B-School Applications Demand Self-assessment; GMAC Product Offers a Potential Solution

How many self-assessment tools for personal development are out there? Let me Google that for you … Well, I don’t know about you, but the ocean certainly seems red with more than 4.7 million search query results.

If your advisees are looking for such a tool or wondering about any that are particularly relevant to meeting their business school-related academic and career goals, let me focus your search by directing you to GMAC’s Reflect^TM. Developed by GMAC in partnership with Hogan Assessments, Reflect offers clients a unique report and subsequent action plan, including resources that are presented from a business perspective using business language.

After purchasing the tool for $99.99, customers take approximately 45 minutes to answer more than 500 dichotomous questions (i.e., true/false, yes/no) and immediately receive quantified ranking across ten different competencies. From operational thinking to strategic vision, from resilience to interpersonal intuition, each of the competencies are presented alongside details, actions, and benchmarks.  For the next three years, participants can work to complete prescribed actions, utilize embedded resources to do so, and track their personal developmental progress.

Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of Reflect is the action-oriented focus coupled with resources with which individuals can complete those actions. After all, there is little value in reading a descriptive assessment report without any prescriptive information that allows you to strive toward betterment. This notion is precisely what underpins Kaplan’s Smart Reports^TM technology.

Interestingly, the Reflect project was originally began under the auspices of creating a soft-skills assessment for admissions committees at business schools to use when making admissions decisions.  It was thought that such an assessment would be a useful complement to the hard skills assessment of competencies the GMAT quantifies.  As the product development team moved forward, it became apparent that “soft-skills are coachable and not appropriate for high-stakes testing,” said Andy Martelli, VP of GMAC product development, as paraphrased here. During a product preview event in held last year in Chicago, Mr. Martelli went onto explain that the target customers of Reflect were business school students interested in identifying strengths and weaknesses in order to zero-in on specific behaviors they can work to modify during the time spent pursuing and professionally implementing an advanced degree in management.

Do you believe your advisees would find Reflect useful?  Is it a tool you would recommend?  Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.