ScoreSelect - select your GRE scores!

Starting from July 2012, all GRE test-takers will have an option called ScoreSelect which will allow to choose which test scores are sent to graduate schools

. Previously, ETS was sending to educational institutions all GRE scores from the past five year period. Hopefully, with this new feature students will be able to choose which test score they send to each school. So, you’ll be able to send the scores that you feel are the best for successful admission.

Options of ScoreSelect

Based on when you want to make decision which GRE score to send there are several options listed below:

• on test day when seeing your scores at the test center you’ll have two options (FREE) to choose from:

1. ScoreSelect Most Recent: you’ll be able to send the scores from current test you’ve just passed but only to 4 schools.
2. ScoreSelect All: here you’ll be able to send all of your GRE scores that you have for the past five year period, and once again to 4 schools.

• after the test day you can send additional score report for a $25 fee by selecting from the following:

1. ScoreSelect Most Recent: you’ll be able to send the score from the most recently test.
2. ScoreSelect All: you’ll be able to send all your GRE scores for the last five year period.
3. ScoreSelect Any: you’ll be able to send one or more GRE scores from any GRE test you’ve taken over past five year period.

Another positive side of this feature is that no matter how many times you have retaken the GRE when you choose to send only one score, there will be no special indications that you had additional tries. Besides, the period for retaking the test was reduced to 30 days (before it 60 days waiting till you can try one more time). However, you still won’t be able to take GRE more than 5 times in a continuous 12-month period.

You may be asking why ETS is doing such a big favor for test-takers? They just want to encourage students to retake the test more frequently, since as you may know applicants were advised not to take GRE more than two to three times in 5 year period because  multiple scores might be seen as a red flag for admissions committee. And now, there’s no way for admissions committees to find out how many  times actually the student have taken the test. So this new ScoreSelect option will encourage test-takers to register for the GRE more than they normally do, since now they have nothing to lose.

So what that all means, now you don’t need to worry much, just go and try yourself, who knows, maybe you’ll save some time (however not money) that will have to go on additional preps in case you fail. But if you do wonderfully, then that’s great, you don’t need to retake the test and just apply to graduate school.  If you do not get as good a score as you would like, then just retake the test before you apply and send the highest score you’ve got

What you should pay attention to when using ScoreSelect

Pay attention that option “ScoreSelect Any” is only available for a fee. So if you know that your latest GRE score is not the best, it may be better to pay for additional score report and choose the highest score. Besides, you need to remember that you can send only a complete score report.  Meaning, you’ll not be able to send only your highest verbal, math, and analytical writing scores from different GRE tests you’ve taken. You have to send a complete score report from each test separately.  So make sure which score is more important for you, whether your admissions committees paying more attention to verbal, math or analytical writing sections, or the compound score is more important. Choose wisely and good luck!

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Cancel GRE Scores?

Everyone that is going to take GRE General test should consider the possibility to receive negative scores after he passes the test. What if that happens to you? How you should act in that situation? Should you cancel you GRE scores, if yes how and when you should do that? These are the questions that will be clarified in this post.

So what is the GRE Score Cancellation?

On GRE each test-taker has an option to cancel the GRE scores right after the test is done, BUT before the unofficial GRE scores are shown on your screen. Meaning you have a chance to cancel your scores but only based on your feeling about overall performance on the test, not knowing for sure how much you’ve scored. So be careful, if you view your test scores after you’re done with the test, you can’t cancel them afterwards.

So when you should cancel your GRE scores?

Remember, no matter how badly you think you did on your GRE, you should never cancel the scores. A lot of students think they failed the test very bad, but that’s in majority cases the feeling caused by stress, you just can’t measure your performance immediately after taking the test, since after long and challenging test like GRE you’re too mentally exhausted to evaluate your overall performance on the test. Besides, as you may know GRE is section adaptive test, so if you got the second section harder than the previous one that is the sign that your score will be closer to the upper limits.

Another reason not to cancel your GRE scores is because of time limits you put yourself. Even if decide to cancel the scores, you’ll have to wait another 30 days before retaking the test. Also remember, you’re limited to take the GRE a maximum of five times in a continuous 12-month period. Besides, you may not catch the deadlines for admission, and that can delay your application process for even a year.

The main reason you shouldn’t cancel your GRE scores is the new option that ETS has offered the ScoreSelect, that allows test-takers to choose which GRE scores they send to each institution. Now, since you have a possibility to report your best test scores, you don’t need to cancel anything, even if you think you did pretty bad on your test.

What if you accidentally cancelled your GRE scores?

Don’t worry it’s not too late! It is possible to reinstate cancelled GRE scores for $30 fee if your request is received by ETS within 60 days after the test date.

One of the best ways to avoid feeling like you should cancel your GRE scores is to have a good practice on computer adaptive GRE tests. You should go through PowerPrep, and also you can try GREatest Prep GRE Software which also offers some tests for free.

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About GRE Scores Blog

Very frequently students ask questions related to scores they received after passing GRE. Not  many actually know what their GRE score means, a lot don’t know what to do after they received the scores, how to convert scores from one format to another, etc.

Since GRE is trying to measure your verbal, analytical and critical thinking skills you need to understand the scores you receive after you pass the test. Otherwise you  won't know what you should do next, whether you should stay with the scores you have or you should prep little more and try one more time and get higher scores. You need to be very careful with your decision, since that may impact not only your time (since you’ll some time to spend on additional preps), but also whether you will be accepted to school you apply.

Another thing that students are confused about is what schools to apply if you have this score and what if the score is lower. However, you need to remember that a lot depends not only from score but also from your field, experience, publications, recommendations, etc.

Yet another thing you may find difficult can be related to GRE score format. Starting from August 2011 the GRE score range has changed, and if you are studying using old books you’ll most probably get confused, since new GRE has 130-170 range instead 200-800 that was used for old GRE. On this blog you’ll be able to convert old GRE scores to new GRE and vise verse.

This blog will help you to solve most of questions related to GRE scores.

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