Knewton on GMAT Verbal: It’s Wordy, It’s Awkward, It’s… Correct!

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-Adam

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It’s Wordy, It’s Awkward, It’s… Correct!

Joanna Bersin, is a Content Developer at Knewton where she helps students with their GMAT prep. 

Like a salesperson trying to trick you into purchasing an expensive item by appealing to your emotions, the makers of the GMAT try to trick test-takers into both “buying” grammatically incorrect answer choices by making them concise, and eliminating answer choices that are grammatically correct by making them appear awkward and unwieldy.

How do we usally avoid splurging on unnecessary purchases? We train ourselves to shop wisely, basing our decisions on a range of criteria and not solely on what "seems" to be the most attractive option in the store. We focus on specific features, using logic to compare items. How can you choose the correct answer on test day? You don’t just listen to your ear; first make sure that each sentence you eliminate violates a concrete rule of English grammar. When choosing between the remaining, seemingly error-free, constructions, use the differences between the options to identify errors; all other things being equal, always pick the less wordy, less awkward, and more active answer choice.

But buyer, beware: The test-makers, like salespeople, want your ear to tell you what to do. Before going into “negotiations” with these tricksters, it’s best to learn some of their most common tricks.

First, make sure to hold on to wordy and awkward but otherwise error-free constructions. The test-makers especially like to make choice A (the original sentence in the prompt) sound particularly awkward, even when it is the only error-free option. This encourages test-takers to eliminate it immediately, and then to waste time picking between the remaining options. They want us to think “This is the ‘sentence correction’ section, our minds tell us, so this sentence, especially a wordy and awkward one, must need some correcting."  But not necessarily!

Next, do not waste time struggling with pronoun-antecedent errors in complex sentences. Because it is easy to spot a pronoun within a sentence, there is not much that the test-makers can do to create errors with an underlined pronoun. Therefore, do not let pronoun use distract you; check for a logical antecedent, and make sure that the pronoun agrees with this antecedent in number- and move on. On the GMAT, a pronoun is even allowed have two physically possible antecedents within a sentence as long as only one of these antecedents is logical.

On questions dealing with parallelism, items that are linked must be the same part of speech. Options that follow this rule are sufficiently parallel. Once you are choosing between sufficiently parallel options, look for other errors. On tough questions especially, the GMAT-makers will often make the most parallel-looking option incorrect for some other reason, luring you to into choosing it over a sufficiently parallel option without other errors.

For example:

"For the play, the creation of a humorous script and the care of choosing from a cast are important."

And:

"For the play, the creation of a humorous script and the care with which the cast is chosen are important."

… are both parallel. The first sentence uses "of" after "care" and looks even more parallel than the second sentence. However, the less parallel-looking option, the second one, is grammatically correct and logical, whereas the more parallel-looking option is awkward and does not have a clear meaning. "The care of choosing from a cast" does not make sense. 

Don't be fooled; appearances aren't everything.

Finally, when down to those final two options, plug each back into the original sentence and check for sentence logic. An underlined portion itself may read error-free, but, when read in the context of the entire sentence, the meaning of the sentence formed may be illogical. Which option clearly places all modifiers, especially adjectival ones, as closely as possible to the words they modify? Which choice connects clauses logically?

The salespeople use the same tricks over and over again. Learn the gimmicks and buy only what you came for.

University of Michigan Ross MBA Interviews

This post is updated from last year.

Interviews for the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business are not particularly hard. Based on my experience as well as the reports found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com, I can say that they are generally seem to be friendly, focused on fit, and require the applicant to discuss the basics.

Ross interviews are conducted blind, but since what you say in the interview will be checked against what you wrote, make certain that your oral and written presentations are consistent, especially in terms of your goals.

My colleague, Steve Green, has compiled the following common questions:

INTRODUCTION AND “BASICS”  (GOALS, REASONS FOR MBA)

• Tell me about yourself. Walk me through your resume. What should I know about you?  *Probe resume: Cross-reference, push for details about why and how.
• Tell me about your current position.
• What do you do outside of work?
• What are your career goals?
• Why do you want an MBA?
• Why now?
  Why Ross?
• How will you be involved outside of class?
• What will you do if not accepted to Ross?

TEAMS

• How would you deal with a teammate who doesn’t act like a team player?
• Tell me how you dealt with a team member who was under-performing.
• Tell me about your role on a team.
• Tell me about a time when your team faced a lot of obstacles? (WHAT LEARNED?)

 

LEADERSHIP

• Tell me about a time you showed initiative.
• How do you manage conflict?
• Please give me 3 examples of your leadership experience?
• What does leadership mean to you?

 

SELF-AWARENESS

• What 3 adjectives would your friends use to describe you and why?
• What makes you unique?
• What was a challenging experience in your life?
• Tell me about a time when you had a professional failure and what did you learn from it.
• Tell me about a time when you received negative feedback from a supervisor and how did you respond.

Ross interviewers are admissions officers, students, and alumni and interviews can be in person or by telephone. Reported length for interviews is usually 30 minutes with some going 45 minutes and few lasting an hour (these seem to be an exception). Campus interviews will most likely be 30 minutes. Given that this is a short interview, I think it is particularly important that you have a very clear idea about what you want to cover. The most frustrating thing about such an interview could easily be lack of time to cover your own perceived key points, so make sure that when you think about the likely questions above, you have fully considered how you will use your answers as a vehicle to help your interviewer understand why you should be offered a place at Michigan. For more about strategy, see here.

If you are interviewed by a student, take it seriously! Apparently a sufficient number of applicants were not in R1 for 2010 admission because Soojin Kwon Koh, the Director of Admissions, posted the following:

I wanted to pass on a bit of advice to Round 2 (and 3) applicants based on some experiences during Round 1. It seems that some applicants view interviews with an MBA2 who is part of the Admissions Student Committee as less "serious" than an interview with an alumnus or staff member. Some applicants were a bit unprofessional, shall we say, probably thinking that an MBA2 is on the level of a peer/buddy rather than a bona fide admissions interviewer. Don't let that be you. 

Treat whoever you interview with equal seriousness.


-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

Cornell Johnson MBA Interviews

This post is updated from last year.


Based on my own clients' reports and those found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com, I think that there are five key things to consider when preparing for The Johnson School at Cornell University MBA interviews:

1. Interviewers use a standard list of questions according to a number of reports. My colleague, Steve Green, has compiled the following:

INTRO: RESUME

• Walk me through your background / resume.
• Why did you choose your undergraduate university/ college?
• Tell me about your current company and what you do.
• How has your job role changed over the years?
• What roles have you played? 
• What skills have you learned?
• How did you choose your career path?
• What do you do for fun outside of work?

GOALS, REASONS FOR MBA, REASONS FOR CORNELL

• Why an MBA
• Why now?
• What are your post-graduation goals?
• Brief me about your work post-graduation? (Follow up with q’s about the “actual work”)
• How did you choose this career path?
• Have you done research about this path?
• Why Cornell?
• What are you going to learn at Johnson?
• What Immersion Program will you join?
• Which clubs interest you at Cornell? Why? Are you interested in leading any of them?
• What other schools did you apply to?
• What is the main difference between (OTHER SCHOOL) and Johnson, in your eyes?

TEAMWORK

• Tell me about a conflict you faced in a team.
• Example of a time when you had a conflict in team and how you reacted to it.
• How would your teammates describe you as a member of their team?

LEADERSHIP

• Tell me about a significant leadership experience.
• Example of a leadership situation - where you had to convince a colleague or team about something they disagreed with.
• What 3 qualities do you believe a leader must have? Which of these is your weakest?

SELF-AWARENESS

• Tell me about a time you had to make a difficult decision.
• Tell me about the most difficult professional experience you’ve ever had.
• How do you deal with failure?
• What are 3 adjectives you would use to describe yourself to the admissions committee?
• What was your most innovative solution?
• What are your 3 strongest strengths and weakness?
• How will you work in a difficult team situation, when someone don't even care to contribute?
• How would your friends describe you?
• What are you reading right now?
• What do your parents do?
• What makes you nervous about business school?

CONCLUDING COMMENTS/QUESTIONS

• Any questions for me?

See my previous post on interviewing for more about how to handle many of these questions.

2. The interviewer will only have access to your resume, so know the contents well, but assume the agenda for your interview will be set by the list of questions that interviewer has and not only by your resume.

3. I don't know nor have seen reports of any trick questions really. Be prepared to ask questions about the program. If you have an alum interview, be prepared to have a number of questions.

4. Interviewers (students, adcom, or alum) are usually try to create a friendly interview atmosphere. Some reports indicate that admissions staff were rough. I know based on reports I have heard from clients that admissions staff can be aggressive. Regardless of how your interviewer performs, just be relaxed and positive. This is an interview about fit and your own potential, so make sure you can explain in depth why you want to attend Johnson, how you will contribute to it, and what you intend to do afterwords. Previous contact with alumni, visits to campus, and/or intensive school research are all great ways to prepare.

5. Campus interviews usually last 45 minutes. Alumni interviews seem to last about 45 minutes to about an hour.


-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

Northwestern University Kellogg MBA interviews

This post is updated from last year.


Just as with essays, interviews for the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management MBA applicant interviews are all about fit.

My comments below are based on reviewing reports from my clients as well as those found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com (As I have mentioned previously, both companies should be praised for collecting these reports for all to see. I should state as a matter of disclosure that I am a member of AIGAC, a professional organization, with consultants from both organizations). These reports reveal that there are five key things to consider when preparing for Kellogg interviews:

1. You need to know your resume completely as you will likely be asked about content in it. Review it carefully and consider what your interviewer might ask you to explain more thoroughly. If it is on your resume, it is fair game. Kellogg interviews are conducted blind, so your interview will not have read your application. The only thing they will have is your resume. Most interview reports indicate extensive questions about the contents of the resume.

2. You need to be prepared to answer routine MBA questions. Most reported interviews simply consist of them. See my previous post on MBA Application Interview Strategy.  You should expect to have to answer questions regarding teamwork (Examples where you demonstrated it, how you handled problems on teams, and how you would handle a low-performing team member in group work at Kellogg are common examples).  Be absolutely comfortable explaining core questions regarding fit (Why Kellogg? Why the Kellogg community is right for you?  Contributions?) as these always come up.   Be ready to ask questions and obviously make those questions fit to the person you are talking (admissions officer, student, or alumni).

3. Kellogg interviewers do not really ask any unexpected hypothetical and/or critical thinking questions,instead, as previously stated, you can expect more standard questions. My colleague, Steve Green, has collected the following common questions:
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• Tell me about yourself. / Walk me through your resume. PROBE ANSWERS
• Tell me about [particular accomplishment]
• Tell me about [particular promotion or change]
• What is missing from your resume that you’d like to tell me about?

• Why did you choose your undergraduate school?
• Why did you choose your major?
• Tell me something about your undergraduate experience?
• What was your legacy at your undergrad school?

• Why did you choose consulting for your career?
• What are your current responsibilities?
• What do you clients say about you?
• What do you outside of work?

• Tell me about your teamwork experience.
• Describe a difficult team situation you have had to deal with in the past?
• Tell me about another teamwork experience.
• What would you do when a team member wasn’t pulling his own weight?

• Who do you admire as a leader?
• Have you held leadership positions at work?
• Tell me something about your leadership experience?
• Have you faced any challenges as a leader? How did you deal with them?

• Why do you want an MBA/
• Why now?
• Why Kellogg?
• What are your goals?
• How will Kellogg help you achieve those goals?
• How do you envision yourself being involved in the Kellogg community?
• How will you enhance the diversity of the Kellogg class?

• What are your two main strengths?
• What are your two main weaknesses?
• If time and money were not an issue, what would you do?
• What three words would you use to describe yourself?
• Who is a good negotiator?
• Have you ever been in a negotiation where it wasn't win - win, rather, win-lose or lose-lose.

• What do people misperceive about you when first meeting you?
• What would you say is a weakness in your application? -
• If I asked your colleagues about you, what would they say?
•  What questions do you have for me? / Do you have any questions for me?

4. Interviewers (adcom or alumni) usually try to create a very relaxed interview atmosphere. As some adcom interviewers are 2nd year students, be aware that a campus interview might not be with an admissions officer. I know of a few instances when student interviewers were not necessarily that friendly to the applicant. In any case, this is an interview about fit (just like Kellogg Essay 3), so make sure you can explain in depth why you want to become a part of the Kellogg community and how you will contribute to it. Previous contact with alum, visits to campus, and/or intensive school research are all great ways to prepare. If you have not previously read my Kellogg essay analysis, I suggest doing so as it contains my analysis of Kellogg's culture.

5. Reported interview length could be from 30 to 60 minutes, with most reported interviews taking 30-45 minutes.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.

Stanford GSB MBA Interviews

This post is updated from last year.  My analysis of the Stanford GSB essays for 2010/2011 can be found here.

 

Stanford GSB MBA interviews, while so hard to get, are not necessarily that hard in any obvious way. This is interview about fit as determined by an alumni "gatekeeper." Chances are good that this gatekeeper might be in your industry or in some manner have a complementary background for assessing you.  For example, if you might be perceived as lacking a particularly important attribute (professional experience in the field related to your goals or English skills for example), don't surprised if the alumni is someone who is in a good position to judge this. While I imagine in some places with few alumni, a high level of complementary assessment (e.g., McKinsey applicant interviewed by Boston Consulting Group alum) would be less likely, I can say that it is the rule rather the exception in Japan. Expect a lively exchange and whatever you do, don't make any plans for it to end on time as Stanford interviews are well known for going long. Based on my experience, I can say that every client who had a long interview got in. This might be coincidence, but I doubt it.

My analysis of Stanford is based on my own personal knowledge as well as reviewing the reports of Stanford University GSB interviews found at accepted.com and clearadmit.com.

Some key things to consider when preparing for Stanford GSB interviews:

1. My colleague, H. Steven Green, has put the following together by reviewing interview reports:
RESUME

• Tell me about your background/walk me through your resume.
• Tell me a bit about yourself
• What extracurricular activity are you most proud of?
• What did you take away from your undergraduate experience?
• What do you like to do outside of work?
• Tell about a time you streamlined operations/made things more efficient? What did you do?  How did you measure its success?
• What metrics did you use?
• Tell me about your international experience.
• What is your favorite place you’ve traveled?
• What is your company’s strategy?  Is it succeeding?

GOALS, REASONS FOR MBA, REASONS FOR STANFORD

• Tell me about a specific time when you realized you needed an MBA.
• Why a Stanford MBA?
• Why do you need an MBA?
• Why now?
• Why Stanford?
• How would you decide between schools if you got into multiple MBA programs?
• What will you bring that is unique to the program?
• How will you contribute to Stanford?
• What are your short-term goals? Long-term goals?
• Where else have you applied? How have those worked out?
• Explain how you are ready for academic rigor.

CHARACTER & CHALLENGES TO YOUR BELIEFS AND VALUES

• Tell me about a time you faced an obstacle and what did you do about it?
• Tell me about a time you faced an ethical situation.
• Tell me about a time you had your beliefs challenged.
• Tell me about a time you had to stand your ground and how did you do it?
• Tell me about a time your values were challenged and you had to consult your moral compass?

DIFFICULT WORK RELATIONSHIPS

• Tell me about someone difficult to work with that was in a position above you and what you learned from it.

CRITICISM AND FEEDBACK FROM OTHERS

• Tell me about a time when others have pointed out a weakness of yours.
• Tell me about the most valuable piece of feedback you've ever received. How did it change your relationship with that individual? Why was it important?
• What is a valuable piece of feedback you have received?

FAILURE

• Tell me about a time things didn’t go according to plan and you failed? What did you learn from it?
• What did you learn from a failure?
• Tell me about an individual or group failure.
• Tell me about a time when you failed. What did you learn from that event and how have you implemented what you learned from that failure?
• How do you deal with failure?

BOOKS YOU’VE READ

• Name a book that you've read recently that was not for work. We then discussed that book.
• What is your favorite book that is not work related?
• What are your 3 favorite books?

INSPIRATION, PASSION,

• Tell me about what inspires you.
• Is there anything you’ve done merely out of passion?
• If money were not an issue, what cause would you pursue most vigorously?
• Tell me about a time you wanted to give up but found the motivation to keep going?
• What is your greatest accomplishment?
• Tell me about a time you had to make a trade-off between two equally attractive opportunities?

TEAMWORK

• Tell me about a time you worked with a difficult team member or manager.
• Tell me about an individual or group failure.
• Tell me about a team experience.
• Have you ever led a team?

LEADERSHIP

• Tell me about a time when you had to lead a team of individuals. What did you learn about yourself? What did you learn about leadership?
• Tell me about a leadership experience.
• Tell me about a time you knew you were an effective leader and how did you know?
• What is your leadership style? Give me an example of how you've led that way.
• When have you led peers and how?
• Tell me about a time when a leader fell short and you had to step up and lead.
• Tell me about a time when you've been challenged as a leader and what you learned from it.

As you can see, the questions are pretty standard. Expect some behavioral style questions and prepare accordingly.

2. You need to be able to explain in-depth why you should be admitted to Stanford, what you can contribute, and what you want to learn. Be willing to openly discuss what soft and hard skills you need to improve/acquire. Show yourself to be open, dynamic, change oriented, and a highly motivated person because the alum will be.

3. Since there is supposed to be time for you to ask questions to the alum, you need to give some significant thought to formulating those. Consider what year the alum graduated and any other background information if you can determine that through Linkedin or other sources of information. Develop four or more questions to ask.

4. Whoever you interview with, they are likely to be quite friendly and the style of the interview is conversational. Stanford alumni are provided with very clear guidelines for how to conduct interviews. Just because your interviewer is friendly, it does not mean that you are doing well. Don't assume a friendly interviewer is not actually a super critical one. Alumni are the gatekeepers and Stanford can afford to reject anyone. Take nothing for granted. Also keep in mind that the admissions process at Stanford is holistic and a great interview is no absolute guarantee of success.

5. Reported interview length for interviews is official 45 minutes, but can go on for longer than that. It usually consists of 30-40 minutes of questions from the alumni followed by 5-15 minutes of question to the alum, but often the interviews go longer, an hour or more is not uncommon. In my own experience with clients, I would say that if the interview goes for an hour or more, that is a good sign, but a 45 minute interview is not necessarily a bad sign. Interviews that last 75 minutes to 120 minutes are not uncommon.

If you are interested in my interview preparation or other graduate admission consulting services, please click here.

-Adam Markus

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.