Let us look at some of the time lines and start backwards:-
- Most of the Business School Application Deadlines come in September/October for fall intake.
- An average applicant takes around 3-4 months to build a strong application. It takes that much amount of time for applicants to understand whole procedure, build strong profile, understand their short term long term goals and preparing for the interviews. As a part of GMAT programs we recommend people to start making class visits to the program somewhere in August.
- GMAT Test Date – Mathematically the above calculations suggest that you should have your GMAT score handy by April.
- January – Start date for preparation. If you have been working for 4-5 years chances are that you are out of touch of test prep from last 8 years. With this mindset it will almost take good four months to build great momentum in preparation. GMAT is a skill based test and lot of students fails to recognize this. For example Reading Comprehension is the biggest pain areas for Indian Engineers. Once they read 400 to 500 long word passages they realize they have never experienced the time crunch they are facing in various abstract passages. And there are no shortcuts to fix this other than to build a strong reading habit.
Hope this helps. Go and get a great MBA and build a great career.