Just starting out? Or maybe you’ve been studying for weeks already? Perhaps you’ve already taken the official test once but want another crack at it? Whatever stage you’re at, you need a plan, so that’s what we’re going to talk about this week: how to develop your own personalized study plan. Get a notebook, open up a file on your computer, or start a blog. Record everything.

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Historically, business has always been a boys club – picture spiffy suits, cigar clubs, and golf course negotiations. That was back in the day, of course, and recently women have become much greater players (think Indra Nooyi at PepsiCo).  Even so, gender equality – or inequality –  remains a hot-button issue, and some recent press has us taking a second look at women’s status in the business world.

When The Harbus reported recently on the academic gender gap at Harvard Business School, it stated that women were shocked by a marked historical difference between men and women’s academic performance at business school. The article goes on to detail how the women (the article’s authors in particular) combated their surprise by researching the causes of the achievement gap, looking to understand how personal, social, and demographic characteristics affect the academic experience.

After reviewing several possibilities, the researchers found that the most substantiated cause for women’s underperformance at HBS was their feeling of discomfort towards speaking in class.  The women reported feeling less comfortable participating due to their perceived difference in academic and professional backgrounds.  They also found themselves self-editing in class in order to manage their image outside the classroom.

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by Jenn Yee, guest blogger

We hate and love to admit it, but business school is like a weird marriage-making commune.

Relationships bloom here (some in secret, at first). When we were at Kellogg, three couples that met at business school were already engaged by graduation. In the next six months, four more couples followed. It was like love dominoes.

So what’s with this phenomenon?

As one of my [married] friends exclaimed over Indian dinner during our first quarter of classes to our fellow sectionmates, “Business school is your last best chance to find a man.” Around the table, my single friends looked both panicked and enlightened.

Why is business school such good hunting grounds for a husband or wife? MBA Social has some theories: Read more

This post orignally appeared on the mbaMission blog. Read the introduction below and find the full post here.

The 2011“2012 MBA application season is officially afoot. Harvard Business School (HBS) has just released its essay questions, maintaining its tradition of being the first school to do so each year. HBS usually strikes first in early May, and the other top 15 schools follow suit shortly after, throughout May and even into early June.

The HBS watchers among you will notice two significant changes this year, the first of which is that the school has released almost all new questions. Of the six essay prompts that HBS offered last year, only one remains”the school’s famed three accomplishments essay. The second major change is to a streamlined application that offers candidates few options. For the past few years, HBS has required MBA candidates to respond to two essay questions, allowing them to choose from among four. Now applicants face four mandatory questions, leaving them nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. So, this change could limit your ability to play to your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses. Our analysis of HBS’s essay questions can be found here.

Data sufficiency problems can be a lot of fun because we don’t actually have to solve all the way to the end of the problem. At the same time, data sufficiency problems can be maddening because of the way in which the information is worded. Often, especially on harder questions, the question stem or statements in a data sufficiency problem are worded in such a tricky way that we’re not sure of the significance of the information after we’ve read it.

This lesson is all about how to Rephrase the information in a more useful way. (For those who have taken or are planning to take our class, the Rephrasing lesson occurs during class 1, though I’ve changed the order in which the types are presented in this article.) Read more

An article on Fortune.com last week pointed out that the debt burden for MBA students at top business schools has seen an increase as of late.  This rise has largely been attributed to the recent recession. B-school financial aid officers have noted that the resultant pay freezes at pre-MBA jobs have caused more and more applicants to dip into their personal savings to finance their degrees. With applicants making less money as they enter school, and tuition costs growing steadily, the higher debt load seems almost inevitable.
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We’ve written a fair amount about various alternative careers b-school graduates can have, like education, fashion, casino management and healthcare. We realize that prospective MBAs interested in these fields might not be traditional MBA candidates to begin with, particularly if they’ve been working in the nonprofit sector. Therefore, this summer, we’re offering our Social Ventures Scholars program, which will give 25 individuals a full tuition scholarship to a special Live Online 9-session course.

The course will begin on June 9, 2011. If you’re interested in applying for this scholarship (a $1090 value) you must meet the following three criteria:

1. you currently work full-time in an organization that promotes positive social change,
2. you plan to use your MBA to work in a public, not-for-profit, or other venture with a social-change oriented mission,
3. you can demonstrate a clear financial need.

If you meet these criteria and would like to apply, you can find the details of the scholarship, including applications requirements, here. You can also contact svs@manhattanprep.com/gmat/ with any questions.

After our article on how to read a Critical Reasoning problem, I received a request for a similar article addressing Sentence Correction (SC). So, here you go! We’re going to address what we should do on any and every sentence correction question, regardless of the particular grammar rules tested in that problem.
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Our friends at mbaMission have interviewed the University of Chicago Booth School of Business Associate Dean for Student Recruitment and Admissions Kurt Ahlm. Read the highlights below and find the full post here.

Here are some highlights from the interview:

• Chicago Booth does not employ any quotas in its application review process but looks to enroll a diverse, smart group of students who fit well with the school’s values and culture.
• Ahlm discusses how an application is reviewed at Chicago Booth.
• Chicago Booth interviews 40%“50% of applicants, though depending on the strength of the applicant pool, the percentage can vary from year to year.

You can find the full interview transcript here.

With the growing popularity of tablet computers, speculation about the integration of this technology into education has begun to grow. The Consumer Electronics Show proclaimed 2011 to be the Year of the Tablet PC, and others have gone on to declare it the Year of the Student Tablet PC. But even while sales are soaring (tablet computer unit sales will see a 1,571% increase between 2010 and 2013, says Businessweek), students and educators are still debating the hardware’s classroom value.

According to a January press release from International Data Corporation, the worldwide tablet market grew by a little over 45% in the third quarter of 2010, with the sales being driven almost exclusively by global demand for the Apple iPad. Indeed, the iPad represented almost 90% of the tablet market at the close of 2010.

Even so, The Chronicle of Higher Education suggests that the iPad is not the best tablet for classroom learning. In a recent article, The Chronicle presented the findings of several universities who had begun implementing tablet use into classes. Testing at the University of Notre Dame demonstrated that the finger-based interface and the glassy surface of the iPad made it difficult to take in-class notes or mark up readings, while Chatham University found that it actually made written course work more difficult. Other stated drawbacks included the lack of textbooks available on the iPad, as well as the flaws with current stylus inputs.

Still, while The Chronicle article toted the educational flaws in the Apple iPad, it also pointed out several benefits. From a pedagogical standpoint, professors at Notre Dame and at Reed College found that articles and required readings were more readily available to students in class via the iPad. Furthermore, students who used iPads were better capable of collaboration, being more in sync with one another and at greater ease to share the content on their screens. Add to that the fact that the iPad is smaller in size than traditional laptops or tablet PCs, with an extended battery life and a competitive price, and the scales seem to be weighing even.

Ultimately, though, the argument, both in The Chronicle and in the educational market as a whole, boils down to one major determining factor: student preference. If the 90% market share offers any indication, that decision has already been handed down. Not to mention, with educational iPad use extending to younger age groups (iPads for kindergarteners), the potential for building brand loyalty is endless.

That’s not to say that competition isn’t out there, but as All Things Digital notes: Apple has delivered its second generation tablet while most of its competitors have yet to ship their first. Whether these competitors can close in on Apple has yet to be seen, but whether they will be able to better serve educational needs will be something to look out for.