GMAT Online - What We Know [Master Topic]

Hey SQ17,
Yes, you can use an external mouse. External monitor not so sure, shall be permitted though until it has a camera and passes system checks.

Hey SQ17,
It would be better if you use a wired mouse though. The proctor did not allow me to use the wireless one.


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Hey bb,

I guess I read one of your posts somewhere in gmatclub, saying GMAC was expected to have a conference on 16th June 2021. Did you hear any updates from them? I couldn't find anything online.

I just wanted to know if they are increasing gmat online retake attempts. Will be going ahead with my last (2nd) gmat online attempt in a couple of weeks. I don't have access to test centres here in India due to the lockdown, and this "my last ever gmat attempt" feeling (even though I don't have any intentions of giving it again and again) is making me a bit nervous. I'll have to go ahead with whatever score I get because I'll have to apply for MBA this year no matter what (have been in this GMAT/MBA application loop since 2018; gotta move on in life).

Would be good to know if they've removed that restriction. It makes no sense to me why they would have that in the first place! Seriously, why?!!
1) It's more revenue for them if they allow more retakes
2) They losing out on their competitor, GRE
3) It would help students give the test with more confidence if they knew that there is always another chance left

Hi. Yes. There was a conference yesterday… but we have not learned anything new unfortunately

https://gmatclub.com/forum/anything-you ... 60644.html

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Ugghh! I guess this is it then!

Thank you for sharing this. I didn't come across this thread earlier. Good summary by gmatninja. I guess it was just another meeting (that could have just been a quick article) with no "good news" to share.

Thanks bb!

Hi vaishnavmohanan,

That's a good point, but there may be no good answers here. It's quite likely that the question pool (and there may be just one pool, for all we know) for the GMAT Online exam was created by "sectioning off" a portion of the GMAT question pools (the main GMAT definitely has multiple question pools). This pool is likely to be much smaller than what is available to the main GMAT.

Now, the risk profile of these exams is not the same: the GMAT Online exam is significantly less secure than the GMAT exam. This is something that the GMAC has to manage. One way to do that is to reduce the threshold at which a question is assumed to be "overexposed" (seen by too many test takers). That means that the algorithm may not be able to give you the question that it wants to simply because that question has already been shown to too many test takers. This is a problem on the GMAT as well, because the GMAT has fewer "hard" questions than it has "medium" or "easy" questions. What this means is that you may see relatively simple questions even though you "qualify" for tougher questions because the "better" questions are overexposed. The smaller the pool, the worse this problem becomes.

Another way to get around that is to expand the size of the question pool. Unfortunately, the GMAC's options are limited. Even if they get ACT to create a lot of new questions quickly, every new question must go through a rigorous pretest phase (as an experimental question). Which is fine, but in April 2018, the GMAC reduced the number of pretest questions (from 9 to 3 in quant, and from 11 to 6 in verbal) presented to test takers. Also, the number of GMAT tests is down 21% (lockdowns!), so it's much harder for the GMAT to ramp up.

Yet another way to get around the security issue is to limit the number of attempts, which is what the GMAC has opted for.

For what it's worth, I am confident that they are trying to do the right thing for test takers, and that they would increase the number of attempts if they could, and that they will increase the number of attempts when they can.

All the best for the retake.

How does the exam limit work if you mix online attempts with in person attempts?

For example: you take the maximum of two attempts online, are you allowed to then make another attempt at a physical test center?

Hi SQ17,

All valid GMAT Online attempts count towards both the rolling 12-month (5) and lifetime limits (8).

Noted, thanks!

And do programs see the number of attempts you've made or does their view only display your last active score?

Glad I could help.

The GMAT Online score select and reporting policies are better than those of the GMAT, so you have a lot more control there. As for the (test center) GMAT, let me know if this post is helpful.

Thanks Ajitesh, that second link to the post on the test center GMAT is helpful - it clarifies that programs will NOT see any record of a score or an attempt for any scores you've cancelled at the test center.

However I'm still not clear on the GMAT online process, does the same principle apply? Sorry I've checked your first link but couldn't come across this specific reference there.

That first link is inserted automatically by GMAT Club whenever anyone types GMAT Online. I don't think there is a way to type GMAT Online without having that link automagically inserted.

Here's a link to mba.com, and here's the relevant portion of that page:


So that's something good about the online test: you can choose either score (or both), and you can send your score to as many programs as you want.

Didn't think about it that way.

Thank you Ajitesh!

I just completed the enhanced online GMAT (from India)
The overall experience was very good and the proctor was very helpful.

• The process is exactly the same as described in the video interview taken by GMATNinja
• The proctor allowed to keep a clear water bottle although i read that water is not allowed
• I used my mobile hotspot- (the phone was kept outside the room) and faced no connection problem (used Airtel 4G - for fellow Indian test takers)

• Used as below :
- White board : https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B08YKB ... UTF8&psc=1
- Dry erase Marker : https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B084G5 ... UTF8&psc=1
- Dry Eraser : https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B07LFR ... UTF8&psc=1`
- Laptop and OS : Macbock Pro (16 GB 2Ghz) and MacOs Big Sur (11.2.3) - no issues at any point of the exam.

• Certain things that I did right and would advice everyone to do as well :
- Adjust the room AC at correct temperature few hours prior to exam
- Ensure that you practice with the white board and markers before the actual exam on couple of mocks
- Have a power back up - Day before yesterday I called an electrician and made sure that socket that my laptop charger was connected (inside the room) and the socket that my mobile phone charger was connected were both equipped with back up power (connected to Invertor/UPS as know in India) - It was raining heavily and electricity went off at-least 4-5 times during the exam, luckily I had uninterrupted power supply

• Certain things that I completely screwed :
- Could sleep only 3 hours on the exam day in 24 hours before the exam, although I ensured a fixed schedule for last one week following it strictly, today when I went to sleep (around 12 hours before the exam), the anxiety got better of me and just couldn't sleep till like 4-5 hours before the exam. Luckily got 3 hours of sleep, drank coffee and gave the test - i don't thing it change my score drastically - but I made many (more than I am proud of) silly mistakes in easier quant questions, also on the CR questions had to focus a bit longer than i usually did in mocks. SO PLEASE SLEEP AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE BEFORE THE EXAM DAY, BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT MIGHT BREAK YOUR WELL PRACTICED DAY SCHEDULE.
- Drank too much water and you know what happens next, had to fight it through the last 10 questions on Quant. SO PLEASE TAKE ONLY SMALL SIPS OF WATER.

• Difficulty of the TEST :
- Verbal was much harder than the GMATPrep Mocks tests (especially RC)
- In SC I expected more meaning based questions but they were not there, although I think i screwed up the initial ones hence only got the more mechanical ones (way too many question with the "WITH" modifier, way too many)
- CR was at the same level, if not relatively easy (may be just felt the same level due to lack of sleep)
- Quant was at the same level as GMATPrep Mocks (although I felt that there was too much of mundane calculations involved in the questions, more chances to make silly mistakes, I was more used to reasoning approach and lagged lagged against the timer almost the entire Quant section multiplying weird numbers most of the time - or may be this was sleeplessness as well)
- Also I felt that despite the harder Verbal section it was still less punishing, because my score didn't change much.

Actual score : 740 (V40, Q50, IR 8) - lower than expected but I don't think that I will retake the exam.

Although I have one doubt : I did not press the next button on the AWA section when it ended (I was reading the essay), is it considered submitted ?
I read in a post that on test centre exams it is recorded (https://gmatclub.com/forum/was-my-awa-e ... 26690.html )
Just want to confirm weather same is the case of for the Online GMAT

And yes, those who struggle with spelling mistakes, as I do, need not worry, the AWA section highlights the spelling mistakes.

I have not given any other GMAT so cannot compare with test centre experience.

Wait, so you're saying that the AWA on Examity's enhanced GMAT online has a spell-checker?

That's actually big news, thank you.

It could be the spellcheck built into the browser. Let's hope the GMAC doesn't get to know.

I have a browser add on for spell checker. Wonder if the program will block it?

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