Now that you have passed your GRE, you are ready to know how long are GRE scores valid. Every graduate position will consider you Ineligible after the validity time of your GRE. It is, therefore, great that you are on this page at this moment for this information.
An abbreviation for Graduate Record Exam, GRE is one of six things business schools consider when evaluating applications. Most students take the GRE in the final year of their degree or later.
ETS announces GRE test scores within 15 days of the test and will have a validity time frame. Once the GRE test is valid, you can ask ETS to send your scores to the business schools you wish.
This is the right article for you if you are seeking how long are GRE scores valid GRE.
We have filled this article with everything you need to know about valid GRE scores. You will also learn why and when scores expire and answers to frequently asked questions.
How Long Are GRE Scores Valid?
As stated by ETS, GRE scores remain valid for quite a long time after the date of your test.
If you took your GRE on April 1, 2021, your score will be substantial through Walk 30, 2026. This is to say that the answer to the “How long are GRE scores valid” question is five years.
GRE scores are valid for only five years. After five years, they become outdated and expire. This is according to the laws of ETS.
When your scores from a specific test lapse, ETS kills those scores from your web-based record. You can never again send the scores to schools. Along these lines, any GRE score report you ship to schools won’t ever incorporate lapsed scores. Regardless of whether you decide to send your whole score history.
Furthermore, graduate schools are probably not going to have any interest in seeing grades that are over five years.
If you send the scores out before ETS erases them, your score beneficiaries must honor that score. This is because when your GRE score report is in a school’s ownership, ETS can’t repudiate or erase that report.
Furthermore, there are a couple of things to look out for before sending an almost expired GRE score to schools.
Take out time to read through: Crush the GRE: Time-Efficient Prep for High Scores
How Long Are GRE Scores Valid After Your Test Date
You can see your GRE score in your ets.org account for five years after your test date.
Furthermore, When discussing GRE scores, the first question that should come to mind is, “How long are GRE scores valid?”
After the 5-year window from the exam date has passed, your scores will automatically become inaccessible from the ETS records. This means you can no longer access your results or submit them for admission to B-schools.
Learn how to scale your GRE from this article: Khan Academy GRE: Master the Test with Expert Guidance
Why Do GRE Scores Expire?
GRE scores expire for some reason. The most important reason put forward by the ETS board is that knowledge evolves rapidly, and five years is enough time for massive evolution.
Even you won’t be performing at the same level of GRE proficiency that you did in 2010 or 2015.
Therefore, If you take the GRE, score extremely well on both sections and then stay five years without even staying abreast with numbers, you will need to work hard to regain your quantitative skills.
However, the reality is that if you don’t practice at all, you’ll lose your GRE advantage much sooner than five years.
If you retake the GRE after five years, you will notice that you perform significantly better than your first trial. This is because you’ve acquired new skills over the past five years.
Again, If you didn’t like so much verbal reasoning in Collège when you first took the GRE but now work in communications, you would likely find Verbal to be much easier today than you did when you first took the test.
Although ETS is correct that your skills from five years ago are probably not representative of your skills today, it doesn’t always mean that they have diminished or improved.
Don’t fail to also read: Is the GRE Hard? Expert Insights and Tips for Success
Other Reasons for How Long Are GRE Scores Valid
Other possible explanations for why ETS causes GRE scores to expire include the following:
Revising the test is simpler to do if scores eventually expire. If the test undergoes revision in 2024. The current test will be known as “the Revised GRE General Test” until the pre-2024 scores expire. This is to distinguish it from those results.
Expiration helps increase the demand of the GRE. GRE test demand is likely to increase slightly after five years; an explanation for why GRE scores need to expire. This is beneficial for ETS.
The GRE will likely only need to be taken once by most people.
However, if five years have passed since your last GRE and you find that you need to change career paths or return for another graduate degree in the future, you might need to retake the exam.
ETS keeps the test in demand by requiring retakes every five years in order to have up-to-date scores.
Unfortunately, regardless of how much you have improved over the past five years, the GRE does not evaluate your artistic abilities.
Learn how GRE vs. LSAT conversion matrix works- GRE To LSAT Conversion Matrix | How It Works in 2023
What Do Schools Think About a Valid GRE Score?
Most alumni programs, by and large, follow the “5-year rule” for GRE score legitimacy. In any case, programs sometimes require or favor scores that are something like, for instance, 2 or 3 years of age (I’ll examine this point further right away).
Moreover, on the off chance that you are utilizing a GRE score to apply to business colleges, you note that business colleges will generally decide a GRE termination date with regard to their application cutoff times, as opposed to sticking to the ETS estimation.
Thus, what business colleges consider a legitimate GRE score might change depending upon which school you’re applying to and what round you’re applying in.
For instance, we should take the statistic of how HBS and Stanford determined GRE termination for school admission to the Class of 2023:
Find out the differences between GRE and SAT- GRE vs. SAT: Top 15 Key Differences.
Harvard Business college
- To apply in Cycle 1: GRE test date on or between September 8, 2015, and September 7, 2020
- To apply in Cycle 2: GRE test date on or between January 5, 2016, and January 4, 2021
- To apply in 2+2 Round: GRE test date on or between April 30, 2016, and April 28, 2021
Stanford Business college
- To apply in Cycle 1: GRE test date on or after September 15, 2015
- To apply in Cycle 2: GRE test date on or after January 6, 2016
- To apply in Cycle 3: GRE test date on or after April 6, 2016
What business colleges consider a valid GRE score might change depending upon which school you’re applying to and what round you’re applying in.
In the event that you’re wanting to apply to MBA programs within two or three years after you take your GRE, you shouldn’t need to stress over these differing cutoff times on the grounds that your test date will fall well inside them.
Moreover, business colleges will not need GRE scores to be something like 4 years of age or something like three years of age, and so on.
GRE lapse dates might move as indicated by application cutoff times; however, the GRE score legitimacy window will, in any case, be five years.
Then again, a few different kinds of graduate projects might have stricter “age limits” for satisfactory GRE scores.
Assuming that projects require or would rather that you submit GRE scores that fit inside an alternate time imperative, you ought to have the option to track down that data on the program’s site.
As a matter of fact, one way or the other, the program ought to state inside and out what it considers a substantial period for score detailing.
Actually, take a look at the singular alumni program sites to see whether projects have stricter “age limits” for scores or legitimacy windows in light of their application cutoff times.
Find out how to achieve a perfect GRE score- How to Achieve the Perfect GRE Score: A Comprehensive Guide.
Why Do GRE Scores Remain Valid for So Long?
The question of why GRE scores are valid for not one or two but five full years stands in opposition to the one of why GRE scores expire.
It is, therefore, not surprising that some students choose not to enroll in business schools right away after taking the GRE.
Before applying to business schools, some people may have plans to improve their CVs, sharpen their skills, and gain professional work experience.
If the validity of GRE scores is limited to a short time frame, your efforts will be in vain if you have already taken the test and plan to wait 2–3 years before enrolling in a business school.
Given the above-stated reasons, the GRE validity date has remained for five years.
What Takes Place After Your GRE Scores Expire?
Your scores are deleted by ETS after their expiration date and are never recoverable. This is not an exaggeration.
When GRE scores exceed the validity period, It won’t be possible for you to send them to schools or access them from your GRE account anymore.
If you forward your scores to a school just before they expire, they will remain there and not be lost.
However, schools may have specific policies regarding the most recent scores they are looking for. Some schools only want results from the last two to three years, while some can accept all. So make sure to double-check that before sending your older scores.
Simply put, expired scores are thrown into the virtual trash can by ETS.
Read this article to find out what you can bring to the GRE test- What to Bring to the GRE Test Day? How to Prepare for the GRE.
What can You do if your GRE Scores are Still valid?
Do you know that one of the most important documents needed to apply to many graduate institutions, including some MBA and JD programs, is a valid GRE score?
Let’s now define some of the terminology you might run into if you were to look up the reliability of GRE scores.
Valid Versus Reportable Results.
GRE score remains valid through the time during which the results are reportable. But there is a very significant caveat: If your GRE scores are about to expire, you must consider that a request to send your scores may take up to five days to process.
Let’s assume that you have three more days left to use your GRE scores and that you want ETS to send your results to the institutions you specify; the scores will no longer be reportable if the request takes more time than the three remaining days of validity.
As in, even though you submitted the request while your scores were still valid, ETS received it after the deadline had passed and might not be able to provide your results.
The good news is that you can easily avoid this fate by ensuring an official score report is sent well before the last minute of your GRE score validity.
Official vs. Unofficial results.
Once you’ve passed your test. You have the option of reporting or rescinding your results.
If you rescind, it becomes as if the test never happened; nobody, not even you, will ever see the results.
It is very rare to find students who apply to have their results canceled. This is because everyone spends days, weeks, months, or even years studying for the GRE test.
Most students elect to report their results, and their unofficial verbal and quantitative scores are displayed.
ETS will send you an email letting you know the official scores are now available in your account after 10 to 15 days.
The majority of the time, the official and unofficial results are identical. If there is a difference, it is typically very slight (possibly 1-2 points in either direction). The main distinction is that universities only recognize official ETS-reported scores.
We advise that you choose a test date that allows you plenty of time to apply or retake the test before application deadlines cramp you up with stress. This is one way to be calm through the length of time GRE scores are valid.
Although, as was already mentioned, life can throw us curve balls that derail our best-laid plans, having a solid plan for your application timeline will help make the process go more smoothly.
Plan Your strategy Around How Long are GRE Scores Valid.
The truth is that, at most, one year before you apply to graduate programs, you’ll most likely take the GRE in that year. If you intend to pursue multiple degrees, each of which requires the GRE, planning may be necessary in this case.
In this situation, you’ll want to be aware of whether or not your scores will be valid by the time you apply for the second program.
This is a rare occurrence, though, as not every program requires the GRE if you already hold an advanced degree.
If you are in the university and want to attend graduate school but are unsure of the exact timing, you may want to make plans in advance.
It is best to take the GRE while all your college knowledge is still fresh upstairs, and you have a more flexible class schedule that makes finding prep time easier. This is logical. The test must be retaken if you don’t apply for graduate school within the following five years of taking it, so keep that in mind.
In this instance, it actually matters quite a bit what month you are taking the test. A GRE score would be valid through the fall 2023 application cycle if you took the test in April 2018. Prior to the application cycle for 2023, it would expire.
On the other hand, someone who took it in October or November 2018 can send their results before they expire for the fall 2023 application cycle.
Frequently Asked Questions
GRE scores are valid for a period of 5 years, after which they become invalid and will not be accepted by any school as a legal document.
For an average grading system, 320 is good. However, you should work hard to be above average in your GRE. This gives you a better ranking with the schools you are applying to, especially if you are fresh out of college
If you fail the exam on your first attempt, GRE has provisions to let you sit for another exam in the year. In fact, you can write the GRE five times a year.
Conclusion: How Long Are GRE Scores Valid?
For GRE, the fifth testing year from the date you took the test is when your scores are valid. This period runs from year one to year five, counting from when you took the exam.
Your scores are removed from the ETS database once they have expired. They are not ever permitted access or submission in schools.
Many people will take the GRE within the period they submit their college applications, but you must note that the GRE will require a retake if your scores expire before you apply for graduate studies.
We hope you found this article helpful. Ensure to subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date with GRE validity and expiration information.
Reference
- Prepscholar.com– How to Use the ETS GRE Official Guide – Full Review
- Magoosh.com– ETS Official Guide to the GRE Revised General Test 3rd Edition Book Review
- Brightlinkprep.com– Expert Review: The Official Guide to the GRE General Test
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