lurkman

KillGmat, In addition to the link I mentioned above, I browsed through some of the feedback at this site (admissions interviews feedback) and found it useful: http://www.accepted.com/mba/interviews/search_results.asp?SourcePage=search.asp&School=137&AreaOfStudy=-1&LastXDays=9999&Age=-1&Score=122&Submit=Submit&bhcp=1 I'm sure you'll do very well. attitudewins, I read the recent McKinsey Quarterly article outlining the gains to be had by investing in energy efficiency--I assume that's the one you are referring to? lurkman

Gmater-1, I applied to the Evening MBA program at Ross which takes in applicants twice a year (Fall and Winter), each with its deadline. Multiple rounds of applications are for the full-time day program. At Ross, the evening and day programs have the same requirements, curriculum, recruiting, etc, and the same faculty teach both. (I am not interested in any full-time day program at this stage.) Good luck with your plans! mbawannabe, Ann Arbor to Detroit is about 45 miles, not 100. Metro Detroit has traditionally been the Mecca for mechanical (automotive) engineers but the auto industry is suffering from multiple wounds now. Layoffs and downsizing are ongoing and have evaporated tens of thousands of jobs in the area. (This month has been a bloodbath.) Ann Arbor is a college town--UM is probably the main employer. There are other companies: Thomson-Reuters, ADP, Qwest, etc. All the best to you. attitudewins, My plans are quite open. I am currently in Finance, but I am not necessarily looking for a Finance career. I would like to integrate the Finance experience with the MBA training and my previous engineering experience to plough some new area. I find renewable energy to be a very interesting and promising sector for the forseeable future. The PC revolution put a PC in every home. There may be potential now to put a solar power-plant in every house/building to make it increasingly self-sufficient and reverse some of the carbon ills. I need to educate myself more in this area. I think this generation has a great opportunity. Good luck with your ventures. lurkman

KillGmat, Check out this book, "How to get into top MBA Programs": Amazon.com: How to Get Into the Top MBA Programs: J.D., Richard Montauk: Books Though I did not read it cover to cover, I browsed a few sections of the book to get an idea of what some of the B-schools are reportedly looking for in their candidates. There are several sample essays (and analyses of essays) that give you a flavor of how application essays may be criticized, what about them may be wanting or agreeable. It was useful to browse, though I cannot say I found anything directly applicable to my situation. Good luck! I look forward to hearing about your success. lurkman

Enjoyed reading your debrief! Congratulations on your outstanding success, all the best in your applications. lurkman

Congratulations, you nailed the verbal! [clap] Good luck with the applications. lurkman

texas2904, Congratulations! Excellent score--most likely, you have a 750+ in you, and you had an off day. Good luck w ith your apps and beyond. lurkman

krovvidy, Thank you for your generous remarks and wishes. Based on the published class profile, conversations with current Ross students & alumni, I thought my application would be competitive. After the admissions interview, I thought my chances were good. And I'll take any luck I can get. :) russty, My prep was hurried and incomplete--I had about 4 weekends and as much as I could cram into the weekdays after work (which was okay on some days but very unproductive on others). I did OG-11 working backwards (i.e. starting with the most difficult questions in each question type). I did not finish OG-11; my estimate is I finished the last third, (maybe half in some sections) of OG-11. I took 6 practice tests: GMAT Prep 1 : 710 MGMAT : 650 GMAT Prep 2 : 710 (1 week before GMAT) PowerPrep 1 : 700 PowerPrep 2 : 720 GMAT Prep 2 : 700 (repeat, 3 days before GMAT) I read through the Manhattan SC guide once and did two of the GMAT sets (verbal & quant). I also participated in the TM Quant forums, which were thoroughly enjoyable. I browsed through some of the material I downloaded from here: Waxy's link: GMAT Materials TwinnSplitter's debrief (scroll down the thread): http://www.www.urch.com/forums/just-fini...t-q50-v51.html I did not have time to cover much of this material but I browsed and picked up whatever I could here and there. Good luck with your prep and test! mbawannabe, University of Michigan has campuses in Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint but the Ross B-School is in Ann Arbor. The UM degrees offered in Dearborn and Flint (including the business degrees) are completely different, and are not related to those offered by the Ann Arbor campus. All the best, lurkman

grems, Thank you for your wishes--I greatly appreciate them. Yes, I have replayed the last two or three minutes of my GMAT Quant section a thousand times in my head. I cannot explain why I was so absorbed in trying to solve the questions instead of guessing strategically to finish the section. But it could have been worse. So this is one of those things to be binned under "life lessons", and it's time to move on. Good luck in your upcoming test, and beyond, in your MBA and career. My best to all, lurkman

grems, All the best to you on test-day. OG-11 is a good source to get onself tuned into GMAT-representative questions just before the test. GMAT-PREP tests are also very close to the real thing. Though I am not preparing for GMAT anymore, occasionally, I browse through the Answer-explanations sections of OG-11. The SC & CR explanations are excellent. I wish I had studied them thoroughly, well before the test. During my prep, I only did the last third/half of the OG-11 questions and only glanced at the explanations for those questions I got wrong. Now I find that there is a lot to be learned from reading the answers/explanations even for those questions that one may get right. Assuming you have your timing strategy all worked out, OG-11 & GMAT Prep are the best sources to focus on in the last few days before the test. My two cents. Good luck! I look forward to reading your debrief. lurkman

Update: Found out this week that I am in at Michigan (Ross). This is the only program I applied to, so I'm glad about the result. On the other hand, this means I don't have a good excuse to re-take the GMAT, and that is, believe it or not, a secret disappointment. :hmm: GMAT was easily the most enjoyable aspect of the whole MBA application project. Two months after the event, I retain the feeling that I performed well below potential on the test. In contrast, I don't have any such feelings about the rest of the application. Due to various circumstances and time constraints, I was scrambling till the last minute, and wrote the last two application essays on the night before and on the day of the application deadline. I have no desire to rewrite or improve those essays. I'm glad they're done. But I would love to take the GMAT again! :) Best, lurkman

rawjosh, Congratulations on your success, wish you all the best in the journey ahead. :tup: lurkman

krovvidy, Congratulations! As others have said, your Quant ability is a winner! Though you are disappointed, 680 is not a bad score and you will be competitive with a good all-round application. However, I understand your disappointment: your sights are set higher and you certainly have the potential to achieve a much higher score. I have no doubt that you will achieve it. You can derive inspiration from ve_boss, who has set the example in this department by rebounding strongly with a 750 in his second attempt! :) On improving verbal, here are my two cents: From what I remember of my GPREP scores, you can get a 41 in Verbal even if you get about 10 or 11 wrong, i.e 30 or 31 of 41 correct, which means you should target at least a 75% accuracy across all question types (SC, CR, RC). If you get a 41 in Verbal and repeat your 50 in Quant performance, I expect your score will be 740 or 750. Of course, this assessment (of 75% accuracy = V41) may be influenced by the level of difficulty of the questions being thrown at you but you are in the 700 ballpark, so I don't expect the difficulty level you will encounter to be very different from your GPREP experience. Secondly, you may consider doing some of the GMAT sets (Verbal only) because they mimic the actual test: i.e. you are being timed as you wade through an assortment of SC, CR and RC question types; this is better than doing a string of 20 or 30 questions in SC or CR where you may be doing well because you are in the groove of doing only SC or CR questions for those 20 or 30 minutes. The downside to GMAT sets maybe the occasional errors you will encounter in the answers. Wish you all the best! lurkman

Absolutely, take it again. Your practice scores are consistently in the 700 ballpark. You have the goods. The 570 is probably an aberration. All the best, lurkman

larbgai, Congratulations! [clap] 730 is an excellent score and a well deserved reward for your focused effort to improve upon your original score of 580. Good going! :tup: All the best in your journey ahead. lurkman

ve_boss, It's a privilege to be the first to congratulate you. Very well done! :tup:[clap][clap]:tup: You've given me an idea. :)