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Bell Curves Blog
Nine Tips to Avoid Being Scammed by Diploma Mills
Although not a new problem, the recent rise of for- profit schools scams (aka diploma mills) is still very troubling. The few gems are being tainted by the abundance of shady organizations. Worst, con artists are targeting those who least can afford to be scammed. They play on people’s dreams and aspirations. Thus international students and those who recently lost their jobs and seeking new careers are especially vulnerable.
When it comes to for- profit schools, it is buyer beware especially in tough economic times. Below are some general tips and advice to avoid being scammed. (more…)
Admissions and Applications Spotlight: Making a Timeline
Between the GMAT, the essays, the recommendations, and everything else, it is easy to feel overwhelmed when trying to apply to B-School. Your best asset when starting this process is a timeline. In this timeline include events and deliverables including GMAT practice tests and courses, application essays, scholarship applications, recommendations, and school visits. Once you can figure out what needs to be done first, your priorities begin to align themselves!
MBA Spotlight: The Babcock Graduate School of Management @ Wake Forest University
The Babcock Graduate School of Management is recognized by ranking institutions such as Forbes and the Wall Street Journal as one of the top fifty graduate programs in the country. Part time or full time, management or entrepreneurship, Babcock consistently ranks alongside some the nation’s best B-schools. They offer classes sizes and student-to-faculty ratios that are smaller than the national average, and have recently unveiled an initiative to further diversify their student body to more accurately reflect the global nature of today’s business world. For more information visit www.mba.wfu.edu
GMAT Tips: Getting Started
Preparing for the GMAT can be a daunting challenge, particularly for students that are just beginning to study. Before you decide to sign up for any course or tutor, or undertake any type of study, it only makes sense that you find how much study you will need. Far too many people make assumptions about their scores. Whether you assume your score will be good or bad is irrelevant. It makes no sense to guess if you have the resources to find out the truth!
Everyone considering applying to business school (and thus by nature considering preparing for the GMAT) must immediately and without delay go to www.mba.com, download GMATPrep, and take a practice test under as realistic conditions as possible. This is the only practice tests created by the writers of the GMAT, and it will give you a highly reliable assessment of your current level of readiness to take the test.
Once you’ve taken the test you must spend some time analyzing your performance and understanding what you need to do to achieve the score you want. Follow the link below for information that will help you understand your practice test score.
Joe vs. the GMAT
Every few months Bell Curves teachers take the GMAT in order to assess our test taking techniques, evaluate the accuracy of our question pool, and experiment with different result patterns.
Interviewee: Joseph Kambourakis, Instructor and Developer
Interviewer: James Yudin, Online Support Manager
The Assignment
Joe’s assignment was to go all out on the math section, getting as many correct as possible after getting the first question wrong, and to get about 1 in 4 wrong on verbal. (more…)
My Career as a Hit Man is Over
The Story
Today officially marked the end of all my dreams of being a hit man. Today, I’m officially “in the system” and to be a top notched hit man you have to be off the grid. If you think of all the truly great hit men Leon (the Professional), Booth (In the Line of Fire), and Nikita (Point of No Return, hit woman really) all were off the grid no record, no bank accounts, no paper trail. I have to give up my aspirations, my dreams, my future.
But I get ahead of myself, let me start at the beginning.
Today, January 3rd, 2006 I took the GMAT again. I periodically (if you’ve read my other postings you already know this) take the GMAT in order to explore whether its changed and if so how. This month’s testing is about exploring how the change to the new test administrator Pearson Vue would affect the testing experience. (more…)
Testing the test
The Assignment:
The assignment was to test out Bell Curves revolutionary test preparation techniques and evaluate how up-to-date our question pool is. While taking the GMAT he was required to answer incorrectly a portion of the quantitative section and guess blindly on a portion of the verbal section.
The Reporter: Ajani (Yanni) Burrell, Bell Curves teacher and developer
Current residence: Munich, Germany
Yanni now lives in Germany where he attends Ludwig Maximilians Universitaet in Munich and studies for a Master’s Degree in Comparative Literature. He has worked in test preparation for the past 5 years, of which the last year has been as materials developer and teacher for Bell Curves. (more…)
A real-time look at taking the GMAT
7:00
Ah it’s a lovely spring day and my morning starts when my alarm rudely reminds me that I should rise and dress so that I’ll be on time for my latest bout with the Graduate Management Admissions TestŪ. Unfortunately, today’s test is occurs at the ungodly hour of 8:30 thus my early start to the day (yes, early being a professional test prep guru for the last 15 years has meant that I’m almost never awake before 9 am and very rarely out of my day before 8:30). (more…)
Q and A with a GMAT Test-Taker
Q and A with a GMAT Test-Taker
(aka an interview with a schizophrenic mad scientist)
AB: Who are you and why is your rambling recount of a self-admitted waste of time and money interesting or informative for our readers? (more…)