GMAT Prep Analysis Tool

Question

Hi members, it was the end of June when I was shocked with my very first gmat prep experience. I got a 590 in that test & that very result made me realize that I had to work hard & plan more. It was that time when I decided to take leave from workplace & give some real time to the beast. After 15 days of study, I gave another shot to gmat prep & was shocked again to have a score of 710. Though I knew that 710 was partially because of my luck, I wanted to know the critical factor that made my score jumped up. I had gone through the bsd_lover’s gmat prep analysis but wanted to have a little analysis of my own. So I decided to enter my gmat prep results data in an excel file, so that I may review the details later (No wonder being a finance guy, I love Excel). It took hardly 15 minutes to enter the data in the input sheet & then I analyzed the patterns of question recurrence, mistakes sequence & % of each question type. I did the same analysis for three of my gmat prep tests & gained some very useful insight. I planned to share that stuff at the forum but couldn’t do so mainly because of the fact that I used a very rough data file, which in no way was suitable to share. I have worked on that analysis tool of mine now so that it may get the required form to be shared. So attached is that tool. I hope the said tool will help you guys in knowing the gmat question patterns & the importance of first 10-13 questions. My Findings 1.GMAT Prep Score 630 1. I got a fantastic Q score of 50 but a poor verbal score of 25 spoiled my overall score. 2. The Q score of 50 with 7 mistakes made me realized that the Q section of the gmat test has a soft corner.

3. Also, the first 10 Q questions had no mistake; hence this was also a big reason for high Q score. 4. Having consistent mistakes in verbal section was the sole reason of low verbal score. It also made me clear that one can’t afford to have as many mistakes in verbal as one can in Q section. 5. I also got the pattern and count of each question type as shown in the charts below. https://img145.imageshack.us/img145/8775/analysis1630.jpg https://img99.imageshack.us/img99/5697/analysis2630.jpg 2.GMAT Prep Score 710 1. A high jump in verbal score was only because of the fact that I got the first 14 verbal questions correct. In comparison to my 630 performance I only made 5 less mistakes but got a 15 point improvement in my verbal score. 2. The quantitative drop to 47 was mainly because of consistent mistakes. The interesting point is that my 15 mistakes got me a Q score of 47 while the 15 mistakes in verbal section during my 630 experience got me a score of V25. :shock:

3. Total # of each question type was surprisingly the same as was in 630 experience. 4. The question recurrence patterns were different in comparison to the ones I saw in the case of 630. https://img229.imageshack.us/img229/5058/analysis1710.jpg https://img266.imageshack.us/img266/2589/analysis2710.jpg How to use the tool 1. Download the attached excel sheet. 2. After taking the gmat prep & seeing the score on your screen, just note down that socre in your analysis tool or somewhere else. Don’t skip the score report screen, as when you click the “Next” button, the score report will never be available again . 3. You need to fill in the “Data Input “sheet only, the other two sheets will be updated accordingly. This will hardly take 10-15 minutes. 4. Fill in the "answer" & "question type" columns in Q & V sections along with the raw score cells of Q & V. 5. You can then go through the two analysis sheets to find the details. Imp Note: 1. I totally agree that gmat is a CAT and the number of right & wrong answers doesn’t make much difference but still there are some points that one need to remember & the biggest of which is the importance of first 10-12 questions. 2. I am using some soft & standard chart colors of gmat club here in this post. The attached excel file has the regular chart graphics. Version-2 of the tool added with a new analysis sheet showing the count of correct/incorrect answers of each question type.

prashantbacchewar · Answer

It seems like RCs are having higher weightage in Verbal.

PTK · Answer

because it is all about comprehension (RC and CR).

nageshshiv · Answer

Gr8 work Hussain bhai.

Appreciate your work

prashantbacchewar · Answer

I have come across this recent post by one of our club members. Below are his question numbers he got wrong. Even though he got more number of wrong in GMATPrep1 than in GMATPrep2 ( Quants ). He got more score in Prep 1. It seems that
if you get first question wrong and any consequtive questions wrong you are getting killed in Quants. So we need to be very careful specially solving first question and make sure we get it correct.

Here are my errors:

GMATPrep1: 5, 9, 12, 16, 20, 22, 29, 31, 36
GMATPrep2: 1, 5, 7, 11, 14, 17, 21, 28, 29

My bad I only had 9 mistakes in GMATPrep1.

I think what killed my score in GMATPrep2 is that I failed the first problem, and got two consecutive problems wrong (28 and 29). My perfect from 30 to 41 didn't help an ounce. I guess that the GMAT has some dumb algorithm, and that once it has made its opinion from the early answers, it won't change its mind afterwards.

gwendolinecn · Answer

Thank you and BTW the excel analysis is really good.

Hussain15 · Answer

I think there is no issue in posting the resulting graphs of the analysis tool. Infact the visual results will be great to view!!

If anyone has recently taken the gmat prep, it would be good to have the graphical results here.

prashantbacchewar · Answer

Here are my GMAT prep -1 Results I got Dismisal 550. With these result I totally baffled whether or not I will be get my target score of 700
Some of the key points

1. I got 5 wrong in first 11 question of Quant section. These mistakes in the begining are very costly. That to I got first two questions wrong.
2. I got last 2 questions wrong consequtive mistakes.
3. In total 11 mistakes. I have seen hussain posting Q47 with 15 mistakes or so. I am not sure still how got a low Q44 probably becoz of 5 mistakes in first 11
4. Lot of focus in quant goes to number properties.

Regarding verbal section this is alarm for me need to work hard on CR and SC.

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Hussain15 · Answer

Well, I think the the Q score of 44 with 11 mistakes in total is a bit harsh.

But reason is pretty simple. You got 5 wrong is first 11 questions. Try to develop a time strategy using your results. Any how, best of luck & keep us posted.

prashantbacchewar · Answer

Is there any way How much time we spent on each question on GMAT prep?

Hussain15 · Answer

Nopes!!

Different test prep companies like MGMAT, Veritas, Knewton has such option but not gmat prep!!

TwoThrones · Answer

Great analysis, although I know I'm late on the band wagon!

Hussain15 · Answer

Thanks!!

Posted from my mobile device

longbyte75 · Answer

This is very nice...I would be giving my 1st GMAT prep in few weeks...this would be a great help in analysis.

Posted from my mobile device

lassinsane · Answer

Just stumbled across your post hussain... Amazing!!

can i give you more than 1 kudos!! :-D

Archit143 · Answer

My own expeirence from Real GMAt says, where i made complete guess in last 9 question and almost all wrong or may be 1 here and there right score dropped by 9 points or so

reyfon · Answer

Screen shot 2012-11-15 at 9.51.46 PM Let me just say that in all my CATs I always get between 40 and 45 in Quant. This time I was about to quit the CAT when I was around question 27. For two reason: 1) I terribly managed my time and gave much more importance to the 13 first questions and 2) I thought some questions were vey tough!!! I believe that even though I got 5 wrong answers in the first ten questions I must have answered correctly a couple of hard questions! By the end of the cat I was totally surprised! In verbal I got the first 4 questions wrong! that probably damaged my score a lot! PD: I also change the color of the charts..

greatps24 · Answer

Excellent post.....thanks a lot for sharing the info

Krebs01 · Answer

Kudos! Nice tool, thanks for sharing and definitely gonna use it

Kritisood · Answer

Hi
why does the verbal have an option of 41 questions? and quant 37? shouldn't it be 36 and 31? Should I just delete the extra rows?

cantaffordname · Answer

Because this is old thread and old GMAT pattern

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