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GRE Dates

CHOOSING THE CORRECT GRE DATES FOR YOU

Do you want to get admission to a graduate program of your choice?

If you are one amongst the thousands of school students who wish to continue higher studies in a college of your choice, then simply wishing for the best will not help you at all. The path to success is always tough and requires a lot of hard work. The first step to be taken to achieve your dream of studying in a college of your choice would be to take the GRE test.

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The GRE General Test is an assessment of various skills that are not related to a specific academic field. The test evaluates your verbal and quantitative reasoning, critical thinking and analytical writing skills. You need to posses these skills for being successful in graduate studies. The GRE test takers come from varying educational backgrounds and countries. Hundreds of graduate schools and other educational institutions across the US and many other countries accept your GRE scores as a bench mark for considering you for admissions. These facts make it aptly clear that you will have to prepare well for the GRE as you will come across tough competition for getting admission to your choice of graduate program. You can face this tough competition with detailed planning and thorough preparation. Planning for taking the GRE involves choosing the GRE dates carefully as this is a very crucial aspect of ensuring success in GRE.

How important is it to select the correct GRE Dates?

The most crucial aspect of taking the GRE is the selection of the correct GRE dates. An inappropriate selection of GRE dates could hamper your success in GRE as you will not be able to receive your scores in time for onward submission to colleges. To guard against any such thing happening, the first thing to do is to check the official website of GRE, www.ets.org for details regarding the score reporting based on the GRE dates. For instance, if you take the GRE between October 3, 2011 and October 15, 2011, then your GRE scores will be available to you by November 17, 2011. However, if your GRE date is after November 29, 2011, then your scores will be available within 10-15 days from your GRE date.

Another important update regarding the GRE General Test is that August 11 onwards; the current GRE Test will be replaced by the GRE Revised General Test, the scores of which will be available after November 11. If you need your GRE scores before November 11, you will need to take the current GRE General Test before August 1, 2011.

Choosing the correct GRE dates and centres play a very crucial role in your success in the GRE. Given below is a checklist that will help in choosing the correct GRE dates:

When do you require the GRE scores?

This is the most important factor that will determine when you should take the GRE. You need to first check out the websites of the colleges where you will be applying for admissions. Each college or educational institution may have a different last date for submission of GRE scores. This information will assist you in narrowing down to the window when you should ideally take the GRE so that your GRE scores are available in time and you can be considered for admissions to all the colleges of your choice.

Where will you be taking the GRE?

Check out from the official website of GRE whether the computer-based GRE is available in the location where you will be taking the GRE. If the computer-based GRE is not available in the location of your choice, then you may have to take the paper-based GRE which is conducted on selected dates unlike the computer-based GRE for which the GRE dates are available throughout the year. The point to note here is that in the event of your having to take the paper-based GRE, your selection of the date on which you take the GRE becomes all the more crucial because the scores will reach you within 6 weeks of your having taken the GRE. This fact coupled with the fact that the paper-based GRE is conducted only up to three times in a year makes it imperative that you check the format of the GRE available at the test centre of your choice well in time.

Are you prepared to take the GRE?

Last, but not the least, is a self-assessment of how well prepared you are to take the GRE. Afterall, what is the point in taking the GRE if you are not adequately prepared for getting a good score? A half-hearted attempt at taking the GRE will jeopardize your chances of having a fruitful and satisfying career as you will not be able to get admission to a reputed graduate program. Given below is a step-by-step schedule that will help you assess the time you will need to prepare for the GRE.

Check out the types of questions that will be asked. The GRE General Test is a test of your verbal and quantitative reasoning, critical thinking and analytical writing skills. These skills are not related to any specific subject. If you are taking the GRE Subject Test for a particular subject, then check out the scope of the test and prepare accordingly.
Take an initial practice test. You will find GRE practice tests and sample questions on the GRE official website and various other websites on the internet. Your scores on the practice test will truly represent how well prepared you are to take the GRE.
Work out the time that you will need to prepare for the GRE such that you are able to get good GRE scores. Choose your GRE dates depending upon the time that you feel you will need for preparing for GRE. If your scores are very poor, then you will need a minimum of 2-3 months for thorough preparation for taking the GRE.

WARNING: Do not bank on retests!

A very important, but often ignored, fact is that your GRE score report contains all GRE scores earned by you in the past five years. This implies that you cannot take your GRE test lightly with inadequate preparation as the low scores that you may have earned will be endorsed in your score report and will be publically visible even though you have earned better scores in subsequent retests. Therefore, avoid planning on taking a retest. Put in your best in your first attempt itself.

However, if at all you are taking a retest, you will require lesser time for study as you will be well aware of your shortcomings and you can concentrate on improving upon them, provided you actually work hard to improve your score. This means that if you are planning to take a retest, do so after carefully analysing the mistakes that you committed while taking the GRE test previously. Throughout your preparation, you have to keep in mind that you cannot afford to keep taking retests for improving your scores as this will be reflected in your score report and it will create a negative impression about you when your score report is being considered for admissions to graduate programs.

The Last Word!

Considering that your performance is related to your GRE test dates, the bottom-line is that you should choose your GRE dates carefully keeping in mind the time you will need for preparation and the deadline by which your GRE scores have to reach the intended recipients, else, you could find yourself in a perplexing situation of having to decide whether to take admission in a college that you do not prefer or to take a retest. This is only the first step and it has to be followed with dedicated and thorough preparation for taking the GRE test as this is the only way for ensuring success in securing admission to a reputed graduate program of your choice.

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