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Boris Khodanovich

Boris Khodanovich

 

Student of the Month for December 2008-January 2009

Check his website:www.gmatforum.ru

Our new student of the month is Boris Khodanovich.

We chose Boris as our student of the month because of his enthusiasm, determination and, most especially because of his exciting Internet project, GMATForum.ru, for prospective MBA students and test takers.

Boris is a person who sticks with his goals and is the true "idea person" that B-schools are looking for.

Boris was born in 1980 in Tyumen. In 2003, Boris graduated form Tyumen State Medical Academy in the top 10% of his class with a specialty in therapy. However, during his education he turned his career toward business and began to work in the pharmaceutical industry with Pfizer International, where he was the first employee in the history of this company to be hired while still a student. Now he works in a leading Russian research-and-development pharmaceutical company as a Product Manager with full P&L responsibility.

While working in his industry, Boris began to understand that he needed not only medical knowledge but also business knowledge, and so he set his sights on an MBA degree. Medical schools aren't known for their strong English language programs, however, and Boris has constantly had to struggle to improve his English. He came to Pericles in May 2008 to get training on GMAT in Pericles' fully English language classes. But, just not quite ready for the test when he first took it, he scored only 510 at his 1st attempt on the exam in August 2008.

Not to be deterred, Boris began to buckle down and study seriously. His second attempt, in December 2008, netted him a 620. Still not satisfied, however, Boris says he is planning to continue studying and challenging the GMAT until he gets at least a 700.

Because of his non-business education and limited every-day practice in English, GMAT is really very hard for Boris. While studying for the December exam and talking to his fellow students in class, Boris came to understand that he was not alone with his GMAT difficulties. So, partly as a way to connect with other students partly as a unique and interesting way to keep engaged with his GMAT studies, and partly to broaden his business experience, Boris decided to launch www.GMATForum.ru, a non-profit internet project that aims to connect all Russian and CIS prospective students and test takers. Boris believes, and Pericles agrees, that such a forum, containing sample test questions, question answers and discussion, and general information on the B-school entrance challenge, can help other Russian speaking students handle this truly difficult exam. The cooperation and interaction between students can increase the chances of all Russian students to be admitted to top B-schools.

Boris invites you to register at GMATForum.ru (http://www.gmatforum.ru), where you can ask all necessary questions and receive answers from GMATForum.ru community.

Pericles has no formal connection with GMAT forum, but we are impressed and proud of Boris' project and wish him good luck in his tests and application. We know you'll get that score Boris, and we look forward to hearing about your other innovative projects in the years to come!

Update, April, 2009:

We are pleased to announced that Boris was admitted to Duke University's MBA program during the third round. Boris should be an example to all of our students, because he focused on his goals and made them a reality.

He has decided to postpone his entrance at Duke for one year to attend to personal matters, but we at Pericles are proud of him and wish him great success when he gets to Duke.