how to tackle the GMAT and what are the mistakes that you don't want to do!

All in all, it took me 14 days of moderate preparation to take my GMAT. Now, that's not something that people advice to do. In fact, my own advice is in consensus with the mass that if you are aiming for a score of 750 and above (and yes, the GMAT score has some good results associated with it), please do consider investing at least 30+ days of rigorous and meticulous preparation. Unfortunately, my objective was to cross the 700 mark. Furthermore, I just did not have the time or energy to invest in preparing for GMAT as work took precedence.

Setting a target GMAT score!
Every school has their average GMAT score. It's important that we realize the GMAT score of the schools we want to apply to. Now, it goes without saying that schools are not going to reject you because you have an abnormally high GMAT score (as compared to their average/median). So, apart from the minimum score demanded by the college, make sure you can do your best.

The target GMAT score is dependent on many factors. It includes, your work experience, your international exposure, your GPA during your undergrad and many other factors. For e.g. the required GMAT score of a 10 year old industry veteran would be lower than the required GMAT score of a fresher off undergrad.

Resources for GMAT!
There are many resources available for preparation. The GMAT essentially tests 3 things -
1. Your quantitative analytical ability
2. Your verbal analytical ability
3. Your analytical writing ability

You would have noticed that the key term here is "analytical ability". There are tons of resources available that help you in your preparation, however the first thing to cracking the GMAT is that you need to improve your analytical ability. Once you are familiar with the various patterns, cracking the GMAT is a simple thing.

Now, make sure that while you go through these resources, you are concentrating on the larger picture of improving your analytical ability. GMAT question patterns are set and the way to crack it is to get to the mind of the person who set that question. What _are_ they trying to get me to understand.

Make sure you come back soon to my follow-up post containing links to some resources that I have gathered over the past year!