GMAT Online vs. In Person: Which Should I Take?
The Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) recently announced some big changes on the horizon for the GMAT Online test, changes that may alter your calculation of whether to take the GMAT at home or at a test center.
In this article, I’ll go through all of the features that the online and in-person exams have in common and all of the differences between the two exams, and discuss whether business schools favor one exam over the other. I’ll also talk about some benefits of taking the GMAT online, give you a handy checklist for taking the online test, and share a side-by-side comparison of your two GMAT options. By the time you finish reading, you’ll have all the information you need to decide where to take the GMAT.
To start, let’s look at the shared characteristics of the two exams.
GMAT Online: What’s New in 2021
In February 2021, GMAC announced that starting Wednesday, February 17, 2021, test-takers would be able to register for an “enhanced” version of the GMAT Online, which would be released to test-takers starting April 8, 2021. This version eliminates the structural differences between the GMAT people take at home and the one they take in GMAT test centers and includes some other changes that bring the two exams more closely in line with each other.
I’ll discuss all of those changes in detail in the next section. For now, the important thing to know is this: if your GMAT Online is currently scheduled for a date prior to April 8, 2021, you will take the “old” version of the online test. If your GMAT Online is currently scheduled for a date after April 8, 2021, you will take the “new” (enhanced) version of the online test — the version that is more like the in-person GMAT.
Now, let’s get into exactly what the differences and similarities are now that these changes were announced.
GMAT Online vs. Test Center: What is the Same?
As you may know, when the GMAT Online was first released, it did not include an Analytical Writing Assessment (essay task), so the exam was about a half hour shorter than the in-person GMAT and didn’t include as much time for breaks. All of that will change on April 8, 2021. Let’s take a look.
Exam Structure and Content
As of April 8, 2021, the structure and content of the GMAT Online will be exactly the same as that of the in-person GMAT. This means that three important changes are being made to the online test:
- Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) added: The GMAT Online will now include the 30-minute AWA section that test-takers see on the exam at test centers.
- Two optional 8-minute breaks: The online test will have the same exact breaks as the in-person GMAT, two 8-minute breaks.
- Section order selection: The online test will offer the same 3 section order options that the in-person exam offers, so you can choose the order in which you complete the GMAT sections.
One upshot of these changes is that the online test will now be the same length as the in-person GMAT, 3 hours and 7 minutes, plus breaks. And of course, now if you take the online test, you’ll have an AWA score to send to schools.
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