Sometimes, as your GMAT test day quickly approaches, you may have to make the difficult decision to cancel your GMAT appointment. Maybe you’re sick and don’t feel well enough to take the test, or you’ve had a family emergency come up. Maybe you’ve decided you’re not prepared enough to do well. Maybe you’ve already gotten into business school and don’t need to take the GMAT again!
No matter what your reason for canceling a GMAT appointment, it’s important to understand the process for canceling so that you don’t lose a lot of money or get saddled with other unforeseen consequences. In this guide, I’ll talk about what cancelling your GMAT really means. I’ll discuss the GMAT cancellation policy, how to cancel a GMAT appointment, and how to decide whether or not you should cancel your GMAT appointment.
What Are My Options to Cancel GMAT Appointments?
GMAC has a strict GMAT cancellation policy. However, you do have several options if you need to cancel a GMAT appointment.
First, you can cancel your exam any time up to seven days before your test date to receive an $80 refund. When you cancel a GMAT appointment, you lose your test date and will have to pay the entire $250 registration fee if you decide to register for a different test date.
You can also cancel your exam between one to seven days before your GMAT appointment. If you cancel between one to seven days before your GMAT appointment, you won’t receive a refund.
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You cannot cancel GMAT appointments within 24 hours of your test date. If you don’t show up to your scheduled GMAT appointment, and haven’t cancelled within 24 hours of your test date, your account history with GMAC will display a no-show. Your no-show status shows up on your own test history on your GMAC dashboard online. However, you won’t ever have a no-show appear on a score report, so don’t worry about your no-show status getting sent to business schools.
What Is the GMAT Cancellation Fee?
GMAC has a pretty harsh GMAT cancellation fee structure.
If you cancel your exam seven or more days before your GMAT appointment, you’ll receive an $80 refund. That means you’ll lose the rest of your $250 registration fee.
You can also reschedule your exam seven or more days for your GMAT appointment. Rescheduling a GMAT appointment costs $50, so it’s definitely a better financial decision if you still want to take the GMAT.
If you’re within seven calendar days of your test date, you’ll lose your entire $250 registration fee if you cancel a GMAT appointment. You’ll also have to pay the full $250 registration fee if you decide to register for a different test date.
What Happens If I Have an Emergency?
Unfortunately, there’s no way to recoup your full registration fee, even if you have an emergency. If you cancel more than seven days in advance, you can get the standard $80 refund. If it’s within seven calendar days of your test date, you’ll still have to pay the full $250 GMAT cancellation fee to register for a different GMAT date.
How Can I Decide Whether or Not to Cancel GMAT Appointments?
Because GMAC has such a strict GMAT cancellation policy, if you have to cancel a GMAT appointment, you stand to lose a lot of money. You should only completely cancel a GMAT appointment if you don’t want to take the GMAT at all, or at least not for many months. Otherwise, it’s better to reschedule your appointment.
If you’ve had an unforeseen emergency come up, such as a severe illness or family crisis, try to reschedule your GMAT for another time. Remember, you can reschedule your GMAT up to seven days before your test date. So, if you’re feeling under the weather as your test date approaches and are worried that you won’t be well before the test, you can decide to reschedule so you don’t have to worry about losing your registration fee. However, if an emergency pops up closer to test day, know that you’ll have to pay the $250 GMAT registration fee again if you decide to take the test at a later date.
If you’re worried about how you’ll score, rescheduling your test for a later date might make sense. Scheduling your test for a later date means that you’ll have time to study more and feel more prepared. However, you need to keep in mind the amount of time it takes to send and receive GMAT scores. Pushing your test date back might mean that you don’t have enough time to send your GMAT scores to MBA programs before their application deadlines. If you’ve decided that you have enough time to push back your GMAT appointment, make sure you reschedule at least seven days before your current GMAT appointment, so that you only have to pay $50 instead of the full $250 registration fee.
If you’ve already gotten into business school or have decided not to apply, canceling your GMAT makes sense. If you can cancel seven days or more before your exam, you’ll at least get $80 of your GMAT registration fee back.
What’s Next?
Choosing a GMAT test date that works for you will go a long way in making sure you don’t have to cancel your exam and lose a lot of money. If you’re looking for more information about how to choose a correct GMAT test date, our complete guide to choosing a GMAT test date will help you make the best decision that works for your schedule.
Picking a GMAT test center that’s convenient to your location is also an important part of your registration process. Find out more about what to expect at a GMAT test center and how to choose the right one for you in our guide to GMAT test centers.
It’s important to send your GMAT scores well before your application deadlines. In our guide to sending GMAT scores, you’ll learn when schools receive them, how to send them, and what to do if you need to send extra GMAT scores.