App Waivers

It's been months since I took the GMAT and my email inbox is already getting filled with emails from US business schools. Most of these aren't top schools but I get some pretty good ones from time to time. I guess that 690 wasn't so bad after all.

There's the Penn State Smeal MBA, the University of San Diego MBA, the California State U - Fullerton MBA and even the Texas Christian University's Neeley MBA. I even got an email from the UK's Cambridge saying that "we like your profile." From the deluge of emails I've received, I've found out that there are schools that offer app waivers especially to international students (and would probably offer generous scholarships as well!). What made me especially happy the other day was that one of the top 25 schools -- Notre Dame -- offered me an app waiver too!

Yes, that's $175 stricken off my pre-MBA expenses. App waivers are a big deal especially since the usual app fee for a highly-ranked school is more than $200 and I'm an applicant from a developing (read: third-world) country. $175 is such a great deal to me! (It's like taking the TOEFL for free. By the way, the TOEFL raised its fee to $185 from $175, did you know?)

Anyway, I'm applying to Notre Dame. I have been strongly considering it due to its brand, network, reputation and quality, but since I have 5 other schools in my list, I've been wavering in my decision. That day I finally decided to apply -- regardless of how much more it would cost me -- was the day I received the good news in my inbox. So, anyway, I hope you guys do good in your GMAT exams and receive those great offers too!

TOEFL score

I can't believe it! I got a 111 score for my TOEFL!

Whew, well, that's one requirement down. Still can't believe I even managed to get a higher-than-expected score for my essays. On the day of the exam, my mind just blanked out on that last essay. I can laugh about it now, especially when the rating seems to be higher for that particular essay.

I got 30 for Reading, 30 for Listening, 24 for Speaking and 27 for Writing. Not bad. I knew Speaking was going to be my Waterloo. Surprisingly again, the speaking parts I was dreading got a higher score.


One exam down. One more to go.

Preparing for Exams!

I finally registered for the TOEFL a couple of weeks ago, and am scheduled to take it sometime next month. I figured getting a good score in TOEFL would give me more motivation in pursuing a good GMAT score.

I wasted quite a lot of time looking for reviewers; I haven't ever ordered from Amazon so I didn't know that I had to order a month or so before my review if I wanted to order the highly recommended Kaplan Premier reviewer. Anyway, I couldn't spare a month just waiting for a reviewer, and I couldn't spare the cash to fast-track the order.

I did my research thoroughly, however, in my search for the Kaplan Premier reviewer. There were no sellers for this reviewer on ebay.ph or other .ph sites. I was so desperate I even looked for sellers in nearby Asian countries!

There are Kaplan centers here in Manila, but they don't have the latest reviewer on stock. I even visited the Quezon Ave. branch because I thought they had the 2010-2011 Premier edition (as one of their receptionists told me over the phone). It turned out that they had the 2007 edition and it was available at a discounted price. It was quite a big discount but I was sorely disappointed at the old editions available that I've clean forgotten the number. The Math and Verbal reviewers may be the latest editions, but I'm not sure. In case you do want to check whether they have the latest editions already available, you may go to:

2F, Z Executive Suites 1132 Quezon Ave. Quezon City, Philippines
Phone: 371-8966, 371-1689
Mon- Fri 9 AM - 7 PM, Saturday 9 AM to 5 PM

This is the Kaplan center where I got someone sensible enough to talk to over the phone, even though we did misunderstand each other over the reviewer editions available.

The weird thing is, even if you order the latest Kaplan reviewer from the Kaplan center, you get it at the cover price -- no discount. It made me wonder whether the reviewers available in the Philippine Kaplan centers are discounted because these are "left-overs" from the Kaplan centers in the US. Huh.

I've seen Kaplan GMAT 800 reviewers in National Bookstore and learned that Fully Booked will soon have the Kaplan Premier reviewer in stock (ordered from abroad but might be too late for me). Thank goodness we have Fully Booked! Future GMAT Filipino examinees have hope. I wonder why National Bookstore doesn't stock the Kaplan Premier reviewer.

Anyway, I gave up on getting my hands on a Kaplan Premier reviewer and settled on my Official Guide reviewers (I have the 11th and 12th editions). I also got a Princeton Cracking the GMAT reviewer from Fully Booked (thank goodness too for my 20% FB discount card). Barron's GMAT reviewers are available in nearly all bookstores here, but these aren't really highly recommended by the active web users who have taken the GMAT. I've seen a REA GMAT reviewer in Fully Booked, but I still have to check online whether it's worth buying. If I'm still craving for practice tests, I might just buy the Kaplan 800 in the next few weeks.

I got a copy of the Official Guide to the TOEFL iBT (also available in local bookstores) and will go through it next month. For now, I'm trying to focus on my GMAT diagnostic tests so I can start my GMAT review in earnest. I took the diagnostic test in the OG 12th edition this morning, and got "above average"/"excellent" ratings. (Well, I got "below average" when I took data sufficiency last night, but I redid it this morning and got "excellent." No, I didn't memorize the answers. I just took a new perspective on answering the questions. It seems to be the correct perspective, as opposed to the one I had last night. I still had mistakes this morning, by the way.)

I promise, I'll take the diagnostic test on the GMATPrep software after this post.