Pick a Target Score. A REAL One.

Here's a scene I watch play out all the time. You mention at lunch that you're applying to an Executive MBA. Someone from finance leans over and says, "Oh, the EA? You need a 160. Minimum." You nod like that settles it. That night you write 160 on a sticky note and stick it to your monitor.

Stop. Where did that number come from?

He doesn't know your schools. He doesn't know your data. He may not have taken the Executive Assessment at all. You just built your whole study plan on a guy's lunch opinion. That's not a target. That's a rumor with a number on it.

The good news: a REAL target is easy to build. It takes about an hour, and it comes from two places only. Your schools and your own data.

First, Know What You're Aiming At

The Executive Assessment (the EA) is GMAC's test built for Executive MBA programs. It's 90 minutes long, with three 30-minute sections:

• Integrated Reasoning: 12 questions that make you pull answers out of tables, graphs and short bits of text.
• Verbal Reasoning: 14 questions of Sentence Correction, Critical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension.
• Quantitative Reasoning: 14 questions of Problem Solving and Data Sufficiency. Data Sufficiency asks whether the facts you're given are ENOUGH to answer a question, not what the answer is.

Each section is scored 0 to 20. Your total runs from 100 to 200. And here's the part people skip: all three sections count the SAME. Integrated Reasoning is not a warm-up. It's a third of your score. The test is also adaptive, which means it adjusts its difficulty to how you're doing, section by section. There's no essay.

So a target isn't just a total. It's three section numbers that add up to something your schools will take seriously.

Step One: Your Schools Set the Bar, Not Your Coworker

I'll bet you haven't looked closely at what a single one of your programs says about the EA. Not a forum post. The program itself.

Do this. Write down the two to four programs you'd actually attend. For each one, find what it publishes: class profile, test policy, anything about the EA. If it publishes nothing, email or call admissions and ask a plain question: "What EA scores do your admitted students usually have?" Admissions teams answer this kind of thing. You're a working professional. You've asked harder questions on a Tuesday.

Then take the HIGHEST number from the schools you truly want, and make that your total. Not the highest number on the internet. The highest number on YOUR list.

Step Two: Your Data Sets the Starting Line

A target without a starting point is a wish. Take one full, timed practice test, all three sections, in one sitting, like it's the real thing. Then write down four numbers: your three section scores and your total.

Now look at the gap. Say you score 13 in Quant, 15 in Verbal and 11 in Integrated Reasoning, and your school list points to a total that needs real gains. Where do you find them? Stop reading and answer that before you go on.

If you said "Integrated Reasoning," good. Since all three sections weigh the same, a point in your weakest section counts just as much as a point in your best one, and it's usually far easier to earn. Most people pour their hours into the section they already like. That feels productive. It isn't.

One more thing about that practice test. It's a measuring device. It tells you where you are. It does NOT make you better. Take one, then train for a while before you take another. One a week is the maximum.

The Mistakes I See Every Week

1. Borrowing someone else's number. Your coworker's score, your friend's score, a number from a forum. None of it knows your schools.

   INSTEAD: Your target comes from your program list. If you can't name where your number came from, you don't have one yet.

2. Picking a target before you have any data. You can't plan a route if you don't know where you're standing.

   INSTEAD: One full, timed practice test first. Then set the target.

3. Aiming at the total and ignoring the sections. "I need a higher total" is not a plan.

   INSTEAD: Break it down by section. Name how many points you need from Quant, from Verbal and from Integrated Reasoning, and train the biggest gap first.

4. Letting your ego inflate the number. What do you want MORE: a number that sounds impressive at lunch, or a number that gets you admitted on your timeline? Those are not always the same number.

   INSTEAD: Aim for what your top-choice school needs, then go a little past it for safety. Nothing more is required to get the job done.

5. Moving the target every week. One bad practice test and you drop it. One good one and you raise it. Now you're chasing a moving target and training for nothing.

   INSTEAD: Lock it in. Change it only if your school list changes.

6. Using practice tests as your training. Taking test after test feels like work. It's just measuring the same thing over and over.

   INSTEAD: Train between tests. Redo questions you missed. Write out every step. Find out WHY you got it wrong, then fix that exact thing.

Then Train For It, Like You Mean It

A real target does one big job: it tells you how much work you actually have to do. A small gap means a short, focused plan. A big gap means more weeks of steady training, and you should know that now, not two weeks before your deadline.

And yes, you have a job. Maybe a job with a lot of flights. That's normal for EA Test Takers, and it's not a reason to skip the plan. If that's you, read why business travel is NOT an excuse. Short, regular sessions beat heroic weekend marathons every time.

This is a standardized test. It asks the same kinds of questions in the same kinds of ways. That means you can train for every part of it, and the EA will give you the score you EARN.

Your Move, Today

Take that sticky note off your monitor. Today, write down the programs you'd actually attend and find out what each one says about the EA. If one says nothing, send the email before you go to bed. This week, take one full, timed practice test and write down your three section scores.

Then put a NEW number on the sticky note. One you can explain. If you can't say where it came from in one sentence, you're not done yet.