790 GMAT (q50, v51)

[TwinnSplitter]

Thanks, everyone, for the congratulations. I am really excited to be attending Stanford next fall, and hopefully will see some people from this forum there too

Erin, like the other poster who got into the GSB, I will definitely make a strong effort to come meet you and personally thank you once I move out to Palo Alto.

[dileepsh]

Heartiest Congratulations Twinn.

[Vaithy]

I am simply amazed at you...

[rohit_inamdar]

Great Score
Congrates

[FiF for GMAT]

Hi TWinn,

regarding LSAT, I have seen the sample questions and they are very effective. I scored 630, I scored 51%ile in Verbal, and I am very selective about schools. So, might have to retake it. It would my third time (the first two were taken in quick succession).

I agree with you that LSAT is good. If I purchase the book, how much time does a person take to get through the book.

THanks

[TwinnSplitter]

Hi FiF for GMAT,

For critical reasoning, there's 2 sections per test, 10 sections per book, about 25 questions per section, for a total of 500 questions. So, if you take around 2-4 minutes per question (including time to review the correct answers), that totals to about 25 hours to do every critical reasoning question in the book.

If you're doing reading comprehension as well, there's 1 section per test, and you should be a little more strict on yourself in terms of timing for reading comprehension, so figure about 10 hours to do all the reading comprehension sections in the book.

Of course, for both types of questions you should be looser on timing in the beginning, to make sure you've got the concepts down. Then, once you feel that you've got a solid grasp of the concepts, start tightening down the time until you eventually get to the LSAT's prescribed 35 minutes per section.

[FiF for GMAT]

Thanks and What should be the accuracy rate to get above 80%ile in Verbal GMAT. Since I might retake the test, are you sure that if I understand every word of critical reasoning and reading comprehension in the LSAT book my reasoning and reading power will be sharpened.

Congrats for getting into Stanford, great school.

Fif

[CTG1983]

Congrats Boss. As far as I know, u don't have any work experience. Did they still let u get in? How did u address the work experience issue? por favor, El Señor help! Thanx.

[haddy74]

Originally Posted by TwinnSplitter

hey everyone just wanted to post a little update on what's been going on with me. I just got into Stanford (my top choice since I plan to work in CA in the long run), so it looks like I'll be heading back to California next fall. I have never been so elated in my life! Also, I still check back on this forum occassionally, so if anybody has any questions about the GMAT, the application process, or anything else, fire away!

Good luck to everybody!

wow...great news......stanford is such a big name that there is no need to say anything else.........excellent job........I never contacted you before but i would like to tell you that your debriefing had a tremendous effect on me in terms of motivation. It also helped me so mcuh in setting up a startegy for my GMAT preparation. By the way I am also so happy to see a University of Chicago student doing so well. I was also at University of Chicago for my grauate school in ealry 2001. I still miss hyde park so much.Good luck with every thing in your life.

[TwinnSplitter]

Hi CTG,

First of all, congrats on the great score! As far as how I addressed the lack of work experience, there were two main aspects of my efforts to convince them to accept me without work experience:

1. Convincing them that my own experiences had the equivalent effect on me as would traditional work experience. Because I didn't do a traditional internship at a large corporation, but rather did one at a much smaller firm, I was able to get assigned to projects with much greater responsibility than is usual for an intern. I felt that this, combined with the challenges I faced in my personal life and the leadership positions I took in extracurriculars, gave me a substantial amount of indirect experience. Thus, I tried (and apparently succeeded) to convince the AdCom that while I lacked formal work experience, my part-time/informal experience allowed me to mature and grow to such an extent that I would not be at a disadvantage to those with full-time work experience, and that I would be able to contribute just as much in the classroom.

2. Convincing them that my lack of experience would actually be an advantage in allowing me to contribute a unique perspective. In my essays, I argued that because people's work experience may have accustomed them to looking at problems a certain way, my lack of work experience would allow me to provide a perspective which was relatively unique, not coming from an expert in any particular field or industry but rather from somewhat of an outsider. While it certainly wouldn't be good to have an entire MBA program full of people with outsiders' perspectives, I argued that having a few of these would add to the discussion, providing more of a theoretical/outside-the-box view of things. However, I made sure to emphasize that I wouldn't only be theorizing, but would rather be making sure that my perspectives were grounded in the real-world by integrating the perspectives and knowledge that I gained from my classmates who had full-time experience. Thus, I argued, our class would have a good combination of real-world practicality and outside-the-box thinking, with my classmates giving me real-world perspective and me giving my classmates an outsiders' theoretical view of things. I also argued that, because I came from the Econ program at UChicago (perhaps the most theoretical program out there), but also had a reasonable amount of real-world experience (see the first part of this post), I was a good candidate to be the one who provided this theoretical/outside-the-box view of things while still keeping it grounded in the real world.


As an aside, I would highly recommend doing something that really makes you stand out from the crowd while also giving you leadership experience you can talk about. For example, I spent a summer as a surf guide on a Spanish-speaking island in Panama (even though I don't have a drop of Spanish blood in me), and I think that it really added to my application. It gave me an amount of leadership responsibility which is pretty tough to get when you're younger, it was very unique, and it showed that I was willing to explore and appreciated diverse cultures (something VERY important to AdComs).


One more thing I believe helped me get in was my academics. I've been fortunate enough to do very well in school and on the GMAT, and, being a college senior without full-time experience, these were crucial aspects of my application. However, for the more general population (i.e. those with work experience), I want to emphasize that the GMAT is NOT AS IMPORTANT AS YOU THINK. While there is always an additional benefit to a higher score, the marginal benefit of a 790 to a 750 is just that: marginal. Essentially, if you have a 730 or higher, don't worry about your score keeping you out, but rather focus on other more important aspects of your application. Exceptions to this rule: people without work experience, for whom academics become a more substantial portion of their application; people with poor undergrad GPAs, for whom a high GMAT can show that they can handle the work; people without much quantitative experience; and perhaps the ultra-competitive Indian IT pool, although a high GMAT won't be your differentiating factor (those come dime a dozen in this group)--your experiences, extracurriculars, and essay spin will be.


haddy,

I am very glad that I was able to help so much in your preparation for the GMAT. If there's anything that you (or anybody else) need, either in terms of GMAT prep or more generally admissions advice, let me know and I'll do my best to help out!

Good luck everyone!