P&Q’s Must Reads: The GMAT Gamble That Paid Off Big by: Kristy Bleizeffer on August 14, 2025 | 152 Views August 14, 2025 Copy Link Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email Share on LinkedIn Share on WhatsApp Share on Reddit Hello everyone — Welcome back to Poets&Quants’ Must Reads, a quick, digestible recap of the top business school news, sponsored by CentreCourt, P&Q’s virtual admission events. I’m your host, Kristy Bleizeffer, and I’ll be highlighting the most important P&Q stories you might have missed. So, let’s get to it. No. 1: The GMAT Gamble That Paid Off Big How did this fashion designer turned Meta designer make it to the M7 despite her non-traditional background? She scored a 750 on the GMAT. She created a study strategy that would also make time to perfect her essays and application prep. You can follow her strategy through this story, which is up now on our homepage. No. 2: How International B-Schools Are Responding To Global Chaos Across Europe and Canada, business schools are launching schools, centers, degrees, and courses to confront both new geopolitical challenges as well as those that have lingered for decades. Alongside finance, marketing, and operations, students are learning how to navigate international trade wars, contested energy markets, and misinformation. As one European professor put it: “We are witnessing the world’s growing brutalization, placing companies directly on the battlefield of a hybrid war. Welcome to the dark age of post-globalization.” This story, up on our homepage, looks at the growing number of geopolitical offerings at a number of international business schools. No. 3: Francesca Gino’s Best Case Against The Harvard Business School Harvard Business School Professor Francesca Gino has maintained her innocence of charges of research misconduct for the last four years. Now, in a new filing in her lawsuit against her former employer, Gino finally lays out her complete case against Harvard College, its business school, and the HBS dean. Her 91-page amended complaint recounts every step of an ordeal Gino has lived since being accused of committing fraud in four published research studies in July of 2021. This story reveals new details – and possible justifications – for the data anomalies brought to light by academic bloggers at Data Colada. You can read it in full from our homepage. No. 4: Our Weekly Round Up of News You Can Use No matter where you are in your MBA journey, we bring several helpful stories for you this week. First up: 5 Ways Online MBAs Use What They Learned At Work. This story offers advice from real students on using the degree to snag that promotion. Find it on our homepage. Next: Why You Can’t ChatGPT Your Way Into Harvard. This article, which you can find in our admission hub, outlines how top MBA programs craft essay prompts AI can’t ace. Finally: How To Prepare for The Wharton Team-Based Discussion. Learn to ace this stress-inducing group interview in this article, up now in our admissions hub. And, that’s it for this week’s Must Reads recap. I also want to alert school seekers to our events tab from our main menu. There, you’ll find all the upcoming admissions events for a range of degrees and programs including full-time and online MBAs, specialized masters, entrepreneurship and more. Registration is free. Again, I’m Kristy Bleizeffer, and you can join me next week, right here, for a recap of what’s important in the world of business education. Thanks for listening. © Copyright 2026 Poets & Quants. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Poets & Quants, please submit your request HERE.