How to prepare for MBA interview in advance?

The MBA interview in advance is divided into two parts: material application and interview. Although each school has its own characteristics, it is undeniable that the core elements of its inspection are the same. The business school will examine the applicant's education, work background, management experience, leadership potential, innovation ability, logical thinking, communication and expression, goal path and other dimensions; If there is a group interview, it will also focus on the applicant's teamwork, problem analysis and problem solving skills. The following is an explanation from three aspects: evaluation form, evaluation elements and common interview questions:

First, the evaluation form:

1. Application:

The application materials are all filled in and submitted online. You need to register in the candidate service system of the corresponding MBA program in official website, and you can see the complete application process and application materials. The application materials include three parts, generally basic background information, self-report essays and other auxiliary materials.

1. 1 Background information: generally presented in standard form. Take Tsinghua University MBA application form as an example to show you:

Educational experience:

Foreign language proficiency:

Work experience:

If you have entrepreneurial experience, you will get corresponding points:

Other information: such as professional qualification, social experience and international experience.

1.2 self-report essay: each school will set up 1-4 open-ended questions, and the number of words in each question will generally be controlled at 500- 1000. Take the MBA application composition of Tsinghua University in 2020 as an example to show it to everyone (the content of the composition varies greatly from school to school, so only the form is shown here, and the specific assessment elements will be developed below):

Please describe your value and contribution to the organization. It is suggested to use the actual case of personal work to illustrate. (within 1000 words)

Please explain the impact of scientific and technological progress on your personal career development and how you will deal with it. You can choose a field that is most relevant to your career development. (within 800 words)

How do you define your beautiful life and how will you realize it? (within 500 words)

1.3 auxiliary materials:

Resume: focus on the work experience, as an effective supplement to the background information, it is recommended to control it to 1 page as much as possible;

Transcript: which academic qualifications are applied for, the corresponding transcripts will be provided. The original transcripts are generally kept in the archives. If it is lost, it is suggested to apply for a replacement in the original institution in advance and affix the official seal of the issuing unit;

Organization chart: Generally, schools with organization chart are required to give a template, and pay attention to clearly mark the location;

Letter of recommendation: What kind of person can be a referee? The first principle is to know the applicant, whether it is the direct leader, the partner or even the customer. You don't have to have a big coffee table, but you must have close ties in business cooperation;

Graduation certificate or degree certificate: the online application stage does not need the original, but the electronic registration filing form of Xuexin.com degree certificate (different from the student status, you must read it clearly), and the overseas degree needs to provide a scanned certificate of residence service in China;

Some colleges and universities will require proof of income: bank running water, tax payment certificate, etc. According to the requirements of the school, the only principle is authenticity.

2. Interview:

When the application materials are passed, congratulations, you will enter the formal interview. Generally divided into personal structured interviews and leaderless group discussions, referred to as personal interviews and group interviews. Different schools will take different interview forms. Here is a brief explanation:

2. 1 Personal Interview

We can understand personal interview as verification interview. The application materials you submitted have passed the examination of the examiner, and you are invited to the school for an interview to verify whether the people described in the materials conform to your actual situation. Therefore, in the process of personal interview, most of the examiner's questions come from your application materials (so whether the materials are solid or not is very important, which is related to whether you can enter the interview, and secondly, the interview is to fill holes in the materials. The less holes are dug in the materials, the easier the interview is).

The time is generally between 10-30 minutes, and the questions focus on the applicant's learning objectives, career planning, work performance, industry cognition, etc. It is involved in all the materials, but it is described to the examiner in the form of stories in the interview examination room. Of course, for some top business schools, it will also set difficulties. For example, you will ask some detailed questions (which may be more interesting to the examiner) about the access path of your work results; Another example is the views on the development of the industry, or the management of scene setting, and so on.

2.2 Group interview

Group interviews are usually 4- 10 people, and the time is also 30-60 minutes. First give a case (usually a hot topic of enterprise management or business), and give everyone some time to discuss, analyze and solve the problems existing in the case. The whole discussion process will be graded by the examiner. Some schools just discuss, some schools need to state their views or solutions after discussion, and some schools will ask each other in AB group. But no matter what form it takes, the two most important points are: to do role-playing well, or teamwork, it is necessary to choose a leader in the group to lead the whole discussion process, and each member can analyze and state from his own role, and it is forbidden to say it all at once; In addition, it should be noted that in the process of analyzing and solving problems, some existing theoretical frameworks can be applied, which can not only reflect their own management literacy, but also ensure clear logic and avoid turning a discussion into bargaining in the vegetable market.

2.3 Oral Listening

Oral listening is a concern of many candidates. After all, I'm not an English major and I don't work in a foreign company. After graduation, listening and speaking ability degenerated to preschool age. Here is a dose of reassurance for everyone. First of all, if you are not applying for an international class, the examination of English ability is not the key point, which generally only accounts for 5-10% of the whole interview score; Secondly, the examiner also understands the difficulties of students and will not set too high a threshold here. Generally, as long as you dare to speak, you will get basic points. Students who are really worried about English can prepare a self-introduction If you ask an English question, you can also introduce yourself to the examiner, at least to show your attitude of preparing for the exam seriously. Of course, it is suggested that students with ability prepare some simple questions in advance.

3. Application batch (application time):

Most business schools will announce the early interview policy in April and May, one of which is the interview batch, which is the so-called interview time.

Generally, each school will have 3-6 batches to choose from, with summer vacation as the dividing line, with May-June as the first half, 9-65438+ 10 as the second half, and July-August will be less, because schools are on holiday. It is recommended to participate in the first half as much as possible. First, there are enough OFFERs in the last batch, and the examiner may be more relaxed. Second, get the offer as soon as possible, and you can invest in the preparation of the written test as soon as possible.

There are two important time nodes that must be noted. The first is the deadline for submission of each batch of materials, and the second is the time for formal interview, which is often only 1-2 weeks apart. Therefore, in the process of preparing the application materials, it is suggested that the preparation and exercise content needed for the interview should also be put on the agenda.

In addition, many students will choose to apply for projects from multiple schools at the same time, try to stagger the time and arrange strategies. Especially if you apply for 2-3 top business schools at the same time, if you concentrate on a certain period of time, the preparation period of a single institution is short, and you can't reply in time from the last interview, which is not conducive to the overall interview strategy arrangement.

Second, the evaluation elements:

Above, briefly introduce the interview process from the form. Let me talk about its assessment elements first.

Through years of experience in MBA application counseling, we have summarized several dimensions that business schools value: academic background, work background, management experience, leadership potential, logical thinking, communication and expression, innovation ability and goal path.

We need to understand the logic behind these assessment dimensions, not only why, but also why, so as to make targeted preparations.

Education background: Actually, it is a very important embodiment of learning ability, including education, language achievement, learning experience after work, etc. Business schools, especially those of top prestigious schools, attach great importance to learning ability for the following reasons: First, the academic pressure of prestigious schools is relatively heavy, and examiners will also worry about what to do if students with weak learning ability can't finish their studies; Secondly, the business school classroom is not a complete indoctrination, but arouses people's thinking, hoping to arouse more sense of * * * in the classroom, which may greatly reduce the real gains for students who lack the learning ability and thinking ability, and also have a negative impact on the classroom atmosphere.

For students with short academic background who want to apply for a prestigious school, you need to prove to the examiner that you have learning ability, such as having participated in systematic training after work and having your own thinking and gains, or having passed a difficult certificate, or having the habit of reading and thinking.

Work background: The introduction of work background is actually fully presented in the application materials and resume. I want to emphasize the following points:

First of all, what the examiner wants to see is a career track with certain growth. For some fluctuations, if there is no reasonable reason, there is no need to present them. We need to understand the truth that we are not showing our true selves, but what the examiner wants to see, and strive to tap our own characteristics and highlights to win the favor of the examiner in a short interview time, which is enough. Not only business school interviews, but also workplace interviews.

Secondly, in the description of each work experience, there should be not only jobs and responsibilities, but also achievements. What the examiner cares about is not what you are doing, but what you have done. When describing the work results, try to give quantitative figures, and try to include both absolute and relative quantities: for example, what is your score, how big your team ranks in x%, and where are you in the same industry; Another example is that your scheme has helped the organization improve its efficiency by x%.

Finally, if there are problems in describing the results of your work, such as describing the most successful things and the things that can best reflect your personal value, then you need to master basic narrative skills (because the essay is basically telling stories), such as the commonly used 5W 1H and the star principle. And presented in the form of storytelling. Applicants are advised to dig up more materials, put on different labels and show their highlights from different abilities.

Management experience: when writing materials or formal interviews, you will not be directly asked theoretical questions such as "what is management". Applicants need to first understand the core of many questions raised by examiners or just mentioned in the self-written composition. When the examiner asks you questions about your work, such as "how did you do the xx project" and "the most successful thing", it is actually to see if you have basic management literacy. We can't directly reply to the examiner's theory that management is planning, organizing, leading and controlling, but we need to present it in the form of stories. Combined with the above-mentioned storytelling principles, describe the dilemma you faced at that time, what your goal was, what your solution was, what kind of results you finally achieved and what kind of positive impact you had on the organization. In the process of description, try to fully embody the management elements such as planning, organization, leadership and control.

Leadership potential: In fact, leadership potential can be completely attributed to the description of management experience. The reason why it is extracted separately is to highlight the two factors of "leadership" and "potential".

"Leadership" is more people-oriented, and business schools are looking for and cultivating "super individuals", future business leaders, so we need to spend more time shaping people-oriented characteristics, such as your charm, influence and the key role you play in the team. Of course, for the current applicants, most of them don't have that obvious ability, but at least you should have such potential, which is why business schools want to admit you.

Speaking of "leadership potential" or "management potential", we can understand it from another angle. As mentioned in the previous column, the higher your management level, the less you need specific knowledge, but the more you need the ability to analyze and judge complex problems. When the applicant lacks sufficient management experience and leadership, we can further demonstrate our potential by analyzing and disassembling complex problems.

Logical thinking: in the face of complex problems, it needs to be dismantled. Then the applicant must have strong logical thinking ability, or structured thinking ability, which is the bottom ability when analyzing problems. In an interview, when you encounter a problem that is outside your cognitive field, or a relatively large and complicated problem, you need to disassemble it according to a certain logical level, so as to catch the examiner's ear in a short interview. Of course, it doesn't matter what the answer is when encountering this kind of problem. The examiner is looking at your thinking logic.

In addition, when writing application materials, you need to pay attention to your own logical level, so that the theme is clear, the classification is clear, and the logic is progressive, otherwise your materials will appear chaotic, and the examiner will not be able to grasp the main points you want to express.

Communication and expression: In fact, logical thinking will also affect the communication and expression of candidates. When you meet a person with a confused mind, you will feel very tired because you have a lot to say, but you just don't know what he wants to express. How to avoid such problems in the interview examination room? This may require us to do some daily training. One minute on stage, ten years off stage. Of course, doing such logical thinking training and expression training is not only to cope with an interview, but also plays a key role in helping your career progress.

In fact, clear thinking is only a shallow requirement for communication and expression, but the previous article mentioned "20% core", which is the core of communication. Make sure others can understand it first, and then think about further improvement.

Innovative ability: Business schools are increasingly demanding applicants' innovative ability or innovative consciousness. Of course, this is not to encourage everyone to start a business, nor does it mean that you can show your advantages by doing scientific research. In fact, in a broad sense, as long as your contribution helps the organization break the old model and evolve into a more efficient or profitable state, this is the embodiment of innovative behavior. For example, redesign the organizational structure to make the uploading and publishing of information smoother; Another example is to open up new markets and increase profit points.

Goal path: Examiners will be more concerned about whether the applicant has a clear goal and whether he has his own thinking in the process of getting the goal. The goals here include both academic goals and career goals. I'm not shy about it. The questions are very direct, such as why you took the MBA, why you took the MBA in our school, and what your career plan will be like in the next 3-5 years or even longer.

Why do you want to take the MBA? In fact, there was a special article before, which summarized what value MBA can bring to applicants. However, it must be noted that students who apply for an MBA from a prestigious school, in particular, cannot copy it directly! This is obviously not thinking, or even thinking after thinking will make the examiner "feel" that you are not thinking. It's a simple truth, because that's what others write and say. What shall we do? We must describe the actual management problems or business problems you encounter at this stage in combination with our actual demands, and then tell our own stories in combination with the curriculum and training mode of your target business school.

3-5 years of career planning, in fact, you just think about this problem. For the time being, MBA applications are the main ones. This question 100% will be encountered in materials or interviews. What would your answer be? "I'm an accountant now. I want to be a qualified financial manager for three years, the company's chief financial officer for five years, and an industry expert or entrepreneur for 10." "I'm a sales supervisor now, a sales director for three years and an entrepreneur for five years." This may be your answer after careful consideration. Of course, this answer is correct, but it is too easy to be submerged, just like the last question, it is too easy to be similar. In fact, you can try to stand higher, especially when applying for a prestigious school. If you can't discuss the problems of the industry from the height of the industry, you may not have a thorough understanding of the industry. In fact, when we see the pain points of the industry, on the other hand, this is an opportunity. Taking this as the direction for the next 3-5 years may make it easier to stand out.

Three. Summary of frequently asked questions:

Interview questions are generally divided into the following seven categories: professional background related issues, learning objectives, management literacy issues, business/social hot issues, social responsibility issues, personal characteristics/hobbies, and other issues.

Questions related to professional background:

1. Work achievements

The main points of past tense; Looking for bright spots; Tell stories;

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Since the description of achievements is basically in the form of "highlights", there is no need to describe all experiences; Regarding the selection of materials, the concept of individual hero vs teamwork is more recommended.

Interviewers usually ask such questions according to the materials, so push back the application materials, try to have detailed statements, and have results and influences, as well as data support, so that you only need to make statements during the interview and will not be questioned;

Describing personal achievements is actually telling stories. In addition to being familiar with the story itself, the basic narrative principles and ideas should be clear. You can use common modes such as "5W 1H" and "STAR" to make the examiner feel your logical level and story appeal when telling.

Pay attention to the time axis, if your highest light moment is too far away from the present time, it is not necessarily a good thing, which involves the growth problem mentioned below;

Pay attention to the difference between business school interview and workplace interview, especially for some professionals. Job interview focuses on your professional ability, while business school interviewers may not know your industry, so you should try to avoid your professional language and industry slang and tell stories in popular business language.

for instance

Introduce your achievements in your past work;

How do you train your subordinates?

Your resume mentions an achievement/achievement, please describe it in detail;

What do you think caused the so-and-so achievement mentioned in your materials? What's the impact on your company?

I think your performance figures are really nothing in the industry. what do you think?

I know the average level of your industry, and your performance is a little far beyond this level. Can you explain why?

2. Employment situation

Key points of growth; How to balance career and study;

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The upward trend (growth) of career trajectory is very important. The current position, function and salary should be the highest point of the whole career, which can reflect their own management ability or management potential;

Be content with the status quo and try to remain neutral; There are many reasons for further study, so try to avoid the answer of "denying the status quo";

Describing the current working state is not that the more things, the better. The ability to multitask is important, but it also needs to balance the study time.

for instance

As mentioned in your material, you are now in charge of finance, administration and personnel. How do you coordinate your time?

Why did you leave your last company/why did you come to your present company?

Are you satisfied with your present working conditions?

What is the core competitiveness of your company?

What is the biggest challenge or difficulty you are facing now, and why?

Now that you are in charge of such a large department, do you think your abilities match?

3. Career goals

Point to the future; Whether it is reasonable; Implementation path; Cultivate value;

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Describe the future professional status as concretely as possible, instead of just telling the examiner abstractly that I want to be promoted;

The goal can be ambitious, but it should be reasonable. Tell the examiner what efforts you have made to realize your ideal. MBA is only a road to the future, not the only one; At the same time, the description of career goals should not be too small, and the training value will be lost if the return on investment is too low;

There are two common ways to achieve the goal: first, the bottom-up way, what to do in the past (accumulation) → what to do now (making up for shortcomings and improving ability) → what to do in the next three years (direction) → what to do in the next 5- 10 years; Secondly, in a top-down way, what is the pain point of an industry or enterprise → what kind of commercial or social value will be created by solving this pain point → seize this opportunity in the next 3-5 years; The first bottom-up method is quite satisfactory and easy to be similar; The second top-down approach is more prominent, but it requires higher industry awareness and ability to analyze problems;

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What are your plans for the future?

What efforts have you made to achieve this goal?

To achieve this goal, which do you think is more important, resources or team?

What makes you say that you can be the general manager in the next five years?

As far as I know, many people have done your so-called blue ocean, don't you know?

How to judge that this pain point is not a "false pain point"?

Please talk about the impact of scientific and technological progress on your industry and how you will deal with it.

You have taken many professional qualifications. Do you think it will be of great help to your work?

4. Entrepreneurship background and objectives

Key business models; Business data; style of leadership

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For students (founders or partners) with entrepreneurial background, the problems in this area will be very concentrated, and they must be prepared more solidly!

The business model is easy to understand. You must be very familiar with the value proposition, customer segmentation, customer relationship, channel access, key business, core resources, income sources and cost structure.

Basic business data and industry data should be clear;

For entrepreneurs, how to lead the team to achieve business goals is very concerned by the examiner, so your organizational structure, leadership style, leadership style, etc. Need to be fully prepared;

The field you choose may be familiar to the interviewer or unfamiliar to the interviewer. You should be well-founded in front of experts and easy to understand in front of laymen.

for instance

Please introduce your product positioning;

What is your company's core competitive advantage?

What is your company's main business, and what is its percentage of total revenue?

What scale do you want to achieve in the future and how to achieve it?

What is the biggest challenge for you to start a business?

You have the least shares in your company, does that mean you have no right to speak?

You are mainly responsible for the sales module of your company, but you have not made any profit so far. What do you think is the biggest problem?

5. Enterprise background and industry background

Main viewpoints and overall viewpoints; Industry trends; Industry trends;

for instance

Do you know how many companies are in the same industry in Beijing? Please list the top three.

What do you think is the biggest impact/opportunity of the rise of the Internet on your traditional industries?

How does your company deal with the policy impact?

As the topsales of your company, do you know where your performance can rank in the whole industry?

The industry data you described seems inaccurate. Where did you learn it?

Are you concerned about the exposure of xx company's xx problem? As a colleague, what influence does it have on you?

Learning objectives:

1. Motivation

Key points: why do you want to study MBA；; Why choose the MBA； of XX school; Why not choose an MBA from another school?

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There is no need to discuss the value of MBA in detail. The key is to combine your actual demands, tell the confusion you are facing now, and tell how the MBA training system can help you.

Many business schools offer MBA courses. Why did you choose A instead of B? Combine yourself and tell us where you fit in.

Have a certain understanding of the curriculum system, training style and school motto of the target college;

for instance

Why did you apply for an MBA?

Why did you apply for an MBA in our school? Please specify the reasons.

What do you think the MBA will do to you and help you?

Besides our school, which school did you apply for an MBA?

What is the motto of our school?

What would you do if you didn't get an interview this year?

Contribute

What value can you create for your school or classmates?

Business conversation analysis

for instance

If you are admitted to our school, what do you want to share with your classmates most?

Please give two reasons for accepting you and explain them in detail (it is suggested to answer from two aspects, one is personal characteristics and core advantages, and the other is what value you can create for the school and other students);

Management literacy

1. The most successful thing;

Upper limit of key points; Tell stories;

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Compared with the previous description of achievements, the difference lies in: achievements can be multiple things, and the most successful can only say one thing;

The most successful things represent the upper limit of your ability, not too small;

In a case, managers should have the following management functions: planning, organizing, leading, controlling and innovating;

for instance

Please tell us one of your most successful stories;

In your ten years of work experience, which moment are you most proud of?

2. The biggest failure

Point out the moral bottom line; Recoverable;

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Failure is not terrible, but it is necessary to avoid that irreparable major mistake;

Failure is often temporary. Try to save the defeat, and turn defeat into victory through your own or team's efforts.

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Can you describe a failure that impressed you the most and tell me what lessons you learned from it?

Please describe one thing you regret most so far;

I saw in the material that you had two entrepreneurial experiences. Why did you fail the first time?

3. Scene setting

Key point analysis and problem-solving ideas; Comprehensive display of management functions;

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The signs of scene setting problems are: "If …" and "Suppose …";

This is not a fact, but based on the examiner's assumption, so listen to the question clearly and set what kind of scene;

The examiner wants to see what role you play in the enterprise or organization and what role you can be competent for. It's okay to set a title, but if there is no title in the question, try to think about it from the perspective of individuals and managers.

There are two scene settings:

The first category is based on the realistic background, such as taking your company as the background, assuming that you are the leader of a certain position, how to deal with such and such problems, which is an investigation of management functions, especially in crisis response;

The second is to ask some questions based on virtual background, and there are often no standard answers. What the examiner wants most is your ideas of analyzing and solving problems, and it is suggested that you master the basic models of analyzing problems, such as SWOT, Porter's Five Forces, 4P, 4C, hierarchy of needs and so on.

for instance

If you are a team leader, what qualities do you think are necessary? Do you?

You are an internet company. If you are the human resources director of your company, what should you do when the working mode of "996" is questioned?

What would you do if your best subordinate had a conflict with your leader and the leader asked you to fire TA?

What would you do if you learned that someone in your company was going to jump off a building?

The salary of your company is generally lower than that of the same industry. If you were the CEO of the company, what would you do?

What would you do if the company lost a big customer because of your work mistake?

If you are not in a big company, but in an entrepreneurial company, do you think your current talent incentive system is still applicable?

As your company's financial experience, what should you do if the boss asks you to make false accounts?

If there is a conflict between the sales department and the finance department of your company and the boss talks to you alone, how are you going to report to the boss?

If you are a department head now, how do you train your subordinates?

If your industry is suppressed by policies, as the CEO of the company, how do you deal with it?

If you are maliciously slandered by your competitors, how can you fight back and keep your customers?

Business/social hotspots

Key value; Ideas for solving problems;

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Concerns and opinions on hot issues often test not the applicant's knowledge, skills or abilities, but deeper values;

For business hot issues or social hot issues, which may be beyond your industry background and cognitive scope, he has no standard answer, but focuses on solving problems;

for instance

What do you think of * * * enjoying bicycle parking?

How to treat Netease's dismissal of sick employees?

What impact do you think the 2022 Winter Olympics will have on the current economic growth?

Social responsibility:

Give back to society.

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MBA not only trains managers, but also shapes future business leaders in MBA genes. As the ancients said, reaching is beneficial to the world. Business leaders should not only make money, but also give play to their own light and heat, give back to society and create more value for society.

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How to treat the phenomenon that many entrepreneurs return to the classroom to teach students after success?

What is the person or sentence that has the deepest influence on you?

Do you think enterprises should take on more social responsibilities and how to practice them?

Personal characteristics, interests and hobbies

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Personal characteristics are an abstract concept, such as strong communication ability, quick learning ability, organization and coordination ability, logical thinking ability and innovation ability. You can't tell the examiner directly that you have these abilities, but pass them on to the examiner through stories;

Hobbies should be as positive as possible;

for instance

Why should we admit you instead of other applicants who came for an interview today?

Please list your three advantages and choose a specific explanation;

Do you have any shortcomings?

According to the materials, I like reading. What books have you read recently? Share one with us.

Others (introduce yourself; Oral English problems and so on. )

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Introduce yourself: You should prepare different versions, a shorter version and a more detailed version. In addition to basic information, you should tell your achievements, current situation, goals and advantages;

English problem: For China's on-the-job projects, spoken English is often not strict. Prepare an English self-introduction and translate the frequently asked questions into English.

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Can you tell me something about yourself in English?

What is your greatest strength?

Why did you choose Peking University?

Why did you choose MBA?

What is your greatest achievement?

Above, the assessment forms, assessment elements and common problems of MBA early interview are generally introduced. According to the above dimensions, ordinary MBA programs should be able to hold. If the applicant is a top business school, it can only be called an introduction, hoping to arouse the applicant's more thinking, and it needs to be accompanied by polishing materials and interview training.