{"id":18018,"date":"2023-09-08T12:31:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T12:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kaptest.com\/blog\/prep\/?p=18018"},"modified":"2023-09-08T17:37:40","modified_gmt":"2023-09-08T17:37:40","slug":"should-you-cancel-your-gre-score","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/gre\/should-you-cancel-your-gre-score\/","title":{"rendered":"Should You Cancel Your GRE Score?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you take\u00a0the GRE, you\u2019ll have the option to cancel your score. This might seem like a great option, but like the\u00a0GRE calculator, it\u2019s more of a trap than a benefit. The catch is that you have to decide whether to cancel your GRE score\u00a0<em>before\u00a0<\/em>you see it. Once you see your\u00a0<a title=\"What\u2019s a good GRE score?\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kaptest.com\/blog\/prep\/gre\/whats-a-good-gre-score\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">GRE score<\/a>, you can\u2019t cancel it; and if you cancel it, you\u2019ll never know what it was. In this post, I\u2019d like to tell you a short story and a long story about this score-canceling option.<\/p>\n<p>The short story is:<strong>\u00a0don\u2019t cancel your GRE score. Period.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The long story is that there are many reasons why canceling your GRE score is a terrible idea:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For one, the option appears at the end of an almost 2-hour exam that leaves you emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted \u2014 which is exactly when you DON\u2019T want to make critical and irreversible life-altering decisions.<\/li>\n<li>Another problem with the option is that the fundamental logic behind it doesn\u2019t make sense. If the GRE went so terribly that you need to cancel your score\u2026then how did you make it all the way to the end of the test?\u00a0Just about any legitimate reason to cancel your score would stop you from seeing the score-canceling option in the first place, because you wouldn&#8217;t have made it through the test.<\/li>\n<li>The main reason many\u00a0GRE\u00a0students feel an urge to cancel their score is that the test \u201cfelt hard.\u201d Or occasionally: \u201cit felt REALLY hard.\u201d And that\u2019s NOT a good reason to cancel your score, no matter how many \u201creallys\u201d you tack in front of the word \u201chard.\u201d The GRE <em>is<\/em> a hard test. It\u2019s long, it covers a wide intellectual area, and it adapts to your test-taking ability and throws you problems at the upper reaches of your skill level.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Many GRE test takers come out of the test thinking they bombed it; but when they get their scores back, they end up making a higher score on the actual GRE than any of their practice tests. People are not good at judging their own GRE performance, which is why you need to undergo an epic catastrophe \u2014 \u201cI fell ill and left half of two sections blank\u201d \u2014 in order to justify a score cancellation.<\/p>\n<article  class=\"iconbox iconbox_left_content    avia-builder-el-0  el_before_av_heading  avia-builder-el-first  \"  itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class=\"iconbox_icon heading-color\" aria-hidden='true' data-av_icon='\ue816' data-av_iconfont='entypo-fontello'  ><\/div><div class=\"iconbox_content\"><header class=\"entry-content-header\"><h3 class='iconbox_content_title  '  itemprop=\"headline\"  >The Bottom Line<\/h3><\/header><div class='iconbox_content_container  '  itemprop=\"text\"  ><p>Don\u2019t cancel your score. Period.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><footer class=\"entry-footer\"><\/footer><\/article>\n<div  style='padding-bottom:10px; ' class='av-special-heading av-special-heading-h3    avia-builder-el-1  el_after_av_icon_box  el_before_av_heading  '><h3 class='av-special-heading-tag '  itemprop=\"headline\"  >GRE Score or GPA: What\u2019s the Biggest Application Killer?<\/h3><div class='special-heading-border'><div class='special-heading-inner-border' ><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<p>So you don&#8217;t cancel your GRE score, and then you get your score back and it&#8217;s lower than you were hoping for. What do you do? Will the low GRE score prevent you from being admitted to graduate school? There is no one-size-fits-all formula for getting into grad school\u2014but by thinking smart and planning out a timeline suited to your unique candidacy, you\u2019ll be gathering confidence and knowledge that will really pay off when it comes time to apply.<\/p>\n<p>Two of the most crucial grad school application components are your GRE score and GPA. Together, these make up the quantifiable aspects of your candidacy, and they both go a long way toward ensuring the rest of your application gets the attention it deserves.<\/p>\n<div  style='padding-bottom:10px; ' class='av-special-heading av-special-heading-h4  blockquote modern-quote  avia-builder-el-2  el_after_av_heading  el_before_av_heading  '><h4 class='av-special-heading-tag '  itemprop=\"headline\"  >Why your GRE score and GPA matter<\/h4><div class='special-heading-border'><div class='special-heading-inner-border' ><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">Forty-one percent of admissions officers interviewed by Kaplan in 2017 cited\u00a0a low GRE score as the number-one application killer\u00a0when considering candidates\u2014meaning that the remaining 59 percent cited all other reasons combined.<\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">\nThe next leading factor that caused an application to find its way into the recycling bin was a low GPA\u2014but even that came in a full 14 percentage points lower, with 27 percent of admissions officers quoting it as the biggest application killer.<\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">\nFollowing low GRE score and GPA, poor letters of recommendation, poorly written essays, and a lack of work experience, respectively, rounded out the rest of the list of the top reasons candidates are turned down.<\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div  style='padding-bottom:10px; ' class='av-special-heading av-special-heading-h4  blockquote modern-quote  avia-builder-el-3  el_after_av_heading  el_before_av_sidebar  '><h4 class='av-special-heading-tag '  itemprop=\"headline\"  >Identify your application priorities<\/h4><div class='special-heading-border'><div class='special-heading-inner-border' ><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">So why is this important? Depending on what your area of study emphasizes (i.e., if you\u2019re going into a specialized or research-heavy program that might value experience more, or a creative writing PhD that\u2019s going to really focus on that essay), knowing the biggest application killers can help you prioritize where you should focus your efforts in the application process.<\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">\nSure, making your essay sound just right or polishing your resume is important, and you certainly shouldn\u2019t neglect such things. But if you\u2019re putting 95 percent of your time into these application requirements, you might want to prioritize.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">Depending on your projected GRE score (which you can estimate by taking a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaptest.com\/gre\/enroll?tab=events\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">free GRE practice test<\/a>), some\u2014if not most\u2014of those precious hours might be better spent studying for the GRE, or taking a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaptest.com\/gre\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">prep course<\/a>. Just the same, if your GPA is hurting and you\u2019re still in undergrad, taking an extra academic course in your major to help boost your GPA might be the way to go.<\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">\nEveryone\u2019s situation is different, but we know that life doesn\u2019t stop when you\u2019re applying to grad school, and those work, academic, and family obligations still take up space on your schedule. So if your time is at a premium, think of the best ways to divide it.<\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">\nRemember: there are always things you can do to get more ready for grad school, and it\u2019s never too late to start\u2014or continue\u2014that journey.<\/div>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><div  class='avia-builder-widget-area clearfix  avia-builder-el-4  el_after_av_heading  avia-builder-el-last '><div id=\"text-70\" class=\"widget clearfix widget_text\">\t\t\t<div class=\"textwidget\"><p><span data-sumome-listbuilder-embed-id=\"a78fe19e226d385662749ccaadcdccd7ecdcab651c77e3b874bfcb76a80605a7\"><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><div id=\"text-71\" class=\"widget clearfix widget_text\">\t\t\t<div class=\"textwidget\"><p><span data-sumome-listbuilder-embed-id=\"185e834399a9fdd414ded52f3f51a4735f464b8c612f006f44ffba835a649b4f\"><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you take\u00a0the GRE, you\u2019ll have the option to cancel your score. This might seem like a great option, but like the\u00a0GRE calculator, it\u2019s more of a trap than a benefit. The catch is that you have to decide whether to cancel your GRE score\u00a0before\u00a0you see it. Once you see your\u00a0GRE score, you can\u2019t cancel [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[68],"tags":[335,69,265],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18018"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18018"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44424,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18018\/revisions\/44424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}