February 2010

Weighted Averages On The GMAT

jake becker February 26, 2010

This post will introduce weighted average questions you’ll see on the GMAT. There is one main formula you need to solve simple GMAT Average questions:

Average = SUM / # of observations

Note that this can be rearranged to read:

SUM = Average x (# of obs)
# obs = SUM / Average

So, if you are given ANY 2 of the 3 values, you should be able to find the 3rd. For example:

John drinks an average of 1.5 cups of water/day. After how many days has he drank 3 gallons of water? (1 gallon = 16 cups.)

In this case, we are looking for the number of days (or observations) such that we total 48 cups (3 gallons) of water.

# = SUM / Average

# days = 48 cups / 1.5 cups/day
# days = 32 days

NEVER AVERAGE AVERAGES!

Class A has 15 students and an average height of 60”. Class B has 20 students. What is class B’s average height if the average height of both classes is 65”.

One might say: (A + B) / 2 = 65”; A = 60”; so B must be 70”. However, keep in mind:

TOTAL AVERAGE = TOTAL SUM / TOTAL OBS

CLASS A + CLASS B = BOTH

15 students + 20 students = 35 students
60” average + 68.75” average = 65” average
900” total in A + 1375” total in B = 2275” total in Both

The given information is in black. The necessary intermediate steps are in blue, and the red is your answer. Note that the average of the averages ≠ total average. We must calculate each average separately, and to do this we need the SUM and # of observations for each category. This brings us to the idea of WEIGHTED AVERAGES.

A WEIGHTED AVERAGE is needed when you are taking average of a large group in which there are subgroups with a different number of observations in each. Take a look at this generalized formula, assuming there are 3 groups A, B and C.

(Average of A x Obs in A) + (Average of B x Obs in B) + (Average of C x Obs in C)

(Obs in A) + (Obs in B) + (Obs in C)

Think of weighted averages like a tug of war between numbers. The “stronger” one side (dog) is, the more that weighted average (tennis ball) will be “pulled” in that direction.

In the previous question, we had:

CLASS A + CLASS B = BOTH

15 students + 20 students = 35 students
60” average + 68.75” average = 65” weighted average

Note that the weighted average is CLOSER to B’s average than it is to A’s. This is because there are 20 students in Class B compared to only 15 students in Class A.

Two More Examples

At a certain restaurant, the average (arithmetic mean) number of customers served for the past x days was 75. If the restaurant serves 120 customers today, raising the average to 90 customers per day, what is the value of x?

A. 2

B. 5

C. 9

D. 15

E. 30

WITHOUT using the formula, we can see that today the restaurant served 30 customers above the average. The total amount ABOVE the average must equal total amount BELOW the average. This additional 30 customers must offset the “deficit” below the average of 90 created on the x days the restaurant served only 75 customers per day.

30/15 = 2 days. Choice (A).

WITH the formula, we can set up the following:

90 = (75x + 120)/(x + 1)
90x + 90 = 75x + 120
15x = 30

x = 2 Answer Choice (A)

Use whichever makes more sense to you!

Anita spent a total of $780 on 52 bottles of wine for her wedding. She then decided to buy 8 bottles of sparkling wine for the toasts, as well. Was the average (arithmetic mean) price per bottle of wine less than $20?

(1) Each bottle of sparkling wine cost more than $15.

(2) Each bottle of sparkling wine cost less than $40.

Take another look at what exactly the question is calling for: the TOTAL average price of all the wine at the wedding. We should look at the suggested average ($20) and use that as our threshold amount.

60 bottles * $20/bottle = $1200 total
$1200 total – $780 (given) = $420 (left for sparkling wine)
$420 / 8 bottles = $52.50/bottle of sparkling wine (for the total average to equal $20)

Which of the answer choices are conclusively above or below $52.50/bottle of sparkling wine? Only (2). With (1), we can be below OR above the threshold, so (1) is not sufficient.

Answer Choice (B)

Now, you’re score will be above average! Please visit the Grockit forum or leave a comment here if you have more questions on weighted averages.

Good luck!

Test Day Prep

chase cairncross February 24, 2010

Test day needs to be given the weight it deserves. While you can retake the test over and over until you do what you think is the best you can do, if you master it the first time you will save yourself a lot of time and at US$250 a pop, a lot of money.

Time is of the essence.

Once you have decided that you are properly prepared to attempt the test, you need to schedule it. That very decision can help or hurt your score. You need to pick a time and date that works very well for you. Every person has a time of the day where they are at their peak. For some it is the early morning, most likely with the aid of their coffee, but for others it is right after lunch. Think about what this time is for you and make that time your GMAT test time.

Location, Location, Location.

Pick a location that you are familiar with or become familiar with the location that is offered. If need be take a drive to the facility and figure out how to get there and where you will be parking, because you do not want to have the stress of finding parking tax your brain on that day.

It’s a date?

You need to pick a date that will not be surrounded by chaos. This might seem obvious, but don’t pick a date when your parents are coming to visit or you have a vacation starting the next day. You will be distracted and that can hurt you.

Treat the day as a vacation day itself. If possible tell your boss that you need to take the entire day off, or if you are taking it in the morning, maybe a half day the day before and a half day for the test.

If you have time in the morning do something mildly athletic, take a jog or go for a walk to get the blood going. Do not roll out of bed, slam a cup of coffee and wing this thing (although I am sure some of you believe that is when you are at your best). Eat something, but don’t stuff yourself, you don’t need the blood digesting when it needs to be working on Data Sufficiency.

What are you wearing?

Depending on the time of year and given the fact that you do not know what the facility will be like, I would dress with some layers. Walking into a test center with so much A/C blasting that it makes Siberia feel like the tropics without a sweater or sweatshirt would be really bothersome.

Finally, have a good attitude about it. You can take it over, but set your goal high and aim at it. If you aim at 500 then 450 becomes a real possibility, if you aim at 800 then 750 becomes more real. Don’t sell yourself short, it’s a game and if you prepared you have a shot at doing very well on it.

Good luck.

The NPV of Business School

chase cairncross February 22, 2010

If you don’t know what NPV stands for you will quickly learn in the first quarter of business school. For those who cannot wait, it is the Net Present Value (“NPV”) of an investment. That is to say, it takes all of the cash flow generated from an action (buying property, expanding your business, etc), both positive and negative, and sums them in inflation/interest adjusted current terms.

The benefit of this analysis is that it allows one to determine at the present date if a decision will make or lose them money. For illustration purposes let’s suppose that you invest in an oil well, and it cost you $10,000. We would put that as a -10,000 in Year 0 as it is a cash outflow. Next let’s assume two potential scenarios from this investment.

You invest and then 10 years later you strike a lot of oil and sell the well for $100,000.
You invest and find a little oil, which is enough to pay you $10,000 for 10 years straight.

To the layman, each of these investments pays you $100,000 for a $10,000 investment, so you would be indifferent to them, however in reality or even intuitively you know that getting the money back earlier is better. We can prove this by taking the present value (inflation/interest adjusted) of each of these payments. So the payment in scenario 1 would be discounted 10 years and result in something much smaller. Let’s take a look at the calculation.

NPV1

So if we take the interest rate of 6% for both and lay out the cash flows each year, we can show their current values in the Present Value row. To highlight this point, examine the series of 10,000 payments and their respective present values (“PV”). We can see that in year 2 the PV of that 10,000 is 8,900, whereas the PV of year 3 is 8,396. We lose the current equivalent of over $500 by delaying the $10,000 by just one year.

What’s the point of this?

Getting an MBA is an investment in yourself, and it should be viewed through the same lens as any other investment decision. So how would we set up this calculation? We have to look at the two following options.

You go to business school, forego two years of salary, borrow around $100,000 (both tuition and cost of living) and then go on to make more money (this is the whole point) than you would on your current career trajectory.
You do not go to business school and continue to make your current salary and get raises and promotions at a normal rate. These are not easy assumptions to make but linear growth usually works best.

The best tool to calculate this, if you want to, is Excel. If you are not comfortable with it, get comfortable now, because you will live in it for two years. I made some assumptions here, and I think the time line should be longer, but you can see how you need to make up for two years of lost salary plus paying for school with quite an increase in future wages. If you cannot find a job right away, it becomes even more difficult. The function in excel that calculates this, once you set up the cash flows and interest rates as I have them below is the ‘=NPV()’ function. If you type it in it will ask for the following items; rate (which is the selected interest rate which I have as 6%) and values (which is all of the values from year 1 to year X for you). Keep in mind that NPV does not account for year 0, so you need to add that separately.

NPV2

This should be a helpful exercise for you if you are on the fence about going back to school, or even if you are committed and want to get started on learning Excel.

Best of luck.

Bringing a Spouse or Significant Other to B-School?

chase cairncross February 19, 2010

The spouse or significant other that gets dragged along into the business school experience and is quickly labeled a “Sig-O” will share in a lot of the difficulties of school with limited access to the upside. There are a couple steps one can take to alleviate some of this transitional friction.

For most Sig-O’s they will find themselves in a new city, void of the social structure and the group of family or friends that they had prior to moving. At the same time you will be barraged with more new friends and acquaintances than you have had since freshman year in college. On top of that, the one person your Sig-O knows in this new town, YOU, will have much less time than normal for the two of you.

During orientation there will be many events away from school, this is a great time to meet students and other Sig-O’s while they are still in the meeting new people super-phase. Missing these events will greatly inhibit the ability for your Sig-O to start creating that new social group.

As I discussed in the Career Switching post, orientation will also provide an opportunity to sign up for clubs. Most of these clubs will be school related, but some will have strong social components. At my school we had a Wine club, Salsa club, Outdoor club, Joint Venture (specifically for couples) and a few more. All of these clubs allowed Sig-O’s to join and depending on your tastes one or more of these would be great to join for both of you.

After orientation ends, the first quarter begins. Unless you are coming straight out of undergrad, your studying days are some years behind you and the amount of work will overwhelm you. Most people who gain access to a top business school have been top academic achievers most of their life, however now they are surrounded by hundreds of people who are exactly the same and who are going to be distributed on the same grading curve. Quickly the excitement of all the new experiences turns to the fear that you will be that one person that gets asked to move on to greener pastures after the end of your first year. While this will not happen to you, the work load from the reading and for most, the new concepts presented, will consume you. The joke is that you should buy a cardboard cutout of yourself for your Sig-O for this period of time because he or she will not be seeing a lot of you. It is true. All that talk about exploring the new surroundings, taking a weekend trip to the place you always wanted to see, learning to sail, whatever it is, will be put on hold. If you are not prepared for this, it will not help the situation. I would like to say there is a magic solution to this, but in reality I think the only way to deal with it is to be aware that it will be reality. When you make your b-school pitch, it should be something like the following – “Do you want to move to a new city with me, where you don’t know anyone and then not see me for four months?” – because that is how it will be.

Before you know it, you will be done with your first set of classes and winter break will be upon you. Second quarter provides little relief if you are recruiting for banking, but for the sane people who seek to avoid 130 hour work weeks, your comfort in the settings, your knowledge of which homework is really not vital and being less rusty in the academic setting will result in much more free time.

If you are studying in the US, January and February offer three day weekends where you should be looking to plan something fun. You need to get ahead of the curve on this as your study group might include people whose idea of a three day weekend is to catch up on all the group work. Be clear with them early on that you will not be available to meet.

Each passing quarter will allow more free time to see your Sig-O and really do all those things that you thought you might do in this new city. If you plan ahead for all of this, it will work out fine, but that is not to say that it will be smooth sailing. Good luck and be prepared.

MBA for Career Switching (part II):

chase cairncross February 16, 2010

Networking seems a bit fake for most people, but if you approach it from the right angle it can make the difference in your entire career path. You will be paying a hefty price for two years of education that you could realistically get from a library card and some initiative, what you are really paying for is to be part of a community that will be very successful and very helpful to each other in the years to come.

As we discussed in Part I of Career Switching, joining the clubs and going to the company presentations are a great start to building this network, but there is a lot more work to do. The further from your original career you want to end up the more work you will have to do, especially if your desired job is outside of the three main business school funnels of consulting, banking and consumer package goods (“CPG” or marketing). If you want to work at a hedge fund, private equity firm, internet based start-up, or something else that is out of the norm, you have a lot of leg work ahead of you. Some schools have better success in certain fields outside of the big three than others, so once again, the earlier you know about what career you want to switch to the better.

An advantage of being a student is that people will be more willing to help you out in this quest than if you were simply between jobs. Mostly this help will come through offering you their time. This time is the key to making connections in your future industry. The best way to start is to use the alumni data base and filter for all of the alums that work in your desired industry. Once you have this list, develop a template informational interview email to send out, but leave some room for personalizing because that will catch their eye. Pick out the top 10 alumni and start doing research on their firms. Find something that this firm did recently that might be of interest and include that in the email. For example, you might write something like this, “I noticed your firm recently closed a new deal in [city]. As I am very interested in [industry] and currently studying this type of transaction, I would love to sit down for a cup of coffee with you and discuss.” You might also want to include some background information on yourself, but do not attach a resume.

You can also do some LinkedIn research and see if you can find anything else to talk about there. Who knows, you might have a connection you didn’t know about.

Do not be offended if they do not get back to you, and if you are really interested follow up with them in a couple weeks with a slightly revised email.

For those alumni who do get back to you, have a plan of what you want to discuss and DO NOT ASK FOR A JOB. They are taking valuable time out of their day to help you and this is just the first step. The plan should include a set of questions, which includes a solicitation of guidance for someone looking to get into this field.

Example Questions:

1) What was your career path?

2) How has this industry changed since you broke into it?

3) Where is this industry headed? Is it smart to enter?

4) What classes do you recommend that I take?

5) What experience do employers look for and how can I improve mine?

This is a good start in developing your network. Take their business card and put them into your contacts database for future reference, with notes you took during your meeting. Pick the most helpful five out of all these meetings and keep in touch with them and follow their firms.

THE MBA STUDENT LIFECYLE – FROM A TADPOLE TO A PRINCE (OR PRINCESS)…THIRD IN A SERIES…

martin sobolewski February 11, 2010

In part two of this series, we discussed the thrills of finding roommates and driving across country for relocation, the adventures and the excitement of orientation, as well as what to expect during the final two weeks before classes actually start. The journey continues…

Orientation provides a great opportunity to get to know your future classmates outside of the classroom. Depending on the size of your incoming class, you may or may not be able to meet everyone, but regardless, it is a prime opportunity to go out and meet those people that you will see walking the halls of the grad school buildings. However, once orientation is over, there is a chance that you may hardly ever see those people that you met, but again, this depends on the size of your incoming class.

It seems that most large MBA programs are similar in the set-up of class structure and curriculum. In general, most schools will divide the incoming class into sections and you will take the majority of your “core” classes (such as accounting, finance, marketing, statistics, etc.) with this same group of people. There are advantages and disadvantages to this set-up. The advantages include increased rapport among your classmates, better flow in lectures as the class becomes accustomed to student and instructor styles, and a great environment to really get to know your fellow classmates. The main disadvantage is that you don’t get to spend much time with other students in your program and you will probably notice that cliques begin to form. However, there are many other social activities that will provide you with opportunities to meet those students who are not in your section.

There is a funny feeling of anticipation on campus the first day of class, as no one knows really what to expect. There are students who have been out of school for ten years or more mixed in with students who were in undergrad not too long ago, providing for an environment of anxiety, excitement, and “fear” of the unknown Additionally, no one knows what to expect from the professors and whether or not they will be as boring as hell or very powerful and effective leaders. No matter what, the first day of school is very exciting and a great experience. There is nothing to worry about, except for the fact that you will likely already have reading, homework, or assignments to get started on. This is what we came back for school for in the first place, so don’t be surprised if you get more work than you expected. After all, you are paying top dollar for your education (you might be on someone else’s dime, but someone is paying) so you might as well take it all in and enjoy it! You will likely have four or five classes (and again depends on your school, whether they are on semesters or quarters) that meet twice per week.

Odds are that you came back to school to switch careers and/or boost your resume to get a better job. Besides attending classes, doing homework, and socializing, you will probably be attending a lot of on-campus company presentations. There are many companies from all sorts of industries (management consulting, investment banking, marketing, investment management, etc) that come to many of the top MBA programs each fall to recruit for both full-time positions (for the second-year students) and for summer-internships. You career center will have a list of all the firms coming to campus and a schedule of when they will be presenting. If you want to be taken seriously in the recruiting process and in interviews, it is imperative to attend these events. They provide you with a wealth of information on the company and the industry, and employees from various levels come to share their experiences and discuss what types of projects you might be exposed to. It is extremely informative and beneficial and will help you decide if a company is your dream firm or some place that you do not want to work at. These presentations will enable you to meet recent grads from your school who you will be able to network with and build strong relationships that will no doubt serve you well further on down the interview process. If you network well, you can establish relationships with employees from your target companies that will lead to further interaction and encounters with them. Companies love people that are ambitious, informed and excited about the prospect of joining their company. Sometimes there are receptions following the presentations, complete with appetizers and beer and wine, which allow you to have more one-on-one conversations with firm employees.

You will find that fall quarter is a very busy time with class, extra-curriculars, and recruiting. It is a lot to handle sometimes, but it is important that you take the time to do it right. This means doing well in classes, taking the effort to meet as many new friends as possible, and also putting your best foot forward in recruiting so that you can obtain a fantastic summer-internship.

This article is the third in a series….please be on the lookout for the fourth piece, where we will discuss the summer-internship interview process, second semester, and other exciting thrills of your first year of an MBA program. It’ll be crazy fun, but watch out, the time flies by, soak it all in!!!! Soon you will be sitting at your desk during your summer internship wondering where the time went!

Read other articles in this series:

The Complete MBA Student Lifecycle, pt 1
The Complete MBA Student Lifecycle, pt 2

GMAT Verbal Study Plan for Non-Native Speakers (and Others Who Want the Practice)

jim jacobson February 8, 2010

By far, the easiest and fastest way to learn English is to be a tiny baby growing up in an English-speaking environment. If you are reading this article, though, you are no longer in a position to take advantage of that opportunity, and will have to improve your English the hard way: practice. Not all practice is equally good, however! English, like all living languages, is complex and constantly-changing; what is acceptable in spoken English is not always accepted in Standard (written) English. The key to improving your English reading, processing, and writing skills for the GMAT is consistent high-quality practice. It’s true that native speakers have a big advantage — they have typically been listening to correct English for at least two decades. Non-native speakers, however, have a small advantage — they (unlike native speakers) have not been listening to incorrect English for two decades. Build your study around quality writing and daily practice — and start as early as you can.

Quality writing:
New Yorker
The Economist
Harper’s Magazine
The Atlantic

A note about The Economist in particular: you may be tempted to choose that above all the others, as it is the most business- and world news-focused. I believe doing so would be a mistake! The Economist is known for its very precise and concise use of language; you all should be reading it for this reason. On the other hand, The Economist assumes a very high level of familiarity and comfort with not only standard language usage, but also the rarer, more complex, and more concise usage of English found more commonly in the humanities (it also occasionally chooses British English usage over American English usage). The other three periodicals mentioned above have a smaller portion of their content devoted to finance and business and a greater portion devoted to the humanities — often without The Economist’s trademark concision. You will get more practice tracking longer English sentences, which can also shed more light on English usage: sometimes things are easier to understand when more words are used to explain! In addition, the greater variety present in the other periodicals prepares you better for the variety of topics you’ll get in GMAT Reading Comprehension passages. In short: use The Economist, but not only The Economist.

One Year Away From Test Day

One half hour per day reading (or even listening to) quality English writing. Podcasts/audio books are an acceptable occasional substitute; reading words on the page is better, but only one of the two is legal or smart while you’re driving to work
Look up words you don’t know, every time.

Six Months From Test Day

The above, plus:

Take a full-length practice test to assess your weaknesses; take two more in the next two months
Take inventory of the places you are likely to be caught due to language differences
Start writing down idioms that give you trouble; take note of movie/book/song titles, or other key phrases in English that can help you remember the idioms
Begin a weekly commitment to GMAT study, starting with the Official Guide. Move to other sources when you have exhausted the Official Guide material

Three Months From the Week of Your Test

Begin taking at least two full-length practice tests every three weeks; you are taking full-length tests because the Quantitative section is also written in English. The goal is to improve your comfort level with the overall timing of the test, and to help you adjust to the range of English that appears on the full test
One half hour per day of Grockit GMAT Verbal Study minimum; do not save it all for one weekend afternoon
For harder CR and RC passages, you can also use LSAT prep materials
Keep reading!

One Month From the Week of Your Test

Take one full-length practice test per week
Study every day, even if it’s just 15 minutes. You gain much more from repetition than you do from cramming
Keep reading!

MBA for Career Switching, Part I

chase cairncross February 6, 2010

For those of you looking to go to business school to switch careers, even if you were not entirely up front about that fact on your essay, you need to be prepared. There will not be the down time that you imagined to sit back, learn a little business and lament on your potential future. At most schools this process begins during orientation, when you are recruited by the various clubs on campus. Some of these clubs can be fun (eg: Food and Wine, Sports or Adventure), but most of them are focused on future employment.

At my school, and from speaking to friends at others schools, the following clubs typically exist; Marketing, Investments, Real Estate, Consulting, Private Equity & Venture Capital, Banking and many other clubs.

Some of you are lucky and know going in what your dream job is and will be able to join those clubs, but if you are like me, you will find that you could see yourself in a lot of these fields. You will either end up joining all the clubs and blowing your Cost of Living funds for the month, or simply joining them on a first come first serve basis until you feel you have spent too much. Neither of these are good plans, which is why you need to start thinking about what you want to do with your MBA as soon as you get into business school.

Once you have made it through this club gauntlet and the first quarter core classes are reminding you why in a lot of ways school and homework can be even worse than a day job, you will get more emails than you could possibly address. The more important emails will be from the career center notifying you of companies coming to present on campus. So just when you thought you had a nice Wednesday night to relax and catch up on reading that Marketing case, you find out you have to be in a suit and prep for two different company presentations.

If you are shooting at the flock, that is looking at every career option available, this is where you can quickly overstretch yourself. If you are interested in working for these companies however, it is very important that you attend their information session. It will be worth your while to do limited research on any of the specific companies that catch your eye. Fifteen minutes of time googling the company can save you hours of time listening to presentations, because time is valuable and grades do matter to some employers. If you know your desired field, go to each and every one of the events in that industry and be prepared to ask questions and follow up with the presenters afterward to get business cards.

Whether you know what you want or are still testing the waters this process will help you sort out what you are aiming at, but will also introduce you to the underlying current of the entire business school process – networking.

To JD or Not to JD: Should You Pursue a Joint Degree? Part I

andrea alexander February 4, 2010

In today’s competitive job market, even an MBA might not seem like enough to get you the kind of job that you want. If you’re looking for something to set you apart from the crowd, a JD/MBA might be an appealing option to you. But what is involved in earning those degrees jointly, and what can holding them do for your academic experience and your career trajectory?

If you’re interested in pursuing a joint degree, the first obvious step is to look for schools that offer the JD and MBA programs together. Not all business schools work together with law schools to create joint programs, so you’ll want to carefully evaluate the schools to which you’re planning to apply. Usually, there’s a specific liaison for the joint program working out of either the law school or the business school admissions office. Get that person’s contact information and get in touch with him or her. Application practices, standards for admission, and specific program structures vary from one school to the next, and your best resource is an expert at that school.

Next, consider what you’ll need to do to get your application package ready. You already know what your B-school application will require; that’s why you’re preparing for the GMAT. But law school applications will require a whole other standardized test, the LSAT. You may not want to deal with that too much while you’re planning for the GMAT, because like the GMAT, the LSAT is a very intense exam. However, the LSAT is only offered 4 times per year, so you’ll need to take that into account when you’re planning your test scheduling. Even if you don’t manage to get a law school application ready in time to apply at the same time you apply for B-school, all is not lost; some schools will allow you to apply for the joint program during your first year.

But how do you even know if you want a joint degree? It’s going to depend a lot on your career goals. Specializing in both degrees will help make you more marketable; if you have a general MBA and a JD with no particular focus, potential employers might see that as an indication that you’re not firmly committed to either business or law careers, and could jump ship from one to the other. However, if you know what kind of work you’d like to do, and can sculpt a program that will be relevant to that, the joint degree can be a big boost. For example, if you’re interested in strategic mergers and acquisitions, labor relations, or consulting, the joint degree will set you apart from the crowd. Even if you choose not to take the bar exam and officially become a lawyer, the legal knowledge that a JD gives you can be a big help in transactional work like contract negotiations.

What else can a JD/MBA give you? Well, as everyone knows, one of the benefits of earning an MBA is the networking opportunities it provides. Your classmates will one day become business contacts, and mutual alumni pride can pave the way for career paths you might not otherwise be able to tread. Earning a JD essentially doubles your professional network, and that can mean valuable opportunities for you.

Now that you’ve considered whether to get a joint degree, and what it might mean for your career, you might be wondering what it would be like to pursue two demanding degrees at the same time.

Look for Part II of this article, when you can hear answers straight from a current JD/MBA student!

Maximize Your Study Efficiency

jake becker February 2, 2010

Let’s face it, studying is not fun. It’s usually something you struggle through, is discouraging, tedious and expensive, and requires faith that it will pay off in the end. Here’s the good news: it will pay off, but only if you do it correctly. These are some good rules to follow.

Start Early
Most people start studying between 1 month and 1 year before the GMAT. Remember, starting early doesn’t mean you necessarily have to study more, just over a longer period of time. I would suggest trying your first problem 4 – 6 months before test day. Set aside 2-3 hours a week in the beginning, and gradually ramp up your review. Despite what you may otherwise hear, it’s not a test for which you can easily cram.

Practice Tests
Take practice tests. When you register for the GMAT, you’ll receive a CD (or online code) with two standard practice exams. Grockit will soon offer full-length CAT exams in the same format of the actual test. Plan on taking about 5-7 over the course of your preparation. Don’t cheat by not doing the essay. Yes, I know, it’s annoying; I went though this too. But you have to practice reading long, boring passages after three hours of testing, not just after two. Think of these as scrimmages before the big game.

Learn Actively
Ever sit down to study, turn on music, pick up some coffee, IM friends, check your email, then realize you have to leave in 30 minutes? Great, so don’t do that. Instead, dedicate those couple hours to reviewing the topic at hand, and nothing more. Take copious notes of your trouble spots. Practice many similar questions at once. If you get a question wrong, attempt it a 2nd time before reviewing the explanation. Don’t read through the practice book passively and expect the information to be absorbed through sheer familiarity. If you can’t explain a topic to someone else, you don’t know it well enough.

Targeted Study
Our goal at Grockit is to make the learning experience fun and social, while also isolating students’ weakness through detailed and comprehensive analytics. Use feedback resources like Grockit’s to identify the parts of the tests that are particularly difficult for you. We assign multiple “skill-tags” to each of our questions, and using Grockit’s analytics page, students may review their strengths and weaknesses to create custom study sessions. They are also periodically presented with personalized Challenges and Diagnostics to measure their progress in a variety of areas. Without any (internal or external) feedback of your progress, study time is wasted. Instead, hone in on those nagging topics by giving them more attention. A passive studier goes through the textbook from page 1 to 300. An active (and ultimately more successful studier) creates a personalized “textbook” by assessing and reassessing his/her strengths and weaknesses and targeting their practice accordingly.

Many Small Goals
Each time you sit down to study, set a goal for that practice. This can be, “take notes on key points in Chapter 6,” “memorize these 4 formulas for these type of Quantitative questions,” or “practice and review all 30 sample questions in this section.” You will be more apt to focus and less inclined to justify stopping early or doing a cursory job. On a macro level, set longer-term goals to “get a 650 on my next practice test” or “review all probability questions by next Friday”. Most importantly, constantly reassess and redirect your targets. Maybe one section is giving you more trouble than another – don’t default to spending equal time on each topic because each has 20 practice questions to review.

Expert Help
Don’t expect your tutor or teacher to hold your hand. It may be tempting to drop $1,200 on a class and think you’re done. This will backfire. Trust me. If you do register for a course, show up ready to learn. Use it to identify material that’s confusing, and study that on your own. A more cost-effective approach is to only work with private instructors to target your weaknesses when you really need it. It avoids the fundamental “teach-to-the-middle” flaw of a classroom environment. Feel free to combine courses and private tutoring, but be prepared to spend some money. For private lessons, show up with problems that are troubling you and direct your instructor to your weaknesses. Your instructor cannot read your mind. The more you bring with you, the more he/she will be able to help. For example, Grockit’s instructors may customize practice sections ahead of time based on a student’s personalized analytics, but you are ultimately responsible for directing the study yourself. Intersperse these lessons throughout the course of your study so you have time to reassess where you’re at between each session.

The benefit of working hard while studying is that you ultimately have to do less of it. And when you sit down, do it right and actively, otherwise you are inefficient with your time and money. And any B-School student should know that inefficiency is an automatic red flag. Check out how Grockit can assist in your preparation for test day. Please email me at jakeb@grockit.com with your thoughts and questions.

Good luck!

February 2010