obsidianstorm
mcelroytutoring
From what I understand, GMAC contacted this particular student without any previous message from the student.
To further add to the mystery, this student claims that nothing about the GMAT Online scores listed on their mba.com account has actually changed (yet).
I agree that this email calls into question the competence of GMAC / Pearson Vue and the validity of GMAT Online scores as a whole. At least for now, it's probably safer (for your GMAT scores, if not for your personal health) to take the test-center exam if you can.
Since the question bank is still the same, how do we know if the test center will be relatively better? It will have the same algorithm and question bank to draw from.
Well, the question banks on the GMAT Online vs. the test-center GMAT are technically
not the same--that's why there is no required 16-day duration between the in-person and online GMATs.
I know that GMAC wants us to
think that its GMAT Online questions are of the exact same quality as the test-center GMAT questions, but I have never heard of GMAC altering a student's score from the test-center exam after the fact due to a flawed question, for example. One anecdotal example doesn't prove a trend, of course, but it certainly suggests the possibility of additional exam flaws that are not present in the test-center GMAT.
After hearing too many GMAT Online horror stories, and having taken both versions of the exam myself multiple times, I personally have more trust in the (generally reliable) test-center GMAT than I do in the (convenient but unpredictable) online version.
The online exam is clearly still an opportunity worth taking for most test-takers: there is little to lose other than the $200 exam fee. However, it's currently somewhat unpredictable due to technical issues, opaque in its scoring (no ESRs available yet), and perhaps even unfair--it's the first time I know of that GMAC has publicly admitted to the presence of flawed questions on the real GMAT.
If GMAC decides to allow official retakes and ESRs (Enhanced Score Reports), then the online exam will become an even more attractive option, but for now the test-center exam still reigns supreme, at least in terms of reliability, diagnostic information, and retakes.