We’ve invited mbaMission to share their Business School Essays Analyses as they’re released for the 2013-2014 application season. Here is their analysis for University of London (London Business School).

London Business School follows in the steps of a number of top MBA programs this year in streamlining and downscaling its application essay requirements, going from six questions and 1,750 allotted words to three questions and 1,200 words. Two of the current prompts are reminiscent of several questions from last year—asking about applicants’ future plans and potential contributions to the school—but LBS throws candidates a curve with its unique third query, which takes a new angle on the relationship between MBA students and their school. Overall, LBS’s questions are much broader than ever before (and than most other schools’ prompts), which may be daunting to some applicants, but we encourage you to see this wide canvas as an opportunity rather than something intimidating. One of the school’s admissions officers explains on the department’s blog that the change in the scope and style of the questions was meant “to allow you more freedom in the way you go about constructing your essays.” We hope our analysis of LBS’s essay prompts will help you use this leeway to your advantage.

The essays form a major part of your application so we recommend that you spend a significant amount of time reflecting on the questions below and preparing your replies.

The essay questions for the class of MBA 2016 are:

What will your future look like after completing your MBA? (500 words)
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We’ve invited mbaMission to share their Business School Essays Analyses as they’re released for the 2013-2014 application season. Here is their analysis for INSEAD. 

We’ve invited mbaMission to share their Business School Essays Analyses as they’re released for the 2013-2014 application season. Here is their analysis for University of Texas, Austin (McCombs). 

By asking candidates to submit three essays of 250 words each, the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas, Austin, has drastically streamlined its essay questions this year compared with last year—and in concert with what many other MBA programs are doing this season. Then, the length requirement for Essay 1 alone was 800 words, and applicants had roughly 600 words for the school’s three-part Essay 2.  Overall, McCombs’s questions appear to have taken a more personal tone, asking candidates to introduce themselves to the student community, explain what they can contribute to the program other than professional qualities and describe how they expect to develop during their two years in the MBA program. Gone are any explicit references to short- or long-term goals and one’s career history, so the applicant’s more internal aspects and soft skills are highlighted instead.

 1. Imagine that you are at the Texas MBA Orientation for the Class of 2016. Please introduce yourself to your new classmates, and include any personal and/or professional aspects that you believe to be significant. Select only one communication method that you would like to use for your response.
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We invite you to test your GMAT knowledge for a chance to win! Each week, we will post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for a free Manhattan GMAT Prep item. Tell your friends to get out their scrap paper and start solving!
Here is this week’s problem:

A semicircular piece of paper has center O, as shown above. Its diameter A’A is coated with adhesive. If the adhesive is used to fuse radii OA’ and OA along their entire lengths (so that points A and A’ coincide, points P and P’ coincide, and so on), a cone is formed as shown above. If point B divides the original semicircle into two identical arcs, what is the measure of angle AOB in the folded cone?

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On the GMAT, you may see a 3 to 5 ratio expressed in a variety of ways:

3:5
3 to 5
x/y = 3/5
5x = 3y (Yes, that’s the same as the other 3. Think about it.)

In the real world, we encounter ratios in drink recipes more often than anywhere else (3 parts vodka, 5 parts cranberry), perhaps explaining why–after drinks that strong–we forget how to handle them.

Keep in mind: ratios express a “part to part” relationship, whereas fractions and percentages express a “part to whole” relationship. So the fraction of the above drink is 3/8 vodka (or 37.5% of the whole). Either way, hold off on mixing that drink until after this post.

I like to set up ratios using a “ratio box.” The box is a variant on the “Unknown Multiplier” technique from page 65 of our FDPs book, but it’s a nice way to visually manage ratios without resorting to algebra.

Let’s take the beginning of a typical ratio question:

“The ratio of men to women in a class is 3:2…”

Instead of doing anything fancy with variables, I just set up a tracking chart:

From this point alone, I have sufficient information to answer a bunch of questions.

-What fraction of the students are men? (3/5)

-What percent of the students are women? (40%)

-What is the probability of choosing a man? (3/5)

-etc.

However, I have nowhere near enough information to answer anything about the REAL numbers of students in this class. Suppose the GMAT were to add a little more information:

“The ratio of men to women in a class is 3:2. If there are 35 students in the class…”

Now we can calculate almost everything about the real numbers of people. First, make a bigger box with 3 lines. The unfilled box looks like this:

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Here are the free GMAT events we’re holding this week. All times are local unless otherwise specified.

9/9/13– Online – Free Trial Class- 9:00PM- 12:00AM (EDT)

9/10/13– Santa Monica, CA- Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM

9/10/13– New York, NY- Accessing Your MBA Profile presented by mbaMission– 7:00PM- 8:30PM (EDT)

9/10/13–  Philidelphia, PA – Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM

9/10/13– Durham, NC – Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM

9/10/13– Arlington, VA- Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM

9/11/13– Westlake Village, CA- Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM

9/11/13– Santa Clara, CA- Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM

9/11/13– Bellevue, WA- Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM

9/11/13– Glendale, CA – Free Trial Class– 6:30PM- 9:30PM

9/14/13– Santa Monica, CA – Free Trial Class– 2:00PM- 5:00PM

9/14/13– San Francisco, CA- Free Trial Class- 2:00PM- 5:00PM

9/15/13– Online- Free Trial Class– 7:00AM- 10:00AM (EDT)

9/1513– West Hollywood, CA- Free Trial Class- 5:30PM- 8:30PM

9/15/13– San Diego, CA- Free Trial Class – 2:00PM- 5:00PM
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Some interesting —and alarming—articles have been making the rounds lately, following on the heels of an academic study published by professors at the University of Akron and Cleveland State University. The more reputable articles report such sweeping conclusions that I actually wondered whether the journalists got it wrong, so I went to the source (I can link only to the abstract here, but I did read the full study).

When I read the study’s methodology, I knew I had my next article topic. We’re going to test our Critical Reasoning (CR) skills on an actual academic study! You might have to do something similar in business school (admittedly with a business case, not an academic study), so let’s test your b-school readiness now!

(Note: I refer to the “more reputable articles” because some blogs have picked this up and publishing under headlines such as “Is the GMAT the root of all evil?” As much as you may hate studying for this test, I think we can agree that this characterization is a bit over the top. : ) )

Correlation vs. Causation

We need to define a couple of terms first. You may already have learned about correlation and causation in your CR studies; here’s a refresher.

Correlation: two phenomena tend to occur or appear at the same time or in conjunction with one another

Causation: one phenomenon causes another phenomenon

Correlation does not imply causation. One of two correlated phenomena could cause the other but those two things could also have absolutely no causation between them. Alternatively, the two things could both be caused by a third thing. The two things could even cause each other! (Predator-prey dynamics are an example of this kind of two-way dependency.)

For example, have you ever noticed how, when the ground is wet, people often seem to be carrying around umbrellas? Those two phenomena are correlated. Which one causes the other? Read more

“Many a true word is said in jest.”—I don’t know, but I heard it from my mother.

Once upon a time in America, when I was a boy, my father, an engineer, said to me, “You can make numbers do anything you want them to do.”  This was the beginning of my cynicism.  But never mind that.  My father was fluent in four languages: English, German, French, and Algebra.  My father was also a very honest man.  His comment relied on the fact that most people can’t read Algebra—he just let people fool themselves.  Teaching GMAT classes, I combat the fact that many people can’t read Algebra.  Like my father, the GMAT exploits that weakness and lets—nay, encourages—people to fool themselves.  Thus, for many, preparing for the quantitative portion of the GMAT is akin to studying a foreign language.  (I know that even many native speakers feel that preparing for the verbal portion of the GMAT is also akin to studying a foreign language.  But that’s a different topic.)  In any case, you want to make your Algebra as fluent as your French. . .yes, for most of you, that was one of those jokes.

I know that some of you disagreed with the above and feel that the problem is an inability to understand math.  But that’s not true, at least on the level necessary to succeed on the GMAT.  If you really didn’t have enough synapses, they wouldn’t let you out without a keeper—because you couldn’t tip, or comparison shop, or count your change.  It’s a literacy problem.  Think about the math units in the course.  Truthfully, the first one is often a death march.  By the end, as country folk say, I often feel like I’m whipping dead horses.  On the other hand, the lesson concerning probability and combinations, putatively a more advanced topic, usually goes really well.  Why?  Because folks can read the words and understand their meaning.  Conversely, folks just stare at the algebraic symbols as if they were hieroglyphics.  The problem is that putting a Rosetta Stone in the book bag would make it weigh too much. . .kidding.  But if you can’t read the hieroglyphics, the mummy will get you—just like in the movies.

It really is a literacy issue and should be approached in that fashion.  You still don’t believe me?  You want specific examples?  I got examples, a pro and a con.  On the affirmative side, I once worked one on one with a man who came to me because his math was in shreds.  Because he couldn’t read what the symbols were saying.  Partly because his mother had once said, “Your sister is the one that’s good at math.”  As far as the GMAT is concerned, she was wrong, and so was your mother, if she said that.  Anyway, one day I gave him a high level Data Sufficiency word problem concerning average daily balances on a credit card.  He looked at it for about 30 seconds, and he didn’t write anything on his scrap paper.  Then he turned to me and said the answer was blah blah.  And he was right.  I looked at him and said, “How did you do that?  You’re not that good.”  (Yes, this is also an example of how mean I am to private students.)  But—and here’s the real punch line—he said, “It was about debt; I understood what the words meant.”  And there you go.  As a by the way, he worked very hard, became competent although not brilliant quantitatively, scored 710—97%V, 72%Q*—and went to Kellogg.

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Exciting news for iPhone users! Our new Pocket GMAT app is now available for FREE in the iTunes App store. Containing over 350 GMAT quant flash cards, the app uses an adaptive algorithm developed by Manhattan Prep instructors to help you target cards you most need help with. Allowing you to work on your GMAT quant anywhere and at any time, the Pocket GMAT app is sure to be an indispensable tool for iPhone users.

Pocket GMAT is available for the iPhone and iPod Touch and was built with our friends at Learningpod, who are focused on making great practice and assessment questions free for everyone. In addition to the adaptive algorithm, there is also a sequential practice mode that lets you flip through the cards however you want. You also have the ability to enter a Target Date to keep you on pace and track your progress. The flash cards are organized into “KeyRings” by topic and include algebra, number properties, word problems, geometry, fractions, decimals, and percents.

You can download the app via the iTunes App store, here.

In the first part of this article, we took a look at how to read MSR passages and take some light notes. We finished off with a problem—now let’s talk about the solution! (Note: click on the link earlier in this paragraph; you’re going to want the tab text when reading through the solution.)

Here’s the problem again:

 “Based on the information in the passage and tables, it can be determined that the average monthly meat consumption, in pounds, by the residents of Barras in the AD 1000s was which of the following?

“(A) 9,600

“(B) 10,000

“(C) 16,000

“(D) 17,400

“(E) 18,000”

How did it go? Our first task is to figure out where to go. Which tab is likely to be most useful in answering this question? They ask about meat consumption and also specify Barras in the AD 1000s.

Both tables (in tabs 2 and 3) talk about Barras and meat consumption, but this question asks about pounds—that sends us to tab 3.

Read the key up at top. The table shows average monthly meat consumption (good, that’s what we want!) in pounds for a 4-person family. We want pounds. Do we want a 4-person family?

Nope. The question asks about the total consumption in pounds for the residents of Barras. We’re going to need to do a little calculating here.

In the 1000s, Barras’s average monthly consumption per 4-person family was 160 pounds. Per person, then, consumption was 160 /4 = 40 pounds. Hmm, now what?

We need to know the total number of residents in Barras in the 1000s. Where did they tell us that?

Right! Tab 1 gave some information about population at the end of the paragraph about Barras. The passage says that there were 400 residents, on average, in the AD 1000s.

400 residents multiplied by 40 pounds per resident is a total of 16,000 pounds.

The correct answer is (C).

What did you learn about MSRs from this problem? I think there are 3 key takeaways, which I list at the end of this article; try to come up with your own before you read them.

Let’s try another problem from this MSR; give yourself about 1.5 to 2 minutes total to answer all three parts of this problem.

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