Update: today, exactly 10 business days after my physical whiteboard GMAT Online exam, an exciting, puzzling, and then highly disappointing series of events occurred.
First, GMAC sent me an email at 4:03 pm PST with the cheery subject line "Your Official GMAT Online Exam Score is Now Available." This got me excited, of course, because I assumed it meant that my new score was available, indicating (or so I thought) that I scored better than the 730 composite I earned on my last attempt with the online whiteboard.
Problem is, once I scrolled down a bit, I noticed that GMAC was referring to my original (online whiteboard) GMAT Online score of 730 from 6/4/20 (actually 6/3/20, but whatever), not my most recent exam on 6/23/20. It's strange for GMAC to send me an email about that, though, because I've had those scores in my mba.com account since June 5th, and I had already received the exact same email notice from GMAC (also on June 5th). Something was clearly not right.
Finally, mercifully--I received this email from GMAC exactly 12 minutes later, titled "Notice about Your GMAT Online Exam Score From Your Retest."
Here is the full text of the email:
Hi Brian,
Congratulations on completing your GMAT™ Online exam.
We processed the score for your retest exam appointment and your Total Score on your retest attempt was equal to or lower than your prior exam attempt. As a result, the higher score from your prior exam will be retained. Your retest attempt score will not be displayed in your mba.com account and your record will not be updated. Neither you nor any programs you previously selected will receive this retest score.
To view your score from your prior GMAT Online exam attempt listed below, log into your mba.com account and click the "View GMAT Online Score" button.
Your GMAT ID: 10000XXXXXXX
GMAT Online Exam Date: 6/4/20
Remember You Can Continue to Send Your Official GMAT Online Score to Additional Programs at No Cost
-From your mba.com account, click the "Send GMAT Online Score" button.
-Search for and select programs to receive your score.
-Verify your program selection and click the “Send GMAT Online Score" button.
If you send your score to additional programs, your official GMAT Online score will be made available to your selected programs within 24 hours. Please note that once your official GMAT Online exam score is sent to a program it cannot be canceled or revoked by you.
We dedicate ourselves to helping you to better connect with and stand out to business schools, and we hope that the interim GMAT Online exam helps you continue your b-school and career aspirations. If you have any questions about your exam or score, please contact customer care.
Thank you,
The GMAT Team-------
Although I thought I had aced my retake with the physical whiteboard (my best guess was 750-790), apparently I scored the same (730) or worse as I did with the online "OnVue" whiteboard. It's highly frustrating to not have the ESR (Enhanced Score Report) option to see what happened, and it's weird to not be able to see the score whatsoever, when I was so confident that I had improved.
To make matters worse, I have now been contacted by another test taker who told me that the same sequence of emails were sent to them, but in error, because their 2nd score updated to a higher score on their mba.com account (though this has not yet happened for me). This news gives me some hope, but false hope most likely--though the first email from GMAC (which also gave me false hope!) certainly was a strange message to receive 10 minutes before the "your previous scores have been retained" email.
What have I learned from all of this? That it's certainly possible to succeed on the GMAT Online--with or without a physical whiteboard--but that the quiet and reliability of the test center is also a big advantage, as is the fact that you receive your scores immediately instead of after 2 excruciating weeks.
I
would say I learned that GMAC is an incompetent bureaucracy, but I already knew that... ; )