Happy New Year!!

And Merry Christmas! (sorry for the delay, but I couldn't post in the last few days!).

I hope everyone have a wonderful 2010!!

Coincidence??

Well... for the last few days I have been thinking about the two schools that admitted me: Kellogg and Chicago Booth.

When I thought about Chicago Booth, I recalled this post of mine: the MBA vs Cars comparison, and guess what I have written?! That I felt very identified with the Volvo, the Chicago Booth car!! Do you think is it just a mere coincidence??

MBAJourney 2 - MBA Adcoms 2

It's even.
I started with an overwhelming 2 - 0 in my favor, but last Friday, in a lapsus of 3 hours, it was a draw. I received 2 dings: Wharton and MIT!
(By the way, I couldn´t post because I had very limited conectivity during a trip I had to do the last couple of days).

It was kind of a bummer the MIT ding. I believed it was a good application, and having interviewed with Wharton, I had the feeling that I would have the chance to interview with MIT! However, it did not happen.

Anyway, I am very happy that Chicago Booth and Kellogg had admitted me! And I look forward to getting to know the schools even better to make a decision! Furthermore, don't forget about Tuck!!

In at Kellogg and Chicago!!!!

December 15th... It was D-Day for HBS and Stanford applicants, but also for me! In a few minutes, I was admitted into 2 awesome schools!!

Just wanted to let you know. I will write something in the next few days! But I'm VERY happy!!!!

Some tips on the goals essay

This is a post for R2 applicants! Or maybe, for next years applicants!
As I don't know the results of the universities yet, I rather not to give any advice based on my own essays. If I get admitted to some school, maybe I will post some tips and insights of how I adressed the essays.

In the mean time, I recommend you to read this post in the Beat the GMAT Blog, that I think it's great! It's from the founder of magoosh and makes a thorough analysis of his own goals essay for Berkeley!

What's the deal with the adcoms?

Well, this a complaint post! Yes... not everything is nice (besides the dings) in the MBA Application Process. I have my reasons to believe that AdComs are very evil!

In this week, I received 3 e-mails. One from MIT Sloan, one from Chicago Booth, and the other one from Wharton. When I saw each, my heart almost stopped beating! But they were just to "Join a Chat" or see the new events available.
It's OK to know that. HOWEVER, this kind of communication at this time of the process can CERTAINLY end with my nerves!!! This does NOT make the wait easier! hehe. AdComs are mean...

Kellogg started releasing decisions!

I saw the other day on the BW forums that someone got accepted. Now Kellogg is making it official through this post:

"12/7/2009 9:52 AM
Decisions are being released
The Kellogg School has begun releasing decisions (Admit, Waitlist, Deny) for Round 1. Decisions will be released from now until the notification deadline of January 11, 2010. Each applicant will be notified via email from the Kellogg School Office of admissions when a decision has been rendered. After receiving this email candidates will be able to view their decision on the Status Check page located on the full-time program’s homepage."

Of course, I didn't receive anything!

Best of luck to all Kellogg Applicants!

Yet another GMAT Resource: Magoosh

Here's another interesting GMAT tool to learn: Magoosh. Definitely worth trying! For what I looked, It is pretty cool. It was created by a couple of Haas (Berkeley) MBA students!

MBAJourney's GMAT Tips

Being an active reader in the blogosphere, I read in almost every MBA Blog about the GMAT. Every one has something about it. So, I guess that an MBA blog isn't complete if it doesn't contain a post on the GMAT! Just kidding!. Well, I also have something to say about the GMAT, and I hope it helps everyone who is preparing it.

I will comment primarily on the materials and the prep.

Materials
I used all the following books:
- Kaplan 800 Score
- Kaplan Math Review
- Princeton Crack the GMAT
- Manhattan SC Bible
- Official Guide (OG) 11
- Verbal Review
- Quantitative Review

I definitely do not recommend the Kaplan 800 and the Princeton Crack The GMAT. The have some generalities about the test, but the exercises are not like the test.
The Kaplan Math Review is a good book to practice some hard Math, although, again, it is not very representative of the GMAT.

The Mahattan SC Bible is a great book. It covers the concepts of every single SC problem of the OG and the Verbal Review, and gives great explanations for them. I believe this book is a must.

Without any doubts, the best books for practice are the official ones. More on this on next section.

Prep
I must say that I won't be objective at all with my opinion here. I joined the Knewton GMAT Prep. Those dollars were really well invested! The online classes are excellent. The Teachers and TAs are great (My regards to all of them, especially Dave, Alex and Joanna!). They really put an effort in the learning of the students. I totally recommend joining at least for the trial! You'll see how great they are. Also, I was of the first customers. Taking into account their philosophy, I am confident they are even better now!

Anyway... what I recommend for the prep, is to do every single problem of the OG and Reviews at least twice! If you remember the answer, don't just pick it, but reason the problem until you understand the concept behind it. I couldn't do this entirely, however, I managed to many SCs twice (my personal major weakness), and really helped me.

Also read, or I should say DEVORE, the Manhattan SC Bible in order to acquire a solid base for SC.

Finally, do CATs! They help you a lot for your timing. Don't do the GMAT Prep at last just as an "avant premier" of the score on test day. Do each GMAT Prep 3 or 4 times. Yes, you will get repeated questions, and your score will be higher than if you hadn't done any of those questions earlier. However, it will help you a lot with the timing and you will always get new difficult questions! Furthermore, doing other CATs as Manhattan's (if you buy the book, you get some free tests - I believe the math is more difficult than the actual test -, or they have got a free one) or Knewton's (which are REALLY great).

Bottom line
Start studying early, give yourserlf at least 4 months if you have a very demanding job. If you can, join a prep course! (I cannot stress enough that Knewton's course is awesome). It's money really well invested; they even organize the study for you, optimizing your time! I ended up with a solid 720 (it isn't a 740 or 750, but definitely not bad), and I believe Knewton had lots to do with it!

I hope this is helpful for those thinking of facing the GMAT!