Coronavirus Impact : Students to Take GMAT from Home, Exam Pattern Changes
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, students can now appear for GMAT from home. The registration process has begun and students can choose the exam dates from April 20, 2020, onwards. The GMAT exam pattern has also changed as the writing section has now been omitted.
The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), the conducting body of GMAT has now allowed candidates to appear for the exam from their home due to the coronavirus outbreak. The registration process for GMAT is underway and students can take the test by selecting the exam dates from April 20, 2020, onwards. GMAT will not be held at any exam centre this time and the facility to appear for the exam from home will go on till June 15 after which decisions will be taken after assessing the situation. In order to ensure that the exam is conducted smoothly, strict measures will also be in place.
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The exam pattern has also been revised as earlier, the exam had four parts - integrated reasoning, quantitative, verbal and analytical writing assessment. For the online GMAT, the writing section has been omitted and marks will be divided between the remaining three sections. Also, the quantitative section will comprise 31 questions which have to be solved in 62 minutes while the verbal section will have 36 questions to be solved within 65 minutes and integrated reasoning will have 12 questions to be solved within 30 minutes. Candidates will get 2 hours 45 minutes to complete the exam and an additional 15 minutes to log into the online system. An optional five-minute break can be taken before beginning the IR section.
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The new GMAT exam pattern is only for the online exam and once the coronavirus situation gets under control, the old pattern and exam conducting modes will be back to the usual. Candidates can appear for the exam five times in a year and the best attempt will be taken into consideration. While the score of the exam from home will be taken into account for the best score, it will not impact the candidates' number of test scores. This means that the candidates will be still able to appear for GMAT five times a year. The registration fee for GMAT is $200.
The interim GMAT online exam will help the candidates be at ease while meeting the upcoming application deadlines and being able to continue with their goals. It will also help business schools globally to find the necessary ways to asses the candidates for their admission process, GMAC mentioned in an official statement.