The GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) is the SAT of b-school; you must take it to get into any business school. The GMAT tests your verbal, math and analytical writing skills. According to the GMAC, schools use your scores to predict how well you will do during your first year in graduate school. This may or may not be an accurate predictor of your grades, but the schools pay attention to these scores, so you should, too.

The GMAT does not ask specific questions about finance, economics or accounting, because it is geared toward measuring more fundamental skills. The two basic sections--verbal and quantitative (math)--are divided into these types of questions:
* Test reading comprehension
* Making sentence corrections
* Solving logical reasoning problems
* Solving mathematical problems
* Deciding on data sufficiency

Two parts of the test are graded together into one score on a scale of 200 to 800. The third part, the analytical writing section, asks you to write two essays: one analyzing an issue, and the other assessing the validity of an argument. This portion is graded on a scale of 0 to 6.

In assessing your application, the schools will not consider the score on the writing section, so make sure to pump up your main score and don't worry too much about the writing portion. Sure, a good writing score might push you over the edge, but it's mostly useless. Students in the top schools all have scores above 680. Schools ranked in the top 20 have average scores of 650 and above. If you want to go to a top school, you're going to need a score in this range. The top business schools in the country receive applications from candidates with sterling academic records; they do not need to seriously consider an applicant with less than superlative academic credentials. While a low GMAT score will not necessarily shut you out, the rest of your application must be extraordinary to compensate for a low score.

All schools require that you have graduated from an undergraduate institution, and they'll want to see how you did. While no schools claim to have a minimum GPA requirement, the average GPA of students in the top schools ranges between 3.4 and 3.5. The longer it has been since you graduated, however, the less schools will focus on your transcript. If you've done other graduate work, include that transcript into your application as well. Having gone to graduate school is not a requirement for business school, but showing them that you received other degrees will certainly help your case.

Nail the Essays

Your essays show schools several things:
* That you can write sentences in the English language (a much rarer skill than you'd think).
* That you can make clear arguments about your beliefs or the beliefs of others.
* That your theories and thoughts extend beyond the obvious.
* That you can explain why you sincerely want to attend their school.
Most applications require between two and six essays.

* Applications usually provide page or word limits, but it can be difficult to discuss your entire value system in 300 words or less.
* Schools like to give you essay topics where you won't be able to submit a stock essay to every school; thus, many of the subjects are rather strange. Here are some examples:
New York University Stern School of Business: Agree or disagree with three statements: one by Sophocles, one by Aristotle and one by Jose Ortega y Gasset. (statements provided in the application)
Harvard University: Describe a situation in which you failed and explain why it happened.
Stanford University: What course you would pursue if getting an MBA did not exist as an option?
Start early enough to give yourself time to think about the questions, write several drafts, give them to friends to read and comment on, and then think about them again. Make your essays sincere rather than trying to give them what they want, and stay away from cliches.Talk about interesting things you've done, interesting problems you've solved and interesting things you plan to do. Talk about how you solve problems in groups--not explicitly, of course, but admission committees love students who can solve problems and work well with others