List of free GMAT CAT tests available on the internet

This is one of the most comprehensive listing of available practise and free testing material available on the . I believe it would be useful for anyone preparing for the GMAT. In line with my advice that I have shared in several posts, I re-iterate the importance of CATs in simulating and preparing for the actual GMAT.

The following is a list of free tests that I recommend (in order of their importance) :
1) GMATPrep
2) Powerprep
3) Princeton
4) Manhattan GMAT
5) Kaplan
6) 800score
7) Gmatclub
8) Gmatscore
9) Syvum
10) 4Tests
11) Petersons
12) Vyomworld
13) Crack-Gmat

Online Practise material
1) Teach yourself GMAT CAT
2) GMATBuster
3) GMATCat
4) MicroEdu
5) PrepforTests

Suggest more, if there are tests that are not inculded in the list here.

What should you do immediately after the GMAT exam?

Ah so probably for some of you the gmat is over. But be reminded that it is only one of the several (equal to or more than five: leadership at work/outside, academics, interview, essays and gmat) parameters that count towards a B school admit. And let me tell you, for the engineers, GMAT is the easy part.

I do not downplay the importance to GMAT (I have heard that the top consulting companies use a GMAT cutoff to invite people for interviews and the cut off is around 700). So obviously, GMAT is an important part of your application.

The academic records are something that you cannot modify or affect. They are what they are. Many a times the leadership opportunities that you have had will also be more or less unchangeable. If you planned your GMAT very early with enough time to add more leadership achievements to your bag, you may be able to add more cream to it but most of the time this is another paramter that is mostly difficult to modify just after GMAT.

What you are left with are two parameters - interview and essays - that can still be influenced to positively affect your application to a top business school. I did not seek direct advice from an external consultant on my essays/interviews, but I extensively read through the essay tips and advice at several websites (one of my most visited ones was www.stacyblackman.com/blog). In hindsight, I think given the cost of an MBA (and realizing it even more now that I have to actually pay those tens of thousands of dollars of fees), spending a few extra thousands on advice from these external consultants would be very helpful. An MBA is a degree we do once and we should do it from the best place we can do it at. I am fortunate that I got to save some money ;) and will still do my MBA from the place I wanted to.

So here is what you should do immediately after your GMAT exam. A very easy to follow 10+1 list:

1) Make a very detailed but clearly organized list of everything that has happened so far in your life. From craddle to the interview seat, as they say at Darden.
2) Try to answer the generic questions first - why mba, and what career after mba?
3) Now handle the different question types and dump data into each one of the question types (I found www.tiddlywiki.com very useful in doing this step since I could tag one data with several questions or schools)
4) Finalize on the list of the schools you want to focus your applications on.
5) Visit the websites of admissions consultants and learn/understand how exactly to answer specific questions from the business schools of your interest. Sometimes, with a slight change in language the focus of the answer changes, even though questions belong to the same question type. This is something that admissions consultants, with their trememdous experience, can be of help at.
5) (optional) Visit a admissions consultant, such as Stacy Blackman or others, and improve on essays with their help.
6) Revise your essays and get someone to proofread them
7) Wait for those eagerly awaited interview calls.
8) Shout at the peak of your throat when you recieve one from your target school.
9) Use either consultants or their websites to prepare accurately for the particular schools
10) Practise interviews with the consultant or your friends
11) Congratulations on recieving the admit from your dream school.

How many questions should be right for a score above 700?

This is one of those questions that has no answer. The reason is that a computer adaptive test is unlike your paper test that marks you based on the percentage correct responses to a set test. And the very obvious answer is that the CAT is adaptive.

Infact, if everything goes according to CAT theory, by the end of the test you should be answering only half of them right. If not, it would mean that the CAT hasnt yet gauged your level and the score you recieve would actually be lower than what your actual level is. It will take some time to sink in.

A corrollary is that in an ideal CAT the level of difficulty of questions should reach such a level that you are only able to answer half of them correctly. So, the theoretically correct answer is that 50% of your responses would (not should) be right for you to score 700 (and for that matter any score, 550, 560, 770, 790, 450, any score).

Also, there are many (around 1/3rd or more, my estimate) dummy questions in the actual GMAT. This is required to keep the GMAT CAT living for the coming years. An incorrect response to a dummy question should not count towards your score. So a person can have more than 50% incorrect (where the extra incorrect responses are to the test questions) or less than 50% incorrect responses (where the extra correct responses are to the test questions) and still recieve the same score.

A paper test, on the other hand, has set level of difficulty. The same is true for other (besides GMATprep) softwares available in that they have a limited bank of questions to choose from and hence also a set level of difficulty (with a band, of course). This band, I suppose is closer to medium ability lets say 500, so people with higher ability should be able to get more than 50% correct. Fair enough! But how much?

According to my calculations, which I intentionally do not want to reveal, I would say getting between 88 to 95 % correct responses would mean a score higher than 700.

Nice graphic

Came across this graphic that almost summarizes how many people spend their time. Quite Funny.

What would you like to know more about?

I guess that it is more useful and efficient if I know what you want to know more about. So leave a comment and tell me the topic that you want to learn more about. I would then write a post on it within 24 hrs.