ADVICE ON HOW TO GET INTO YOUR MBA PROGRAM AND WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU GET THERE
Three articles from mbaJungle.com

#1. THINKING ABOUT AN MBA: TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL?
Are you really ready to exchange your salary and briefcase for a backpack and student loans? What to consider when thinking about going back to school.
By: David Marino-Nachison

Going back to school. The thought conjures up serene campuses, summer vacations, and a laid-back lifestyle. After several years of 60-hour workweeks, heading back to class might sound like a much-needed two-year break. And, hey, MBA grads can command six-figure salaries. What’s not to like?

Well, business school can be a great experience, but it’s no picnic. MBA programs are academically rigorous, highly competitive, and demand your full attention for two years. As for that summer off? Forget it: Almost all MBA students spend their summers interning. Plus, an MBA is expensive: Two years at one of the top schools can easily run you $100,000-on top of the salary you’ll be giving up.

So should you go for it? Only you can decide that, but here are a few things to consider.

Where Do You Want to Be in Three Years?

The first step in deciding whether or not to strap on your backpack and head back to school is to figure out what you want to get out of an MBA program. Business school can mean a heavy investment in time and money-two years for most full-time programs, give or take a year for executive MBAs and part-time students. “It is an expense,” admits Linda Baldwin, admissions director at UCLA’s Anderson School, “and you do need to get a return on that investment.”

UCLA’s two-step self-examination: Ask yourself first how business school will help you meet your goals, then consider what you’ll be bringing to the mix. “We like to have someone who can articulate where they want to go and have some examples of how they are moving,” Baldwin says.

It was an easy question for Tedd Cittadine, who recently got his degree from Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business after two years working in start-up funding at a Chicago bank. “The more I got into banking,” he says, “the more I really wanted to be on the small-company side. I was a guy sitting on the sidelines funding the exciting things, but not doing the exciting things myself.”

Already armed with an undergraduate degree in finance, Cittadine concentrated his time at Georgetown on extracurricular activities and marketing classes, eventually meeting a friend who would become his business partner. Now the’Yre starting a company that will work with builders, setting up high-speed Internet connections in new homes.

Do You Need an MBA to Get There?

It’s important to investigate the skills needed for the particular type of position you want. You may be surprised to find out that while an MBA is de rigueur in fields like investment banking and consulting, it won’t necessarily even guarantee you an interview in some industries. “We’ve had a lot of MBAs apply for positions here,” says David Alagno, a recruiter at The Motley Fool, a Washington, DC-area new-media company. But “I wouldn’t say that anything we look for is ‘MBA only.’ It’s really just a culture thing.” It wasn’t that way at his last job at a large mobile-telecommunications company, where an MBA was required along with shirt and tie.

So, though advanced degrees are certainly valued in some departments at the Fool-business development and marketing, for example-the’Yre often interchangeable with three to five years of relevant work experience. “If you can do the job,” he said, “you can do the job.” And an MBA won’t necessarily allow you to name your own price: Some MBAs, Alagno admits, have salary expectations that may be “out of whack.”

However, an MBA can confer a certain credibility that comes from the assurance that a graduate has spent two solid years building a base of good, old-fashioned financial know-how. Companies want their MBAs to be ready to tackle high-growth areas and developing industries-but not at the expense of the basics. “Major corporations, when we consult with them, tell us ‘We don’t want you to lose sight of your core,’” says Christine Wagner, a career development coordinator at the University of Arizona's Eller Graduate School of Management. And so a grounding in finance and accounting, it seems, will always be key. If you’re ambitious but lacking in those departments, an MBA might be the answer.

If you’re looking to move to a completely different career, an MBA can definitely facilitate the switch. Many students at Eller, for example, enroll after tiring of engineering work at Tucson tech firms such as Honeywell and Burr-Brown. “They want to get a better job,” says Wagner. “The’Yre in positions where they can’t get any higher.”

“An MBA,” says Baldwin, “is probably the tool that’s most expedient for creating a transformation. It’s rare that the engineer goes back to being an engineer.”

On the Other Hand ...

And then there’s Ian King. To say King was surprised when he lost his job at a Big Six consulting firm two years ago would be an understatement. “Getting laid off, with the kind of expenses I had at the time, was one of the toughest things that ever happened to me,” says King.

He returned home to northwestern Ohio and began studying for the GMAT and browsing through brochures from MBA programs. But after consulting with a group of mentors-all prominent and successful Toledo businessmen-he decided it was more important to get back to work. He joined a firm developing Internet businesses in the health-care industry, and was rewarded early this summer with hefty equity stakes in his ventures.

But even King admits that an MBA provides other key benefits. “Until one of my companies is successful, I’m just ‘Ian King, and here is my resumé,’” says the consultant. “There’s something to be said for ‘Ian King, Harvard MBA.’”

Hey, What About the Money?

Of course, salary is an important consideration. According to a recent Forbes magazine study, students with MBAs from top programs can expect as much as an additional $100,000 in salary over the five-year period after they graduate, even after the cost of the degree is factored in. Even the better-known regional programs can set you up for as much as $50,000 more.

But cold, hard cash isn’t the only benefit. Business school can offer a rare opportunity to take a break from work to focus exclusively on the business world and your desired place in it. For many, that can be a uniquely energizing experience. “It’s a great two years to spend,” agrees Cittadine, “because you’re learning the whole time. You also have the time to sit back and learn what opportunities are out there. That’s important for a lot of people.”

Business school students might find themselves putting in longer hours than ever as they balance school, recruiting, extracurricular activities and social life-but it can come off feeling more like a lark than work. “They look younger when they graduate,” marvels Baldwin.

And yet, there’s King, who’s doing exactly what he wants to do. “I still think there are a lot of pluses to going to business school,” he said. “But there’s point A, and there’s point B. I guarantee there are 20 different ways to get there-and to get there successfully.”

David Marino-Nachison is a writer and online news producer living in Washington, D.C. He can be reached at tintin@hotbot.com.

#2. B-SCHOOL PREP: GET AHEAD OF THE CLASS

Okay, so now you're in. If you think you can kick back and relax until the first day of class, you'll find yourself behind the curve. Here's what to know before you go.
By: David Marino-Nachison

Last April, after months of indecision, Jon Daves finally decided to head back to school for an MBA. Plotting out his summer was easy by comparison-he quit his job and hit the road. Daves, who was then living in Los Angeles, visited family in Georgia then headed back west for some volunteer work at a charter school before entering Stanford’s Graduate School of Business this fall.

“A lot of people [spent] the summer traveling,” he says. “People realize this is probably the last time they will have a chance to take time off without it looking poorly on their records.” He knows next summer will probably mean long internship hours, and in two years the work world will beckon again. “This,” Daves says, “[was] basically the last hurrah.”

But the summer wasn’t all fun: Daves also took the time to read over his undergraduate economics textbooks and considered taking a math or statistics course for a quick refresher. “I don’t want to be starting too far behind people,” he says.

He’s not alone. Thousands of rising business school students-many at the bidding of the schools they will be attending-now use the weeks leading up to the first day of class to prepare for academic life. Most incoming business school students haven’t attended a lecture or sharpened a pencil in about five years, so a return to a life divided into class periods can mean more than culture shock.

Camp MBA

Jenn Johnston graduated from Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business in May, and she remembers her alma mater’s statistics “boot camp” fondly. It’s a common practice now: The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, for example, offers a month-long preterm of courses ranging from statistics to accounting to history. Though they are only the appetizers before the main course, preterms are there for a reason: to prepare students for the busy pace of graduate-school life quickly and efficiently. The more you can do to help yourself before the first day of class, the better.

Some students, particularly those who come from nonbusiness backgrounds, use preterms to catch up. Others hope to place out of core courses. Johnston was in the former camp. “It ended up helping a lot,” she said, both because the New York advertising agency vet wanted a stronger background in finance classes and because the shift to classroom life was a dramatic change from her recent past. “When you start going to business school,” she says, “it’s a lot like learning five different languages at once.”

Many B-schools require you to take calculus and statistics before you arrive. But even if your school doesn’t demand it, familiarity with these subjects can give you a head start. If you’re not quite ready for calculus, college-level algebra is the bare minimum, suggests Carrie Radmall, admissions and scholarships specialist at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Business.

On top of that, your computer literacy should go beyond the latest version of Microsoft Word. Microsoft Excel is the de facto standard for financial modeling, and PowerPoint is essential for developing dynamic electronic presentations. E-mail and Internet skills are absolute musts. Without them, “You’ll struggle right away,” says Radmall.

The Write Stuff

Rice University adds an interesting wrinkle to its MBA program, emphasizing communications skills in its required first-year classes. When Gil Whitaker came on as dean in 1997, he surveyed Houston-area corporations to get their impressions of the MBAs they were hiring. Their response: Though graduates are generally well-prepared with regard to finance and management, their communications skills are too often below par.

“I’m not really sure why it is,” admits Deborah Barrett, instructor and director of MBA communications at Jones. Barrett spent more than five years working with executives at a top management consulting firm before returning to academic life: “I spent most of my time working on communication. They all needed help with speech preparation and how to present. They also needed some help with writing.”

So Rice added a communications class to its preterm course listings, during which new students are graded on their speaking, writing, and presentation skills-even having their presentations recorded on video. They then work on improving their scores during a year of required coursework and projects that focus on individual and group-oriented skills that their former jobs might not have encouraged.

Business-school students “have experience,” Barrett says, “but many of them have been working in a technical field. They don’t do much writing, and if they do, it’s not the kind of writing they need to do as a manager.”

Radmall agrees. “If someone comes to me who has a year to get ready,” says the Utah administrator, “I may suggest they have time to take a business writing class. There’s some terminology [they should] be familiar with.” On top of getting the jargon down, Barrett says, managers must be able to present information to coworkers who might not have similar technical or academic backgrounds.

“The basic skills people need in communications remain the same,” says Barrett-writing, public speaking, and presenting. “That hasn’t changed since Aristotle.” But unlike more quantitative skills that can be gleaned right from books, communications skills are best learned with help. “It can be practiced,” she says, “but it needs to be coached. You really need feedback.” Many organizations, schools, and even some employers offer short seminars in writing and speaking that students might want to consider, Barrett says.

All Work and No Play

Just remember that there’s more to business school than studying. Test scores, group projects, and job interviews are just part of the package. For many, starting school again means finding entirely new friends, haunts, and means of getting around town. And then there’s the looming-and often overwhelming-question of what to do with the rest of your life.

Some schools want students to use their business school years as a time of exploration. “I remember sitting there the first week of school,” Johnston says, “and the’Yre talking to us about summer internships and employment after graduation.” She waited until graduation to test the job market before deciding to work instead on a business plan developed with classmates. At Utah, which prefers students to have a pretty clear idea of their future upon arrival, that approach might not have gone over so well.

“That’s part of the application process,” says Eccles’ Radmall. “We ask them to respond to several essay questions, and that’s one of them. [Clarifying those goals] helps them to be focused and motivated; it makes them, really, a better student.” To get the most out of school, that’s something each student will need to gauge not only in terms of themselves but also in assessing their programs.

Too much to handle? “The first semester can be a little daunting,” says Daves, who got the dirt from friends and another Stanford student-his older brother. “You’re trying to acclimate yourself to a new environment with new people. That’s something I’ll need to be aware of. [But] once you get into an upper-level school, all of the people have the intelligence to pass a course. It’s not a matter of intelligence. It’s more about time management.”

That’s why Johnston doesn’t put much of a premium on extensive prearrival networking. Instead, she made sure to show up refreshed, academically prepared, and with her living arrangements squared away. In big cities, the latter task might be the hardest. “You’ve got two years,” she says. “You’re going to have plenty of time to network. Take some time for yourself and just concentrate on what you need to prepare yourself for school. That’s what’s really important.”

David Marino-Nachison is a writer and online news producer living in Washington, D.C. He can be reached at tintin@hotbot.com.

#3. ACE THE GMAT
By: Alicia Abell

Experts say that acing the GMAT doesn't guarantee you'll get into business school, but a low score can definitely keep you out. So how can you make sure you're in the running? Check out our GMAT cheat sheet to learn how to tame the test.

What is the GMAT? Well, officially, the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is a three-and-a-half-hour exam designed to measure your verbal and quantitative skills and predict your academic performance in the first year of business school. The verbal section of the exam consists of reading comprehension, grammar, and logic questions, while the math section tests basic algebra, geometry, and arithmetic. The Analytical Writing Assessment consists of two 30-minute essays.

Now, not so officially: Although the GMAT theoretically tests your ability to do well in business school, some say all it tests is your ability to do well on the GMAT. But whether or not it's a good predictor of either academic ability or future success in business, it is an important metric used in business school admissions. Like all standardized tests, the GMAT is a uniform tool for comparing students whose academic and professional backgrounds vary wildly.

Since October 1, 1997, the GMAT has been offered in a computer-only format, known as the GMAT Computer Adaptive Test, or the GMAT CAT. Unlike a paper test, the CAT adapts to your performance as you proceed through the test. In fact, every person gets a different test depending on how well he or she is doing. Your final score is based not on how many questions you get right but on the difficulty level of the questions you answer correctly.

The test starts with a medium-level question that about half of the test-takers are expected to get right. If you answer it correctly, your score goes up and you get a harder question; if you get it wrong, your score goes down and you get an easier question. This process continues throughout the test. In theory, by the time you get to the end of each section, you'll be getting about half of the questions right and half of them wrong. (We'll cover scoring in more detail a little later.)

Another difference between the CAT and the traditional paper test is that you don't have to register months in advance to take it. Instead, you take the CAT by appointment -- which you can make even just two days in advance -- at an official test center. Simply call 800-GMAT-NOW (in the U.S. and Canada) or go to www.gmat.org to register. If you prefer to sign up the old-fashioned way, you can get the GMAT information application bulletin at a local college counseling office, library, or Kaplan Educational Center (or call 609-771-7330 to have one sent to you).

The CAT is offered six days a week, three weeks out of each month, at 400 testing centers. The centers are located at Sylvan Learning Centers, colleges and universities, and Educational Testing Service (ETS) offices. There are some overseas centers as well. The test costs $190 in the United States, Puerto Rico, and U.S. territories, and slightly more in other countries.

What Kinds of Questions Are on the GMAT CAT?

The CAT consists of a 60-minute "Analytical Writing Assessment" (two 30-minute essays, one an analysis of an issue and the other an analysis of an opinion), a 75-minute quantitative (math) section with 37 questions, and a 75-minute verbal section with 41 questions -- given in that order. Five different types of questions appear on the test: data sufficiency and problem-solving (in the math section); and reading comprehension, critical reasoning, and sentence correction (in the verbal section). Although these question types are somewhat arbitrary, each supposedly tests a different skill needed in the business world (e.g., data sufficiency theoretically tests how well you know when you can answer a question or make a decision).

Data sufficiency questions consist of a question and two pieces of data. Your job is to decide if the given data are adequate to answer the question. Many students find these to be some of most difficult questions on the test. You can expect to see about 13 of them on test day. (The exact number of questions is an estimate because it varies from person to person. If you get all of your data sufficiency questions right, for example, the computer will give you more questions in a weaker area. This is true of every section on the CAT.)

Problem-solving questions cover arithmetic, algebra, and geometry -- basically, the math you studied in high school. You can expect to see about 24 problem-solving questions on the CAT.

There are usually between one and four reading comprehension passages (again, how many is determined by how well you do on the first one -- if you ace it, you might not get another), each between 200 to 400 words long. You answer three to four questions on each passage for a total of 10 to 15 reading comprehension questions, or close to 40% of the verbal section.

Critical reasoning questions, the logic portion of the GMAT, consist of a short argument and a question about the author's assumptions or how to bolster or weaken his or her reasoning. There are usually 8 to 13 of these (25% of the verbal portion) on the CAT.

Sentence correction questions, of which there are around 14 (about 40% of the verbal section), show a sentence with part or all of it underlined. You must decide if the underlined portion is correct the way it is or select the best way to rewrite it.

The essays, which are actually the first part of the test, ask you to analyze an issue and an argument. For the analysis of an issue essay, you must state your point of view and then support it with your knowledge and experience. For the analysis of an argument essay, you are asked to identify the assumptions an argument makes and then evaluate those assumptions as sound or unsound using outside examples and information.

Unlike the old pencil-and-paper version of the GMAT, the CAT mixes up the different species of questions within the broader quantitative and verbal sections. This means you might have a sentence correction followed by a critical reasoning question followed by another sentence correction question. (The only partial exception to this format is reading comprehension: All reading comprehension questions for a passage will follow one another.) And while there is not an entire experimental section on the CAT as there often was on the paper version, there are experimental questions scattered throughout the test. These questions don't count, and although the number of them varies, they usually make up about 25% of the exam.

So How Does the Test Actually Work?

While the kinds of questions on the CAT aren't any different from those on the old paper GMAT, the format and scoring method vary considerably. First, there are some logistical distinctions. Unlike on the old test, you can't skip questions. You must answer a question in order to move on to the next one. Also, you are penalized if you don't finish the test, so it's important to make an educated guess if a question is really holding you up.

Hint: Don't guess randomly at more than two questions in a row because strings of wrong answers can dramatically affect your score. The only exception to this is toward the end of the test -- if you are running out of time you will have to guess to complete the exam, though try to eliminate at least one wrong answer before guessing.

Then there is the scoring system. Not all questions count equally. This is because the jumps in score are more extreme at the beginning of each section. In fact, two test takers can get the same number of questions right but have very different scores. Here's how it works:

Total scores on the CAT range from 200 to 800. The first question in each section is worth 80 to 100 points. You start each section with a score of 500, so if you get that first question right, your score goes up to about 600; if you get it wrong, your score goes down to about 400. The second question is worth 60 to 70 points. This means that if you get the first two questions on a section right, you're looking at a score of about 670, but if you get the first two wrong, you've got a paltry 330. Here's the odd part: If you get the first question right and the second wrong, you've got a 530, but if you get the first one wrong and the second one right, you've got a 470. The relative weighting of questions affects your score that quickly.

Of course, the scoring gets more complex as you answer more questions, but in general, after the first five questions of a section, you're just fine-tuning your score. If you answer the first five questions correctly, you'll be working at a level well above 700. If you get the first five wrong, you're well below 300 and will likely get easy questions for the rest of the exam -- the kiss of death on the CAT. You can recover from answering a few early questions wrong, but you'll need to get a long string of questions right, as later questions are worth less.

As confusing as all this may sound, your score on the CAT is likely to be very similar to what it would be on the pencil-and-paper version of the test. Before switching over to the CAT, ETS pretested and normed it to make sure the scores were comparable.

There are definite advantages to the CAT. Instead of scheduling your life around a predetermined date, you can sign up to take the test whenever is convenient for you. And, unlike with the pencil-and-paper version, you can see your scores immediately after completing the test. Last, many people prefer to type their essays. "With the essays... I loved the computer version," said Kevin Fleming, who took the CAT when ETS was pretesting it. "I type probably six times as fast as I write, so that helped a lot. I liked being able to cut and paste and make clean edits."

Of course, there are some downsides to the computerized GMAT. Not being able to go back to a question is the main one. The experimental questions also seem to unnerve students more on the CAT than on the paper-and-pencil version. On the CAT, "if you think you got a problem right, you're anticipating a harder one," explains Will Peppo, who is currently studying for the exam. "You might have gotten a hard one right, and then you get an easy experimental question. And then you think you might have gotten the last question wrong. That's tough psychologically."

Finally, you have to use separate scratch paper when taking the CAT. "You have to take the information from the screen that you need and somehow transfer that to the paper," says one student. "For example, in reading comprehension, you can't circle key words." Plus, you have to scroll through the reading comprehension passages because you can't see the whole thing at once on the screen.

Interpreting Your Score

GMAT score reports contain four separate scores: a quantitative score, a verbal score, an analytical writing score, and a total score. The quantitative and verbal subscores range from 0 to 60; in recent years, the average subscores have been between 28 and 32. Scores below 10 and above 46 are rare. Analytical writing scores go from 0 to 6 (6 is high) in half-point increments. The recent average has been between 3.5 and 4.5. The total score, which is what most people consider as their GMAT score, is based on the verbal and math scores and ranges from 200 to 800. The average total score hovers around 500.

Here are some sample percentiles to help put these numbers (representing total scores) in context:

99th percentile -- 720 or above
95th - 670
90th - 630
80th - 590
75th - 570
50th - 500

The report lists your three most recent GMAT scores within the past five years. GMAC (the General Management Admission Council, which administers the test with ETS) will report older scores if you request them, but will add a cautionary note that those scores may not reflect your current abilities. If it's been five or more years, some schools may require you to retake the test.

As soon as you have finished the exam, you can choose to either see your unofficial score (which is almost always identical to the official one) or cancel it. If you cancel your test, it won't be scored and will appear on your GMAC report as a canceled score. No one, including you, will ever know how you did. Don't worry -- B-schools won't think less of you for canceling a score. If you choose to see your score (which won't include your writing score -- that will come with the official report) you can also select additional schools to which you would like your scores sent. The official score report should arrive both at the schools and your home within about two weeks of the test.

Hint: You can pick five schools to send your scores to when you register for the GMAT. Even if you're not sure where you're applying, pick the most likely places; these first five score reports are free, but additional reports cost $15 each.

How Well Do You Have to Do?

To be considered by the elite schools, you need at least a 600. But the scores at the very best programs are much higher: The average scores at Stanford and Harvard last year were 722 and 699, respectively. However, it's possible that schools are looking more at percentile scores than numeric scores right now because the CAT is so new. "Schools are very cautious because they don't know how to evaluate it," says a Kaplan instructor. The 90th to 99th percentile usually gets you considered at the top programs.

In general, the verbal and math subscores are less important than the total score, although some schools will look at the breakdown to see that a certain skill -- usually quantitative -- is up to par.

Many of the top schools will consider only your highest total score from a single test date. So if you got a 650 the first time you took the test and a 700 the second time, 700 will be the score they look at. Around 40% of schools will combine your highest verbal, quantitative, and total scores if they're from different test dates. A few will look at only your most recent scores, and others will average your scores. Ask schools about their policies.

Incidentally, lest you think your score no longer matters once you're admitted to school, keep in mind that some recruiters (McKinsey is one) will ask to see your GMAT scores.

Hint: You may have heard the rumor that the top schools don't even look at writing samples because they have such a huge load of applications to review. While it's not untrue -- according to a former member of the admissions committee at Harvard Business School, the writing score is generally only used to break a tie between two students -- don't blow off the writing section. A stellar score can help you if you're on the borderline.

Preparation Is Everything

Not to sound like your mother, but if you hope to do well on the GMAT, you really do have to prepare. By studying and familiarizing yourself with the test, you can substantially improve your score. For example, grammar questions comprise about 40% of the verbal section of the GMAT. If you haven't thought about dangling modifiers since eighth-grade English (and we hope you haven't!), you'll find that you can boost your score a lot just by reviewing a few basic rules. Try to allot at least three months to study for the GMAT -- though anything is better than just breezing into the test center unprepared.

The best method, as with any standardized test, is to practice with past exams. Consider purchasing The Official Guide for GMAT Review (9th Edition), published by ETS. It's the only resource that contains official past GMATs. Even better, buy the PowerPrep software package, also produced by ETS, which has two practice CATs made up of the same questions as in the Official Guide.

Hint: It is a little known fact that ETS will allow you to take a practice GMAT CAT at one of the test centers. Take advantage of this offer.

Unfortunately, the resources published by ETS contain only a few tests; you will probably need more practice tests than they provide. Also, these tests are from a few years ago and are somewhat dated. For example, some math concepts that were not on previous exams have been added in recent years.

That's a compelling argument in favor of taking a GMAT course offered by a test-prep company like Kaplan or Princeton Review, a popular study method among business school applicants. Although test preparation has become an industry in itself -- and these companies have a vested interest in getting you to believe that you need to take one of their expensive classes in order to do well on the GMAT -- it's their job to monitor the exam, identify common traps, and develop strategies for finding correct answers.

GMAT courses run around $1,000, but they can be worth it if you go to all of the classes, work through most of the home-study material, take advantage of workshops, free tutoring, and extra help special sessions, and take simulated practice CATs at the test centers. (Keep in mind that these are tests created by the companies, so while they closely mimic the GMAT, your score on and experience with them won't quite be the same as an actual exam.) Also, some people find that if they pay money for a class, they're more likely to attend.

Peppo says that his prep course helped him in "being able to see a problem and identify the type of question and know exactly how to break that problem down.... You kind of know already what they're looking for." Another benefit was "realizing that you can get some of the questions wrong and it's not going to affect your score that much. If you're really stuck on one, don't burn time -- move on."

Courses can also teach you how to approach the Analytical Writing Assessment, which is graded by both a person and a computer program called the "e-rater." Your score is the average of their two grades; if they disagree by more than one point, a second person looks at your writing as well. Besides checking for grammar, spelling, and usage, the e-rater looks for characteristics like disparate sentence length, stylistic variations, and clear structure, with the main idea at the beginning of each paragraph. Classes can teach you what the e-rater is looking for.

If you do decide to take a course, you will probably end up choosing between Kaplan and Princeton Review. They offer books, study guides, diagnostic tests, homework books, lesson plans, online courses, and instructional materials on CD-ROM and video to supplement their classes. They also offer optional workshops on specific test topics, and seminars about the application process and other issues related to business school.

Kaplan is larger, older, and more conservative than Princeton Review, which is known for its more cynical, irreverent attitude. "Princeton's a good marketing company," says GMAT tutor Adrienne Wichard. "They're the ones with free beer and pizza." Kaplan tends to focus on methodology and substance, while Princeton Review concentrates more on tricks and avoiding traps.

Regardless of which company you choose, there are some things you can do to get the most out of your GMAT course:

Work on your endurance.The GMAT is a long test, so you should take lots of practice tests.
Simulate test conditions exactly.Time yourself strictly, don't cut out the writing section, and practice at the same time of day your test is scheduled for.
Review your practice exams thoroughly. Go over all of your answers -- even the correct ones -- and the explanations your study guides provide. This will help you reinforce concepts and review formulas and shortcuts.
Don't work just on your weaknesses. Points are points, no matter where you gain them, and you don't want your strengths to get rusty.

Hint: Get your money's worth. In addition to taking advantage of the simulated practice CATs and extra study sessions, "Never be afraid to ask for anything, because people want to make you happy," says a former Kaplan instructor. "They're very customer-service oriented."

Classes aren't for everyone, though. If you are well below average in math, for example, you might need more specialized help. In that case, you might call a local high school or college for the name of a tutor or a basic review course. Similarly, if you are in the upper 20th percentile and have only a few areas of weakness, you might consider a private tutor or a targeted, tracked class (Princeton Review sometimes offers the latter). Both Kaplan and Princeton Review offer private tutoring for about $90 to $135 an hour. Graduate students, teachers, and independent tutors often charge less.

The advantages of tutoring are obvious: flexibility and individual attention. You get to choose the time and place to meet and, more important, you can focus on the areas where you need help. Private tutoring can also be cost-effective because, although hourly rates can be high, you only pay for the hours you really need. The disadvantage is that it can be hard to gauge whether a tutor has a good background and expertise for what you need and whether he or she will truly be helpful. If you need help in more than one area or just want a general brush-up, a course might be a better choice.

Test Day Tips

Pick the best spot. If you live near multiple test centers, check them out before registering, as some are quieter and more organized than others. Once you get there, make sure you have enough light, adequate space to write, and a comfortable chair. If you don't, ask for them. Also, make sure that your computer, mouse, and keyboard are working; you're given a short computer tutorial beforehand which should give you time to do this. The tutorial is also a good time to write down formulas, strategies, and mnemonic devices on your scratch paper.

Don't cram the day before the test. There's not much you can do to help yourself at this point, and you will just stress out. Review a few key points, gather what you will need for the next day, and take the night off.

Pack reinforcements. Besides the standard items like your admission ticket, a photo ID, and pencils or pens for scratch work, you'll want to bring a small snack and extra clothes with you. Dress in layers, as test centers are notoriously either too hot or too cold. Don't bring scratch paper, calculators, or digital watches, none of which are allowed. (Watches with hands are fine.) Your proctor will provide scratch paper, and there's a clock on your computer screen. Because the first five questions of each section are so important, start slowly (although there are limits to this if you are aiming for a very high score), and then speed up. The onscreen clock automatically stays on during the last five minutes of a section, but it can be turned on and off during the rest of the test. Turn it off during the first five minutes so that you don't feel pressure while answering these crucial questions.

Guess strategically. Guess only if you are really stumped or tight on time: If you have 6 to 10 questions with less than five minutes left, try to eliminate at least one wrong answer before guessing. If you have 11 or more questions to go with less than five minutes left, guess randomly until you get to the last question, and spend all of your remaining time on that one.

Take a break. The CAT includes two optional five-minute breaks. Take them.

Don't outsmart yourself. Don't get too caught up in your knowledge of how the test is scored and overanalyze the difficulty level of every question. If you get what seems like an easy question, don't panic: It might be a trick problem, an experimental question, or just one that's simple for you but hard for others. "Always concentrate on the question at hand," says one GMAT tutor. "Don't worry about the one before it or the one after it."

Don't rush to retake the test.Of course, it's always possible that you will get really flustered or have some other experience that causes you to score poorly on the test. But think twice before taking the GMAT again. Do you have a legitimate reason to think your score would improve a second time around? Was your score low because you weren't familiar with the test format and types of questions? Do you have one or two clearly identifiable weaknesses that targeted study could improve? If so, you may be a good candidate to retake the test. The same holds true if there were extenuating circumstances -- a personal trauma, illness, uncontrollable nerves, or a poor night's sleep.

However, if you absolutely killed yourself studying the first time, you may be too burned out to do it all over again. Score jumps of 100 or more are unusual, and your score won't just magically go up because you've taken the test before. If you've taken the GMAT twice or more already, you've probably done all the improving you're going to do.

Alicia Abell, a former writer and editor at Washingtonian magazine, is currently pursuing a master's in education at Harvard. She can be reached at a_abell@hotmail.com.

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