On a less serious note, Cole Entress explains the proper use of an idiomatic expression beloved by Michael Scott.
That's what she said
October 9th, 2009The GMAT or the GRE?
October 7th, 2009Jose Ferreira is the Founder and CEO of Knewton.
You may have heard that some business schools* have started accepting GRE scores in place of GMAT scores. And you may be thinking: “Awesome! I hear the GRE is easier. I’m taking that!”
After all—there’s no Data Sufficiency on the GRE. Sounds great, right?
The problem is: There’s no Data Sufficiency on the GRE.
The GMAT has been designed and perfected for business school students. GMAT questions mirror the tasks you will perform every day in business school. Reading Comprehension—because you’ll be reading 50 -100 pages in case studies every day. And Data Sufficiency—because you’ll be skimming each case’s exhibits and financials to determine which numbers are key to cracking the case and which are irrelevant. What about Critical Reasoning? Well, every day in class you will comment on other students’ arguments. And they will comment on yours, sometimes in pretty snarky ways. So you need some facility in arguments, if only to protect yourself from that loudmouth ex-banker in the Skydeck.
In fact, the GMAT is a great test. By that I don’t mean that it will bring peace to the world, or spiritual enlightenment, or that a good time will be had by all. I mean it’s extremely well-constructed, with very high scoring consistency. In short, the GMAT does an excellent job of testing the skills you need to excel in business school.
In contrast, the GRE General Test is, well, general. It is designed to provide a sense of the fitness of a student for graduate-level work, whether one is interested in pursuing a PhD in English or a Masters in Psych. But the aptitudes needed to succeed in one discipline are very different from those of other disciplines, and no single test can measure them all well. Success in business, and success in business school, requires very specific skills that the GRE measures poorly, and the GMAT measures very well.
My September 2009 LSAT Experience
October 5th, 2009
From Knewton student, Garrett Gunchick
I must admit, the September 09 LSAT was not as scary as I made it out to be in my head. I felt confident in my preparation, and decided to go in with success in mind. None of the sections caught me off guard, and I even thought the RC was a little easier than it was on previous PrepTests I had taken. The LR was about average, with nothing sticking out in my mind as something I hadn’t seen before. The Logic Games were all pretty simple, except for the last game, which turned my brain into jello — luckily it was the last section I had to take.
The test center I took the test at is my own college, and I have spent many hours in the room I took the LSAT in so I felt comfortable there. I also knew that they keep that room like -30 below, so I layered up. I felt really sorry for people who didn’t know better and showed up in shorts and t-shirts. Nothing unusual happened, and time flew by; 5 hours passed in what seemed like just an hour or so. I’m a good standardized test-taker, so I wasn’t nervous per se — apprehensive would be a good adjective.
As I write this, though I don’t get my score for another couple weeks, I still feel confident I did well and hit my goal score.
Raising your MBA IQ
October 2nd, 2009If the letters WTO make you blurt out other short clusters that begin with “W” like Who? and What?, you should probably take some time to learn at least the basics about the World Trade Organization. That’s because regardless of your political views—whether you think it’s the most progressive piece of foreign policy since the Marshall Plan, or that it’s the dreaded end to American isolationism—it helps to know a little something about the WTO before stepping on to B-school campus.
We recommend bulking up your MBA IQ in this and other ways. We therefore recommend the book MBA IQ, which offers highly compressed summaries of many key topics you’ll encounter in business school.
The book is written by Devi Vallabhaneni, an HBS grad and the President & CEO of the Association of Professionals in Business Management.
Here’s a sample:
#10: World Trade Organization
Trade liberalization refers to the efforts of governments to reduce tariffs and nontariff barriers to trade.
In 1995, the Geneva-based World Trade Organization (WTO) was created to administer the rules and to assist in settling trade disputes between its member nations. All WTO nations are entitled to normal trade relations with one another. This is referred to as Most Favored Nation (MFN) trading status. This means that a member country must charge the same tariff on imported goods as, and not a higher one than, that charged on the same goods coming from other WTO member countries. Trade liberalization has led to increased economic development and an improved quality of life around the world.
