Online GMAT Issues

I have updated the status with the feedback provided by GMAC in yesterday's videocall, please comment if I have missed anything!

Hi all,

Since this seems to be the thread where we can discuss the technical issues with GMAT Online, I would like to post my experience.

I've made an appointment on 5th May. As per the instructions, I sat down for the test 30mins before the scheduled start time. The check in process was relatively smooth with everything from the start of system test to beginning of the test taking less than 10 mins. One thing I noticed in the process of system test is that it didn't accept my ID for the first time and I had to retake a picture of it and submit. I was expecting a proctor to come online and have a small chat before commencing the test, but I was directed to the test without any contact with the proctor (Guess the process went smoothly enough!!)

The problem started when I was asked to press accept on a screen that asks if it is XXXXX (my name) that is taking the test. I tried selecting YES but the radio button just wouldn't get selected. I didn't care about it much and after a few seconds the radio button was on and I proceeded to the next step and began my exam.
Once I started with the test, I clicked on the Whiteboard button but nothing would show up immediately. Its still the first question and thinking that my laptop is still adjusting, I ignored the whiteboard, did some math in my head, and answered the question.

The second question really needed some work, and I had to use the text feature of the whiteboard. It is then I noticed that every action (click of the mouse, typing one key..) took about 10-15 seconds to execute. As soon as I realized this, I raised my hand and alerted the proctor...but my chat window also took a while before it popped up. Proctor asked me "How can I help you?", and then as my keyboard function is lagged too...I couldn't reply to the chat. It took about 3-4 mins for the text "My whiteboard isn't working" to appear on the chat field. I gave up on the chat window, raised both my hands and just waved at the screen asking them to stop the test or whatever.
I received a call from the proctor 15mins into the test. I explained my issue to her and after a brief description, she asked me to reboot the Mac and come back to the test app. I did as she instructed, and everything seems to work just fine now.

I asked her if she could reset the timer or the test as a whole, but since I had already seen a couple of questions, she isn't allowed to reset the test. There was no way I could have completed 29 questions in 40 minutes of the test, so asked her to file a complaint under technical difficulties.

The proctor mentioned that I should just close the test browser, and that I would receive a reply from Pearson with a voucher/code for the retest in 2-5 days. Its definitely been longer than that but going through other comments, I guess I may have to wait a little longer before I hear from them.

After waiting for so long to take the test and be over with it, cancelling the test just right in the beginning kinda sucks!

Hi, reddy10d sorry to hear from your bad experience.

So the suggestion would be that if anything does not work well before starting it make sure it all runs smooth or you may lose exam time later.

Regarding the whiteboard, was my impression that you could prepare it before starting the first question, no? The advice I would give is to set letter size and type, change the background of the figures to transparent, and set the lines to honest width.

Regards,
Pablo

Hi pabpinor

Yes, I would definitely advice opening the whiteboard during the time we have for reviewing the instructions.
I don't remember what was going in my head, but I tried opening the whiteboard some 5 seconds before the start of the test.
I did try to set the letter size and change the figures to transparent, but the system response was already very lagged.

Its recommended to test the system response before the start of the test, and alert the proctor if we find any issues. That way, at least we will have the opportunity to reboot the computer and start the test without losing any exam time.

Anyway, I'd rather hope that GMAC fixes these issues soon as encountering any issue right in the beginning can shake off all the calm and can potentially affect the overall performance.

Just figured I would post this here for others.

Before my exam even started my screen went black and mouse (mac trackpad) became unresponsive. I couldn't chat with the proctor.

I called customer service and was given a case number. I was told they would respond to the case within 3-5 business days.

That was on May 1st in the morning. I still had not heard from them today, so I called again. I was told that I should now receive an email within the next 48 hours.

Even I tried contacting the customer care regarding my problem.
Although I didn't have a case number with me, the chat representative looked into my case, provided me with the case ID that has been filed, and gave a very inconclusive standard reply saying that they are doing everything to resolve the issue and will get back to us as soon as possible. No definitive timeline was given.

Yes, from my experience they response time of 2 days is not true even in regular times, so now that they are overwhelmed it will be definitely much more.

Keep trying and cross your fingers.

Regards,
Pablo

Update: today I received an email and am able to reschedule for Monday. Glad to finally be back to the races! It's been two weeks since the initial incident.

That's great news. I received a mail too saying that I should receive a mail regarding the retest within 1-2 business days. Hopefully by Monday or Tuesday.
Can you tell me if there are enough slots to book the appointment? I came across posts saying that the appointments were not available for a certain period due to various issues.

And yeah, all the best for your exam.

I took it today. As long as you are flexible with the time, you should be ok. I didn't have trouble booking an exam from east coast US time zone. I work Tues-Sat, so Mondays were available.

Best to you!

Just took my online GMAT this morning, I did not manage to get past the second quant question before they had to shut the exam and get their tech team to come back to me at a later stage. At the exam instructions page, the software froze on my mac and I asked the proctor to call me and he did. He asked me to reboot, and I was able to get back in.

After the first quant question, I decided to move the exam software icon near the top of the screen further up a bit as it was close to the question text. My screen then went blank with an error message "your file could not be found". My proctor then advised me through the chat box that we best cancel to prevent me losing time. I explained to him that I need this score for my application on Monday, but he proceeded anyway. Apparently their tech team will get back to me in a few days.

This is frustrating as I have completed the system checks prior to the exam and it was all fine. I have already had my interview with my target school, and the GMAT score is the only thing pending on my application before they issue final decisions by the end of the month. Due to the technical issues, I am at risk of losing my chance. I really want to sit the GMAT as I have been preparing for the past few months and have achieved close to my target score. I have contacted my target school and we will see what happens...

Hi kaiyuan28935749,

Sorry to hear that you had to face this kind of technical difficulty when you needed the GMAT score soon.
Your experience sounds similar to what I had faced 2 weeks ago.

I am not aware of the progress GMAC and Pearson are doing in resolving the issues, but so far their response regarding the retest has been very slow.
I had my appointment on 5th May when it went wrong, and its been 2 weeks and I still haven't received any mail regarding the retest.

Hope that the schools you applied to make some exceptions and give you some extra time to submit the score.

Hi cmcmurrin

A quick question. While rescheduling, did you pay the exam fees separately and received the refund for your initial appointment?
I called the customer care today and the representative told me that the authorization code is reset and I can schedule my next appointment now.

Great to hear you can reschedule now, I’m. Still waiting for a reply after multiple phone calls to the London number and an email to the American email address ...

Did you call the American number and they tell you what the problem was? I am on Mac OS 13.6, which meets the system requirements, but wonder if I should upgrade to the latest 13.9

Thanks

Posted from my mobile device

Hi kaiyuan28935749,

Yes, I can reschedule now. I want to take the exam as soon this weekend, but the time slots available are all in the odd times of midnight to early morning (I live in Japan and its a rough 12 hours difference with EST).
I could see some favorable slots (around 3pm JST) next weekend. Will select from those and see how it goes.

The response of customer care is really slow. I tried contacting them via the chat option and generally received a reply in 25-30mins. Today I called the Asia-Pacific number and could connect to the
representative in about 5 mins.
I don't think there is any problem with the OS on your Mac. They do, however, recommend having the latest version installed. I have macOS Catalina 10.15.4 (Supposedly the latest version)
The primary issue could be something do with onVUE software, and a number of people have faced issues similar to ours.

Hope they get back to you soon.

Yesterday, I sent email to the US GMAT customer service team to follow up and explained my situation again, however I have not had a response

Today I spent over 2 hours on the phone with the US GMAT customer service team and spoke with 3 different customer service representatives:
1. The first one seemed to be able to get in contact with the technical team handling the case and advised that they just needed a few more minutes, however the line dropped when I was put on hold the second time;
2. I called again and spoke with another customer service representative, who advised me that my case number was wrongly assigned to an exam I have cancelled in the past and therefore requires a new case with another 3 to 5 business days wait;
3. Thinking there must be a mistake, I called the US again to speak to another representative who advised me that I will need to wait as the latest case had just been created today and there is nothing he can do about it.

Posted from my mobile device

Did someone have any problem the whiteboard erasing itself and crazy commands on it?
I had this problem and lost more than 10min of quant section time because of it, after trying to reset the test twice. I filed a complaint but I'm afraid that wouldn't be enough to give me a second chance to take the test.

Yes I had those same exact problems, knowing from the forum that they would ask to restart and I will be losing time (besides getting even more nervous), I decided to continue with almost no use of the whiteboard at all. Because of the issues and some time constrains derived from them I thought that I was doomed in Quant, that also impacted my performance in Verbal and I did not use the whiteboard at all there.+S
Surprisingly I got a Q50 but my verbal was 28, 7-12 points under my range

I do not think they will give a second chance, I have raised the issues through multiple channels (proctor, chat, email and survey), but their customer service has not the best track record...

Regards,
Pablo

Hey all,

I took my GMAT Online on 5/30, and thanks to the reports of various issues with the online whiteboard, I was mentally prepared to encounter any of those issues.
I opened my Whiteboard immediately after I was directed to the testing browser. Before starting the timed sections of tutorial and instructions, I spent about 5 mins getting to know the whiteboard. (During the terms and conditions page which isn't timed)

I changed the fill color to none, drew a couple of circles overlapping in the form of venn diagrams, and then went about the text option. Wrote all the letters from a to z, and I noticed that pressing Z cleared all of my screen and also applied an undo to return to the stage which I had cleared. So that was the only issue I noticed before the exam, and kept in mind not to use the letter z. I also checked for issues regarding the square root symbol (Option+V in Mac) and the power(^) symbol.

During the test, I noticed that the letter Y also caused issues similar with the letter Z. As I was already aware of these issues beforehand, I naturally switched to some other letters for variables and continued with the exam.

I had to cancel my first attempt halfway due to technical glitches, but following this post since then has been helpful in going about the test the second time.