GMAT Online - What We Know [Master Topic]

Thanks mcelroytutoring, I was able to register my 3rd online attempt in November, really excited for that.

Thanks bb for the info also, I got the email from them around 2:00 AM on Oct 22 my timezone

I agree that it seems silly.
I believe the 8-time limit was introduced to keep tutors from poaching questions from the test and passing them on to their students.

I have heard of some taking GMAT dozens of times and saving hard new questions, some thing that is not very common for the GRE, which is a lot less competitive at least at this time.

How big was the problem with tutors poaching questions? I don’t think it was very common… and the way this route was rolled out, it said that nobody would be unnecessarily denied from taking the test more than eight times. Unfortunately that has not been accurate and everyone so far has been denied from taking the test more than 8 times. It’s unfortunate. I can totally see how someone who’s scoring 600s, is clearly not a tutor….




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Good point. So obviously they haven't updated all of the language. Well, I have a student who may try to take the in-person and online tests within 16 days of each other in late November or early December, so if we don't have an answer by then, I will provide the answer!

Thanks, bb. Yeah, it took some work, but I finally got to my target score. I cannot express how grateful I am to GMAT Club and the experts here. This forum was my personal tutor. Thanks a lot for all the great work you do here.

Thank you, mcelroytutoring. GMAT Online is as you mentioned. I have seen people who said that they had a smooth experience. But for me, the experience was horrible both times. The fact that I had a bad experience the first time around helped me mentally prepare for it to happen again. Before I began my exam, I had asked the proctor if I were to face any issues related to lagging, would he be able to help me out. He said yes.

I started with the Quant section. It went smoothly for the first few questions. But by the 5th question, the lagging issues started happening just like the last time. But I was in a good zone and was ahead in timing, so I did not bother alerting the proctor. I somehow completed the section on time and submitted the last question, and then the issues started. The system was not taking me to the next section, and the screen got stuck. I alerted the proctor. I checked with him whether he could see my video and listen to my audio without any issues. He said yes, and hence we both concluded it was not an internet issue. Then started the wait for GMAT support to arrive. Something that should ideally take maybe 5 mins took 45 mins. I even tried restarting my system in between based on the instruction of the proctor. Nothing helped. I will pin down a few things that the GMAT support person mentioned/did to make it work smoothly for me.

1. He mentioned that VPN might cause issues. Try to use your personal laptop in case your work laptop runs a VPN. (This was not my case)
2. He turned off the windows defender firewall
3. He uninstalled my ESSecure browser and installed an older version of the same (I believe I had v1.0.27.7. He installed v1.0.27.3)

My system started responding as expected after the support person did steps 2 and 3. I am not sure which one helped as he did both the changes at one go. Anyways, my two cents would be to turn off the firewall nevertheless. That is something totally under your control and something easy to do.

One more point to note is that the GMAT support person has the power to grant you additional time in case you lost some of your exam time during the whole hassle of trying to figure out the issue. So, if you face any problem, then alert your proctor and kindly ask them to pause the exam. Even after they hit pause, it might take some time for the system to respond. In my case, it took around 30 seconds. So I made my case to provide an additional 30 seconds, and they granted it. So make sure you keep these things in mind.

Finally, one suggestion would be to take the GMAT Online in the following order: Analytical Writing Assessment, Integrated Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, and Verbal Reasoning. I am suggesting this because you will be coming across the lag issues while you attempt IR. As this is a section you can afford to spend some time troubleshooting without impacting your final score, I would suggest going ahead with this order.

I hope this helps!

Ok so I said I would report back, for anyone interested, regarding the less-than-16-day wait between the online and in-person tests. For anyone not tracing this conversation back, I was not sure whether that "loophole" would exist once the online GMAT went from 2 to 5 tries.

Well, I can confirm that that policy DOES still exist. A student of mine took the in-person GMAT over the weekend and the online one 4 days later. So it is confirmed! Hope this helps some R2 hopefuls who are trying to cram in 3 or 4 tests into a small window in December!

[TIPS to avoid being subject to administrative review]

Dear all,

I compiled here all the tips that I found while browsing through social media, GMAT club and the personal experiences of some of my friends in order to avoid administrative review. I am sharing this to benefit all my peers out there also looking to make the Round 2 deadline and are planning a retake. As experiences have shown, administrative reviews can happen even in the most innocent of circumstances. They don't have to be a case blatant cheating. Putting these items in mind will ensure that you get a score in time and avoid getting delayed in Round 2 if you are planning a retake in December as a result of an administrative review (which takes 20 days and even more). With deadlines fast approaching, this could prove difficult and may push you to make Round 3 (if the school won't allow exceptions) and Round 3 is not the best time to submit for most people.

1. Never (or at least avoid) cover your mouth while answering. This a common response when thinking but have heard of cases where this gets flagged. Simulate this in the mocks too especially if you are the type to do such a cognitive response
2. Always insist to show the back and front of your whiteboard after the test, even if the proctor does not ask. (by far the most common issue that I saw). Argue with the proctor if necessary and do it yourself.
3. Avoid technical issues as much as possible. Technical issues about internet connection that would result in you being gone from the camera in the middle of the test could automatically put your session in administrative review even if you did nothing
4. In relation to 3, it seems best to do the AWA-IR-Q-V section order. The AWA and IR could be used as a test run and if you encounter issues here, the score is less likely to be put in administrative review. You also get to test your internet, gear, etc (helpful if you are doing the GMAT online for the first time)
5. Avoid looking at one area (except the screen of course) all the time. My friend likes to look out his window to the right to clear his mind when thinking and this got his session in administrative review (he eventually got cleared )
6. NEVER EVER take a picture of your unofficial score at the end of the test



Feel free to share others that I may have missed

Hello, nfbraga. This topic has come up before, but there are so many pages in the thread that I cannot blame someone for asking the question again. There are two ways I have suggested applicants submit such scores, with no complaints by schools so far: either take a screenshot or, if you want to play it safe, go to print what is up on the screen, then select "Save as PDF" in the print screen, at which point you will have a PDF to submit.

Good luck with your application(s).

- Andrew
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Answers are optional as those cannot be captured from the screen.

Between you and me, with unlimited answer time, I hope we can figure out the answers by ourselves.

I do enjoy solving GMAT and GRE questions.

Interim Exam won't have AWA section. So Ad-coms will see that AWA has no score and exam was taken at home. Don't know how will this information help/hurt the candidacy.

What are the chances that AdComs don't put much weight into these scores? A huge part of the test is def. the increased lvls of anxiety, not to mention all the crazy ways you can cheat. Also, it's weird that it's cheaper AND doesn't include AWA. None of this really makes too much sense to me.

Awesome!!! Great!!! Definitely interested in the experience and of course your score!



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I can see it as a concern that if cheating is uncovered and it breaks out and it is not possible to tell who cheated and who did not on the "at home" test, many or all of those may get canceled. It will be a step backwards.... I think it is in everyone's interests that cheating does not take place and tests are done fairly.

I think one other option would be have a "capsule" approach to the GMAT where a sterilized/clean room is available for taking a test. My crazy idea would be - it is an uber that has a computer in it or you can bring your own laptop that plugs into the power and you take the test in an uber that parks in front of your house. It has curtains or shades to prevent anyone else from peeking in. Would be helpful to both the Uber and to GMAC. Maybe?
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Well... you have to innovate once in a while esp during times like these. Unprecedented events require unprecedented responses... it would not be such a big deal if we all knew what to do. It is like a question on the GMAT you have never seen and have no clue how to solve and the clock is ticking. What are you going to do? You are going to get creative or otherwise, pick an answer choice and leave it to a 20% chance.
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I think, among other things that demonstrate that GMAC is dumb enough to shun their Critical Reasoning (CR) skills for short-term financial gain, the sentence from the announcement contains at least two issues commonly tested in Sentence Correction (SC).

We know that as a candidate for an MBA or business master’s program, that you are likely facing uncertainty right now due to the global impact of COVID-19.
Issue (1): "That you are" should be "you are".
Issue (2): ”Due to" cannot be used to modify a verb. Change it to "because of".

I'm still wary of the possibility that people might and will find a way to cheat and share GMAT questions. That would ruin the integrity of the exam and is not fair to the people who actually spend the time to study for the exam to achieve their target scores :/

I put the link in my previous reply.

However, here it is https://event.on24.com/eventRegistratio ... e=register

Regards
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This is an amazing development!

Taking the GMAT from home is a hacker's dream, I'm sure--but the change was bound to happen eventually, and the Coronavirus pandemic of course accelerated the process.

Here is what we know so far:



-Brian

I wonder if this means the essay portion will be removed from the in-person GMAT for good.
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