~ A CLEAR ADMIT EXCLUSIVE ~
In the third installment of our ongoing series of GMAT test prep company profiles, we turn to MBA Center, which caters to prospective applicants preparing to take the GMAT in several countries throughout Europe, Eurasia and the Middle East.
MBA Center was founded in 1996 by Hubert Silly, who has come to be recognized as an expert in the test preparation field. A professor in France who holds a PhD from Harvard, Silly himself scored an 800 on the GMAT twice and thought it would be interesting to share his secrets with others.
Beginning with books published throughout Europe and Eurasia, MBA Center went on to open its headquarters and first school in Paris, France, followed by additional European locations in Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Italy. MBA Center is now opening its 10th location, in Tunisia, and further expansion is planned to Israel, Morocco, Lebanon and Russia, Silly says.
MBA Center’s focus is on helping strong candidates sharpen their GMAT scores in order to gain admission to the world’s top business programs. “We cannot be mediocre,” Silly says. “We work on only the hardest questions, and we go deep into skill development,” he continues.
MBA Center’s offerings include intensive and semi-intensive courses ranging from a 10-hour package to a three-month all-access course pass. In the interview that follows, Silly describes MBA Center’s GMAT instructors and its ideal students, provides details about its elite Destination 800 program and talks a little about what the future holds in terms of services and tools for students.
Clear Admit: How many GMAT tutors do you have? Who are they? What are their qualifications?
Hubert Silly: We have between 60 and 70 teachers serving 3,000 students throughout Europe. In fact, now we have two people whose full-time job is just to train teachers. Our teachers work part time for us on a contract basis, usually between 10 and 25 hours a week.
Of course, the first thing that we ask them is to have scored high on the GMAT. All of our tutors have scored in the top sixth or seventh percentile. Some have a BA, some an MBA, some a PhD. In our Geneva location, for example, all of our teachers have PhDs and used to be professors.
It is very difficult to find quality GMAT instructors in Europe, and one of the things that sets us apart is that we have very low turnover rates. We have many people who have been with us for several years, including several we have recruited from the United States.
CA: Describe the type of candidate you feel would be best served by MBA Center’s approach to GMAT prep? What sets MBA Center apart from other test prep companies?
HS: I would say that the person we can serve well is the person who needs more individual follow up. We have a lot of one-on-one courses and many teachers who are geared toward private tutoring. So students who need a lot of private attention should certainly come with us.
We are also geared toward the student who is already at a pretty high level and ready to work with only the most difficult questions on the exam. Someone who is fairly week would not be well suited to work with us. Some people complain that the questions are too difficult and that we start too fast. So, it’s important to understand that to be with us you need to be a good student.
We firmly believe that to do well on the GMAT you have to develop skills – not just learn tricks and tips. Scoring well on the GMAT is much more than memorizing 10 key rules of grammar.
Another thing that sets us apart is that the company was founded by an expert in testing, and we know the MBA world. I work closely with the Educational Testing Service (ETS), and MBA Center has close links with the top business schools. The fact that we have made this network in Europe where the market is not very big means that schools recognize what we do. They do presentations with us, they are partners with us, they help us bring our services to the students. And many of the people who have worked for our centers are now working as admissions officials at top business schools.
CA: Can you describe MBA Center’s Destination 800 program? What is it and who is it for?
HS: The Destination 800 program is something that I founded based on the fact that for the best students, an average score is not enough. Basically, it is an advanced level course where we work only with level 750 questions and harder. In Destination 800, we spend one week at the end of each month focused on only the most difficult questions.
CA: Your website indicates that you work to develop a personalized study plan for each student. Can you walk me through the process of setting up such a plan?
HS: What we do is that we have a person whose job is just to contact students and to understand what is going on for them. At MBA Center, we feel that our job is to make sure that after taking the GMAT, prospective applicants get into their target business schools. For me, someone who scores a 710 is not a success. Someone who gets accepted to his top school is a success. So our job is to work with them, ask them how things are going, give them advice. We give an individualized program to each student based on his particular goals.
We do have a standard program, but we use this as a starting point and individualize it according to a particular student’s needs and strengths. If after one week or one month we find that students do not improve enough, we give them extra material. By the end of this year, this process will be completely computerized, and the software we are developing will give students even more diagnostic tools. But for the time being, it is performed by one of MBA Center’s GMAT student advisors. We begin with an initial consultation, in which prospective applicants tell us their target schools. We then evaluate whether these schools fit with their career options and what their target GMAT scores should be to gain admission. And then we give them feedback about what level of study will help them attain the score they need.
CA: Is there anything new on the horizon for MBA Center ? Planned expansion to new markets?
HS: Starting in September, each student that comes to the center will have – in addition to his classes – 24 hours of e-learning. So in addition to in-class instruction, he will be able to take part in a 12-week cycle of e-learning, completing two hours every week. And by the end of the year, we will have our computerized diagnostic system that can adapt to each individual’s level. We are always looking for ways to revamp and develop new tools for our students. Our students can be relieved knowing that we understand what is going on in the United States and are adapting the state-of-the-art technology to our needs.
But we also focus on the human aspect and do extensive follow up. We don’t deliver just technology and content. For instance, if one day you come to the center, you can see us at anytime. I personally welcome Decision 800 students beginning at 7:30 every morning. One day the company might grow so much that such personal involvement becomes difficulty, but right now we all remain very involved on a personal level with students.
The exact services offered by MBA Center vary from country to country. For a full list of locations, along with corresponding course schedules and fees, click here. For reference, prices for services at MBA Center’s London school range from ₤150 for a three-hour GMAT Review Session to ₤1450 for the GMAT Semi-Intensive Course (32 hours of instruction) plus six hours of private tutoring, and the per hour rate for private tutoring is ₤110.
Read the full article: GMAT Test Prep Company Profile Series: MBA Center