Why an MBA overseas, or at institutes like ISB / Great Lakes ?

While there is no doubt that the IIMs (and some other institutes in India) provide management education of very high quality, there will always be certain advantages you will derive from pursuing an MBA at a reputed university overseas, such as –
        Global outlook and exceptional value-addition
        International exposure
        International placements and attractive remuneration packages
        Increased market-value for better opportunities on return to India
        Possibilities of settlement overseas, (if you are so inclined).
Certain Indian institutes, such as ISB and Great Lakes, also have an international orientation to their programmes, and some of these advantages are derived from their courses, too.

Why the Graduate Management Admission Test® (GMAT® exam) ?

The GMAT® examination, developed by the GMAC, has been administered for over 50 years now. It is the most widely used assessment for graduate management admissions. Of the several thousand business schools worldwide, nearly 1,800 use the GMAT® scores in their admissions process. Among the better-known of these schools are some in the US, England, Canada, France, Singapore and Australia, apart from a few in India.

How important is the GMAT® exam / score?

The GMAT® score is the most reliable predictor of your ability to succeed academically in graduate business studies. In addition to this the test is also a powerful tool for comparing applicants. As an objective and completely consistent indicator, it offers one of most effective ways of contrasting one applicant with another, no matter how different their backgrounds are.

The GMAT® measures basic verbal, mathematical, and analytical writing skills – the very skills that you have gathered through the years at school and college – proficiency with which is considered essential for an applicant to a business school. The exam is a standardized assessment—delivered in English—that helps business schools assess the qualifications of applicants for advanced study in business and management. Schools use the test as one predictor of academic performance in an MBA program or in other graduate management programs. While business schools and their admissions officers do also look at academic records, work experience, application essays, recommendations, and interviews to get an idea of how well an applicant could be expected to perform in the course and at work, they undoubtedly consider the GMAT® scores to be a very valuable assessment tool.

Thus, there is probably more anxiety and discussion about GMAT® scores than about any other part of the application. For instance, in the top b-schools in the US, the average of GMAT® scores of the admitted candidates is about 700 (the maximum for the exam being 800). The normal range is 650 to 750.While some schools may require minimum scores on the GMAT®, others may only have minimum requirements for certain sections of the GMAT®.

What is the exam like ?

The GMAT® exam consists of four separately timed sections. Each of the first two sections consists of an analytical writing task; the remaining two sections (Quantitative and Verbal) consist of multiple-choice questions delivered in a computer-adaptive format. Questions in these sections are dynamically selected – as you progress through the test, the multiple-choice questions will adjust to your ability level.

For each multiple-choice section of the GMAT® exam, there is a large pool of potential questions ranging from a low to high level of difficulty. Each section of the test starts with a question of moderate difficulty. If the first question is answered correctly, the computer will usually move on to a harder question. If the first question is answered incorrectly, the next question will be easier. This process continues till the section is completed, at which point the computer will have an accurate assessment of your ability level in that subject area.

In a computer-adaptive test, only one question is presented at a time. Because the computer scores each question before selecting the next one, you may not skip, return to, or change the responses to previous questions.

The GMAT® exam measures basic verbal, mathematical, and analytical writing skills that you are expected to have developed over the period of time in education and at work. It does NOT measure:

• knowledge of business,
• ob skills,
• specific content in undergraduate or first university course work,
• abilities in any other specific subject area, or
• subjective qualities—such as motivation, creativity, and interpersonal skills.