hi guys,
So i had scheduled my gmat for the 14th of august after 2 months of intense prep. As I am from trivandrum, India I chose a test centre called Indira centre for education which was in my city. On my earlier attempt I had scored a 690 and the test centre was in cochin. but since that attempt was over 5 years ago the score was invalid and I haf to take the test again. The last time the preparation was more or less haphazard. This time my preparation was more organised, I had signed on with some really nice courses online ( empower and
egmat verbal), my mocks coming on well and I was quite confident to break into the early-mid 700s. And test day came...
1. I had scheduled my exam for 845am. I got to the test centre at 8.30 am to find that the place is still locked. Upon calling the contact number, the person at the other end told me to wait and said that someone would be coming along. 10 minutes later someone did come by and ushered me as well another candidate into the test centre. The test centre looked pretty basic, but since the aesthetics of the test centre werent my concern , I proceeded with the preliminary id proof and other formalities.
2. After the preliminary formalities the both of us were led into the test taking room. I was welcome to a modest sized room with 4 terminals crammed along the wall. I was given the second terminal from the left, and the other test taker got the 4th terminal. To my surprise I realised that the standard scratch pad issued to me wouldnt fit properly in the space between the keyboard and the monitor and turning the scratch pad over was even more difficult , but since I had space to my left and right, I figured i could manage.
3. I had practiced with the Verbal , Quant , IR, AWA format and so I started with verbal. I was maybe onto the 6th or 7th question (10th-12th minute) when the center admin opened the door to usher in another candidate. The new candidate occupied the third seat which was to my immediate right and also took whatever elbow room I had. The new candidate had a penchant for nodding/shaking as she took her test 9 ( as a method of focussing I believe) that completely took my concentration away. As said in GMAT guidelines the terminal was not insulated by blinds or anything. They just had some restrictive wooden frames that just got in the way of your arms.
4. The test taking room was so small, that every time the test centre admin opened the door, the door would hit on my chair and by the time I was on to the 20 th question, he had already opened the door 4 times and another candidate had also entered taking the seat to my left. This is when I noticed that the other test takers werent taking the gmat or any other test which was based on the same time schedules and hence had different break times/ section times.
5. By the end of the verbal section, I had lost my pace, concentration and was sure that I tanked my score. I went back in and started quant, by then I had made my self accustomed to the hue and cry within the tiny test taking room. Stopping short of getting incredibly angry I somehow managed to pace myself through quant and completed the IR and AWA to get a miserable score of 570! ( v25, q50). I had no option but to cancel my score.
6. Upon consultation with the nice folks at empower, I wrote to gmac regarding my ordeal on the 15th. Asking them what the proper recourse would be. Gmat wont allow me the next test until 30th August (mandatory 16 days cool down) and round 1 ends at some of the schools at 5pm on 30th! Its been 10 days now since my first mail ( had to send 3 more mails to get the right people to listen) to gmat and today I receive a mail stating that they are gonaa take another 5 days to arrive at a decision!!!
I had sincerely hoped that GMAC would be more understanding of my plight. I havent them to compensate for my marks , neither have I asked them to give me a waiver. Nonetheless I am not sensing any help from their end!