Cold Hard GMAT: Lessons from fat chicks, black belts, and the 4-minute mile.
As I showed last week, following commonsense GMAT strategies sometimes gets you hosed.
One example of a popular but very bad strategy: “Don’t go it alone.” In other words, your common sense probably suggests that you use the GMAT community to get oriented and figure out what it’s all about. Then you cop their strategies. You commiserate when you fail. You use them as your support group.
Of course we want to be able to think and act and study like the bottom 99%... but all of us want to somehow magically land in the top 1%. This is bogus. You study in a herd, you fail in a herd.
If you’re a chick, be doubly vigilant about this kind of thinking. Ever notice that the chicks who eat lunch together (in groups, not just 2-3) often seem to gain weight together? It’s because this herd becomes our reference point, and it tells us what’s good enough, rich enough, thin enough. This is slightly more common for chicks than for dudes, but it goes for both genders: where willpower is concerned, friendship (often) facilitates failure.
So how do you use this fact to land in the one percent?
I don’t know how many of you guys have studied martial arts, but you’ve all probably seen someone break boards. There’s a trick to it. If you punch the board, you typically hurt yourself and get nowhere. If you punch four inches beyond the board, it breaks.
What’s that have to do with the GMAT? Let’s say you go on some forums and notice that a whole lot of people (at least some of whom must be smarter than you) say that they can’t get through some big notional wall at 720 or 750 or whatever. And you check the official averages and see that there does appear to be a cliff at 720 or 750.
Should that worry you? No. Be happy about it. Your 99th-percentile strategy depends on a majority of very smart people perceiving that there is a wall there. The wall has to be real for them. But not for you.
Performance barriers are viral. This is a critical basic lesson for performance in almost any area. Take the four-minute mile. A ton of people could have broken the four-minute mile before 1954, but didn’t. They were all focused on how much they had to do in order to get from 4:14 to 4:06.
After Bannister broke 4:00, everyone started breaking it, even high school kids. So I don’t think he was truly the world’s fastest middle-distance runner in ’54. He just didn’t stop at the wall.
And neither will you. Because focus directs force; whatever’s on your mind becomes part of your strategy.
Most people will hear about performance barriers from other GMAT students, then train against it and typically lose to it.
But you are going to quarantine yourself and play a pure 760+ game. Don’t read advice or questions targeted at the sub-750 set. The strategy that helped that guy get from 680 to 710 could knock you from 790 to 740 (this happened to me in practice tests).
And don’t talk to or count/measure people who got into top programs but had low scores. Those people are irrelevant because you will never be like them. They were checking their email every twenty seconds on the day decisions went out. On the other hand, you'll probably do what I did: wake up two hours late, remember what day it is, read admit decision on phone, then roll over and go back to sleep.
To sum it up: Punch the wall and it hurts you. Punch four inches behind the wall and it breaks clean. There’s no pain.






Comments
I'm gonna start a 6 week
I'm gonna start a 6 week series on how to get guys to call you back.
Ok, I think four essays on
Ok, I think four essays on the gmat is enough.
Bankerella, I am happy you did well on your GMATs and got into b-school. However, if you keep making posts like this, folks will assume that you got in on test scores rather than professional success or on being an interesting person.
Test scores are helpful, but they aren't something worth a four or five post series. Buy a Kaplan GMAT 800 book, spend a good 60-80 hours practicing for the exam, get a 780, and go home.
Standardized tests are worth studying for. But if you're obsessing over it, you're doing something wrong. I spent a week and a half of vacation studying for the GREs in between waterskiing and wakeboarding, I got a 780 GMAT equivalent, I forgot about them for two years, I applied to a few graduate programs, I got into my top choice. It shouldn't be this hard.
The Q section is incredibly easy. All you have to do is understand every question they can throw at you and know how to solve them. There is really no excuse for not getting a perfect score on the Q if you are a highschool graduate and know basic algebra.
The V section is a little bit tougher, but you just get out the flash cards and go over words and definitions, then cover the analogy problems over and over again. Again, not too hard to score in the top 1%.
Work hard, play hard.
I enjoy the motivational
I enjoy the motivational essays Bankerella,
IlliniProgrammer is probably jealous he didn't read your posts before he took the GMAT.
"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid"
Not sure what the big deal is
Not sure what the big deal is with this GMAT thing. My friends who took it here in mtl all got 770 and + and they're not even native english speakers.
onedumbmonkey: I enjoy the
I enjoy the motivational essays Bankerella,
IlliniProgrammer is probably jealous he didn't read your posts before he took the GMAT.
Eh. I got into my top choice program. I am all for studying for the GMAT. I studied for the GREs. What I am not for is obsessing over the GMAT. It's one exam that helps provide a decent basis for your intellect if there are any questions about it.
It is fairly easy for a banker to get a 780 and have a shot at an 800 on the exam. You learn to do the quantitative questions carefully, you spend about 50 hours studying words, and you're there. Then you get on with your life. Go kitesurfing. Buy a motorcycle and learn to race it on the track. Volunteer with inner-city kids. Run a marathon.
A couple posts on the GMATs are helpful. A series of four posts pretending it is the most important factor in b-school admits is an unhealthy obsession, IMHO. This is a banking forum that happens to care a little about b-school admits, not a GMAT forum. Let's not obsess too much.
Work hard, play hard.
IlliniProgrammer: onedumbmo
I enjoy the motivational essays Bankerella,
IlliniProgrammer is probably jealous he didn't read your posts before he took the GMAT.
Eh. I got into my top choice program. I am all for studying for the GMAT. I studied for the GREs. What I am not for is obsessing over the GMAT. It's one exam that helps provide a decent basis for your intellect if there are any questions about it.
It is fairly easy for a banker to get a 780 and have a shot at an 800 on the exam. You learn to do the quantitative questions carefully, you spend about 50 hours studying words, and you're there. Then you get on with your life. Go kitesurfing. Buy a motorcycle and learn to race it on the track. Volunteer with inner-city kids. Run a marathon.
A couple posts on the GMATs are helpful. A series of four posts pretending it is the most important factor in b-school admits is an unhealthy obsession, IMHO. This is a banking forum that happens to care a little about b-school admits, not a GMAT forum. Let's not obsess too much.
I see your point IlliniProgrammer, however I would agrue that your situation is different than a lot of other people reading posts about the GMAT. We have not yet applied to business school and I know that for my personal situation I will have to get a great score to go to my top school. I feel that if I obesse over the GMAT I will accomplish my GMAT score.
I am not even sure why you would choose to waste your time reading this post if you already got into your top school? Sounds like an inefficient use of your time IMHO.
"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid"
onedumbmonkey: I see your
I see your point IlliniProgrammer, however I would agrue that your situation is different than a lot of other people reading posts about the GMAT. We have not yet applied to business school and I know that for my personal situation I will have to get a great score to go to my top school. I feel that if I obesse over the GMAT I will accomplish my GMAT score.
I am not even sure why you would choose to waste your time reading this post if you already got into your top school? Sounds like an inefficient use of your time IMHO.
I have some surplus time right now. So does bankerella, apparently, given that she has also gotten into her top school and has posted five essays on the need to get a decent GMAT.
Spending the time to get a 760 or 780 GMAT is worth it. However, this should not require obsessing. Give it 60 hours of study and you'll get there. This is more like running a seven minute mile, not a four minute mile. You give it a week or two of practice, and you just do it. Then you get back to the important stuff- like the essays.
Work hard, play hard.
IlliniProgrammer: onedumbmo
I enjoy the motivational essays Bankerella,
IlliniProgrammer is probably jealous he didn't read your posts before he took the GMAT.
Eh. I got into my top choice program. I am all for studying for the GMAT. I studied for the GREs. What I am not for is obsessing over the GMAT. It's one exam that helps provide a decent basis for your intellect if there are any questions about it.
It is fairly easy for a banker to get a 780 and have a shot at an 800 on the exam. You learn to do the quantitative questions carefully, you spend about 50 hours studying words, and you're there. Then you get on with your life. Go kitesurfing. Buy a motorcycle and learn to race it on the track. Volunteer with inner-city kids. Run a marathon.
A couple posts on the GMATs are helpful. A series of four posts pretending it is the most important factor in b-school admits is an unhealthy obsession, IMHO. This is a banking forum that happens to care a little about b-school admits, not a GMAT forum. Let's not obsess too much.
Wait, are you talking about your GRE score as if it were a GMAT score equivalent? Because you study words on the GRE, not the GMAT.
IMO, there's no comparison. I never studied for the GREs but took them while studying for my GMATs to keep me sharp. Got a perfect GRE long before I broke the 99th percentile in GMAT. They are extremely easy in comparison. There's just no time pressure, and the verbals follow far simpler rules.
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I think your comment here is
I think your comment here is really helpful to my point. It seems like you're saying it's a lot easier for these kids to do the GREs and submit them for b-school. (Most of the M7, including HBS, Stanford, and Wharton, accept GRE scores instead of GMATs) It's fairly easy to get a 760 GMAT equivalent on the GREs- I spent about 60 hours studying for them, and the schools go off of ETS's GMAT algorithm:
http://www.ets.org/gre/institutions/about/mba/comp...
Standardized tests aren't that complicated. Study for them, get a good score, and go home. Folks can use the 140 hours they save to do something they enjoy, write their essays, or become more interesting people.
Work hard, play hard.
IlliniProgrammer: So then why
So then why not just save yourself all the hassle and take the GREs? Most of the M7, including HBS and Stanford, accept them for GMAT equivalency these days, anyways.
Take the GREs, get a 780 GMAT equivalent, go home and work on your essays. Why spend 200 hours trying to get a 760 GMAT when you can spend 60 hours getting a 780 GMAT equivalent? You can spend those other 140 hours on something a lot more fun.
Actually your comment here is really helpful. If you're saying it's easier to get a 760 or 780 GMAT equivalent on the GREs, that's great. Let's steer these kids that way. There's no more need to obsess over this and devote weeks of your life to an otherwise meaningless exam. Spend a week studying for the GREs, get a 760 GMAT equivalent, go (hang gliding) (kitesurfing) (volunteer) for the 140 hours you save.
Interesting point here...so do adcoms view the GRE as favorably as the GMAT though? Isn't that a risky assumption...maybe things have changed since I graduated in 2010, but at Wharton I don't think there were too many people that just took the GRE.
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these...posts...must...stop..
these...posts...must...stop...
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WallStreetOasis.com: Interest
Interesting point here...so do adcoms view the GRE as favorably as the GMAT though? Isn't that a risky assumption...maybe things have changed since I graduated in 2010, but at Wharton I don't think there were too many people that just took the GRE.
I dunno. I see an increasing trend towards allowing the GRE by schools- with my favorite school- Booth- being one of the few holdouts. I think it is sort of turning into an ACT/SAT thing.
They all use ETS's algorithm as a basis for comparing scores. ETS had a similar algorithm for ACTs to SATs. But frankly, I'd much rather submit a 750V/800Q GRE (770 GMAT equiv) than a 750 GMAT, and it looks like ETS is already factoring some conservativism on the conversion (Converting an 800Q/800V GRE as a 790 GMAT).
Work hard, play hard.
IlliniProgrammer: WallStree
Interesting point here...so do adcoms view the GRE as favorably as the GMAT though? Isn't that a risky assumption...maybe things have changed since I graduated in 2010, but at Wharton I don't think there were too many people that just took the GRE.
I dunno. I see an increasing trend towards allowing the GRE by schools- with my favorite school- Booth- being one of the few holdouts. I think it is sort of turning into an ACT/SAT thing.
They all use ETS's algorithm as a basis for comparing scores. ETS had a similar algorithm for ACTs to SATs. But frankly, I'd much rather submit a 750V/800Q GRE (770 GMAT equiv) than a 750 GMAT, and it looks like ETS is already making conservative assumptions on the conversion (Converting an 800Q/800V GRE as a 790 GMAT).
Yeah, I guess my question is if allowing the GRE really giving it the same weight/importance/trust? even after using the ETS algo to compare (in the minds of the adcoms).
these...posts...must...stop...
nobody.....forcing.....you......to......read
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IlliniProgrammer: I dunno. I
I dunno. I see an increasing trend towards allowing the GRE by schools- with my favorite school- Booth- being one of the few holdouts. .
Buddy of mine got a perfect GRE score and is headed to Booth for a double Ph.D Econ/Finance (part booth, part U of chicago).
Found on their website for the PhD program:
''GMAT and GRE
Applicants must also complete the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) or the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE). For most areas of study, applicants may take either the GMAT or GRE. Exceptions are:
For Economics - GRE is required.
For Finance - GRE is preferred; GMAT is acceptable.
For the Joint Program in Financial Economics - GRE is required.''
http://www.chicagobooth.edu/phd/admissions.aspx
If they prefer the GRE for the PhD, does it mean that the GMAT is easier?
I would honeslty rather hear
I would honeslty rather hear about what its like to be a woman in a male dominated industry than the GMAT
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Yeah, I guess my question is
Work hard, play hard.
IlliniProgrammer: I think
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Well, again, the B-schools
Work hard, play hard.
IlliniProgrammer: It's fairly
You have to play the game to find out why you're playing the game.
Going Concern: If it's easier
Work hard, play hard.
bankerella: To sum it up:
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Illini - thanks, interesting
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hey bankerella~ thanks for
Money Never Sleeps? More like Money Never SUCKS amirite?!?!?!?
double post.
Money Never Sleeps? More like Money Never SUCKS amirite?!?!?!?
21 Lives: bankerella: To
Work hard, play hard.
IlliniProgrammer: Get a 780
Money Never Sleeps? More like Money Never SUCKS amirite?!?!?!?
IlliniProgrammer: The Q
labanker: Thanks for clearing
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sayandarula: IlliniProgramm
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IlliniProgrammer: Going
For the record, women make up
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IlliniProgrammer: For the
charlie
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IlliniProgrammer: charlie
Absolutely agree that
If you have a crappy story
keensetofpeepers: Absolutely
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ok, I think you're now
The GRE is easier than the