Enhanced Online GMAT Experience : Would not recommend

Hi

Yes this is another one of those posts on how the New enhanced Online GMAT software is the worst thing to have happened to the GMAT since the introduction of the online system of test taking.

To give a bit of background, this was my second online GMAT attempt, the first one had occurred back in April which was supposed to be on the enhanced version but as examity couldnt deliver on their deadlines, I had to take the older version of the test. In hindsight, that was in fact the better version as it worked flawlessly compared to this joke of a test taking software they call the ESSSecureBrowser. On the older version, mid way through my verbal section, the proctor warned me that I was mumbling and that if I continued, my exam would be revoked. I was a nervous wreck before the exam started and post this warning, I could not continue at my best as panic set in and I bombed my verbal section. The break helped me calm myself down and I score well on the IR.

Fast forward two months, June 28th, I take the enhanced version (all my official mock scores have been in the score range of 710-760 with no skewed scores as I stayed away from all GMATprep questions until I delved into the mocks). The issues were :

1) The software would become unresponsive during all 4 of my sections and eat up time as the timer would continue to run while the software would not accept my inputs. This happened multiple times during the second section (Quant) of my exam and inhibited me from completing the section on time.

2) The system would not respond as expected when ending breaks. On clicking the end break button on the screen, the first question of the next section would pop up instead of the instructions screen and then the screen would become unresponsive for 3 mins minimum (happened after both breaks) following which the application would populate a 'not responding' dialog box and ask me to either wait for the application to respond or close the application.

3) During the AWA section, words typed in would not appear on screen for 9-10 seconds after I had typed them causing huge amounts of frustration and anxiety. This led to me not being able to write a coherent and well structured essay as I had to keep waiting for the words to show up to finish my thought.

Despite these challenges I scored a 680 (Q48,V35, IR8) which gives me somewhat hope that had everything been near the expected level of operation, I would have easily crosses the 700 barrier and achieved the score I dreamt of.

I have seen multiple posts on the forum where folks who experienced issues but completed the test have had no aid from GMAC on the issues raised and hence, I dont expect my case to be any different, Anyhow, I have written them a long email (longer than this post infact) highlighting how they have let me down and not given me a fair chance to perform at my best on the exam.

The purpose of this post is to inform other prospective test takers to take the test with the pre thought that the software WILL f*ck up and you WILL lose time. The proctors are useless as even to pause the exam the software needs to respond and the act of pausing the exam also takes upto 2 mins according to my proctor.

As for me, a 6 month ordeal continues for 15 more days minimum as I have booked an in centre test in a completely different city as Indian test centres can close down at any moment and exam appointments can get cancelled as a result. Hoping to cross that 700 barrier the next time around.

P.S : I am extremely proud of scoring the 680 as I know that the person who took the first GMAT online and cracked up under pressure would not have been able to keep his cool in the conditions that the second attempt presented and that just .makes me feel proud that I have not only become better at the GMAT but also become better at handling stress and keeping calm in the midst of adversity.