Soft Skills Assessment Policies and Procedures

A wide range of important information about the Soft Skills Assessment

The GMAC Soft Skills Assessment is administered by the Graduate Management Admission Council (“GMAC”) and provides admissions leaders with objective insights on how candidates manage their work – including how they work with others and make decisions. 

The results from the assessment provide admissions teams the data they need to have greater confidence in admissions decisions. We deliver the Soft Skills Assessment through an online test delivery provider, SHL.

I. Overview

The Soft Skills Assessment measures skills critical for success in a graduate management program. Candidates will respond to a series of questions where they are asked to select a statement that is most and least like them from a list of three options.  

The Soft Skills Assessment takes about 45 minutes to complete but is untimed and can be completed in multiple sittings within 90 days of purchase.   

The test is delivered to candidates through a web browser after completing registration and payment. Before candidates can complete registration and payment, they must digitally acknowledge that they have read, understand, and agree to GMAC’s Policies and Procedures and GMAC’s General Terms and Non-Disclosure Agreement (Section II of this document), and have read and understand the data processing notice. If a candidate refuses to affirm that they have read, understand, and agree to GMAC’s Policies and Procedures, including GMAC’s General Terms and Non-Disclosure Agreement, and acknowledge the data processing notice, the candidate will not be permitted to commence the Soft Skills Assessment.

Candidate Statement: By completing the registration form, and selecting “I agree to GMAC’s Policies and Procedures and have read and acknowledge the data processing notice,” I agree to these Policies and Procedures, including the General Terms and the Non-Disclosure Agreement, and consent to the collection, processing, use, and transmission of my personal information (including assessment responses) by and to GMAC and their service providers, any school I select to receive my results, and others as necessary to prevent fraud or other unlawful activity or as required by law. I understand that the recipients of my personal information may be outside of the country in which I am testing, and such countries may not provide the same level of data protection that my home country provides.

II. General Terms and Non-Disclosure Agreement

In order to complete registration and test, you must agree to comply with and be bound by this Agreement:

I certify that I am the person who is registering to take the Soft Skills Assessment at this time, and that I am at least 18 years old. I also certify that I am taking the Soft Skills Assessment only for a valid educational, employment, or legal purpose.

I have read, understand, and agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions made available to me at the time I registered for the Soft Skills Assessment:

• The General Terms and Non-Disclosure Agreement (this section of this document); and
• The Soft Skills Assessment Policies and Procedures (this entire document).

I acknowledge that I have read and understand SHL’s and GMAC’s respective privacy policies.

I acknowledge that the terms and conditions include provisions that address:

• Assessment fees and other assessment policies, and results cancellations; 
• Ownership of the Soft Skills Assessment and all assessment-related records by the Graduate Management Admission Council (“GMAC”);
• The GMAC Privacy Statement, including GMAC privacy policies describing: the collection, processing, use, and transmission of my personal information (including test responses); the disclosure of such data to GMAC, its service providers, any recipient I select to receive my results, and others as necessary to prevent fraud or other unlawful activity or as required by law; and my rights with regard to my personal information; and
• The exclusive remedies available to me in the event of an error in the administration of the assessment.

I understand that the Soft Skills Assessment is a confidential and secure assessment, protected by civil and criminal laws of the United States and elsewhere. 

I certify that I have not knowingly accessed “live” Soft Skills Assessment questions or answers that might appear on my assessment and will not discuss the content of the assessment with anyone.

I will not record, copy, or disclose any assessment question or answer, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means before, during, or after I take the Soft Skills Assessment (orally, in writing, on any internet “chat room,” via SMS/text, or otherwise).

I understand and agree that if I provide false information or if I violate any of the Soft Skills Assessment rules, policies, or procedures, or any other applicable terms or conditions: 

• My results may be canceled, without a refund, and a school receiving my results may be informed of the reason for the cancellation;
• I may be banned from retaking the Soft Skills Assessment and other GMAC assessments, as well as other assessments offered by the test delivery provider; and
• I may be subject to other consequences, as GMAC deems appropriate.

III. Paying for and Taking the Assessment

We want this process to be easy for you. Follow these four steps to register for and schedule your Soft Skills Assessment.

Step 1: Understand the Scheduling Policy:

The minimum requirements for scheduling the assessment:

• You must be at least 18 years old. 
• You may take the assessment only once within 24 months.

Step 2: Create a Soft Skills Assessment Account and Select Your Desired Schools

Create a Soft Skills Assessment account and select the schools and programs that should receive your results.  

You will be required to accept the Soft Skills Assessment Policies and Procedures prior to taking your assessment.

Step 3: Schedule and Pay for Your Assessment:

After creating your account, you are directed to pay for your assessment appointment. 

The fee for the Soft Skills Assessment is US$65 (plus any applicable taxes).

You are responsible for the payment of any applicable taxes.

Once purchased, you have 90 days to complete the assessment. If you fail to sit for the assessment within 90 days of purchase, you will forfeit your test fee and be ineligible for a refund.

Acceptable forms of payment are the following credit and debit cards:

• American Express
• MasterCard
• Visa
• PayPal

Additional charge related information:

• Charges on your credit card statement will appear as: “PADDLE.NET*GMAC.” 
• If your credit or debit card is declined, you will not be able to book an assessment session.  
• If you use a stolen or fraudulent credit or debit card, your registration will be cancelled, any of your previous results may be cancelled, and GMAC may notify both schools and law enforcement authorities.
• If you wrongfully challenge or dispute the fee with your credit card company, you may be banned from taking further assessments and exams.

Step 4:  Agree to the Assessment Policies and Procedures and Take the Assessment:

During registration, you will be asked to:

• Provide digital agreement stating you understand and agree to GMAC’s Soft Skills Assessment Policies and Procedures; and 
• Acknowledge that you have read and understand SHL’s and GMAC’s respective privacy policies.

Thereafter, you will be immediately directed to take the assessment. If you wish to start the assessment at a different time within 90 days of purchase, follow the link in your purchase confirmation email when you are ready to take it.  

IV. Rescheduling and Cancellations 

Rescheduling and Expiration

• You may take your assessment any time within 90 days of purchase. Rescheduling is not required.  
• Assessments that have been purchased, but unused within 90 days of purchase will expire. 

Cancelling 

• Refund: You can request a refund prior to starting the assessment. For the purposes of this assessment, an assessment will be deemed as “started” once the first question of the assessment has been presented.
• No Refund: You are not entitled to a refund once you have started the assessment.  
• Cancellation: Assessment results cannot be cancelled once the assessment has been completed.  

Failure to Complete

• You will forfeit your assessment fee if you fail to complete the assessment within 90 days of purchase.
• You may purchase one additional Soft Skills Assessment within 24 months of your first purchase only if you failed to complete the first assessment within 90 days of purchase.

Retaking the Soft Skills Assessment

• You may only take the Soft Skills Assessment once every 24 months. Once 24 months have passed from the date you completed the assessment, you may purchase another assessment.   

V. Your Results

A report containing your top strengths will be sent to you via email 24 hours after you have completed the assessment. The programs that you selected will receive your results 48 hours after you complete the assessment. 

VI. Applicable Privacy Policies

Personal information that you provide or that GMAC otherwise collects when you take the Soft Skills Assessment will be handled in accordance with the GMAC Privacy Statement and the SHL Privacy Notice. GMAC’s Privacy Statement outlines the personal information we collect from you, how we use it, how we protect it, and the choices you have for providing your information to us. This statement applies to all personal information that GMAC collects from you as described in more detail in the Privacy Statement. 

We want you to know:

• Personal information we collect and how we use it
• What laws are applicable
• Where to view and get the full GMAC Privacy Statement
• Where to view and get the full SHL Privacy Notice

Certain pieces of your personal information will be collected and used by SHL, Inc., as part of the online assessment hosting and proctoring services that SHL provides on GMAC’s behalf in connection with the Soft Skills Assessment. For more information regarding SHL’s collection and use of personal information in connection with the Soft Skills Assessment, please see SHL’s Privacy Notice (https://www.shl.com/en/privacy/). SHL will ask for your agreement to its collection and use of personal information collected as part of the registration process before you take the Soft Skills Assessment.

Ultimately, all data we receive are sent to the US and subject to US law. All US legal proceedings involving our privacy policies must be filed in a court of suitable jurisdiction in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Depending on the schools you select or other products and services you request, your data may leave the US and will be subject to the recipients’ local privacy laws, which may be different than those in your home country.

VII. Test Security

You must not record, copy, photograph, or otherwise attempt to duplicate in any way whatsoever any questions or answers that are on the Soft Skills Assessment.

After the assessment, you must not share, publish, or otherwise disclose any assessment question or answer, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means (orally, in writing, on any internet “chat room,” via SMS/text, or otherwise).

VIII. Policy Violations

Policy violations may result in cancelled results, notification to schools, forfeiture of assessment fees, and/or bans on future testing. Some examples of policy violations are described below. This list is not exhaustive.

Examples of Policy Violations

• Falsifying assessment results
• Taking the assessment for someone other than yourself
• Sharing assessment content
• Providing fraudulent payment or cancelling payments

IX. Beware of Cancelled Results

We can report your results ONLY if you follow all the assessment Policies and Procedures.

GMAC and SHL reserve the right to take all action that they deem appropriate if you fail to comply with the assessment Policies and Procedures. 

Note that in some instances, we may cancel your results and notify a school of the cancellation, even if we cannot confirm your direct involvement in the violation. This includes any incident or pattern that causes us to question the validity of your results, such as:

• Possible unauthorized exposure (purposeful or accidental) you may have had to assessment content
• Unusual answer patterns

We also reserve the right to cancel or withhold any assessment results when, in our judgment, there is a good faith basis to question the validity of a score for any reason. On or after test day, we may withhold or cancel your results, even without prior notice.

When results are cancelled by GMAC due to irregular events that affect the administration of an assessment, you may, at GMAC’s sole discretion, be offered the option either to retest at no additional fee or to receive a refund of your assessment fee. If a retest is offered and you select that option, you must retake the entire assessment in order to produce a valid result. These are the exclusive remedies available to test takers whose results are canceled for test administration issues. You will have 15 days from the date of notification to schedule a free retest or request a refund, if either is offered. The free retest can be taken within 90 days of the date of notification. If you decide that you wish to take the retest more than 90 days from the date of notification, you will be responsible for paying the full assessment fee again.

Limitation of Liability: In no event will GMAC, SHL, or its service providers be held responsible for lost wages on the day you take the assessment or any other expenses incurred beyond the cost of the assessment.

X. Submit a Concern About Your Experience

If you experienced a problem with the Soft Skills Assessment while you were taking it and believe it affected your performance, report the incident by submitting your concern through this form within 15 days of your assessment date.

We will research your concern as quickly as possible and provide you with a response. Please include the date and time of your assessment, as well as any details about your concern.

The following are actions we may take at our discretion. These are the only available remedies:

1. If we confirm a problem with the testing platform or within the assessment you received, we will make reasonable efforts to correct the problem.
2. If we cannot correct the problem, you may be given an additional 90 days to re-take the assessment or request a refund.

XI. Appeal a Decision We Have Made

If you believe we should review a decision we made about your assessment, you may appeal to GMAC Customer Care within 30 days from the date of our decision. Under certain circumstances, we may shorten or extend the 30 days.

IMPORTANT: Results are cancelled if there is a good-faith reason to question their validity. Your appeal must provide information that resolves the issues that led to your results being cancelled.

Please submit your appeal in writing to GMAC Customer Care using this form.