If you live in DC, LA, or Chicago, we invite you to attend a Long Term Planning workshop led by our friends at mbaMission this Thursday, January 28th. The workshop will teach you how to create an admissions timeline, accelerate your personal goals, and weigh the differences between various MBA programs, along with other useful tips. We’re very excited to be able to host these events for our community. Keep in mind, however, that while these events are free, space is limited, so select your location below and register today!

For those of you who do not live in the cities above or who miss the event, mbaMission will be running more Long Term Planning Workshops in the coming weeks. Two will take place online, one in Philadelphia, and one in New York. View our full schedule of events to register.

Thanks to mbaMission for putting these events on!

Here at Manhattan GMAT, we spend a fair amount of time introducing our students to the ins and outs of the GMAT (e.g.  How are the essays weighed and scored?  What are the practical implications of the test being computer adaptive?).  The GMAT is a unique test that raises its own distinctive issues and challenges, and learning about the test (as opposed to simply practicing test questions) is itself a valuable component to achieving a high score.

In response to popular demand, we have compiled answers to many of the questions that most students have about the GMAT in this FREE guide – the GMAT Uncovered.  This guide is available electronically via download at our site.  We are confident that the GMAT Uncovered will address many of the questions you may have about the GMAT, including questions you didn’t even know you had!  It was written by Stacey Koprince, one of our extraordinary Instructors, so you know it’s good.  🙂

Happy reading!

In August, Manhattan GMAT declared that it would donate 10% of its revenue to TEP, a charter school in Washington Heights (a neighborhood in NYC) started by Manhattan GMAT Chairman Zeke Vanderhoek. Manhattan GMAT has finally made good on its pledge and donated over $100,000 to the school.

Manhattan GMAT believes the teaching profession should attract the most talented candidates to the field, and we are proud to support the students at teachers at TEP as they pursue this goal.

If you would like to learn more about TEP, please visit them at www.tepcharter.org.

Manhattan GMAT was featured prominently in a Forbes story on growing companies this past week.  The article focuses on how picky we are about Instructors, which is certainly true!  The article did, however, mistakenly confer credit to Andrew for founding the Company, which we all know properly goes to Zeke Vanderhoek.  It also mistakes a ‘700’ for a ‘760’ as our score requirement, which is a pretty big gap/typo.  All in all though, it’s great to get some recognition!  🙂

Our 8 Strategy Guides, organized by topic, have been around for several years.  However, we were seeing some students who hadn’t looked at math in a LONG time and wanted a refresher.

So, after months of development, we are very happy and proud to announce the publication of our brand new Strategy Supplement, the Foundations of GMAT Math!  This book starts from the basics to give students those “Oh yeah, NOW I remember how to FOIL” moments.  We start with Order of Operations/PEMDAS and algebra, and go from there to fractions, geometry, exponents, divisibility and other flashback-inducing topics.  If you’re confident in your math skills, you may not need this book at all.  But otherwise, you may like it a great deal.  You know who you are . . .

All Manhattan GMAT Course Students will receive this book for free as part of their course materials.  If you’ve already started your course and want this book, contact studentservices@manhattanprep.com/gmat/ and they’ll hook you up (you may have to pay shipping depending on your location, but the book will be free).

Kudos to our curriculum wizards for their latest contribution to the best in GMAT Prep!

Many people have heard that the early questions on the GMAT are crucially important because of the test’s adaptive nature; they have the (incorrect) sense that how you answer the first questions will determine the sort of questions you get for the rest of your test.

This belief is exaggerated and mistaken, as we have heard straight from GMAC.  But here’s another wrinkle – could the very first questions on the GMAT be experimental, and thus not count at all toward your score?

We recently heard second-hand from GMAC that every experimental item has been tested ‘in every position’ on the test.  That is, an experimental question will have appeared as Item #1, Item #2, . . . all the way up to Item #37 (on the math, or #41 on the verbal) before being added to the active item pool.  From this, it seems almost certain that yes, the very first questions you see may very well be experimental and not count toward your score.

What’s the concrete takeaway from this?  Among other things, it’s one more reason NOT to obsess too much about the early questions and maintain the correct pace throughout.  You don’t want to be spending extra time on a question that doesn’t count, and this applies as much to the first question as it does to one in the middle!  It also suggests the difficulty of trying to ‘read’ how you’re doing, as experimental items can appear at any time randomly, making it near impossible to gauge your own performance (though if you feel like you’re struggling with accuracy while keeping the right pace, it’s a good sign!).

This Thursday, October 30th, our friends at mbaMission will be running Interview Workshops in our New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles centers.  These workshops will prepare you for the sorts of questions your MBA Interviewers are likely to throw your way.  We’re very glad to be able to offer these events to the Manhattan GMAT community.  These workshops are FREE.  However, space is limited in each location; click on the appropriate link above to register.

mbaMission will also be running an Interview Workshop next Thursday, November 5th, in Washington D.C.  Thanks to mbaMission for putting these events on!

GMAC, the publishers and administrators of the GMAT, are hosting their bi-annual summit here in New York on Thursday.   The purpose of the summit is to let those in the GMAT ecosystem know about research, trends, and upcoming changes to the test (if any).  We’re very privileged to be invited again this year!  It’s always a fascinating day when you get to hear from and speak to the minds behind the GMAT.  We’ll post an update here after the summit regarding items of interest.

Update – Well, the GMAC Summit 2009 is now in the books.  In all frankness, there wasn’t much revealed to interest the average GMAT test-taker, aside from an affirmation of points made earlier (e.g. the early items are not worth expending extra time on).

Some of the items discussed include:

Read more

Our friends at mbaMission receive many questions about Business School Interviews.  What types of questions will they ask?  Is it better to interview with the Admissions Committee or an alumnus/alumna?  How much do these interviews matter?

In an interactive presentation, Jeremy Shinewald, founder of our Admissions Consultant partner firm, mbaMission, will offer advice on best practices to help you prepare and succeed in your business school interviews.  He will explore the different types of interviews, what each admissions committee is looking for, and tips for time management.  There will also be a Q&A session after the presentation.

Like a rockstar, Jeremy has scheduled two workshops to try and accommodate everyone’s busy schedules.  The first one will occur on Wednesday, October 21st, from 8:30 – 10:30 P.M. EST.  The second will  take place on Sunday, October 25th, from 3 – 5 p.m. EST.  Both events are free and take place in our interactive online classroom. Space is limited, so click on the appropriate link to sign-up today.

Emily Sledge, one of our veteran Instructors who also serves as an Instructor Developer, is moving from sunny California to St. Louis!

Emily first joined MGMAT back in 2005 and has helped literally hundreds of students achieve their GMAT score goals.  Before then she earned an engineering physics degree from Cornell, an MBA from UCLA, and a 790 on the GMAT.  Whew!

We know the students in Orange County will miss Emily terribly.  On the other hand, this is fantastic news for Missouri!  If you’re in the St. Louis area and would like to get on our mailing list for upcoming courses later this year, click here.

Best of luck with the move Emily!