GMAT Testing Center Physical Environment

timetrader, I would say the picture on the right was exactly what my testing room looked like, even the chairs.

That is weird that they say they can't release information. If I walked into their office, I could look right at it and see what it looks like. Maybe you should try that out if you're close and then just say Oops I'm in the wrong place and leave after you've seen the setup .

There is not a lot of room to spread things out. It seemed like something was always getting in the way.

I used the head phones, I don't what the people that didn't use them were thinking. There wasn't a lot of ambient noise (air conditioning, lighting, etc), but people are noisy. I don't know how they're not distracting themselves. The other thing is they had really clickety keyboards, I am talking old IBM clicking. That was pretty distracting because I had moved onto the actual test while a lot of people were still on the AWA. Also, one guy kept clearing his throat. I remember a problem that I just could not concentrate on and I was thinking, oh my gosh, would you just shut up. The weirdest things will get you distracted. I remember looking over at a high school girl taking the ACT, punching things into calculator and spending at least a half minute being jealous that I didn't have a calculator. So yes, do whatever you can do limit distractions, I think the headphones help with this.

If there are a lot of people there, this is one time when it's not "cool" to be at the back of the pack. Get through everything as soon as possible, because I'm convinced you get the better workstation (ie the end ones) if you are one of the first ones to be seated.