The A to Z of GMAT Online

Should you take the GMAT from your home or the test center? This is one of the most frequent questions I get asked as a GMAT trainer. Most people are scared of taking the GMAT online because of the fear of technical glitches. There are reports of software getting stuck or being slow (without the clock stopping) or the software crashing and making the exam last 5 hours instead of 3, while you wait for the proctor to try starting the exam again. However, the glitches have reduced drastically over the years and with this becoming a permanent offering from GMAC, the exam experience will only get smoother. There are also circumstances where it proves beneficial to take the exam online. But before we get into the details, let’s briefly go over the key features:

Why should you take the GMAT online?

• No travel required: often people have to travel for hours or to a different city altogether for taking the test. GMAT is stressful enough without having to add the stress of traveling and reaching on time.
• No time restraints: One of the perks of taking the GMAT online is that, since you don’t have to adhere to the schedule of a GMAT test center, test time slots are available 24/7. This added flexibility is a blessing for those who work full-time or are their most productive at odd hours (night owl, anyone?)
• Control over the environment: Another major advantage of taking the GMAT at home for many test-takers is that they’re simply more comfortable in a familiar setting, where they have more control over their environment.
• Practice amidst the same environment: One of the biggest advantages of having your “personal test center” at home is that you can better simulate test day conditions during mock tests. This ensures that the test day does not feel too alien or daunting.
• Score Sending: Since you do not have to send the score immediately, you can take that time to carefully consider your options based on your score.
• Reporting Your Scores: The GMAT Online score is not included in the GMAT score history that schools see when you send in-person scores. Essentially, the scores are isolated from other attempts. You can pick and choose with GMAT Online scores you send, or you can choose not to send any online test scores and just send in-person ones. Additionally, if you take the GMAT Online more than once, you can select which online attempt you want to send scores from.

GMAT Online or GMAT at Test Center? How to Decide?

The decision regarding it depends on your comfort level but keep these things in mind:

1. Test center facility - how far or near it is. For many test takers, the GMAT Online will still be the only viable option because they don’t live near a test center. Given the option of driving two hours or taking it in a quiet and secure location in your home, the choice may be easy.?
2. First attempt or not - Currently, the ESR or Enhanced Score Report is not available for GMAT online. If it is your first attempt and/or if you are unclear about your wear areas, you should take it at the centre to access your ESR. In addition to visual representations of your test performance, each performance breakdown includes a summary that provides a written snapshot of your performance and how it was analyzed, and the average scores and times per question of all GMAT test-takers in the past 3 years, so you can see how you performed in comparison to the average test-taker. This information gives a clearer picture of what you did wrong on the exam and will help guide subsequent preparation. On the other hand, if you have clarity over your standing in the exam, you can consider opting for the GMAT online
3. Presence of necessary facilities at home: In-center is better if you do not have a calm place in your room or have unstable internet, speed, or power cuts. a quiet place, webcam, etc. more on this later?
4. Your comfort with scratch paper/whiteboard: For the in-person exam, you get 5 sheets of double-sided laminated graph paper and a fine-tip marker (always ask for two from the proctor!). If you take the GMAT Online, you’ll have access to an online whiteboard, plus the option to use your own double-sided dry erase board (make sure you also purchase two fine-tipped markers and more than 1 eraser). Many students are comfortable with rough work only with pen and paper and struggle with the online or physical whiteboards. Take this decision based solely on your comfort level.

Tips for GMAT Online

1. Create your desired exam environment at home and practice all your mocks there at the same time to build a test-taking temperament
2. The whiteboard is an important part of your GMAT experience. Craft a strategy with respect to your usage of physical and online whiteboards. Determine which option or combination of whiteboards works best for you. Personally, I recommend using the physical whiteboard but this is entirely subjective. If you are planning to use the online whiteboard, practice using GMAC’s online whiteboard practice tool to familiarize yourself with how the online whiteboard works and get comfortable using it for scratch work.
3. Power Outage: If you do not have power backup at home, consider taking the exam from any other place. If your colony has generators, they make take 2-3 minutes to resume power supply which may cut off your wifi. Invest in a wifi power backup so that even if power cuts off for a few minutes in the course of the exam, your laptop battery and wifi power backup (most manage to run for 30 minutes) can carry you through.

If you want a more detailed guide on preparing your home for GMAT Online, head to www.mba.com or comment with your email id on this post and I will send you the PDF.

As a GMAT trainer for over 10 years, I love helping out students who are preparing for their GMAT. If you want to discuss your GMAT strategy with me, you can schedule a free call here: https://calendly.com/manan-kumar/gmat-inquiry-meeting

You can also schedule a free demo session with me on 8448474648

To learn more about my company, Enzo Prep, head to https://enzoprep.com/