GMAT Online Debrief by a Tutor 790 (Q50, V51)

I posted this in the master thread about the online GMAT but was advised to post here since that thread has over 40 pages now. So here it is...

Hi all.

I just took the online GMAT and thought I would give a quick report. I plan to write a longer blog post about it on my site, so maybe I will copy that here when I complete it, but I just wanted to fire off some quick thoughts to hopefully benefit those who are about to take the test or thinking about taking it.

First of all, there were some technical issues. I decided to ask during the instruction screen about using a plug in tablet and electronic pen and that was a mistake! I knew the answer would be no (it was actually an ambiguous response I received), but I just thought I would do an experiment and ask to see what the chat person would say and it set off a chain reaction that was costly! The rep was slow to respond so my time ran out on the instructions and then the exam basally crashed and I had to wait about 20mins to get started. That was not as big a deal as the uncertainty because for much of that time I was requesting the chat person over and over and wondering if I should quit the program or what as I sat there alone! And then once they rebooted the exam I started the Quant section minus about 2 mins. So don't plan to ask any questions at the beginning!!!

I am a tutor and do almost all of my tutoring online, so I am accustomed to doing Math in my head as my students work and felt like I would be ok with very limited ability to write. Well, it was much harder and more disruptive than I thought. I think i was a little rattled by the initial experience and starting the section behind, so I found it harder to do things in my head than normal. I was also riddled with indecision as to whether to try to note things down on the whiteboard or not - that itself threw me off. Overall I think it is VERY hard to do the Quant section with the limited whiteboard ability. If GMAC would allow us to use USB tablets (which is what I use when I tutor) then I think it would be totally fine and of course all the note-taking would still be on the screen.

But as is, it's very difficult! I mean, to be fair I was hoping to get a perfect score on this, so I was definitely setting my expectations high, but there were a few Quant questions that I just needed to write a lot and again was just caught in this place of indecision as to what to do (should I try to do all of it in my head, should I try to write some down, should I just guess because this question is hopeless without being able to write?). So I would echo what others have said and say that unless you really need to take the test, it may be better to wait (or just treat the online test as a trial run). If you do need to take it, I would definitely recommend not only practicing with the sample whiteboards out there, but also trying it on an actual test to figure out when and how you will use it (I did not do this and definitely paid the price as I tried to figure that out on the exam). I was even having trouble figuring out where to put the whiteboard on the screen so that I could click the answer, click next, and click yes, and to be honest I couldn't even get that straight and had to keep moving the whiteboard around on the screen.

On the Verbal and IR sections I think it was a non-factor. I don't write much down on those sections, but I didn't think the whiteboard was an impediment in any way. I am not a big supporter of writing a lot down on Verbal (for the people I tutor even), but I suppose if you are a serial note-taker, it would be a slight impediment there, although being able to type text vs being able to right more fluidly and in an unconstrained way on Quant are very different.

And overall I thought the sections were not that hard. Again, I am operating at a petty high level on the GMAT, so take that with a large grain of salt, but the Verbal section felt particularly easy and the Quant section felt like a mix of some very hard questions (again that I really needed to be able to write for) and then some fairly easy and straightforward ones. But there were enough very, very doable questions that it really offset the very hard ones. Unfortunately for me, the very hard ones came earlier in the section when I was very rattled and behind and unsure of how to operate with the whiteboard so I felt very limited in my ability to attack those and I suspect that hurt me on Quant. I guess we'll see! Now I have about 1 to 2 weeks of poor sleep as I anxiously await my score!