UPenn Graduate Scores 740, Thanks GMATPill (Video)

Alice is an energy consultant and U Penn graduate in psychology. She discovered GMATPill through a referral from another successful GMATPill student. Well, not only was GMATPill helpful to the first student—it was helpful for Alice as well.

Here’s a quick few words from Alice herself.

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Lessons From The CEO of Ethan Allen – 2 GMAT Pill Students Meet The CEO

During an interview today with with Farooq Kathwari, the CEO of Ethan Allen, we at GMAT Pill had a chance to discuss a few topics about leadership with a true business expert. And two GMATPill students even got a chance to personally meet the CEO and get a picture with him!

Two GMATPill Students Meet the CEO of Ethan Allen

You see, Farooq is a great example of the American dream. He was an immigrant entrepreneur who became CEO of one of his customer firms. The immigrant to CEO story is a glorious one that GMATPill just had to learn more about.

Farooq stayed on as CEO of Ethan Allen not just for a few years—-but for DECADES–something that isn’t that common.

Remember Bob Nardelli? Well, he was CEO of Home Depot who took home a big paycheck when the company lost tons of money and fired a bunch of employees? He was only there for a few years but cashed out well for himself.

Farooq is the opposite. He stayed on CEO for what seems like forever—he brought the company public in the early 90s—and even today in 2011, he’s still CEO. Talk about commitment!

For those of you who don’t know, Ethan Allen is a globally recognized brand for luxurious custom home furnishings.

So how did Farooq get to be CEO of Ethan Allen and grow it to be what it is today? Looking at what he majored in during college certainly doesn’t tell the story: he majored in English and Political Science.

For all you English and Political Science majors who aspire to be successful in business—–there’s plenty of hope!

Farooq didn’t study like crazy for English and Poli Sci either. In fact, he attributes much of his success to something else: his involvement in cricket sports.

It was through playing cricket that Farooq had the opportunity to be passionately involved in team building and leadership. The reason he majored in English and Poli Sci was because he wanted to minimize the amount of time he spent studying academics and maximize the amount of time and dedication he put towards cricket.

Cricket taught Farooq elements about leadership that no class can ever teach. He was always captain of the team and was put in a position to lead and motivate other members of his team for a common goal.

“Leadership is not about being great yourself,” says Farooq. “It’s about helping others become the best they can be because of you.”

Very true words.

Never underestimate the importance of your extracurricular endeavors. When drafting up your application for MBA admissions, worry less about your school GPA or what you majored in—-and focus more on great stories and examples of team leadership and team building that you did outside of the workplace.

After college, Farooq attended NYU Stern School of Business for his MBA.

When we spoke with him, we pointed out that life often boils down to just a few key moments. The same is true in business. We asked him what are some examples of those key moments that were most critical in his career.

His examples were simple. One was when he decided to come to America and live the American dream.

The other was when one of his contacts at Ethan Allen (who was then a customer of his) offered him a job at Ethan Allen–to which he responded, “A job? How about a partnership instead?”

Notice how he quickly reframes the situation so he is on top. Now, THAT’s business-savvy.

Today, Farooq actually considers running his apple farm his top job. Running Ethan Allen? No big deal. Just a second or third job.

Now THAT’s the lifestyle of a CEO!

GMAT Prep Resources

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GMAT Prep | A Really Good Past-Present-Future Framework GMAT SC Question

Interest rates on mortgages have declined steadily during the first six months of this year but virtually remained unchanged during the next three months.
• (A) have declined steadily during the first six months of this year but virtually remained unchanged
• (B) declined steadily during the first six months of this year but virtually remain unchanged
• (C) steadily declined during the first six months of this year but remain virtually unchanged
• (D) declined steadily during the first six months of this but have remained virtually unchanging’
• (E) declined steadily during the first six months of this year but have remained virtually unchanged

OA is E. Very interesting question. Here’s how I’m thinking through it:

Step 1) I read “Interest rates on mortgages have declined steadily during the first six months of this year”

So far looks ok. I take a quick look at the answer choices and see that they are testing me on “have declined” Vs “declined steadily” VS “steadily declined”

Well, (A) shows “have declined during the first six months”–this implies that this declining started in the beginning of the year (in the past) and continues to the present–which presumably would be now in month #6.

So looks ok so far.

Step 2) Then we keep reading: “but virtually remained unchanged during the next three months.”

“During the next three months” ???—wait a minute. It’s using a past tense “remained unchanged” when referencing something that happens for the next three months. Since we assumed the present was now in month #6, then the next three months would be month #7-9.

But they used past tense “remained unchanged” when referencing something that was really in the future (relative to month #6).

Something must be wrong!

If they’re going to word it like this–you’re going to need to get rid of the “have” in “have declined”–because this is conflicting with other clues in the sentence.

Step 3) “declined steadily” VS “steadily declined”
Well, one’s not that much better than the other..so let’s keep looking for other clues. We know we are now operating in the past tense since all remaining answer choices are in the past tense.

Step 4) “remain virtually unchanged” Vs “have remained virtually unchanged” when referencing the “next 3 months”

Since we know we are in the past tense–we cannot use “remain virtually unchanged”–this is actually present tense. The “-ed” in the word “unchanged” might lead some to believe that it’s past tense–but actually “unchanged” is used as an adjective—not a verb.

So we need to eliminate “remain virtually unchanged” as well as “virtually remain unchanged” in (B) and (C).

Step 5) Now it’s between (D) and (E).

“remained virtually unchanging” or “remained virtually unchanged”

This is an easy one. Clearly (D) doesn’t make sense–only (E) makes sense.

So choose (E) as your final answer and move on!

Hope that helps!

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