From what I read and understand, there's no so called "digital scratchpad". No touch screens are allowed either. The only option you have is to revert to keyboard and "writing" (ie drawing) with your mouse.
This is frankly ridiculous. Or GMAC thinks note taking is not required to do well in the GMAT (to those few geniuses out there that think they can do this, please be my guest and go ahead. I'm mortal and need notes) or else they must assume taking notes with a mouse is as smooth as writing. Well, have they tried this? Have they had a sample group of people do 10 exercises taking notes with a mouse vs 10 exercises taking physical notes? Have they compared results?
GMAT is supposed to be a standardized test. Meaning results are supposed to be comparable. For a test to be standardized, the setup needs to be standardized. Note taking is the only tool you have at your disposal in the GMAT. Physically writing and drawing on a whiteboard vs writing with your keyboard and mouse on a screen is a MAJOR difference. Just run your own little test (open Onenote, tap Draw and select a pen) and see how much slower you are. You learned to physically write your whole life. Learning to take digital notes with a keyboard and mouse achieving the same skill/speed would take years of practice.
Alternatively, someone suggested the questions would be different / easier. Again, GMAT is a standardized test. Tweaking the questions would make the results NOT comparable.
If everything ceteris paribus and this digital note-taking is enforced, then this is a change that fails to comply with the standardized nature of the test. I predict scores will be a lot lower in this online delivery vs the same person taking a test in a test center.
Lastly: can anyone explain me the rationale why you would not be able to cancel your online score? There’s absolutely zero rationale behind why this would have to be different from taking a test in a test center. You can not see your score before you decide to accept/cancel and if you accept, it’s in your records for five years. Why??