I'm sorry if this is in the wrong thread I wasn't sure where to put it but I had some concerns about the GMAT that I thought the community might be able to help me with.

I want to get into an MBA program either at McMaster, Wilfred Laurier, or Brock since they all offer co-op and they all have options for students without 2 years of full-time work experience (I will be finishing undergrad this year). I will be graduating from the Communications and Multimedia program here at Mac and I'm interested in pursuing advertising and/or marketing. I figured an MBA was a good solid graduate program to have.

But I recently found out about the need for a GMAT exam and it sounds very daunting. I have not studied any math since high school and I have always been kind of bad at math without a calculator. I tried a few "diagnostic tests" cold with no refresher of any kind and I did pretty poorly on both the verbal and quantitative sections. It was probably a bad idea to go into a diagnostic test cold but I wanted to see the kinds of questions the GMAT tested. I've always felt like I was a very logical person so when people described the GMAT as testing "logic" I felt I would be ok with it. I've also heard from multiple people that it takes time to prepare but when they were in the test itself it was "easy". I know I am starting early (starting mid-October, planning on studying for at least 1 hour a day, every day, until around May when I plan on taking the test so I can apply to places in June). But now that I've tried these tests and started looking through the official GMAT guides I feel very anxious and intimidated.

I guess I have a few very broad questions for the community in the hopes that I can put myself more at ease. If anyone has any experiences with the GMAT please let me know. Or even if anyone would be willing to share their GMAT score (unless that is too private for people to share on a forum that's fine).

Also, I have been looking for backup places to apply to that would be useful for advertising/marketing but don't require a GMAT and if anyone has suggestions please tell me. I have heard that Brock offers people to wave the GMAT requirement if their undergraduate grades are over 80% (which mine are). I wondered whether this was true and whether waiving the GMAT would just put me at the bottom of the list behind everyone with a GMAT.

I'm sorry for such a long post and I'm sorry if I placed this in the wrong location. I've been having a bit of a breakdown because of this whole GMAT business.

breakdown? over GMAT? you got be kidding right... The math part should be the easiest part in GMAT, nothing challenging about it. Don't try to avoid GMAT, because you'll need a lot of math and statistics in MBA program anyway. Many people can pass the test within a couple of months easily, so can you!

Originally Posted by stars

breakdown? over GMAT? you got be kidding right... The math part should be the easiest part in GMAT, nothing challenging about it. Don't try to avoid GMAT, because you'll need a lot of math and statistics in MBA program anyway. Many people can pass the test within a couple of months easily, so can you!

stars, there is no pass/fail on the GMAT exam. You are scored based on performance, and then ranked amongst all test takers. Therefore, the GMAT exam is something to stress over (but I agree that one shouldn't have a breakdown). GMAT scores range from 200 to 800, with the top schools requiring 650+.

To the OP,

I took the GMAT 3 years ago, and scored 700. I wouldn't consider myself as exceptionally strong in either math or english. But the key is practice.

Most of the questions are not too difficult, however you need to know tricks and shortcuts to solve them in under 2 minutes. The real challenge is keeping up with that pace for 4 hours. I was mentally drained after months of studying and finally taking the exam.

Don't stress too much about the Diagnostic Test, everyone would do poorly without practice. The best advice I can provide you with is that you must use a Study Guide (Manhattan, Kaplan, etc.) to teach you how to narrow down the answers, and solve the questions in the shortest time possible. Then practice using the Official GMATPrep Questions - these are actual GMAT questions that were used on previous exams that have been retired.

One more important thing, the GMAT exam is computer-adaptive...as you get more questions right, the questions get harder (and vice versa). That is their algorithm to rank test takers. But you won't know which ones are considered 'hard' versus 'easy'. When I took the exam, I felt I got many questions wrong because I was in a hurry, and I thought I did terrible. However, it is completely normal to get many questions wrong, as they are testing where you rank.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

As above, if you've done no math since highschool, you shouldn't be trying to do an MBA. MBA also is overkill to go into advertising, and nowadays people know that MBAs are handed out like candy to any kid whose parents have money to burn. Though it is wise to do a co-op degree so that you can find a job.

It used to be that a graphic design diploma from Sheridan (NOT Mohawk, NOT other colleges, just Sheridan) was the path to a great $100k/year job in marketing. I dunno if it's still as good today, but you might want to check that out. In-demand skills trump pieces of paper.

I am also studying for GMAT. If you want a study buddy, let me know!

If you buy the books, it will teach you all you need to know to prepare you for both sections of the GMAT.
The math is not very hard. It is actually elementary math. You will be fine and are not at any significant disadvantage given your background. That's what the books are for, to first teach you the math that will be on the GMAT and then go over strategies to solve the questions that they will likely be on the GMAT.

Good Luck

Thank you all for your input. Just a couple questions for old guy: I felt like an MBA would be a good degree not necessarily just to go into advertising but to keep my options open. Also I have discussed my interests with some of my communications professors who are also in business and they recommended an MBA. I know that people with very different backgrounds go into MBAs and I've heard of people with poor math skills studying it. I know deep down that I can handle it even if I haven't studied math for a while, it just seems scary to suddenly find out that I need to study for this thing in my final year of undergrad.

Also, I don't necessarily want to be the person physically creating the ads. As much as I love multimedia I've become less interested in creating the media itself. I see myself as more the idea person at this point. I'm not even entirely sure I want to go into an MBA at all but I want to keep my options open. My interests and goals have been changing constantly through undergrad and even in the past week so I may end up taking a year off to figure my stuff out before deciding what my master's degree will focus on. However, I still plan on studying for and completing the GMAT to keep that path open.

To Allan: thank you for your tips. Would you recommend I go through the Kaplan or any other company's tutors and lessons that you have to pay for or would you just recommend I get their books to study from?

Thank you all again.

Originally Posted by mazerunner15

To Allan: thank you for your tips. Would you recommend I go through the Kaplan or any other company's tutors and lessons that you have to pay for or would you just recommend I get their books to study from?

I haven't taken any official courses, or know of anyone who has. So I can't speak knowledgeably about them. But if you feel that attending lessons suits your learning style more, then they certainly won't hurt.

Overall, there isn't alot of material on the GMAT exam that you wouldn't have seen before in highschool. There were some minor math concepts, and US English rules that I had not seen before (as the GMAT is based on an American curriculum). However, these are covered in the study guides.

I will say again that the most difficult part about the GMAT for me was solving questions in under 90 to 120 seconds, and continuing that pace for 4 hours. Therefore, alot of your study time should be spent solving practice questions. You can purchase these officially through GMAT, and there are many 'floating' on the internet.

Originally Posted by mazerunner15

Also, I don't necessarily want to be the person physically creating the ads. As much as I love multimedia I've become less interested in creating the media itself. I see myself as more the idea person at this point.

Of course I don't know advertising, I worked in engineering; but it'd surprise me to see employers giving an "idea person" job to anyone fresh out of school. You'll probably need to work your way up. The big problem with ideas is that very few of them are good, but you only learn how to tell the difference between good and bad ones through long years of experience.

Taking a year off is probably a great idea, as long as you can find a full-time job in your field for that year. Having worked in the field will give you very valuable perspective that you simply can't get at school, and you'll get a better idea of which jobs are hard to fill. And frankly, you learn far more at a job than at university.

I have no idea of it