April 30th, 2010 | 
Author: 
Welcome back to Baseball Month in the GMAT Tip of the Week space, where we sincerely apologize to Bostonians for what we’re about to do:
Bill Buckner.
Red Sox Nation, we hate to even bring that up, but you stand to gain the most out of anyone from the reference. It’s said that you can learn more from a second of pain than from a day of glory. Read on, and let the story of Bill Buckner help you improve on the GMAT.
If you were to chronologically read the story of Bill Buckner’s career, you’d be impressed. He won a National League batting title in 1980 and played in the All-Star game in 1981. He ended his career with over 2,700 hits in a sport for which 3,000 hits grants one immediate immortality. Bill Buckner was a great baseball player, better than 99% of players who ever lived. Yet bloggers feel compelled to apologize to fans of his Boston Red Sox some 20 years after he retired simply for mentioning his name. Why?
Buckner took his eye off the ball.
In Game Six of the 1986 World Series, Buckner stooped to the dirt to field what looked like a routine ground ball, but was much, much more than that. Had Buckner cleanly fielded that grounder, the Red Sox could have won their first World Series in nearly a century, and each member of the team would be a lifetime legend in Boston with a name synonymous with Paul Revere’s. Instead, Buckner’s name stands on its own, living in infamy in New England. Bill Buckners is, unfairly, an icon of failure. Why? Buckner took his eye off the ball.
Baseball players take infield practice nearly every day, and Buckner probably fielded an infield grounder like that a few thousand times that summer. Alas, he made a simple mistake on the grandest of all stages, and it’s been his legacy. Reasonable Red Sox fans will admit that the gaffe wasn’t entirely Buckner’s fault, as the Sox had given up multiple runs earlier in the inning and closer Bob Stanley had already let in the tying run with a wild pitch. They may also admit that, even had Buckner cleanly made the play, an extra-innings game on the road was little better than a 50-50 proposition. But Buckner’s mistake is the one that remains the iconic moment of that Series, and one of the more iconic moments in all of sports.
Buckner has more than served his penance for a simple mistake, but that mistake can also teach you a valuable lesson as you prepare for the GMAT. Much like Buckner, you can do almost everything right and still suffer a thoroughly negative consequence for one mistake. In fact, on most GMAT questions, there are multiple opportunities for you to do so. So, to avoid a Bucknerian mistake, be sure to work methodically and carefully:
1) Avoid skipping mathematical steps. As time is a factor, you may be tempted to rush through calculations, but that extra second to set up the intermediate step between calculations could be pivotal.
2) Know what your variables represent. GMAT questions often make it easy to solve for one variable, while another is the correct answer choice. If you solve for the fact that x = 35 miles, but the question seeks the number of gallons of gasoline used, and not the distance, you have one more step to your calculation, but 35 is likely an answer choice.
3) Know your own blind spots. Over the course of your education, you’ve built bad habits or misconceptions — you may see 25^2 as 225 (it’s not: 15^2 is 225 and 25^2 is 625); you might forget about the initial value when asked for a percent increase (125 increased by 20% is 150, not 25 (that’s 20% of 125, not 20% added to 125)); you might forget to distribute negative signs in multiplication… Whatever your blind spots, be aware of them and look for them on test day so that you can fix those mistakes.
4) Read key words carefully. Many a GMAT question has been answered incorrectly because someone overlooked (or inferred) a word like “only” or “sometimes” — words that limit a premise or a conclusion. Make special note of those words, as they’re almost always (“always” being another of those words) game-changers.
Most importantly, don’t let yourself make Bucknerian, loss-of-concentration mistakes on the test. Like Buckner, you’ve likely worked incredibly hard and are thusly quite deserving of great success. Perhaps the reason that Buckner’s mistake resonates so much more so than those of his teammates is that his error could be — again, perhaps undeservedly — considered “careless,” a quality that comes with a negative connotation. In your case, the worst possible way to lose points is through similar carelessness, so be diligent in your quest to be given credit for the questions that you do know how to answer correctly. Keep your eye on the proverbial ball, and become a legend in Boston (or wherever you choose to go to school).
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People respond to incentives. Such is the main takeaway from the bestselling book Freakonomics (and its soon-to-premiere documentary and follow-up book SuperFreakonomics), and a major competitive advantage worth embracing as you plan your MBA applications. Admissions committees are people, too, and they respond to incentives. To become a better MBA applicant, you should better understand the incentive structure for MBA admissions committees, and give them what they want.
MBA programs are ranked among multiple dimensions, among the most popular:
1) GMAT Score
There’s no way around it: your GMAT score is a significant component of your application, as it matters greatly to MBA programs. Even independent of the fact the GMAT is a quite valid measure of your candidacy, it’s a major factor for the schools even as a standalone number. In our ever-quantitative society – the very fact that there are numerical business school rankings should prove this point – numbers can instantly create an image of success, and a school with a 700+ average GMAT score is going to look quite a bit more prestigious than one with something in the 600s.
In the rankings and perception of b-schools, a high average GMAT score is the best way for a school to indicate that it is selective, and has a top-notch student body. Schools simply have to care about how that number looks to the rankings services, to prospective applicants, and to corporate recruiters. Accordingly, you’re well served to post a score that is at or above the average score of your target schools. If you’re below that average, the school has to want you enough to pull down that average a bit by taking you; if you’re above, you get to be that “balancing score” for someone else, which is a huge advantage. Just being “in the range” is a tricky proposition.
2) Employment rates
People go to business school to get jobs and increase their salaries. As much as applicants and schools talk about leadership, teamwork, global economies and sustainable enterprise, everyone knows that the primary objective of MBA students is to further their careers with a higher-paying job when they finish than they had when they started. Schools, in turn, know that they will be judged on their ability to provide those jobs, and necessarily have to concern themselves with statistics such as:
- % employed after graduation
- average starting salary
Because schools know that you’ll consider these factors when you determine where to apply, they have a vested interest in making those numbers as high as possible. And what better way to do that than to “stack the deck” with students who are quite likely to find jobs?
In your application, you need to demonstrate “employability,” or your ability to find a job:
- Show that you’ve been valued at previous jobs by listing promotions and commendations and by including positive letters of recommendations from supervisors
- Demonstrate your ability to succeed in an interview with engaging essays and a strong interview with the school
- “Stand out” somehow by being interesting; many corporate interviewers employ a variation of the “airport test” when they choose between qualified candidates: “If I were on a project with this person and we were stranded in an airport with a canceled flight, would I enjoy passing the time with him?” Interviewers typically choose applicants with whom they’ll work regularly, and want to surround themselves with engaging, as well as talented, people, so give the schools an indication that you’ll be a desirable coworker.
3) Yield Percentage
If the average GMAT score tells the world how selective a school is in choosing candidates, the yield percentage – the percentage of admitted students who ultimately matriculate – indicates how selective students view the school. A high yield percentage – something nearing 90% – shows that the school is a no-brainer to attend: if you get in, you go. A lower yield percentage – say, in the 30s – shows that many students use the school as a backup plan, but don’t view it as a destination. “I’d love to go to Harvard, but I’ll probably just end up at ___________.”
No school wants to be seen as that “probably just end up at” fallback option, so admissions committees will search your application for indicators that you have specific interest in their MBA and not just any MBA. Have you visited campus? Do you list specific clubs/classes/professors/opportunities as reasons that you’re excited about the program? Do the schools philosophies, emphases, and culture fit with your application story?
If the school can’t find reasons that you would choose it, it will have a hard time choosing you, no matter how excellent you may be as an applicant. Your admission may just prove to be too much of a risk, as, perhaps, is your lack of perceived enthusiasm. B-school moves fast; if you don’t have a plan of attack for getting involved in organizations, taking specific classes, and soaking up the experience, you won’t likely get everything out of the program that your classmates will. Which also leads to…
4) Alumni Involvement
Business schools are, in many ways, like fraternities. Once you’re in, you’re family, and have access to a vast alumni network of potential employers, business partners, investors, etc. Schools know that applicants want to have access to successful, wide-reaching alumni bases, and to that end set up active alumni clubs and events around the world. But an alumni base is only as active and successful as the alumni themselves, and so schools like to see indications in your application that you have enthusiasm for what the school has to offer, and a history of involvement in organizations and activities that will translate to involvement in the alumni community.
As alumni bases are made up of people, so are admissions committees, and people respond to incentives. If you understand these incentives of the people in the admissions committees, you can better anticipate the response that you want — you’re accepted!
For more MBA admissions advice, give us a call at (800) 925-7737 and speak with a Veritas Prep admissions expert. And, be sure to subscribe to this blog and follow us on Twitter!
If you’re watching the Winter Olympics, you’re likely amazed at the body control of moguls skiers, the grace of figure skaters, and the creativity of aerial skiers and snowboarders. You might also, however, find yourself becoming particularly critical of those around you, a byproduct of listening to Olympic announcers describing the mistakes made by these all-world athletes:
She didn’t stick the landing; unfortunately, that’s going to be a deduction.
His knees came apart on that turn…every time you do that, that’s a deduction.
With the judged sports, the unfortunate nature of the elite level of competition is that the scoring system seems to assume perfection, and deduct from there, instead of rewarding excellence at each turn. In some cases, the system just isn’t set up to reward that excellence — Jonny Moseley’s infamous “Dinner Roll” maneuver in the Olympic mogul skiing competition was too new and too unique to fit the scoring system, and he lost the 2002 gold medal as a result, even though most competitors would agree that his run was the most impressive of all.
The GMAT, in a lot of ways, is scored similarly: questions are structured so that you receive “deductions” in the form of incorrect answers for making minor errors. You can perform admirably on a difficult question, but if your answer contains one of those small mistakes, you’ll be punished for it.
Because of this, in your waning days of GMAT preparation before the exam, you should put an emphasis on minimizing those “deductions” by practicing those little things that tend to give you trouble. With a few days before your exam, you’re more likely to improve your score by perfecting the things that you do well than you are by adding new tricks to your repertoire. Track your common mistakes, and you’ll likely find that you often:
- Answer the wrong question, solving for a value that is slightly different from what the question asks for
- Make assumptions regarding a number (say, that it’s an integer, or that it’s positive) and thinking that you have more information on a Data Sufficiency problem than you really do have
- Misread the conclusion of a Critical Reasoning question and choose an answer that strengthens your alternate conclusion, but not the official one
- Set up equations incorrectly when working quickly
If you catch yourself making these, or other mistakes, frequently, make a note to slow down in those situations to “stick the landing” and avoid the deductions that the GMAT will take from you if you’re not careful.
For more GMAT prep tips and resources, give us a call at (800) 925-7737. And, be sure to follow us on Twitter
What do Eli Whitney and Honore le Blanc have in common? And what does their commonality have to do with your impending GMAT exam?
Le Blanc is widely credited with having invented the concept of standardized parts in manufacturing. A gunsmith in the 1700s, his idea was to standardize each component of a gun, so that when one part broke, it could easily be replaced by another instead of needing to be individually repaired by a blacksmith or replaced by another gun entirely.
His idea didn’t make it too far in France, where other gunsmiths and blacksmiths wholeheartedly opposed this threat to their business models, but the notion of standardization crossed the Atlantic, and with the support of Thomas Jefferson, Eli Whitney incorporated the idea of standardized parts in to his manufacturing. Standardized manufacturing revolutionized industry, and, perhaps just as importantly, made its way in to the realm of academic assessment with the eventual dawn of the “standardized test.”
The driving force behind the standardized test is the concept that a series of seemingly-unique questions written to be nearly identical in difficulty and skill assessment can uniformly assess a student’s academic abilities. In order to work, these questions need to appear unique to the test-taker, but be nearly identical to the test-maker. Knowing this can be a huge advantage to you as you study. How can you use your knowledge of Le Blanc, Whitney, and Jefferson to your GMAT advantage?
Knowing that the GMAT is committed to testing “standardized components”, you can avoid a frequent Sentence Correction mistake. Many students both intensively study and excruciatingly debate obscure idioms. While the GMAT will certainly use appropriate idioms in its correct answer choices, such idioms are difficult to fit within the “standardized components” framework of a standardized test. Consider the sentences:
At the time of the Civil War, more American soldiers died than during any other period in U.S. history.
vs.
During the time of the Civil War, more American soldiers died than during any other period in U.S. history.
Many might consider the difference in the sentences – “At the time of” vs. “During” – to be an idiomatic choice, but in actuality it fits the GMAT’s standardization well:
1) The GMAT requires that, when items are compared, they must be compared in equivalent form. Each sentence includes the phrase “…during any other period…”, meaning that we need to compare durations of time, and not a single snapshot of time to a duration. This suggests that the second, “during”, is correct.
2) The GMAT also tests logic moreso than it does “idioms”, and the first sentence is illogical. It suggests that, at one time (THE time of the Civil War), a large number of soldiers died. Because the war took place over a period of time, the phrase “at the time of” is illogical, as the action would have needed to take place over the duration of the war. Again, the second statement is correct.
As you study for the GMAT, the more that you can look for broader-scope reasons that answers are correct or incorrect, the better off you’ll be. The test has to assess your ability using standardized components – comparisons, the logic of statments – and, by nature, can’t afford to rely on solutions that are simply “idiomatic.” As Whitney and LeBlanc demonstrated, idiomatic solutions are too primitive to be largely useful in the new wave of industry.
For more GMAT prep tips and resources, give us a call at (800) 925-7737. And, be sure to subscribe to this blog and follow us on Twitter!
It seems so simple, but Jeopardy! has built an empire out of giving “answers” as clues and requiring its contestants to provide the questions. This tiny twist on traditional trivia has created a mass following, which has kept the show as a mainstay of entertainment culture for nearly 50 years. Just mention Jeopardy! in social situations and nearly everyone will have an opinion, either regarding their own strategy, or their household rules for watching:
“My roommates and I have a rule that we’re not allowed to say anything until Alex has finished the question.”
“I’m actually pretty good at predicting the $200 question just based on the category, before Alex even reads anything.”
“Even if I don’t know much about the topic, usually they give you enough of a clue with the category and something in the answer that I can get the question.”
That last quote (and, in large part, the second quote, as well) is one that you may have experienced yourself, and an ideology that you can certainly translate to success on the GMAT. Often times on the GMAT, the answer choice provides you a valuable clue for how you can approach the question.
Consider geometry problem that includes the answer choices:
A) 2
B) 2√3
C) 3
D) 3√3
E) 4
Even without looking at the question itself, you have some clues as to what may appear. The square root of 3 is part of the 30-60-90 right triangle ratio, and also a number that appears when calculating the area of an equilateral triangle (which can be bisected in to two 30-60-90 triangles). On this question, because the answer choices feature the square root of 3, if you are unsure of how to approach the question, one logical step is to try to identify a potential equilateral or 30-60-90 triangle, as it’s quite likely that the square root of 3 will be derived from one of those triangles.
Geometry questions often feature these types of clues in the answer choices — pi implies that you’ll need to use a circle; the square root of 2 often appears in conjunction with isosceles right triangles (45-45-90) and squares (the diagonals of which are the hypotenuses of isosceles right triangles). Other questions provide clues, as well; if the answer choices are spread far apart in number, you can likely estimate. If the answer choices provide simple “plug-ins,” like 0 or 1, you can use them to plug back in to the problem and determine how the equation will react.
Most importantly, know that, like with Jeopardy!, the GMAT embeds subtle clues in its answers to help you with the questions. Learn to use them to your advantage, and you can reduce your workload and increase your score.
For more GMAT prep tips and resources, give us a call at (800) 925-7737. And, be sure to follow us on Twitter!
