vegetto75

Finally I've been admitted into Columbia MBA!! I applied to Sloan (dinged), Wharton (3rd round, Summer Waitlisted) and INSEAD (withdrawed, since I prefer Columbia). I'm really happy since CBS is my first choice (together with Wharton) and I thought I have few chances (applied the last day of the latest rounds!!) I have been visiting this great forum for almost one year (not very active, sorry), especially for GMAT preparation (730) and TOEFL (263), but also for admission advice (thanks David!) My advice for prospective applicants is that you have to put the most in the application proccess (which is certainly time-consuming). Be as active as you can, talk to many alumni, participate in forums like this, go to MBA fairs and believe in your own chances. In my case, it has been also very important "off-application support", That is, some friends of mine (Columbia alumni) directly e-mailed the Admissions Comittee spending some few good words about me (and believe me, it worked!) Please, feel free to make any question. Best of luck to all!!. Erin, please, keep doing such a good job!

Hi David, I have been recently invited for interview at Wharton (I am Round 3 applicant). I am wondering which are my chances of being finally admitted. Do you have an idea about the acceptance rate of Round 3 applicants who are invited for interview?? Thanks a lot for your advice through your posts in this forum

Hello David, I have some problems related to GPA conversion. I have studied in a country with different grading standards and I am afraid that if I directly converted my marks into a 4.0 scale one of my main strengths (academic record) could be seen as one of my weaknesses in the admission process (although I scored 730 on GMAT). In particular, I have obtained 7.7 (over 10) which directly converted into a 4.0 scale results in 3.1. This, in turn, may seem a low GPA. However I am within the top 5% of my college (which is one of the best of my country) My college also issues an official academic transcript based on the percentile achieved with respect to my class mates for each subject. If I used this transcript and calculate the average for all the subjects I would obtain a global grade of 85 (over 100). Could I use that average percentile to calculate the GPA equivalent? Should I explain that in the optional essay? Thank you very much for your advice

Bhf; I am not sure about the total number of hours I spent, about 2.5-3 h a day workable days and 6-7 h weekend (for the month before the exam). I finished [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] exercises (verbal) 10 days before the exam (although I had done several Kaplan verbal sets before). I spent two weekends taking full length exams. Regarding the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] exercises. I took SC in sets of 22 (25 min), CR in sets of 16 (25 min) and RC depending on the length of the the texts (around 1.15-1.3 min/question) I also got different results, specially in RC (the latest ones are easier) and in SC (although I improved considerably by practising). In CR I mantained an stable score (1 or 0 out of 16), except for the last test (failed 3). I had to work a bit harder on RC. So, I took several sets from VStudy_books (25-27 questions in 30 minutes). Hope this helps. Good luck! [

Sorry, I´ve pressed "ENTER". I continue ... DAYS BEFORE EXAM Relaxation is the key the days before!!! I think that this is by far the most important issue of the days before taking the GMAT. I recommend not doing any practice within the two or three (at least) days before the examination. You are not going to substantially improve your skills in two days!!. Take one day off wok (if possible) and try to relax as much as possible (I went to the cinema the evening before and I went for a short run the morning before the GMAT) AND THE EXAM!!! I had read a lot of stuff pointing out the GMAT was getting more and more difficult.... Well, that is NOT true.... or at least it was not in my experience QUANT I was really concentrated when I begun the Quant Section. I did not find any particularly difficult nor rare problem. Only one of probability (very easy) and one of combinations ( I had already done several ones very similar). However I did not manage my time properly and I finished 14 minutes before time... I knew I had failed two problems but .... impossible to come back. The positive point is that I had 20 minutes break (14+5). It really helped.... VERBAL Difficulty very similar to that of [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] and PowerPrep (easier than Kaplan) I had a very bad starting. Two SC questions. I wasn´t sure about the answers. Then, a short text about Native-Americans .... I did not understand most of the text(after the first reading). Dramatic situation!!!! Here is when you need to keep calm!!!. I read the text twice and finally understood it. Then, another RC (much easier). There was two more RC (also easier). CR were very similar to those of [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] (two bold questions) and SC comparable to [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] (remember that I am NON-NATIVE speaker).... Well, the key lesson is THAT YOU CAN SUCCEED IN EVERY QUESTION on the actual GMAT but you have to BE CONCENTRATED ON IT!!! Good luck,

Hello all!! Last week I took the GMAT and scored 730. Finally I did it!!! PREP MATERIAL Kaplan CD Official Guide: I did all the exercises of the verbal part (I am non-native speaker, so I had to work harder on this part). For the Quant section I dowloaded some material from the web (the same exercises contained in the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] but organized in several sets) Vstudy books: downloaded from the web. I only worked the verbal section of some of these tests PowerPrep full tests: As I had alredy done most of the [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] stuff I only did the first of the two tests. For me, this is the most similar to the actual GMAT test DAYS BEFORE THE EXAM

[w00t] Real GMAT: 730 (Q49, V40) 26 November PowerPrep: 760 (after doing all [tooltip=Official Guide]OG[/tooltip] exercises) Kaplan CAT: 640, 700, 660