How to Get More Control over Your GMAT Score Reports
Certification: Test Prep GMAT - Graduate Management Admission Test
The test takers will be getting a more control over the GMAT score reports with the introduction of the new score reporting policy. The new score reporting policy effective since 27th June, 2014will also reduce the pressure on test takers in taking the GMAT test. As per the previous GMAT score reporting policy, the test takers had the option to cancel the scores immediately after completion of the test before viewing the score.Seeing the score before cancellation was considered as an agreement of the test taker to send the score report to the selected business schools. There was no scope of cancelling the score and the scores had to be reported irrespective of the test takers performance.However with the new policy in place, the test takers can view their score to decide on cancellations of their score.
Reasons for Cancellation of Scores
The cancellation of the scores could be due to four reasons which are provided as separate codes in the score report including self-cancelled coded as ‘C’, testing issue coded as ‘T’ , policy Violation coded as ‘V’ and serious Violation coded as ‘S’. Among the four, only the first reason code is valid for test takers to cancel the score, rest three are cancellations made by GMAC (Graduate Management Admission Council) on the test day or later on.
The self-cancelled code indicates that the test taker has cancelled the score due to either choosing not to complete the exam session or due to poor performance than expected. The Testing issue code is marked when there is an error in administration, registration or payment, careless disclosure of content of the test, disturbances at test centre beyond the control of the test taker, and other testing circumstances that may result in doubtfulness in the legitimacy of scores. The policy violation code indicates violation of a testing policy by the test taker and serious violation code indicates that the test taker has either cheated or falsified score reports, intentionally shared test content or access to it or has committed fraud.
The consequences of the self-cancelled score is that it is noted on the official score report for five years. However, in case of the other three, apart from being noted the scores are also withheld in case of testing issue, additionally schools are notified in case of policy violation. A serious violation has the worst consequences with cancellation of scores, notification on the official score report and to schools, and may also lead to ban on taking up the test in future and may even require legal solutions.
The reason codes are specified in the score report to avoid any wrong conclusions being drawn by test takers or business schools. The clear disclosure of the reason of cancellation would help the business schools to be well- informed before making admission decisions for a candidate.
New Score Reporting Policy
The new scoring policy of GMAT will enable test takers to view their total score as well as section-wise score for Integrated Reasoning, Verbal and Quantitative sections immediately after the test; however, these score would be unofficial. The score of the Analytical Writing Assessment is not included in the unofficial score as the assessment requires time. The test takers get two minutes time to take a decision to accept or cancel their score based on this score. Inability to take a decision within the timeframe would be considered as cancellation of scores. In case of a decision of cancellation, the test taker gets a 60 – day grace period to revoke their decision and re-establish their scores for a fee of $100.
How to Optimise Benefits of New Policy
The new policy is an opportunity for the test takers to present their best GMAT score to the business school. To effectively utilise this opportunity offered, the test takers should have complete clarity about using the score before going for the test. Therefore, the test takers must make up their mind on three points before the test: programsto which their score should be sent, minimum score that they would want to report and is their scope of time for a retake of test for them in case they decide to cancel the score.
The test takers must be informed about the programs that they would want to join well ahead of the test as they need to select the programs at the test centre before starting the test. The test takers are entitled to free five score reports which are included in the test fee.
Under the new scoring policy, the test takers can view their unofficial total score as well as score of Verbal, Integrated Reasoning and Quantitative sections immediately after the exam. As they get only two minutes time to make a decision cancellation or acceptance of scores, it is important for test takers to decide in advance the minimum score that they would prefer to report and send to the selected business schools. Failure to decide on within two minutes timeframe would result in cancellation of scores. The minimum score must be carefully determined on the basis of personal evaluation of their capability and willingness to retake the test for improving the score.
Moreover, another important aspect to be considered before taking a decision to cancel the score is whether the test taker has time to retake the test. A candidate is eligible to take the GMAT test five times in a year with a restriction to take the test only once in a period of 31 days. Moreover, the turnaround time for publish of the official score report is 20 days. Hence, both the time frame must be considered before deciding on cancelling the scores.