Do GRE subject tests fill up fast?

[Minerva1917]

I went on the ETS website to sign up for the English Lit subject test in October but could only find available test dates in April.

Do the testing centers really fill up this fast? I had no idea this was an issue ?

Unfortunately ETS's customer service is closed until Monday, so it'd be great to get an answer on here, if anyone knows!

Thanks in advance!

[GlacierPoint]

This is a pretty late reply but yes, try to register for the subject test ASAP. My school is a testing center for the subject test in a major metropolitan area with 3+ million people and lots of universities. There are only two other testing centers that provide paper tests in the area. One is in the same major city and the other is outside of the city but not too far out.

I don't know how many seats the other testing centers have but my school's center only has 10 seats. That's for all subject tests and people who want to do the paper test for the general GRE.

I found this out when I nearly forgot to register for the subject test until the last minute and discovered that the seats were full at my school. Fortunately, the people who ran the testing center took pity on me and called ETS to get the number of seats increased from 10 to 15 for the 10/27 testing date. I was able to claim a seat online as soon they got off the phone.

Standby testing is an option too but risky. You show up at the center early on the day of the test with a form filled out and registration fee plus the standby fee ready then hope there's a seat for you. Exam availability typically isn't an issue as the testing center administrator told me that they get around 10 copies of each test. Remember that's for a testing center with just 10 seats!