Lucky are those who get second chances!
The Graduate Record Examination (or GRE) is an admission test for thousands of graduate and business schools around the world. It is an important examination in which achieving a high score is a must. Many people give the exam again and again just to achieve good scores while some people give exams multiple times because of the several factors. Every institution has its own preferences and guidelines. One must be able to fulfill those to get into the grad schools they have always dreamed about.
What are your options?
You can either retake GRE or you can give other exams to get admission into schools around the world. These substitutions maybe specific exams for particular universities.
When to retake?
One must decide when one should retake the examinations. Several steps and questions must be considered before thinking and planning to retake the examination. One should consider retaking the GRE when following conditions met.
- If you didn’t score higher than 90 percent score in the previous test.
- If you couldn’t achieve the targeted program score.
- If you couldn’t score above average.
- If you have more than 2 months until your application deadlines.
- If you couldn’t study before your previous test due to a medical emergency or some other reasons.
- If you think you haven’t made the improvements the very first time.
- If your application doesn’t need any other attention than scores.
- If you think you deserved better or you are highly confident that you can do better if you get another shot. Only retake GRE when you know you can achieve a better score than the previous one. Because it will cost you your money, time and resources.
- If programs you are interested in offers your scholarship with the high score than going for GRE retake is the best choice one can choose.
Myths about GRE retake:
People usually think that taking GRE multiple times can harm the chances of admission in college. It is usually believed that retaking GRE is for the people who are either too reckless or is not good students. These are mere myths.
No matter how many times you retake GRE it will never mean that you are not intelligent enough. Even now Education Testing Service that conducts GRE introduced a feature for the test takers called as Score Select in which students can decide which score is best among all and which can be used to get admission in the preferred university. However, one cannot send one section scores from the previous attempt and other section scores from the next attempt. The entire GRE score will be chosen as one.
Even though many people believe that only a few students retake GRE, it is not at all true. According to a recent ETS survey, one in four students retakes GRE.
How to raise your GRE score?
The GRE re-takers who get a low score in the previous test must evaluate their mistakes to do better next time. They should evaluate the specific question types they lack in. Also, one should consider strategies to achieve good scores. Some of them are as follows:
- Work hard: It might have happened that when you gave the exam for the first time maybe you didn’t have enough time to prepare or you may be sick or get into an accident due to which you couldn’t practice much in such cases the next time you take GRE you must work hard to get to the targeted score.
- Make a schedule in which you spend more time in studies than other activities.
- Evaluate your weak points in previous time and strengthen them with practice.
- Choose resources more wisely. Maybe in the previous attempt yo didn’t have resources that can be best for the studies.
- Choose colleges wisely.
- Make study plans according to the time remained.
Rules for Retake:
- You can take GRE revised General Test every 21 days up to five times within any continuous rolling in 12 month period.
- You must have a valid ID to take GRE. Valid ID for GRE is a passport.
- With Score Select, you can decide which score can be sent to the specific university.
- Retaking GRE will cost money and registration.
- You can send your score to four universities at a time.
Substitutes for GRE:
- GMAT is a better indicator of Business schools.
- Several programs have proven that institutions can conduct a successful admissions process without the use of test scores. A brief list of such programs includes Harvard Divinity School, Simmons College School of Social Work, Bank Street College School of Education, Pratt Institute School of Architecture, Brown University Division of Engineering and Columbia University Masters of Science in Journalism.
- If you are thinking of law school then LSAT is what you’re looking for. Some MBA programs allow you to sit for LSAT scores. The master’s program will often use LSAT scores in place of GRE or GMAT scores.
Conclusion:
If you do decide to retake the GRE, you should take steps to maximize your chances of improving your scores such as creating a study schedule, figuring out where you made mistakes, practicing tests more and more, working hard, having patience and trying out new study materials and study methods.
