GMAT for Noobs

The GMAT can be a tricky exam for many but worry not! There is a method to the madness that the GMAT is.

The most important thing to understand about the GMAT is that it is not a test of intelligence. It is a test of mental agility, time management and strategy.

It is also important to keep in mind that you do not have to get every GMAT question right. The exam itself allows room for mistakes. You can even get 15 questions wrong and still score over 700.

The best way to figure out how to maximize your score would be to go to a good GMAT coaching class that prepares you with all the utility to be able to strategize when it comes to the exam time.

Remember, the GMAT is an exam of strategy more than it is an exam of intelligence

GRE during COVID19

The GRE or Graduate Record Exam conducted by ETS has given candidates the opportunity to take the test from home. This has caught on really well as many applicants have begin to opt for the GRE test from home.

In addition to the GRE, ETS also offers the TOEFL as a test from home option. With both their main exams being offered from the convenience of taking them from home, many people have benefitted. 

Even those who are going for GRE coaching classes, can take their test from the coaching centre however it is not recommended by the ETS as there can be ways to be duplicitous. Therefore it is best to opt for taking the test form the comfort of your own home rather than looking for a GRE testing centre that has an available slot for your convenient date and time

Top 3 GRE Coaching Centres – September 2020

India is a hotbed for students wanting to go abroad for their Masters programs. With so many good engineering and arts colleges in the country, there are students from all over the world that come to study in India. With so many people wanting to go abroad, the demand for GRE coaching centres and GMAT coaching centres has increased tremendously. There is a myriad of educational consultancies that do not offer GRE classes or GMAT classes, but they help with the admissions process. 

However, you need to keep in mind that any educational consultancy or admissions counsellor who does not charge you a fee, is making money off of you when you pay your tuition fee to one of the colleges that they suggest for you. This severely compromises the integrity of the counselling that they do. 

But there are only a few centres that care about their students and will do everything in their power to make sure that their students get into top tier universities across the world. The top 3 are listed below: 

Plan A:

This is one of the newest educational consultancies that have cropped up within the last few years. They have produced excellent results from their students across the GMAT and GRE with the lowest scores being 640 on the GMAT and 312 on the GRE. These are the lowest scores from their centre mind you!!! 

They have a team of consultants that help you with everything. They conduct both GRE classes and GMAT classes. And they even help with admissions and career guidance. Even their online coursework is so much better than most of the market. They have simple explanations for complex concepts and they faculty at Plan A use the concepts to teach you how to think, thereby equipping you with more than just training for an exam.

Gradvine:

Gradvine is another such consultancy that really gets invested in the future of their students. They have access to hundreds of students that they have helped get into top tier universities who in turn act as consultants for the admissions process and essays and so on. They have a very friendly and welcoming community of advisors and consultants, who have all been on the same journey as their clients at some point of time or the other. 

Gradvine feels like a bunch of friends helping you out. They however, doe not offer GMAT classes or GRE classes. 

Crackverbal:

Crackverbal is an institute that has presence all over the country and is the oldest of these 3 consultancies. They have the most experience in terms of volumes and can be categorized as a giant compared to the previous two companies. However, due to their volumes, they find it harder to adhere to their standards than Gradvine or Plan A. 

While the two smaller companies have higher success rates (more like >98%), CrackVerbal has bigger numbers when it comes to the number of students who have been successfully trained and admitted.

In conclusion, the smaller or niche brands offer more guidance and a personal touch, whereas CrackVerbal has a lot more resources at its disposal. The choice is up to you. But these 3 consultancies come highly recommended. 

Educational Consultancies that help get you into Ivy League Universities

There are over 100,000 Educational Consultancies across the world that all claim that they can get you into an Ivy League College, but unfortunately for you, there are hardly a 100 all across the world that are even equipped to be able to do that. Some are pure admissions consulting firms whereas some are equipped as GRE coaching centres and/or GMAT coaching centres.

For those that offer you GRE classes or GMAT classes, they stand a better chance of helping you get into a good school as they know what score they need to equip you for. Even this is a big question mark as most of these GRE training centres and/or GMAT training centres do not have stable faculty.

So, it is in your best interests to do your research and figure out which kind of consultancy works best for you.

Does ISB accept GRE? – Indian School of Business

 Yes, the Indian School of Business does accept the GRE score for their MBA application or PGPM application. This is in response to a recent trend in multiple top tier MBA universities where more of them are accepting applicants with a GRE score rather than the GMAT score.

What started this trend you may ask? The answer to that is quite simple. The GRE is an easier exam to crack than the GMAT.

A lot of test takers despite having spent weeks and months studying at GMAT coaching centres do not end up doing well on the GMAT. This leads them to get disheartened and they tend to give up on their dreams of getting into B schools. However, a few universities began accepting GRE scores for the MBA applications and that gave way to this mass adoption of the GRE over the GMAT.

Today, there are far more GRE coaching centres and online GRE classes than there are for GMAT.

Home Based GRE Test

 After the COVID-19 pandemic, and the subsequent lockdown, ETS has begun to offer a home-based version of the GRE. That means that a test taker can appear for the main GRE from the comfort of their own home. 

Of course, there are a few extra steps and procedures to take and follow, but it is quite convenient. A surprisingly large number of test takers have opted to take their GRE from their homes rather than postponing their GRE test date. 

If you are not sure about how to go about this process, then kindly verify with an ETS partnered GRE coaching centre to find out more. They may even be able to help you more than other centres with GRE classes. 

Find the best way forward under counsel and consultation as this will have a large impact on your future and where you end up studying and working.

GRE – Best Practices for Preparation

 The GRE can be an overly complex exam for a lot of people. But there are a significant number of GRE test takers that have performed exceptionally well on the test. Most of these test takers are ones that are products of some of the best GRE coaching centres in the world. 

It is exceedingly rare that someone who has scored above 330 on the GRE has not had the help of GRE classes. So, your first step if you find yourself overwhelmed by the GRE is to join GRE coaching classes.

However, if you insist on preparing on your own, for whatever reasons, then the following are some of the best practices for GRE preparation. 

• Study regularly for at least 2 hours everyday

• Learn 40 words per day

• Practice 20 questions every day

• Take a minimum of 6 Mock tests

• Always revise 

Universities that do not need GRE scores

 There are many universities all over the world that accept applications without the need of a GRE score, however, most of these universities are not amongst the best. These are institutions that are trying desperately to grow and increase their student pool and market value. 

The quality of education and the quality of future you will have if you graduate from one of these universities is far lesser than what they would  be if you were to graduate from a university that requires the GRE. 

Your reticence to take the GRE reflects your own self-worth and motivation for self-improvement and self-care. Would you rather not put in the effort for two or three months to get a chance at a much better life, by studying for the GRE?

If you need help, then sign up for GRE classes. There are many good GRE coaching centres that can help you ace the test.

GRE – Verbal Section – Tips and tricks

The verbal section on the GRE can be a thorn in the side of many a test taker. But it does not have to be. Unlike the GMAT, the GRE has a very set syllabus that has boundaries of what can and cannot be asked. 

This implies that there is a set amount of knowledge that you will need to learn in order to ace the Verbal section on the GRE. 

The GRE Verbal Section consists of basically 3 types of questions:

1. Vocabulary – Text Completion, Sentence Equivalence

2. Critical Reasoning

3. Reading Comprehension

Out of these 3 categories, the only one that requires you to put in effort to learn is the vocabulary section. This consists of approximately 4000 words that you need to know. A native English speaker is bound to know at least 1500-2000 words. 

If you do not know that many words, it is best that you sign up for GRE classes. 

If you do know at least 1500-2000 words then it should take you only about 4-6 weeks to learn the remaining words as most of them are synonyms of words that we already know and use regularly. 

As for the other two sections, they test your logical and reasoning ability. The best approach to this would be to practice as many lateral thinking problems as possible. Even practicing some of the free GMAT resources can help as the difficulty level of similar questions on the GMAT is higher than the GRE counterparts. 

What GRE score is best for MIT?

 Getting into the top universities is not as simple as doing well on the GRE. There are many aspects of the application process that need to meet the minimum requirement for each college. Not only that, the requirements vary depending on which stream you are applying for even if it is the same university. 

One such requirement is your essay or your Statement of Purpose. The best bet for you would be to attend GRE coaching classes, to develop not only your quant and verbal skills but also acquire sufficient information about the application process. 

However, if you want to know what a good or rather a competitive score is, it varies for each college and the stream that you are applying for. 

On average a 315-320 on the GRE should get you through into most of the good schools.

The need for GRE

 The GRE or the Graduate Record Exam, is a competitive aptitude and reasoning test that is used to apply for top colleges and the best universities all over the world. It is a very versatile test in the sense that the GRE scores can be used to apply for various streams, including management degrees and MBAs. Unlike the GMAT, the GRE’s counter part for management programs, the GRE is a much easier test to score well in, compared to the GMAT.

If you are uncertain about which test to take, it is best that you consult with a reputable GRE coaching centre. Often it can be confusing to decide which might be the best exam to take, because the GMAT is easier to study for, whereas the GRE is an easier exam to take. 

GRE Verbal – Best Strategy

 The verbal sections of the GRE can be challenging for many to master, but there are some GRE coaching centres that ewuip their students with some really useful GRE tips and tricks for the verbal section. Now, while every “GRE expert” may claim that they know the best methods to master the GRE verbal section, it is not uncommon for most of these sources only giving you the basic learning methods.

However, the most important thing to keep in mind, is that everyone of us have our own learning style. The same strategies will not work for everyone. We even have our own strengths and weaknesses, so how then can the same plan of action work for everyone?

And that is where the real “Gurus of GRE” can teach you – how to think, how to evaluate yourself and then develop and apply your own strategy.

GMAT Validity Period – How long are your scores valid?

 As things stand, in August of 2020, the maximum time frame that your GMAT scores are valid for, is five years. 

However, if you have attempted the GMAT more than once during that period, your latest scores are generally what are taken into consideration. 

Now, if you have taken the GMAT more than three years ago, then it is highly recommended that you start taking up GMAT classes and the related TOEFL classes or IELTS classes. These exams have changed over time, as they always have. The GMAT is a much easier exam now than it ever has been. Not only does the exam contain fewer questions now, it is also shorter by half an hour. In addition to that, the test taker can even choose the order of the sections that he/she wants to attempt.

GMAT for the Noob

 Self-awareness is under appreciated. We seldom come across those who admit the truth to themselves. But if you are here good for you. 

It may surprise you that most of the people who attempt the GMAT for the first time, haven’t studied Math in a long time, probably even since school. But that’s ok. The GMAT is NOT a Math test and neither is it an English test. 

It is a test of your mental agility and your ability to reason rationally. Math and English are mere tools to help test those attributes of the test taker.

Sign up for GMAT coaching classes. And you will know what I am talking about. 

All these online lectures can teach you the concepts, but you need the best of teachers to teach you how to think.

Best Advice for GMAT beginners

 First familiarize yourself with the format of the GMAT. Next, find a good GMAT coaching centre and sign up for either online or offline GMAT classes.

GMAT Sections
AWA	1 task	30 minutes
IR	1 section, 12 Questions	30 minutes
Quantitative Reasoning	1 section, 31 Questions Each	62 minutes
Verbal Reasoning	1 section, 36 Questions Each	65 minutes

 

Ok , lets hope you are not one of those fancy people who think they do not need GMAT classes. Let us face it – however good you are, being trained by a GMAT expert will make you better.

Next, make sure that your math fundamental are strong. Find a formula sheet on a reputable website and learn all the formulae that you need.

Then, begin work on your Verbal Reasoning section. Read!!! Read as much as you can and teach yourself how to think. If you cannot, then GO SIGN UP FOR GMAT CLASSES!!! That’s what they are for.

Will Indian Business Schools accept the GMAT for MBA admissions?

 If only I had a rupee for every time this question is asked at every MBA related education event that I have been to, I could have retired 3 years ago in a nice cottage in Scotland. However, since the world does not work that way, here I am, writing my nth blog about this. 

Yes. Over the last 8-9 years, the number of Indian Business Schools that accept the GMAT for MBA admissions, has consistently been on the rise. This trend gained momentum with ISB shining as a bright beacon of hope for those who have realized that the other management entrance exams conducted by Indian business schools, are all but a sham of a sieve in separating the cream of the crop. 

And those of you who think you can do well on the GMAT without any help, go ahead and take GMAT classes anyways. You will get better scores.

The minimum number of exams to immigrate to Australia

 Are you planning to go to study abroad in Australia or perhaps apply for PR in Australia? If so, then you should know that there is a minimum of two competitive exams that are taken into consideration towards your overall profile. The GMAT/GRE and the TOEFL/IELTS/PTE. 

Now there is a lot of debate on which of the English language proficiency tests to take. But to be honest, they are all remarkably similar exams. Depending on whether you want to go for MS or MBA, you should sign up for GMAT coaching classes or GRE coaching classes. 

As for joining TOEFL classes or IELTS classes or PTE classes, it is completely up to you. Although, the general assumption is that for Australia and New Zealand, it is recommended to take the TOEFL or PTE.

Defining Your Career Path

 

 

Every one of us have big dreams for our lives and our careers. While some of us want to be rich, others want to be famous and some want to be both. However, most of us just end up daydreaming about our success and barely begin our journey to fulfil those dreams that drive us.

 

“If you are achieving all your goals, you are setting yourself goals that are too easy”

 

A career is something that most of us barely think about until after we graduate and by then its too late and we do not know what to do or where to go. And we end up choosing a job just to pay the bills. And thus, begins the rat race.

And we get so mired into our circumstances that we seldom see the bigger picture – we are lying to ourselves and settling for a life that we never dreamt of.

Which one of us wanted to just sit behind desk doing something that we did not even care about? Or how about those of us who run around and work insane hours just to make our ends meets?

And that there is the underlying problem. There are enough people and enough careers to satisfy all of us. And yet so many of us find ourselves in the wrong jobs or in the wrong place and by the time we get fed up, it becomes too late.

 

But it is entirely possible to pick up from where you are! It is NEVER TOO LATE!!!!!

 

While it would have been amazing for us to have figured out our career and education path while we were still in school, the system lulls us into a sense of callousness that prevents us from seeing our trajectory clearly. And that’s where career guidance and/or career counselling comes in.

 

And whether you are an 18 year old or 40  year old, even if you have kids or if you feel surrounded by people who do not understand what you want to do with your life, a good career guide can make your life so much easier and no price can be put on something as helpful as a guide and mentor when you need one the most.Enroll GMAT classes chennai in PLAN A

 

The best practice tests for the GRE

There are hundreds of online GRE practice tests that are available. However, not all of them are functional computer adaptive tests. Most of them are just random difficulty questions drawn at  random from a large question bank without any correlation to how you answer your questions.

There are some GRE coaching centres and GRE coaching classes that provide GRE practice tests that are akin to the real exam, however you must be careful in how you view these tests as a apart of  your study routine.

Taking the tests that are not computer adaptive can be good practice for the concepts, but it is highly recommended that you do not use these tests to gauge your performance or progress. If you do, there is a high chance of being misled.
The best tests out there that provide an accurate analysis of your performance are the Manhattan GRE tests. There are 6 of them and it is best to take anywhere between six to ten mock tests at minimum before you attempt the main exam. But also keep in mind that your performance will be reflective of how accurately you recreate the exam environment when you take the mock tests.

GRE for dummies – Part 1

You might be surprised to know that of all the competitive exams out there to pursue your higher education in the western world, the GRE is by far one of the easiest exams to do well in. Now, to many of you that might come as a shock, because by no means is the GRE a particularly easy exam. However, if you are intimated by it, it is best to find good GRE classes near you and begin your work with them as soon as you can.

The GRE unlike say the GMAT, is a lot more straight forward in its approach to both studying and when it comes to preparing. Learning the concepts for the Quantitative sections should automatically help in securing a decent split score of something above 155. Now that may not be what you are aiming for, but unfortunately, only relying on learning the concepts to do well will only secure you that much.