One thing that is very important to me is my family. A few years ago we were finally able to purchase our first house. It took a lot of work and financial planning to be able to save up to get the house. I was finally at a place in my career when I was making enough money to put some aside for a down payment.

The reason I was able to save up was because I went to grad school to get my MBA. When I was younger, I just had a bachelor’s degree and was only making enough money to meet my expenses. I researched options on how I could advance my career and decided that getting an MBA would be the best option. An MBA is designed for those who want to get management-level positions within companies. If you look at the stats from the GMAC, the average salary for MBAs is much higher than those with just undergrad degrees.

One thing I had to do before applying to graduate school was take the GMAT. This is a standardized test that everyone has to take. A lot of people want to go to top schools and thus they need to score a 700 on the test. however, I didn’t think I could score that high. When I took my first diagnostic tests I was scoring around 450! I felt dumb, like I was in high school all over again. I knew I had a lot fo studying to do.

Eventually I found a really good GMAT tutor in my area and he gave me some great tips on how to improve my score. He recommended some test prep materials and some places to get GMAT sample questions. After I studied a few weeks with these, I finally took the exam. I only scored a 490 on my first try! However my tutor insisted that I keep studying hardcore for another month, and I did. I retook the exam and reached my target score of 540! This is the median score for the GMAT exam. I was very pleased, as I was able to be accepted to my MBA program of choice. After I graduated I was able to get a better paying job and advance in my career.