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GRE scoring & GRE's relevancy for grad school

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 9:20 pm
by holovision
Does anyone know how ETS treats multiple GRE scores on the same test? As in, for the SATs we could take the test as many times as possible and only show our best results, but my recollection is that on the GRE your score is your score for 4 years or so and multiple scores on the same test get averaged. The reason I am asking is that I am thinking about taking the Phys GRE this fall but don't have time to study, and I'd rather delay the test a year in order to have a chance to study if I thought my performance was going to have a big impact on my grad school goals. Any advice is appreciated!

Also, why don't all schools require the Physics GRE? Some schools "highly recommend" it, but what does that mean?

GRE Score Reporting

Posted: Wed Sep 01, 2004 11:04 pm
by davehart
Gre.org says:

"GRE score reporting is cumulative. Current GRE Board policy states that your scores are reportable for 5 years. Your scores are retained for the 5 testing years following the testing year in which you tested. All scores earned during this time will be reported to each institution you designate. You may choose to send only General Test scores, only Subject Test scores, only Writing Assessment scores, or any combination of the above, but you may not choose to have only those scores from a specific test date reported. Your score report will indicate your designated recipients and your cumulative record reported at that time. However, your designated recipients will not receive information concerning the other score recipients you have chosen."

http://www.gre.org/getscore.html#scrreporting


So all of your scores for the past 5 years are reported. However, at the end of a test, you may cancel a score and nothing is reported for that test. I presume you may take several tests and then cancel the scores. Has anyone done this?

This way, one could take several actual tests for practice.

Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 12:54 am
by holovision
That's interesting, thanks for the helpful research. I presume you don't get to see the results of your test before you have to decide whether or not to keep the results? That would give the test taker a lot of power to determine his or her scores, not to mention scew the scale upwards.

Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2004 11:40 am
by davehart
No, you don't get to see the results before deciding to cancel, but you sure get a look at the questions.

There doesn't seem to be any restrictions to sitting the test as many times as you want , then canceling the test.

I am also assuming that the schools never see any information about the canceled tests.

I haven't done this myself mind you.

Scores are determined by School

Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2004 3:12 pm
by kooki33
Hi

ETS just reports all the scores you have had in 5 years. Its upto the school as to how to use it. I think if its a decent school, they just take the highest. some schools just take the latest score. whereas some others average it. I am going to retake it in November.

Enjoy
Pinkesh.