On Test Day

Test Day should contain no surprises. Test takers who feel in control of the events leading up to the test take that confidence with them into the testing center.

Leave early for the testing center, giving yourself plenty of time. Read something to warm up your brain; you don’t want the GMAT to be the first written material your brain tries to assimilate that day. Dress in layers for maximum comfort. That way, you’ll be able to adjust to the testing room’s temperature. In traveling to the testing center, leave yourself enough time for traffic or mass transit delays.

Be ready for a long day. Total testing time, remember, is about 3.0 hours. When you add the administrative paperwork before and after, and the two 8-minute breaks, you’re looking at an experience of 3.5 hours or more.

You will feel most prepared and confident if you have an understanding of how the logistics of Test Day will play out. Taking the full-length practice CATs in your online resources and those from mba.com will help you get the feel for the GMAT itself, but certain events are unique to the experience in the testing center. Here’s what to expect:

At the testing center, you will . . .

• Check in.
• Place your belongings in a locker.
• Receive a noteboard and pen for your scratchwork.
• Go to the assigned computer. (Note that you will be videotaped as you take the test. Don’t be disturbed by any video cameras facing you; this is just a tool that enables the test administrators to maintain a fair testing environment.)
• Select your score recipients. The computer will ask you where to send your results. You may send your scores to up to five schools free of charge. You should take advantage of this free service, as waiting until later has no advantage. If you specify your score recipients after the test or choose more than five schools, you will have to pay $35 per school (as this book goes to press) to send results.
• Complete the four sections of the test, taking advantage of the two 8-minute breaks offered to visit the restroom, eat your snack, and reboot your brain.
• Complete a brief optional survey.
• See your unofficial Quantitative, Verbal, and Integrated Reasoning scores.
• Choose whether to cancel or keep your scores.
• Check out.
• Remove your belongings from the locker and leave the testing facility.

Here are some strategic reminders to help guide your work on Test Day:

• Read each question stem carefully and reread it before making your final selection.
• Don’t get bogged down in the middle of any section. You may find later questions more to your liking. So don’t panic. Eliminate answer choices, guess, and move on.
• Don’t fall behind early. Even if you get most of the first 10 questions right, you’ll wind up rushing yourself into enough errors that you cancel out your early success. Keep a steady pace throughout the test and finish each section strong, avoiding the penalty for not completing all the questions.
• Don’t bother trying to figure out which questions are unscored. It can’t help you, and you might very well be wrong. Instead, just resolve to do your best on every question.
• Confidence is key. Accentuate the positives and don’t dwell on the negatives. Your attitude and outlook are crucial to your performance on Test Day.
• During the exam, try not to speculate about how you’re scoring. Imagine a baseball player who’s focusing on the crowd’s cheers and the sportswriters and his contract as he steps up to the plate: there’s no surer way to strike out. Instead, focus on the question-by-question task of picking an answer choice. The correct answer is there. You don’t have to come up with it; it’s sitting right there in front of you!

What should you do if you . . .

• Start to lose confidence? If questions seem to be getting hard, don’t lose confidence; since the GMAT is adaptive, it is practically guaranteed to feel like a struggle—for everyone! Trust in your preparation and in the skills and strategies you have practiced.
• Start to lose concentration? If you lose your concentration, pause, take a deep breath, exhale, and go back to the test. This will help you refocus and settle back in.
• Take too long at the break? If you take too long at the break, the test will continue without you. When the 8-minute countdown timer hits zero, the next section of the test—and its clock—will start.
• Find the test environment too distracting? If the test environment is too distracting, tell the proctor. If the proctor can’t—or won’t—do anything about it, mention the problem in the exit survey.

After Test Day, you should . . .

• Congratulate yourself for all the hard work you’ve put in. Make sure you celebrate afterward—and start thinking about all of the great times you’ll be having at the business school of your choice!
• Plan your approach to business school applications, including references and essays.
• Go to KaplanGMAT.com/businessadmissions/ to investigate options for admissions consulting programs through Kaplan’s partner for business school admissions, mbaMission. Also, see the chapter of this book dealing with business school admissions for advice from mbaMission’s founder and president, Jeremy Shinewald.
• Expect to wait approximately 20 days for your Official Score Report (which includes your Analytical Writing score) to be posted online.