Ok, so you’ve just sweated through the 3.5 hour GMAT.  You’ve just clicked on an answer for question #41 on the verbal section — the last question.  You’ve confirmed your answer, and you’re feeling good.

And then…

You see a question flash on your screen, asking you “Do you wish to cancel your score?”

For some test-takers, this may be the most nerve-wracking moment of the GMAT.  All those raw feelings can come up: anxiety, doubt, stress.

Two reasons why a test-taker would think about canceling:

1)  “The test was too difficult!”

As you go through the exam, the questions will alter in difficulty, based on how you’re doing.  Nearly everyone who takes the test will see at least a few questions that she found extremely difficult.  Remember that your score is not evaluated merely on the number of questions you answered correctly, but also on the relative difficulty of the questions you answered correctly.  Many test-takers do feel that the exam was very difficult; such is the nature of an adaptive test.

2) “The test was too easy!”

Though it’s more unlikely to think this, some test-takers might complete the test, think about how quickly they finished it, and then say to themselves, “I must not have done so well.  I don’t remember seeing a ‘difficult’ question.”  Remember that all questions are ‘difficult’ in some way: tempting but still categorically wrong answer choices, a trap answer choice that comes up if one step of a multi-step problem is miscalculated, etc.  If you’re able to avoid these traps for every question, you may very well think “this test was pretty easy!”

The important thing to consider: neither of the two statements above is a good enough reason to cancel your score on Test Day.  The score is a number, while the reasons above are too subjective for an objective measurement.  Furthermore, if you do choose to cancel your score, you’ll never know how you did, but your official score report will include the date of when you canceled your score.  It could be something that admissions committees notice and ask about on your applications.

Are there any valid scenarios in which you might cancel your score?  Only if something happened that was beyond your control and would drastically affect your score, such as you got ill during the actual test, or something bizarre happened such as a fire drill in the middle of the test that distracted you (rare but not unheard of).  If you are just nervous about how you did, rest assured that that is a normal feeling.  And keep in mind that while your score report always includes your past three test scores, virtually all MBA programs will take your highest score as your official score submission, so even in the worst-case scenario, it’s not going to do much harm to accept your current score and see how you did.

The best way to avoid the panicky moment of “Should I cancel?” is obviously to prepare for the exam well enough that you have absolute confidence in how you do.  Working on our Kaplan course revision, I see more and more that preparing includes not only studying various concepts and content areas, but also practicing the skills of pattern recognition, paraphrasing, attention to the right detail, and critical thinking.  Working on these skills will help you recognize how questions are ‘difficult’, and answer them correctly.

Wish you much success!