I often get asked by friends and acquaintances what is the best way to approach a graduate degree in business. As I often say to my friends, or whoever seeks my advice, the key is to know what specific area of business interests you the most. By narrowing down a specific field of business studies, such as finance, accounting, marketing or strategic management, one can then concentrate on the next important question in her quest for a graduate degree in business that will land them a successful career and that is the choice of the university.
This choice entails important questions such as what school has the reputation not only as a top notch business school but rather as a school that is second to none in the particular field of business that interests you the most. Generally, reading the faculty members’ own research interests will shed some light on the university’s faculty’s strength.
With respect to entrance exams, there are a few things that one must be mindful of when preparing to write these exams. First off, be very cognizant of the fact that it is only an entrance exam that you are writing. This may sound very simple but most of us stress out over these exams. After all, these exams test our knowledge on topics that we have already studied successfully. For instance, the GMAT exam covers high school (secondary school) math, writing, reasoning and logic related questions.
Last but not least, the best way to prepare for a GMAT exam is to do a number of mock exams and time yourself so as to recreate the exam atmosphere. Also, when writing the exam, be mindful of the elimination technique, which dictates that two out of the four answers to a multiple choice question are completely out of context or blatantly false. This should go without saying, but do answer all the questions, even if you have to guess the answer, as this will give you at least a good chance of scoring a right answer versus the alternative. Last but not least, do try and finish the exam. The GMAT exam is designed to be more difficult as you answer more of your questions correctly. Therefore, it is often difficult to finish the exam. However, if you can pace yourself, thereby not getting stuck on one question for too long, you do stand a good chance of attempting more questions, if not completing the exam altogether. I hope the aforementioned is of assistance.