Canceling and Rescheduling Your GMAT Exam What to Know Before You Cancel

After signing up for the GMAT, you should dedicate two or three months to make sure you have enough time to study and review the content covered on and skills required by the exam, as well as prepare for the rigors of the actual test itself. But as test day approaches, many students wonder: what happens if a situation arises that is going to prevent them from taking the test at the date and time for which they registered? Fortunately, it’s possible to cancel your GMAT test appointment and reschedule the exam to a new date. Check out the important details that go along with GMAT cancellations and rescheduling before you decide what to do. Common Reasons Why People Need to Cancel or Reschedule Their GMAT Appointments Some people have to cancel or reschedule their appointment to take the GMAT due to family obligations that come up – perhaps they have to attend a funeral or a family member unexpectedly goes into the hospital. Others cancel or reschedule their test date because they don’t feel they are as well-prepared to take the GMAT as they’d like to be. These are just a few of the numerous reasons why people choose the GMAT cancellation or GMAT reschedule option. No matter the reason, there are steps to take when canceling or rescheduling your appointment that may help you minimize the cancellation or reschedule fee you have to pay. Steps to Take for GMAT Cancellation The first step to take in the GMAT cancellation process is to go to the official GMAT website. When you signed up to take the GMAT, you opened an account that provides you with a lot of helpful information. You are able to cancel as well as reschedule GMAT appointments through your account, and canceling or rescheduling your GMAT this way will save you time (and money, in the event of a GMAT reschedule). The cost of taking the GMAT is $250 – if you cancel seven days or more before your previously-scheduled test date and time, you’ll receive a refund of $80 and eat the cost of the remaining $170. However, if you cancel within seven days of your test day, you will not receive any money back. Furthermore, if you’re a no-show on test day, you will not receive any type of refund, and the test date will be displayed as no-show in the dashboard of your MBA.com account (fortunately, any schools in which you’re interested do not have access to this information because it will not appear on any future GMAT score reports you choose to send to them). So if you’ve decided on a GMAT cancellation as the best course of action for you, cancel as early as you possibly can in order to get at least a portion of your money back. How to Reschedule Your Test The process of rescheduling the GMAT is a lot like signing up for your original exam appointment. You have to choose the date, time, and location that are best for you and your schedule. Since you already have an account on the official GMAT website, it should take a little less time to reschedule than it did to make the original exam appointment. Details on the GMAT Reschedule Fee Once again, timing plays an important role when you want to reschedule GMAT appointments. If you reschedule more than seven days before the original date for the test, then there is a GMAT reschedule fee of $60 (with an additional charge of $10 if you choose to call GMAC for your GMAT reschedule. Use your MBA.com student account!). However, if you need to reschedule within seven days of the original test date and time, there is a $250 fee, meaning that you’re essentially forfeiting your initial fee and paying to schedule a new GMAT appointment. Note that you can’t reschedule within 24 hours of the test (and if you don’t show up, you’ll have the same outcome as in the GMAT cancellation section above). Ensuring That You’re Ready to Take the Test If you’re thinking about a GMAT cancelation or reschedule because you don’t feel fully prepared, there are things you can do to remedy the situation. At Veritas Prep, we have a GMAT curriculum that reveals what the creators of the test are really looking for. Of course, you must have knowledge of geometry, algebra, reading comprehension, among many other areas of content, but you must also approach the test as if you were a business executive. In short, you have to use your higher-order thinking skills and reasoning ability to tackle each section of the GMAT efficiently and effectively. In our prep courses, we teach you to think like the test-maker so you will use the right kinds of skills on this challenging exam. Our thorough program of study covers each section and topic on the GMAT, enabling you to walk into the testing location with a sense of confidence on test day. What About Cancelling My Scores After the Test Ends? The final GMAT cancellation option you have occurs after you have completed the exam and have seen your estimated scores for quantitative, verbal, Integrated Reasoning, and overall. After the scores appear on the computer screen, you have 2 minutes to decide whether to cancel or accept them. If you haven’t made your decision when the time expires, your scores are cancelled automatically. If you decide to keep your scores but later change your mind, you can cancel them up to 72 hours after the completion of your exam, but you will pay a $25 fee to do so. If you decide to cancel your scores but later decide they are worth keeping, you have 4 years and 11 months to do so (conveniently matching the 5-year validity window of your scores), but there is a $50 fee to reinstate your scores after initially cancelling them. Cancelling your GMAT scores is an option, but the real question is should you? In most cases, no. If it’s your first time taking the exam and you did not achieve your expected performance, think about keeping it as a useful piece of evidence of your perseverance and dedication. Posting a dramatic score increase on your next sitting certainly casts you in a positive light. Schools understand that many students decide to take the exam more than once, so submitting multiple scores will not count against you. If it’s not your first time taking the GMAT, you should still probably keep your score. Did you improve your score, but not to the extent that you were shooting for? Improvement is still improvement, and even an increase of 20 or 30 points can increase your chances of admission. Did your overall score stay the same? It still might be a better exam performance even if the topline number doesn’t show it. For example, if you know that quantitative skills are a weakness on your application, and your second GMAT sees a solid improvement in your quant score even if the overall score remains constant, it’s still a step in the right direction and will enhance your application. When is GMAT score cancellation a good idea? If your performance was affected by factors outside of your control (such as illness, extreme work hours recently, or stress from your personal life), and you are certain your next score will be a big improvement even without a ton of additional preparation, go ahead and cancel. Similarly, if you undershot your expected score by a huge margin, cancellation might make sense for you. If your last few practice tests have been consistently in the 700s, for example, and your GMAT score pops up in the mid-500s, cancellation is certainly a valid option for you. In general, you should not cancel your GMAT score outside of a couple of specific scenarios. If you are working with a Veritas Prep instructor or tutor, feel free to ask them for expert advice about the exam and insight into your individual situation. Practice With Seasoned GMAT Experts As with most tests, it’s a smart idea to study the covered subjects and complete practice questions so you know what you’ll encounter on test day. Taking a practice GMAT can be daunting to someone who plans to prepare alone for this exam, but our instructors have achieved scores on the GMAT that place them in the 99th percentile. This means we can look at the results of your practice test and provide you with solid guidance on how you can improve in your weakest subjects. Our instructors know firsthand about the subtleties of the GMAT. Working with Veritas Prep means you get an inside scoop on what you need to do to achieve your best score. We have a few instructional options for you to choose from when it comes to studying for the GMAT. You can learn the content, skills, and strategies you need to know either online or in person. Contact us today and let us play a part in your GMAT success! Getting ready to take the GMAT? We have free online GMAT seminars running all the time. And as always, be sure to follow us on  Facebook, YouTube,  Google+  and Twitter!