I have received series of emails from people asking for advice on choosing a business school. So, I decided to use this medium to answer one of the questions raised. If you are considering pursuing an MBA programme, then read on. Going for an MBA programme might mean sacrificing your present salary throughout the period you would be in school. It may mean you having to fall back only on your savings or investment to meet the financial demand that an MBA programme would place on you. Do you think you have all it takes? Do you have the strength to put in the required sacrifice?

Studying for an MBA is one sort of sacrifice and the weight may be heavy. The truth is that some of the people you are leaving behind at work might have moved up the career ladder before you finish. The result? They would be earning more money than they were earning when you left them and you might not be able to measure up in the immediate. You need to sit down and decide if it is worth it trading your present salary and briefcase for a backpack and student loans?

The thought of going back to school conjures up serene campuses, summer vacations, and a laid-back lifestyle. After several years of 60-hour workweeks, heading back to class might sound like a much-needed two-year break. And, hey, it seems MBA grads can command six-figure salaries. What’s not to like? Should you go for it? Only you can decide that and your dreams / goals should form the basis of your decision. Consider the following questions and be sincere in your answers.

Where Do You Want to Be in Three / Five Years? The first step in deciding whether or not to strap on your backpack and head back to school is to figure out what you want to get out of an MBA program. Business school can mean a heavy investment in time and money — two years for most full-time programs, give or take a year for executive MBAs and part-time students. Ask yourself first how business school will help you meet your goals, then consider what you’ll be bringing to the mix.

Do You Need an MBA to Get There? It’s important to investigate the skills needed for the particular type of position you want. You may be surprised to find out that while an MBA may be an important factor in fields like investment banking and consulting, it would not automatically guarantee you an interview in some industries. But if you’re looking to move to a completely different career, an MBA can definitely facilitate the switch.

Having considered the two questions raised above, do you still feel you need that MBA? Does it worth it to trade your present salary to achieve your goal? If you are yet to answer the tqo questions, go over them again and ensure that you are sincere. This is about your life and only you alone understand that dreams you have. Weigh your options and go for IT if it would move you towards your goals. Decide today to follow your passion.

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Technorati Tags: money, student loans, MBA, investment, business school, goal

I took the GMAT examination in October 2005 and scored a 650 (90th Percentile). This is not a bad score considering the fact that I studied for the GMAT without the assistance of an expensive test prep class over the course of 21 days. I submited my applications to 3 top Business Schools without the help of any admission consultant. If you are like me that may not be able to afford the fees of admission consultant, I have put up my experience together online at MBAXPLOIT.

I believe that this will serve as a study guide for future GMAT test takers, MBA applicants and MBAs. You do not need to purchase expensive test prep services to do well on the GMAT nor do u need to secure the help of a MBA admission consultant to get admission to your DREAM school!

On this blog, you will find:

• A repository of useful articles for Business School applicants. The articles are aimed to help you with all aspects of starting your business school application to getting MBA admission.
• A collection of relevant website links and resources about Business School Application. You look through these resources right away or bookmark them for future references.
• Fresh content is added regularly which will include interviews with fellow MBAs, current & future MBA applicants. You will also get how-to instructional articles with current hot topics like deciding on which MBA is right for you, preparing for your GMAT examination and to completing your MBA application.

How to use this site
I shared my experience and those of others on the journey to an MBA and life after. Using this website, you would be able to model your study schedule. Feel free to use this website in any capacity that suits your study needs. Also, be sure to explore the links to other resources that I would be providing on this website – they were very helpful in my MBA application.

Meanwhile, I am recommending that you start with the following write-ups

• Do you need an MBA?
• Starting your MBA journey?
• Starting Your MBA journey II
• Recommended Books

All the best in your MBA applications.

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Technorati Tags: MBA, GMAT, MBA applicants, MBA admission consultant

So, what’s next? The thought of so many young people who are interested in getting an MBA came to mind? I wonder what will happen if these set of people have access to relevant and up-to-date information. I, therefore, set out to share my business school application experience with future MBA applicants. Hence, the reason behind MBAXPLOIT.

Mbaxploit.com will be a study guide for future GMAT test takers, MBA applicants and MBAs. One thing I am sure of is the fact that you do not need to purchase expensive test prep services to do well on the GMAT nor do u need to secure the help of a MBA admission consultant to get admission to your DREAM school! So, if you are considering going for your MBA or you have started the process, then you need to bookmark mbaxploit.com.

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Technorati Tags: MBA, GMAT, business school, MBA applicants

Preparation time: This varies from person to person. If you can spend lot of time on preparation then 2 months should be sufficient. Else if you don’t leave your office till late in the evening like I do, 3-4 months should suffice. It is a good idea to start earlier and have look at the questions, lessons and GMAT structure and gradually pick up steam to reach your peak on the GMAT day.

Material- Official Guide (OG) is a must combined with either Kaplan or Princeton. I used OG (for the quantitative section) and Kaplan (for Verbal). You can use the lessons and strategies from Kaplan and practice OG questions. I used Kaplan and the lessons were really helpful

By section
Quantitative:“ The quantitative skills tested on GMAT are pretty basic. Most of the Math required is already taught in school curriculum and requires simple formulas. Solve each question and then look at the answers. Books do recommend you to use elimination and other techniques to save time. However, I think anyone from India or engineering background should be able to solve each and every problem with time to spare. If you are reasonably good in Math, only place you can lose points is data sufficiency. Sometimes you see a question, assume something and jump to conclusion. You can go wrong there. For example, there might be 2 linear equations and you have been asked if to find value of one variable. It might seem that you can use both equations to get a unique solution but if you look carefully, both equations might reduce to similar forms.

If you not that strong quantitatively, start your preparation early and read all reference material on math once or twice then practice lots of questions from OG. Lessons are not as important as Math reference if you slightly weaker in this section. If you get your basics right you can easily do well in this section.

Verbal:“ I had a notion that your verbal score is totally based on verbal skills that you have developed over the years and it is not possible to improve it significantly. By the time I wrote GMAT I knew this was not the case. GMAT verbal follows specific patterns and answers are arrived at following certain rules. Of course your score depends on your verbal abilities but you can improve them significantly. That is where I missed out.

First thing is to make sure that you take the lessons for each of the 3 sub-sections. Kaplan lessons are great. Take them more than once till you remember all the points mentioned on the lessons.

Sentence correction:“ From lessons you will find that there are only few variations of grammatical mistakes tested on the GMAT. Lessons takes you through each of them and there tells you how to spot them. Keep that in mind and apply them without exception while practicing questions. Make sure to practice enough, such that spotting errors comes naturally. Finding the correct answer from here on should not be difficult.

Reading Comprehension:“ Again, lessons help a lot. When you read that passage make sure to think critically and question what’s the point, what does the author want to convey. This way you would understand what the author is trying to Imply and get the context and scope. Most RC questions on GMAT are based on these. Also for some questions, wrong answer choice might look more in scope and context of the actual passage i.e. by directly referring material in the passage. If you question these choices by “Is this really what author wanted to convey?” you can find flaws in these choices.

Critical reasoning:“ For this read the question before the text so that you know what you are looking for. You need to concentrate hard and spend some time on these questions.

Overall, the 3 most important factors that determine your final score are “ Focus, hard work and self-belief.

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Technorati Tags: GMAT