Taking both tests, if necessary

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HappyQuark
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Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 2:08 am

Taking both tests, if necessary

Post by HappyQuark » Mon Aug 16, 2010 5:31 pm

So the two Physics GREs are being offered Oct 09 and Nov 13. According to the ETS website, they claim you can get your scores by phone earlier than by mail if you are willing to pay a fee and that the October test scores can be had by this method on or after Nov 8.

http://ets.org/gre/subject/scores/get

In theory, it seems that you could register for both tests, take the October test, get your score before the November test and then decide whether you want to take it for a second time or cancel it and keep your October score. Of course, this means you pay for an extra test and that you will have to study for the November test as if you plan to take it, but in principle it should be possible. What I am interested in is whether someone has actually pulled this off and if there were any hang ups in the process.

Thoughts?

vttd
Posts: 53
Joined: Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:23 pm

Re: Taking both tests, if necessary

Post by vttd » Tue Aug 17, 2010 9:16 am

In theory that's correct. Maybe ETS has changed their plan of attack to get more money out of students, because I know last year the October scores only came out on phone the day of the November test. It looks like this year there is a strong incentive to pay more money.

coffeecoffeecoffee
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Joined: Mon Oct 20, 2008 8:24 am

Re: Taking both tests, if necessary

Post by coffeecoffeecoffee » Tue Aug 17, 2010 9:19 am

As far as I know this is a common strategy. I didn't do it personally, so hopefully someone with direct experience will chime in.

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geshi
Posts: 200
Joined: Tue Dec 01, 2009 12:01 am

Re: Taking both tests, if necessary

Post by geshi » Tue Aug 17, 2010 10:29 am

I sort of did this last year. I got my Oct scores before taking the Nov exam. However I wasn't particularly pleased with my results, so I took it again anyway. Unfortunately my Nov scores came out almost identical.

There is another trick to be added here (I know I've mentioned this in another thread, but it feels appropriate to mention it again here): you can take both tests but only report the Oct exam if you want. You will have to report the Oct scores no matter what. You pay the fee to report the Oct exam to all of your schools. If the Nov scores are not available when you choose to report your Oct scores, then they will not be sent (even if you've already taken the Nov exam). You can then wait until getting your Nov scores and see if you had any improvement. If there was improvement, you can pay again to send out those scores or you can choose not to send those out. The only downside to this is that you'll end up paying for scores twice for all your schools. The upside is that you don't have to report your scores twice if your second score is the same or worse than your first score.



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