GMAT Online - What We Know [Master Topic]

Hi everyone,

I just gave a 5 hour long online GMAT exam. Yes, I was working with the proctor and an additional support personnel for around 1.5 hours to make sure the system responds properly in the secure browser. And yes, it was worth the wait. Although I should add that out of the 1.5 hours, I was waiting for the GMAC support personnel to join the call for around 1 hour. I will try to write a more detailed debrief later.

But in case anybody faces issues related to system responsiveness, please reach out to the proctor immediately. You might be one of the people who, like me, must be thinking that it is an internet issue. BUT IT IS NOT. It is some issue related to the firewall or the version of the secure browser installed in your system. Anyways, after the GMAC support person made some firewall settings changes(turned it off) and reinstalled the secure browser, I was able to complete the rest of my test smoothly. So please reach out to the proctor in case you are facing any issues. Also, don't lose your head while waiting for the support to join the call.

Wow! Congrats on your 760!
And than you for the recommendation! This is super helpful and kudos for thinking on your feet during the test!

-B



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Thank you for this, and congratulations on the amazing score.
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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.

Another vote of congratulations here. You seem to have managed the interruptions and the long wait very well. A refreshing change from the posts filled with negative stories on this issue.

You seem to have done very well in your scores. Perhaps you would consider writing a debrief and specifically addressing how you prepared and were able to score a Q50 and Q51? Those are hard scores to get, especially with the stories of the quant changing in difficulty levels.

Hi Hanz95,

Thanks for confirming what others have suspected all along: that the GMAT online's chronic lag issues are not related to internet connection speed in most cases, but to the ESSecure browser used by Examity, and/or any firewalls + VPNs being used on the test-taker's computer. (If possible, then don't wait to turn them off until the exam has begun; it's a good idea to switch off any firewalls and VPNs before the exam even begins.)

Most importantly, however, thank you for informing us that alerting the proctor right away, deactivating any firewalls and VPNs, and requesting a reinstall will sometimes fix the lag issue.

In addition, as others have already noted, congrats on your amazing score of 760! However, I do wonder how much better you could have done if you didn't have to sit there waiting on GMAC / Examity for hours longer than necessary. It's unfair to force test-takers to decide between twiddling their thumbs waiting up to an hour or more for technical support, or simply tolerating the persistent lag issues that in some cases can slow down the exam by 5-10 seconds per question or more.

Requiring test-takers to sit there (on camera!) for hours, waiting on technical support—or just waiting for the proctor to arrive and start the exam, as I have experienced—is like "icing the kicker" in (American) football by calling a timeout before an important kick. It's certainly not ideal, but if you approach the GMAT online prepared for these likely delays, then you will do a better job of handling them if/when they occur.

In sum, taking the GMAT online is like catching a flight at the airport: it's possible that everything will go smoothly, but it's better to assume that it won't.

In your case, good job staying calm, altering your proctor right away when the exam started to lag, and not letting the long wait for tech support mess with your head.

Thanks, Hovkial. I will definitely try to write a debrief on the materials that helped me. I did not have the most organized study schedule, but I will try to include all the points that helped me.

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!

SarahDD - how did it go? Were you able to take the test?

Did your proctor wear a costume on Halloween? 🥴




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This is super helpful advice! Thank you 👍👍👍👍🙏🙏🙏🙏

It is interesting about the order sequence. This is almost like the old-school GMAT. The history repeats itself and we’re going back to 2013 when there was no section order and you had to take it in pretty much that order…. Which is totally doable because everyone did until they introduce section order a couple years ago (maybe more than a couple) but that’s besides the point and the smart piece is about troubleshooting. I am impressed that proctors or GMAC people are so tech savvy! I guess I wish they were not and we did not have glitches. 🤷‍♂️




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Thank you Hanz95 - I have reposted your debrief as a separate post so it gets the attention it deserves:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-760-tip ... 74556.html

Just FYI.
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Hello everyone

First,some feedback on my online test last sunday:
-connected to the link 10 minutes earlier
-had forgotten to download the secure something so I did it while the protcore was watching (think about doing it before !)
-lost sound from the protcore and waited 30minutes so that she could find a solution
-she finally launch another meeting with another protcore and that worked
-choose Verbal / Quant / IR+AWA
-quite some lags, like it froze for a few seconds at almost each question, way worse for the IR, and my computer went crazy with the fans all the exam long
- at the first break, I really needed to pee (too much water and too long waiting before the exam ^^) so I asked the protcore to leave but he was not responding and I could not close the exam window to reach the chat... so I showedd my board front and back and went to the bathroom
-came back, 2min after, still no answer from the protcore so clicked on "end break" because I thought the protcore would see the end of break and contact me for the checks... he did not and the time on quant started running so I showed my board and went on with quant
-at the end, the IR was just terrible end the AWA too, you know when you tap something on your keyboard and it takes 20sec to see it on the screen... horrible
-finally, a few sec before the end, it froze (time still running) and I did not had time to click on end of the AWA so lot of stress on whether what I had written would be considered
-then the protcore contacted me for checking the cleaning of the board and blabla
-saw my score of 770 so I was crazy happy but I was afraid the exam would be cancelled because of the break issue and there was no notation for the AWA so I was also afraid to get a zero
-got the validation of the score on monday (fast!) with a 6 in AWA (ouf!)

Overall a bad experience for me, way worse than the first one I had done 6months ago, although I managed to get a 770 so I was over the moon

Secondly after the validation,
-we have 48h to chose 5 programs to sens the scores to
-in the help on the website, they state "Each score report will include GMAT exam scores you have accepted within the past five years."
-but when sending the score, it looks like you can choose the score you want to send
-since I have one 710 from 6months ago and one 770 from a few days ago,I wanted to send only the last one
-I asked the GMAT Customer Service and they told me there is no choice but sending the reports that contains both...

I am quite confused on this issue... does anyone has more information ?

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Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone can show me how to check if the score has been sent to my selected program or not. I have taken GMAT Online in Dec 2020 and are now applying to my selected university. However, as I read on the GMAT website, the score reports must be sent within 48 hours to your selected schools. In addition, yesterday, I chose the MBA program that I intended to apply to send report to, it said that my school should receive my score within 8 hours. However, I'm not really sure if the score has been sent afterwards as I saw no indicator on the website. In addition, confused with the of having to send the score within 48 hours.

I really appreciate if someone can help me with this. Thank you so much in advance

Congratulations, Virginie, on earning a fantastic exam score. Believe it or not, I remembered crossing paths with you months ago, when you posted to solicit advice on how to improve after your mock. I would advise you to select the score you want to send to each school and see what happens. If both scores are sent, no harm done—a 770 is not only a great score, but it would also show a 60-point improvement over an already competitive score. No worries. (It would be worse if you had earned the 770 first and then backslid into a 710.)

Good luck with your applications. I hope you may take the time to post a debrief in the Share GMAT Experience forum, since the community benefits especially from reading about how members were able to reach into the 99th percentile.

- Andrew
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The policy to select business school recipients for your scores within 48 hours applies only to tests taken after October 14.

If you have taken your GMAT online prior to that date, you have until end of this year to send unlimited score reports to as many schools as you wish.

I don’t have an active GMAT online school report to tell you how to check if you have sent the score. I can tell you for sure that you cannot check if it has been received because there’s nothing to be received. It’s just a computer system to the school can log into and check your score and verify that it matches to the score you have reported on your application.




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Horrible experience but amazing score. I can hear from your note that it was very frustrating. Imagine if you got a 670 instead, that would be just pure death.

Super happy to hear about the 770! That is amazing and tremendous.

About the scores, for the GMAT online, you choose the score that you want to share with business schools. Your other GMAT online or test center-based scores will not be visible, unless GMAT has changed some thing in their system.

The way it works, or at least the way it used to work, you would check a box next to the score and then proceed to send or share it with designated recipients. You could check multiple boxes or you could check one box. If you check one box, only that particular score is shared with your recipients.

PS. If you have previously sent scores to schools or shared them with schools, there is no way to un- share or unsend them. However, as Andrew mentioned, there’s no harm at all to showing a 710 along with a 770. Many admissions teams will not even see that score. They will only take into consideration the score that you put on the application which I assume will be the 770. 😎

Also, don’t worry about IR or the essay. Those scores don’t really have any impact or play in the decision and as long as you didn’t write a bunch of profanities in your essay, you’re perfectly fine.



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Hello Andrew,
Thanks for your reply. Indeed I remember your advice, which was quite valuable for me : it helped my understand the importance of Verbal practice !
I will most certainly post a debrief but my prep was quite erratic so I am not sure I will be so good at providing advice

Thanks for your reply.

I agree I am lucky my score went the right way from bottom to top, however I find the rules of reporting scores from the GMAT quite confusing.

I attach the question I asked them and the answer they provided to me. I clearly stipulated that my scores where from online test and that the content of the report was not clear. And they clearly replied to me it contains all the scores from the past 5 years.

I am not worried anymore about the IR and AWA as I got the highest scores.
I was worried initially because I did not have time to click on the "finish" button at the AWA and did not find information on-line on whether the text I had written would be considered.

So I can say yes the text was considered if anyone else had the same issue

Hello again, Virginie. If your prep was "erratic," then so much the better if you can cobble together a debrief. Trust me, if you have gone through ups and downs in your prep, regarding steadiness, so have others. (I can speak for this GMAT™ aspirant, at least.) It is useful for members of the community to see how some people have managed to reach such great heights on the exam despite a not-so-smooth preparation period. We get it: life happens. At the same time, I do not want to pressure you to do a homework assignment of sorts. If you have the time in between your work or other pursuits, by all means, I and other members of this community would love to read what you would have to say.

- Andrew
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