| Materials used in my preparation | |
| The official GMAT | Bible for preparation - this is an absolute must |
| MGMAT series (recommended) | The best overall preparatory series |
| Terrific SC Preparation Guide | Mandatory for SC preparation - especially non-native speakers |
| Kaplan 800 | This one actually has some solid CR and DS strategies |
| Princeton Review | Useless DVD but SC and the quant practice is good, the online tests are good |
| Official Quant Companion | Extra practice - 300 official questions |
So INSEAD came back and said my application for round 1 was complete in all respects. That means it's now under the scanner. Let's see what next! Anyway - I won't hear until a maximum of Nov 22nd. If I don't hear from them by then - that means I got dinged in INSEAD.
But all that waiting has been overshadowed by the arrival of my first baby, so I'm really busy!
So you're Indian and you want to apply to a good business school. Good luck. Really. It sucks to be an Indian, ask me.
Here's the problem - too many Indians with high scores applying all over the place, and most of us have similar backgrounds. Basically if I apply with a 750 gmat and 3.8 GPA and I have an IT background, I'm probably average compared to the pool. Boohoo.
Now can anything be done about it? not really. Prepare a good app, hope that you did some stellar stuff in your work, and then pray they think you're different ;)
I have no complaints about universities dissing Indian applicants with high score and take in someone else with less stellar metrics. If they did not do that, the classes would be filled with same-sounding same-thinking 760 GMAtters from IITs. Not a class I want to be in. And personality is not all about numbers. There sure are very impressive people from whom one can learn, even if their GMAT is 650 and GPA is 2.9, and with a very unique background they do deserve to be in compared to someone with a "like everyone else" profile and a high GMAT.
Bottomline: suck it up and spruce your app and fight it out.
So, here is the fateful button -- I'm about to press it and then it's the waiting game! Wish me luck!
I've received a couple of mails and messages asking for tips and help on preparing for GMAT, especially in situations where there's little time available to take the exam.
I will share my thoughts very soon on this topic and I hope you will find it useful.
*phew* I'm almost done with INSEAD applications - I need to submit them today or tomorrow so I can meet the October 16th round 1 deadline. I think I'm in a decent position to do so.
BTW - I feel good about how I met the word limits on the essays. On the 2 career essays and 6 personal essays, I'm happy to say I've stuck to the *exact* word limit as specified by the essay instructions. When I say exact, I really mean exact - and all 8 of them!
Some might think I'm being silly, but that's OK :) And I don't think I've compromised on the content anywhere. I've said what I wanted to, and that's it. I also had my essays reviewed only by 2 people - my wife and a colleague of mine who's great at essays and english in general - that's it. I did not want to send it to too many people and have my ideas and style diluted, and I'm pretty happy with my decision. Only time will tell if it was the right thing to do.
Next step? well - submit and then then waiting game begins. I do plan, of course, to start preparing my applications for IMD and/or Oxford Said in a couple of days. Wish me luck!
