The attack of the admission essays

Oh the essays.
The open ended questions , & the desire to give the perfect answer! This sure makes writing a tough task. Where do I start?

Well yesterday I finally found uhat works for me. As I sat with my roommates who were watching tv, I found myself in the perfect zone for writing.
So, having already decided on the themes I will be using for the answers- I started writing, & thoughts kept flowing.
By the next hour, I had 2 essay questions down.
Nice!

Say hello to future leaders in Providence

Now that I'm done with the GMAT, I need to get into gear for the essays.

I have been looking at the essay questions of the top 15 business schools, and they are (of course) so open ended, that they have me in a dizzy.

'Tell us how you executed a plan', 'Tell us about a challenging interaction'....
oh gee - these are essays where you can't just grab a pen and start writing!

I have been introspecting and have come up with a few situations that match each topic. Now I have to decide which to write about, and then write about it really well!

I did speak with my father, who is among the best speakers of the English language I have met. He is also a management guru - having worked and consulted with large corporations in India.

He recommended trying to understand why the admissions committee is asking the question - what traits are they looking for?

In my situations I would always come up with examples of good virtues, or convincing skills - but he suggested I try to bring out several skills which subtly came into play during each situation.

Thanks, Dad.

getting a 700+ GMAT score

Phew.
Done with the GMAT. Got 710.
Well I had received way higher scores in my mock gmats - & given GMACs claim of 0.95 reliability of the exam, this really should not have happened .. Oh well.
I'm told a score of 710 should be enough to get thru the top schools- since its over the magic 700 figure.
(foreign applicants- especially indians- are rumoured to have more rigorous GMAT requirements).

What did I do for this score?
Well my Prep started 2 months earlier.
I got Princeton & kaplan gmat prep books, & the official exam guides. (i will put up an amazon list soon)
Also I attended a meetup (meetups.com) on the GMAT to find some support from others preparing for the GMAT.
I visited sites like beatthegmat.com, pagalguy.com etc
& of course, I gave the GMAT mock exams (free download from mba.com)
It really helps to get into a test mood- especially since most of the GMAT takers have not appeared for a competitive exam in a while.
For this, having someone also preparing for the GMAT along with you is a big help.

All the best- prospective MBA's!