GMAT Online Debrief Apr 24 - lcueto [20 DAYS WITHOUT RECEIVING SCORES]

Hi, I took the GMAT ONLINE on April 24th and here my debrief:

A little bit of context:
- Aerospace engineer working in consulting
- GMAT score in test center, February 2020: 700 (Q49/V35)
- Aiming for 730
- I usually do not get very nervous during exams but with the GMAT… well… the story is quite different. I think many here can relate
- While taking the exam, I do not deal well with noises, things moving around, interruptions, etc. I guess that many might think the same, but I really mean that I do not deal well, it really gets me . So for me, when GMAC announced that they would be doing this online version I became really happy, until I heard of the whiteboard.

GMAT online specific preparation:
- I practiced with the whiteboard since they announced that no scratch paper was allowed (1 week and a half)
- I bought the GMAT Official Advanced Questions Test Bank for 29.99$, which includes 300 hard questions (150 verbal and 150 Quant). I bought this package mainly because I think that studying verbal for GMAT sources is KEY in having a good score. Regarding Quant, I think Gmatclub is the best source, the explanations are simple and useful, whereas in the GMAT official Quant section, explanations are messier. Nonetheless, I did almost all of the exercises included in the GMAT Official Advanced Quant questions because my Gmatclub subscription had expired. I would have liked that, given the situation, I had been offered the possibility to extend a couple more weeks for free. Still, I used Gmatclub’s forums to constantly look for better answers than those that the Official Source gives
- I took a Kaplan mock test, which I never had done before, using the online whiteboard and I got a score of 680. (Q49 and V35). In Quant I guessed 3 hard answers and got them correct so this affected my score. But you know what they say, you are never really guessing 100% randomly, you get better at scanning the answer

Day of the exam:
- I had the exam at 11:15 am (I like giving me some time during the morning)
- I never drink coffee, but on test day I took a big cup in order to be able to shift fast from Quant to Verbal and to not get tired during the exam. I think this was key in my performance, so I really recommend having a bit more caffeine than usual but not too much because you do not want to be all jumpy and nervous during the exam
- I made a few Quant questions before the exam to start adapting my mind to the first section
- This might be useless to many of you, but I took my test barefoot. I think it was a pretty cool thing to do. I have been doing exams all my life but never from home, so I took advantage to free myself as much as possible. (First win of the day, well second, not waking up early is always the first one )
- The link to the Gmat online exam appeared exactly 30 minutes before official test time
- The check in was quite fast, the only issue that I had is that it said that my driver’s license from picture was blurry. Took the picture again and issue solved.
- My proctor appeared quite early (15 minutes before the exam) so I started the exam earlier. I think this was quite nice because I didn’t have to wait looking at the screen and getting each second more and more nervous
- I made the whiteboard adjustments during the tutorial in order to save time (position, taking out the fill in the shapes, brush thickness, etc.)

Quant section:
- When I saw the first question my heart started beating so fast that I thought that it was going to go through my chest.
- It took me a while to get my head in the Quant section, even though I had practiced a bit during that morning
- I rarely use the text function; I like more drawing. I think it is because I associate drawing with the mouse more to the scratchpad than using the keyboard. I have seen that people use more the text function, specially test tutors, I guess that this may be because they are used to writing everyday math to their students
- Regarding geometry, the whiteboard seems nice to have at first, but after drawing the shapes with the cool tools that the GMAC gives you, you have to do some math work, and this is still harder than doing it in the scratchpad. So I really do not see advantages for the scratchpad, maybe the only thing is that you are able to see the question, the answers and the whiteboard at the same time in just one screen, without having to look from computer to scratchpad and vice versa
- Overall, I think that I performed worse than I normally do, not having the scratchpad really made a difference. There were 4 questions that I know that I could have solved using the scratchpad, but I had to partially guess because I knew that they were going to take a lot of time. I encountered many easy questions halfway so even though I think I performed well in the last 5 questions, my guess is that my score is not going to be very good. Maybe a 47, we will see.

Mini-break between Quant and Verbal:
- So after the Quant section I was a bit bummed but the fact that I had the last 5 questions correct (at least in my mind are correct if you know what I mean) helped me start the Verbal section with positiveness! Here we go, my Achilles tendon!!

Verbal section:
- People say that they had problems in switching from Quant to Verbal, but for me, not having the break was a good thing. I did not have time to worry about how I did in Quant or to get nervous about Verbal. Having the last questions correct in Quant boosted my confidence and I did not have any problems in reading passages, looking for assumptions, checking grammatical errors, etc.
- I have read in other debriefs that the difficulty was more or less the same, except for Reading Comprehension, that was a bit harder. I think that the difficulty was in line, with the Official Tests. I think that buying GMAT Official Advanced Questions Test Bank (more info on GMAT online specific preparation section) really made a difference here. But there is also the chance that I missed many questions at the beginning and that the algorithm threw me easy questions, this is something that you never know for sure with the GMAT
- For the first time, I was able to finish the Verbal section on time without guessing any question. I think that for me doing the Verbal section at home was better than doing it in the Test center. In Test centers, there is a bit of noise, people moving, etc. whereas at home everything was quiet and calm
- By the way, I did not bother opening the scratchpad during Verbal, I just use my hands to eliminate choices

Integrated reasoning:
- During this break I had a big surprise . After stretching myself after Verbal (I discovered that I could crack about ten new bones) my Test screen went down and a message popped saying that “Page not found, error…” When I saw this I said “Holly Molly”, now I have to redo the “fudging” exam again. So, I asked for help and Thomas, my proctor, came a couple of minutes later and helped me with this issue. He told me that this happens all the time and that it is easy to fix because the system remembers all your answers. The proctor rebooted my session and I picked my exam right where I had left it. During all this whole process I was kind of freaking out thinking that I might had lost my answers or that I had to retake the exam
- So after all this, this section was not good, here I really found myself really tired and having problem on reading. I could read a sentence 10 times and still do not process it. But you know, IR does not count to your 200-800 score…

Conclusions:
- Link to exam appeared exactly 30 minutes before, and my exam started 15 minutes earlier (hooray for Thomas , my proctor).
- Quant is harder without the scratchpad, no doubt. Even if you practice using the whiteboard and see yourself “comfortable” using it you must know that in exam it is even harder to use
- Verbal at home is like taking the section in the Test center, difficulty was pretty much the same.
- Having no break for me was a good thing, no time for overthinking how I performed in Quant or getting nervous about Verbal
- I did not have glitches using the whiteboard, but my session shut down during the Verbal-IR break and my proctor had to reboot my session. This freaked me out a bit but my proctor was quite helpful. I picked my exam right where I had left it.
- IR: very tired, not good, next please
- Just take this exam if you really need the score, otherwise you are going to lose (at best, keep) points in Quant. I do not think that anyone is actually going to be better using the whiteboard than the scratchpad.

Happy Gmating!

---------------------------------------------------------------------EDIT:

After 20 days I have finally received my scores.

Your Official GMAT™ Online Score Results

Quantitative Section Score: 49
Quantitative Score Percentile: 74
Verbal Section Score: 37
Verbal Score Percentile: 82
Integrated Reasoning Section Score: 4
Integrated Reasoning Score Percentile: 35
Total Score: 700
Total Score Percentile: 88

This score is in line with the last GMAT exam I took on the test centre (700 Q49/V35).

So for me, I found easier to do Verbal at home but regarding Quant, I think that not having the scratchpad is a big con, no matter how much you practice with the whiteboard.

Here finishes my love store with the GMAT.
Best of luck