The Dominate Test Prep Podcast

It has been said that while it is wise to learn from experience, it is wiser to learn from the experiences of others. If you want to get a feel for what business school is really like before embarking on the journey yourself, why not pick the brain of someone who has gone before you? That's exactly what we did in this episode of The Dominate Test Prep Podcast . We caught up with Sam Klein , a...

In response to test center closures resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, most standardized tests have released an at-home version so that candidates can stay on track to hit their application deadlines and continue applying to graduate school. While there are a lot of advantages to taking your exam from home, there's at least one glaring disadvantage -- and you need to make sure that you&...

The best way to learn what business school admissions officers are looking for is to ask them! So that's exactly what we did. In this episode of The Dominate Test Prep Podcast, we sat down with Lauren Sutherland, Associate Director of Admissions at the Duke Fuqua School of Business , and discussed a wide range of admissions-related questions including: What differentiates Duke Fuqua from some...

As with most industries, the standardized test and college/graduate admissions industries continue to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. With exams being postponed, test centers closing, and admissions deadlines being pushed back, test takers face a new level of uncertainty as they're preparing for test day and thinking about their futures. In this episode we address those challenges head-...

Being put on the waitlist at your dream school isn't ideal. You were hoping to be accepted outright, after all. But it's not a death knell, either. Plenty of people are accepted off the waitlist each year, and there's no reason you can't be one of them. In fact, there are a lot of practical, actionable things you can do to increase your chances of getting off the waitlist in a...

A big part of maximizing your score on test day is how well you're able to focus and concentrate throughout the entire exam. You've spent months learning all of the how-to's for answering questions correctly, but if you have "brain fog" and aren't able to think clearly and remember everything you've studied when it comes time to actually sit down and take your te...

A lot of people believe that if they can't get in to a top-tier college or graduate school, it's not worth going. Yet, there are a lot of considerations that play into your decision to go back to school, and the prestige of the program is only one factor in choosing the school that's right for you. In this episode of The Dominate Test Prep Podcast we catch up with Harvard Kennedy Sc...

Conventional wisdom tells us that if we study hard, high test scores will inevitably follow. But what if we are unmotivated to study or hampered by fear of failure? Or what happens if when we do study, we are plagued by feeling nervous and anxious, and we are not able to perform to our potential? It's no surprise that if you enter the test feeling anything but focused and calm, you risk a sub...

A recent survey shows that 40% of admissions officers reported to have looked at a candidate's social media while reviewing his/her application, a trend that is expected to continue and even grow in the coming years. What does this mean for you? We invited Taylor Siebert , co-founder of Class Intercom and social media expert, to weigh in on how you can use social media to your advantage as yo...

Struggling with reading comprehension questions on your standardized test? Often that's the case when you're not reading the passages in the most effective way. In this episode we share three strategies for improving your overall reading proficiency, for reading the passages in a way that sets you up for success on a majority of questions, for quickly and accurately determining the autho...

Having a strong English vocabulary is important for doing well on pretty much all standardized tests. It helps with reading comprehension, certainly. But it's also fundamentally important for logically completing sentences like you're asked to do on exams such as the GRE.  So what's the best way to learn new words? And should you do anything different if English isn't your nati...

Sometimes you get questions wrong on your standardized test because you don’t use the proper strategy or simply don’t know the underlying content well enough. But sometimes you get wrong answers because you make careless errors — and those can be avoided in most cases. In this episode we explore nine (9) ways that you can avoid making careless mistakes on test day, thereby increasing the number of...

Several interesting bits of news and insights came out of the recently-held summit at the headquarters of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), makers of the GMAT and Executive Assessment exams, and we were there to get the scoop. We relate the most relevant takeaways in this episode, including: Trends in graduate management education (GME) with an emphasis on the types of people apply...

Brandon Royal, Ace the GMAT author, joins the podcast this week to share his expertise on an important logical reasoning skill that comes into play on numerous standardized tests — identifying assumptions. He has categorized logical fallacies into six common assumption categories, and he breaks them down for you in an easy-to-understand way so that you’re better able to tackle reasoning-related qu...

Success is often as simple as finding someone who has done what you want to do, and doing what they did. If you want to significantly improve your standardized test score, then, look no further than Matt Kunzler , who recently raised his GMAT score +120 points through a combination of strategic planning, a helpful prep course , and some good 'ole fashioned hard work. In this episode he shares...

Application essays are a crucial part of the admissions process, and effective essays essentially come down to good storytelling. Your goal as the protagonist of your own story is to become a hero that admissions officers want to root for, says Michael Noltemeyer , founder of North Star Editing and guest on this week's show. During our wide-ranging conversation, Micheal sheds light on just ho...

Welcome to Part 2 of our series on test prep mastery. In this episode we build on the general framework discussed last week and dive deeper into how to design a study plan that is more customized for you. We're joined this week by Vinay Narang , Founder and Chief Genius at GMAT Genius , who shares valuable insight on this topic based on his experiencing helping to create customized study plan...

What does it take to truly master the content tested on your standardized test and get a high score on test day? It really comes down to three core components -- what we call the "Success Triad" -- which we lay out for you in this episode, the first of a two-part series looking at test prep mastery. Specifically, you will learn: The three components of the Success Triad and how they work...

After a brief trial period with a new online format this past summer, the LSAT went fully digital last month and is here to stay. What does that mean for you? We sat down with Dominate Test Prep’s lead LSAT instructor, Dave Hall, to discuss the changes to the exam and how you can best prepare for this new LSAT. Ultimately not much has changed with the substance of the LSAT, so in addition to addre...

Your standardized test (GMAT / GRE) is only part of the admissions criteria when applying to graduate or business school. But what about the rest of your application? In this episode, we invited expert admissions consultant Linda Abraham, founder and CEO of Accepted , to share her 5-part framework for a successful MBA / grad school application. She breaks down each of the five key components and e...

As Aristotle said, "We are what we repeatedly do." That's especially true when it comes to the actions you should be taking on a consistent basis as you prepare for your standardized test. In fact, there are five (5) key study habits that I've seen from working with thousands of students over the years that, if you take them to heart and implement them consistently into your st...

Welcome to the very first episode of The Dominate Test Prep Podcast! We're coming out swinging, sharing with you the top three things we've seen from 14+ years in the industry that will empower you to have the best possible experience preparing for whichever standardized test you're studying for. These principles are universal, so whether you're just diving in or have been prep...