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[HOW TO] GMATPrep 2012: obtain exam logs, timing, AWA essay.

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[HOW TO] GMATPrep 2012: obtain exam logs, timing, AWA essay. [#permalink] New post 08 Nov 2012, 18:24
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Hi all,

Many of us have been seeking to obtain exam logs once you exit the test on the new GMAT Prep software (2.1.279) which is based on Adobe Air. The software does NOT let you see the info once you exit the test review screen. Here's how to get the question numbers, your answer choices, timing per question etc. Importantly, this is the only way (to my knowledge) of recovering the text of your AWA essay which you wrote during each practice test.

GMATPrep 2012 saves a file called ‘preptool.vb’ in the following (hidden) directory:
C:\Users\[replace this with your name]\AppData\Roaming\GMATPrep\Local Store\

This ‘preptool.vb’ file is the log and can be opened using a SQL viewer/editor. I used 'SQLite Database Browser 2.0' (google it - no URLs allowed, yet!)
1. Open the file with SQLite browser.
2. Click on the 'browse data' tab then select the 'table' of interest. The exam log is saved under 'used_items'.
3. Export the data (File>Export>table as CSV file). You can also browse the data without exporting.
4. Open the CSV file with Excel and you have everything you need. Answer choices and timing for each question.

Sections are numbered as: 1. AWA, 2. Quantitative, 3. Verbal, 4. IR. Peculiarly, questions are numbered from '0' not '1'. Quant questions numbers are prefixed with '187:', verbal with '188:' and IR with '211:'. Time is displayed in seconds.

Finally, the log contains the data from both tests. I haven't tried ‘re-setting’ the tests to see if the program keeps adding data to the same 'preptool.vb' file so you should copy this file to another location before re-setting (just in case it does delete your first two attempts).

There are other potentially useful data in the other tables but I haven't got round to exploring them yet.

Enjoy! I hope this helps :-)

PS. the (hidden) question pool is listed in C:\Program Files (x86)\GMATPrep2012\pack0\pack0.db
PPS. there is a (hidden) file, intriguingly called 'scoring.db', in C:\Program Files (x86)\GMATPrep2012\
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Re: [HOW TO] GMATPrep 2012: obtain exam logs, timing, AWA essay. [#permalink] New post 08 Nov 2012, 18:33
As a reminder, the available versions of the 'official' GMAT software are:

1. PowerPrep - oldest (quite out of date?)
2. GMATPrep v1.
3. GMATPrep v2.
4. GMATPrep 2012 (with IR; current version: 2.1.279).

By the way, the questions in GMATPrep v2 and GMATPrep 2012 are identical as far I can see. There is already a guide on how to obtain logs from the older version(s) but nothing on the new, Adobe Air-based version as far as I can find.
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Re: [HOW TO] GMATPrep 2012: obtain exam logs, timing, AWA essay. [#permalink] New post 08 Nov 2012, 18:57
Thank you. Very interesting and helpful!
I will add it to my GMAT Prep thread - gmat-prep-power-prep-official-free-gmat-tests-77548.html
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Re: [HOW TO] GMATPrep 2012: obtain exam logs, timing, AWA essay. [#permalink] New post 09 Nov 2012, 11:14
Hey
Right now I dont have gmatprep installed.
I ll do it and check it out.
But just to satisfy my instantaneous curiosity, what is the content of the question pool?
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GMAT 1: 720 Q49 V39
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Re: [HOW TO] GMATPrep 2012: obtain exam logs, timing, AWA essay. [#permalink] New post 09 Nov 2012, 11:28
@bb
Thanks for all you've done here - I have benefited immensely from your contributions - this is my little 'thank you' to the community.

@souvik101990
I haven't managed to open the question pool database, yet. I only managed to discover to unwrap the software one day before my real GMAT (which was yesterday!). We'll get there soon I'm sure :wink:
However, the questions in this version (2012) seem identical to those in GMATPrep v2. I think someone already retrieved/compiled those questions (or was this GMATPrep v1?).
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Re: [HOW TO] GMATPrep 2012: obtain exam logs, timing, AWA essay. [#permalink] New post 30 Dec 2012, 11:06
Very insightful. Thank you. Kudos awarded :)
Re: [HOW TO] GMATPrep 2012: obtain exam logs, timing, AWA essay.   [#permalink] 30 Dec 2012, 11:06
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