You need to present your valid passport as identification if you want to take the GMAT.

It’s not enough to just have a passport; you need to present the original copy of your passport if you want to take the exam. Soft copies, scanned copies, or physical copies will not be accepted as identification.

Also, if the validity of your passport has expired, documents that show that your passport has been accepted for renewal will not work as a substitute for a valid passport.

We have seen so many examples of students whose passport validity expired a few days before the GMAT or who submitted their passport for visa stamping just before the GMAT. We even had a student who left his passport at his parents’ house in his hometown for “safekeeping.”

All these students assumed that they would not need to bring the original passport since they had already scanned and uploaded their passport while registering for the GMAT. They had to learn the hard way that candidates are instantly rejected, and their exam is canceled if they do not have their valid, original passport with them. What’s worse, they will lose the examination fee since they failed to read and follow the instructions given during registration.

So, the very first thing on your GMAT checklist should be to ensure that your passport is valid for at least 3 months and that you TAKE THE PASSPORT WITH YOU ON THE TEST DAY!

One of our students came to us a few days before his GMAT.

“I mentioned my name as ‘Gopal K’ while I registered for the GMAT. But my name is mentioned as “Gopal Kalyan” in my passport. Is that okay?”

Our answer was simple: No, it’s not okay.

When you are registering for the GMAT, make sure that you are mentioning the first name, middle name, and last name exactly as they are mentioned in your passport (especially if you are from South India or from one of those cultures where names can get really complicated). If the name you provided during registration is not the same as in your passport, you will not be allowed to take the GMAT, and the fee amount will not be refunded.

Note: A few of our students have told us that the administrators have been kind enough to let them log into the portal and change the details in their registration. But this may not happen for you. Why stress yourself out on the day of the test if you can avoid the problem altogether?

If you’re the sort that thrives under pressure, then taking the test at a GMAT test center, where’ll you’ll come across many other test takers, may be the best step for you. In most centers, time slots are available from 8 in the morning to 4.30 in the evening.

But if test-taking is a stressful exercise for you and seeing other test takers looking super prepared can make you feel underconfident, then it may be a better bet to take the exam at home. This is especially true if you are an early bird, a night owl, or a full-time worker who has no time to go to the test center to take the test. Online test slots are available 24×7, and you can book any slot that suits your convenience.

By the way, some Indian schools, such as the IIMs and ISB, do not accept online GMAT scores, even though foreign schools do not have a problem with either kind of score. So make sure you do your research on the requirements of the schools of your choice before you book your test.

Find out more about the pros and cons before you make a decision.

Test-day jitters are very real, and it is almost impossible to calm down and go to sleep the night before a test. But you absolutely need to get enough rest the night before you take your GMAT.

If you find that you cannot unwind, you can get hold of a few relaxation and meditation apps that can help you relax your brain and let you put down your mental baggage for the night. Or maybe you could take a nice, warm shower before you go to bed so that you can get a good night’s sleep.

Whatever it is, make sure you find a way to relax the night before the test day, because feeling well rested before the test is a key factor in performing well.

It is recommended that you wake up early on the GMAT test day, but is that really the best idea?

Let’s do a reverse calculation using an example:

• Let’s say that you have booked a morning slot for, let’s say, 8 am
• Let’s assume that you need to leave your house at 7:00 am to reach the centre by 7.45 am
• That means you will probably have your breakfast at about 6:30–6:45 am
• And that means you need to wake up at about 6:00 am

What if you are someone who wakes up at 8 am every morning? Do you think it will be easy for you to get up at 6:00 am? Do you think you’ll be at your best if you wake up 2 full hours before your usual time?

And what if, in spite of all the relaxation techniques you tried out, you were not able to get a good night’s rest?

You will also probably wake up before the alarm goes off because you will be hypersensitive to the fact that it’s your exam day.

All of this will just add to your brain fog.

So here’s our advice to you: please wake up at the time you wake up every morning.

And make sure you book a slot keeping this in mind.

We are not qualified nutritionists, but we have read plenty about how to get your body into a “peak performance state” just before your GMAT.

One way in which you can get into such a state is by having a light breakfast to ensure you remain active and focused throughout the exam

You can have a light meal like idlis with sambhar.

Or you could have poha or upma.

Or corn flakes with milk.

Or parathas with curd and pickle.

Or egg and toast.

Or whatever else you would have on a normal day.

Just make sure that it will fill your stomach and let you think nimbly.

Don’t eat junk food the day before the GMAT or the night before. You don’t want to upset your stomach.

Note: Don’t have a chocolate bar because you’ve read somewhere that the hit of sugar will give you additional energy. Sugar tends to make you go on a “high,” but then you also end up crashing to horribly low levels of energy. Imagine if that happens right in the middle of the exam!!

Different people have different habits. Some people love coffee, while others prefer tea. Some people smoke, while others do not. Then there are a few people who believe that energy drinks and protein bars can help them function better on their test day.

Either way, it’s better to not drink any energy drinks or caffeinated drinks on the day of the GMAT, especially if you are not used to it. Such stimulants can adversely affect your performance on the day of the test.

If you are someone who smokes or has coffee on a regular basis, remember that you might not have those options at the GMAT centre. So, maybe you can carry a nicotine patch or any caffeinated drink with you to have during the break.

Whatever you choose to wear, make sure you are dressed comfortably. If you are uncomfortable, you’ll probably not be able to focus and will end up subconsciously rushing through the exam (and maybe selecting the trap options) because you just want to get the exam done and over with.

We have had students tell us that the A/C in the GMAT centre was set at the lowest temperature. So you should consider taking along a jacket or a sweatshirt to wear on top of whatever you are wearing. You can always choose not to wear it if it is not so cold.

On the other hand, we have sometimes also heard that the test centre was very warm.

It may be hard to change or control such situations, but it is better to be prepared for the worst.

Whether you’re taking the test in the morning or the afternoon, check Google Maps and figure out the average time it will take you to get to the GMAT centre.

Imagine your exam is on a Wednesday at 8 in the morning.

Check the travel time for Wednesdays on Google Maps to get an understanding of how long it would usually take to get to the GMAT test center on any given Wednesday. Make sure you check Google Maps on the day of the exam as well. You don’t want an unexpected traffic jam or rain to topple your travel plans.

If Google Maps shows that it will take a 30-minute drive to get to the center, plan to leave by 7:10 a.m. This will give you an extra 15 to 20 minutes to find the test center, park your car or bike (or say goodbye to your Uber driver), and check in. Try to arrive early at the test center to ensure that you have enough time to get settled and organized before the test begins.

While it is a great idea to arrive a little early, it’s best not to arrive more than 20 minutes before time. We have had students reach the GMAT test center an hour before and then realize that they’ll have to wait outside the center for 45 minutes, not knowing what to do. The waiting around will do nothing but increase the sense of anxiety.

If your test center is far away from where you are and you want to reach the center before time to be on the safe side, take time out a few days before the exam to conduct a reconnaissance to find a place within walking distance where you can potentially relax. Hanging out at a cafe is a better bet than standing outside the test center, waiting to be let in.

Look, if you arrive a few minutes late, no one’s going to stop you from taking the exam. But arriving a little before time will make you feel less stressed. So, try to be punctual.

The day you take the GMAT is an important day for you, and you cannot let any external factor impact your performance on that day.

So, what is the best way to travel to your GMAT centre? We have narrowed it down to four options:

1. Drive yourself
2. Take public transport (bus, metro, etc.)
3. Take a cab
4. Get dropped off

In terms of comfort and risk involved, we would say: 4 > 3 > 2 > 1

On the day of the GMAT, the last thing you want is to stress yourself. If you can get someone to drop you off, you won’t have to worry about where to park, what to do if the bus or train is not on time, or if the cab driver cancels the trip at the last moment. You can just relax and focus on the test you are going to take.

Getting dropped off at the center is the best commute option, but if that is not a choice you have, just make sure you leave early enough to reach 15 to 20 minutes before your exam time.

Many students, especially from India, read online forums like GMAT Club and find stories about people scoring 735 or 755 on their test after eating a Snickers bar or drinking a Red Bull during their break.

A simple question for you:

If you were hungry on a regular day, would you have a candy bar or an energy drink?

If your answer is no, then please don’t go for such an option on the day of your GMAT either, no matter what these forums say.

Just have a snack that you would normally have. Usually, a banana, a few biscuits, a low-sugar protein bar, or some juice or water to help you stay hydrated throughout the lengthy examination would be good options.

Keep in mind that, as per the GMAC exam policy, you’re not allowed to bring snacks into the examination room. You can store your snacks in the test center’s temporary locker. Feel free to eat your snacks during the 10-minute break.

P.S: It is also important to note that you should not bring any testing aids, including study materials, notes, calculators, blank sheets of paper, stopwatches, and flashcards, to the GMAT testing center.

You might be a very healthy person in general, but exams can get the better of you. What if you get a headache or a stomach ache at the GMAT test center?

The simplest way to take care of this is by carrying a small medical kit with you. It does not even need to be a complete kit. You could just keeap a few essential medicines in your bag, such as aspirins, antacids, and even a lip balm for if it gets too cold.

But if you feel very unwell and need more than basic medication, be sure to alert security and go home. You can always take the test later, but your health always comes first.

emergency?

If you do take your mobile phone to the center, you’ll need to store it in the temporary locker since you are not allowed to take mobile phones or any other electronic device into the testing room. Be sure to switch the mobile off before you put it away in the locker. Now, you may think that you can put your mobile phone on silent or in aeroplane mode so that you can quickly check your messages when you are taking a break.

But why would you want to do that? Checking messages during the break will just take you out of the test-taking zone that you are in. Why bring in such a distraction?

More important than that, keep in mind that you are not allowed to use your mobile phone or any other electronic device during your break. If you do, your test can be cancelled with no fee refund.

Here’s a very interesting (and unfortunate) incident that happened to one of our students:

He had attempted the Quantitative and Verbal sections and then took the 10-minute break before going in to attempt the Data Insights section. He walked out of the test room and opened the locker to grab a quick snack. He had not switched his phone off, and he made the mistake of checking his phone. He was shocked to see six missed calls from the same number. So he called the number to find out if there was an emergency.

While he was talking on the phone in the centre, one of the administrators spotted him and cancelled his test!

(And the worst part is that the missed calls were from an Amazon delivery agent!)

These are all small points, but we have noticed that sometimes they can cause problems. You do not want your months of GMAT preparation to go to waste over a mobile phone!

What most candidates don’t know is that they have just one minute to select their preferred section selection order . If they don’t choose within a minute, they will have to take the test in the default order: Quantitative Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning, and Data Insights.

Which section you choose to take first depends on what you are feeling and the kind of person you are. If you are at your best at the beginning of a test, it might be a good strategy to start off with a section that you are really good at so that you can maximize your score. If you are someone who takes time to “ease” into the exam, maybe you could keep the tougher sections for later. It’s very important to know your patterns, strengths, and weaknesses so that you can make a decision that is most advantageous for you.

Whichever order you finally decide on, we suggest that you take a couple of practice tests in this order to check the outcome and your comfort level.

A word of caution over here: Suppose you take two practice tests using two different section selection orders, and let’s say there is a difference in the scores between the two tests. Before you jump to the conclusion that one order is better than the other, make sure you analyze your performance and confirm if the difference is genuinely because of the section selection order and not because of other reasons.

Experimental questions are new questions that the GMAC has created and wants to test. The GMAC adds these questions in the exam to recognize the difficulty level of the questions.

The tricky part is that you will not be told which questions are experimental.

But it’s perfectly alright that you cannot recognize which questions are experimental; these questions, whether you get them right or wrong, are not scored and do not count towards your final three-digit GMAT score.

However, here is something that we do know for a fact:

The experimental questions will typically appear in the middle of a section.

So, if you are going to guess answers, you probably shouldn’t do so…

1. in the beginning of the section, and
2. at the end of the GMAT.

So the best time to make a guess is somewhere in the middle of the test.

When you are in the middle of the GMAT, you may hear other candidates either clicking with the mouse or murmuring while solving the questions.

You may also hear some noise from outside the test centre. All of this will be highly distracting.

If you are taking the GMAT at a test center, you can request for ear plugs or headphones on the day of testing. But these might not be enough to block out all the noise. So, mentally prepare yourself for distracting background noise.

Taking GMAT practice tests in a somewhat noisy place could help you get used to background noise. While taking these tests, you can even use apps that play background sounds so that you can learn to focus even with noise around.

But if you feel that the noise or disturbance is too much in the test centre, you can definitely report the problem, and the test center personnel will hopefully find a solution to it.

While ear plugs are allowed while taking the test in a center, you are strictly forbidden from using any kind of earplug or headphones if you are taking the test online. This is a rule even if the background sound is making it difficult for you to concentrate.

On that point, try not to take the online test in a noisy space. It’s not just that you won’t be able to focus; the proctor could think that all the noise could mean that you are trying to cheat in the exam, and the proctor could cancel your exam.

First, let us look at what a pacing chart is.

A pacing chart is essentially the number of questions and the amount of time available for each question. Remember that on the GMAT day, your timer is going to be a countdown timer. That means it’s not going to count up from zero, but it will count down from 45 minutes to zero.

You don’t want to stress out on the day of the GMAT. So let us create a simple pacing chart for your test, in which we will see how you can constantly check if you have enough time on hand as your exam progresses.

This chart means that when you have finished the 6th question in any of the sections, your timer should read 34:00, indicating that you have 34 minutes left to complete the rest of the section. If the timer shows a higher number, you can afford to slow down slightly. But if the timer shows a lower number, you may need to speed up a little and even guess a few answers.

As mentioned earlier, it is better to pepper your “guesses” throughout the test. Also, remember that most of the experimental questions will usually be somewhere in the middle of the test. So it’s better to guess in the middle rather than at the beginning or the end.

You have one 10-minute break during the GMAT Focus test. You can take the break after the first section or after the first two sections.

No matter which section selection order you choose, it’s usually recommended that you take the break between the Quant and the Data Insights sections. There’s quite some overlap on topics in these two sections, and taking a break between these sections will help you “cool off” a little and avoid any confusion that could arise.

Having said that, if you have discovered during your practice tests that taking the Quant section and the DI section together helps you stay in the “math zone”, taking the verbal section first and then taking a break before the Quant and the DI section would help or taking the DI and Quant sections first and then taking a break before the Verbal section would help

Many candidates decide not to take a break at all. In such a case, you can skip the break and the next section will start within a minute, but the GMAT is a very strenuous test, and taking a break will give you the breathing space that you need.

During the break, you can:

• come out of the test room and stretch yourself for a bit
• go to the washroom
• go to your locker to grab a snack

Remember that you are not allowed to wear a watch during the test. So if you choose to step out of the test room during the break, don’t spend too much time outside. The test will resume after the 10-minute break. If you end up overshooting your time, then you might end up losing a few precious minutes on the GMAT. A few minutes of lost time is not really a make-or-break factor. However, having a good time management strategy and getting back to your test computer on time can help you stay calm and focused and lead to better performance.

The same rules apply if you are taking the test online. You are allowed to leave your desk during the break, but you are expected to keep the camera on and to leave the physical whiteboard at your work station.

At the GMAT test centre, you will be provided with something similar to a big spiral notepad. This is the GMAT scratch pad.

Each pad contains 5 laminated sheets and two dry erase markers. Make sure you scribble to check if the pen writes well. If not, you can always ask for a replacement.

Make sure you use the sheets optimally. While you may end up using the sheets during the Verbal section, you will surely use them extensively during the Quantitative and Data Insights sections. Since you have 21 and 20 questions in the Quant and DI sections, respectively, you could divide each sheet into 4 quarters and use each quarter to solve 5 questions each. This will help you avoid wasting time erasing your scratch work.

Make sure that you ask for the scratch paper in advance. You just need to raise your hand, and the proctor will come over to help you.

If your taking the exam online, you’ll need to get hold of a physical whiteboard no larger than 12 x 20 inches, or you can even use the online whiteboard that will be provided.

No matter which format you choose to take the exam in, you must practice using the laminated sheets or the whiteboard so that you are more comfortable during the exam.

Have you heard of this phenomenon called “decision fatigue”?
To explain it simply, think of your brain as a mobile battery. The more information you consume, the more battery power you consume.

Similarly, the human brain also has limited battery power. This is why you might have noticed that sometimes, at around 6-7 pm after a very tiring day, you feel “brain dead”. This is because your brain is just feeling the heaviness of all the decisions that you’ve made all day.

So, how do you conserve your energy on the day of the test to ensure you are in your peak performance state?

First, don’t leave any decision-making for the morning. As mentioned earlier, ensure you have made all the logistical checks the evening before — packed the passport and the GMAT appointment letter, picked out the clothes to wear, food to eat, the route to take, etc.

Second, don’t engage in difficult conversations with anyone on your test day. Don’t try to do any other work before you take the GMAT, especially if you have chosen the afternoon slot for your test. On the GMAT day, you should have near-perfect mental energy and composure to ensure that you will perform at your best. This applies to both first-time test takers and retakers, as maintaining a positive mindset and avoiding distractions is crucial for peak performance on the GMAT.

Did you know that there is an option to cancel your GMAT score?
We agree that nobody wants to walk into the test centre with the mindset that they will have to cancel their score. But it’s better for you to have some kind of “cutoff” in mind.

Let’s imagine that 655 is your cutoff.

Immediately after your GMAT, your score will appear on the screen, and you will be asked whether you want to accept or cancel your score. At that point, it becomes very important to make a quick decision, as you are only given two minutes to make up your mind. If the time expires before you make a decision, your score will be automatically cancelled for free. So, be ready to make this decision before you sit down to take the GMAT.

Let us assume that you accepted your score at the GMAT centre. Can you cancel it later? Of course, you can. You can cancel your score up to 72 hours after the completion of the exam. But you will have to pay a fee to cancel your score.

And what if you cancelled your score at the GMAT centre and you want to reinstate it? You can do that too within four years and 11 months from the time of completion of the exam.

One simple piece of advice. If you are confused, it is better not to cancel your GMAT score. You can always retake the GMAT and score much better! So when you finally send your scores to a B-school, they will clearly see the improvement in your score, and this will surely work to your advantage.

It is not that difficult to score better on your GMAT in your next GMAT: Retaking the GMAT: five effective strategies to score better