Retake the GRE?

[LostPsych]

I'm planning on reapplying to Psychology PhD programs and I'm debating whether to retake the GRE. I've already taken it twice and some people have told me to retake it but I feel like I might not do any better than what I've scored. I scored in the 43 percentile for Verbal Reasoning, the 62 percentile for Quantitative, and the 60 percentile for Analytical Writing.  Any recommendations as to what I should do?

[Monochrome Spring]

If you think you will do better, then retake it. You can use your best scores on your new application this year. But, only spend the money and time if you think you will actually do better. You may need to change up how you study the material, take an online course, etc.

Was your GRE your weakest point on your applications last year? If it wasn't the deciding factor, maybe your time would be better spent making other parts of your application stronger. There are a lot of options.

[Psychophys]

2 hours ago, Monochrome Spring said:

If you think you will do better, then retake it. You can use your best scores on your new application this year. But, only spend the money and time if you think you will actually do better. You may need to change up how you study the material, take an online course, etc.

Was your GRE your weakest point on your applications last year? If it wasn't the deciding factor, maybe your time would be better spent making other parts of your application stronger. There are a lot of options.

LostPsych, did you do anything different in terms of studying between the first and second times you took the GRE, and how much time did you allow yourself to prepare both times?  Also, I agree with Mono in that if you think you'll do significantly better, retake it, especially given your percentiles on the Verbal and AWA portions of the GRE.  Reading papers and (eventually) writing papers is a HUGE part of academic psychology, so if an admissions committee sees those scores, they may believe you'll struggle with understanding the scientific literature in your area (which can be quite dense) and eventually write scientific papers.  

On the other hand, while the quant percentile isn't great, I don't believe it has to be phenomenal for most subfields of psychology, and your quant score probably falls close to the median score of recently admitted applicants at many programs (when I was applying, my quant percentile was close to yours, and my quant score was either at the median or just above for almost all of the programs I was interested in).  Most psychology programs make their median GRE scores available in the APA's Graduate Study in Psychology handbook, or on their program's website.

Lastly, different subfields have different acceptance rates (with clinical psych's being the lowest by far), so your subfield should also influence your decision about how to proceed and how to apportion your time and energy with respect to different aspects of your application.  I am interested to know what subfield you're interested in and what your other "stats" are (e.g., major GPA, overall GPA, research experience) in order to get a better picture of your current status as an applicant so that I can potentially offer some advice.

Anyway, hopefully others will respond to your question, given that it is an important one.  Best of luck with the rest of your preparation.