How An English Teacher Got Into Ross, Part 3/3 – Exit Interview

by Beat The GMAT, Jul 3, 2010

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS2UVKY_eOI[/youtube]

Earlier this month I shared Part 2 of my exit interview with Jen (click here to see it), a Beat The GMAT member who recently got admitted to Ross. Today I will be sharing Part 3 of our interview, where we discuss details about her general GMAT strategy, about the advantages and challenges of being a non-traditional applicant as well as a re-applicant.

Here are some notes from Part 3 of this exit interview:

(0:18) Summarize some key points from your GMAT process.

• The first time around, I took an all-inclusive approach and took the Manhattan GMAT class but quickly realized that you have to do your own work.
• So the second time around, I was able to take what I learned from the class and tailored it for my own areas of weaknesses, based on the test assessments my teacher gave me.
• I based my 2.5 month plan on these focus areas and each week I would focus on a topic like Number Properties and focus 2 days within each topic, doing the OG problems to reinforce my learnings and then creating flashcards of all my errors
• TIP1: Don't rewrite the whole problem, just rewrite the part you messed up on
• I was ultra-organized: I had a binder with tabs, cross-referenced my flashcards with problem sets, a file for all my flashcardsI was in it to win it, I did not want to take this test again
• TIP2: Be hyper-organized!
• TIP3: Be flexible with your plan; your plan will always change when you implement it because you will uncover what you need to learn as you go along.

(4:28) What are your plans after B-school?

• I did a lot of research, talking with 8 people from different backgrounds, small and large consulting firms, social sectors, non-profits, private...and with that research I realized I wanted to have a different problem-solving toolkit than other people in education.
• (NOTE: This video was filmed during The Beat The GMAT Scholarship, which ran from April 1 - May 20. Learn more here)
• The door I ultimately hope to open is a leadership role in a large non-profit or national charter school network; I really hope to work on systemic reform for education such as teacher effectiveness or expanding charter-school networks.

(6:42) Any final words of wisdom?

• One of the most valuable learnings I took from my entire process is the value of failure. In the past, I never allowed myself to fail, I just stuck to what I was good at and tried to do my best; but this process really pushed me and the GMAT is a great example of how the process forces you to continue to be better.
• Don't be afraid to fail because when you do and pick yourself up, you'll be in a much better place.

If you are a recent MBA admit living in the San Francisco Bay Area and would like to participate in this Exit Interview Series, send me a private message (my username: beatthegmat). For your time Ill buy you dinner.