Expired GRE Scores?

[hermia11]

Anyone know about policies regarding expired test scores? ETS says scores over 5 years old are considered invalid and "expired," but they're still showing up on my score reports.

I took the test 5 years ago to get into my MA program and they weren't terribly impressive scores - just under 600. I'd rather not have those hanging out for all to see on my reports sent to schools at which I'm applying for the PhD (I mean, presumably, I did better on the test I just took... even though I still can't identify rime royal for the life of me).

Has anyone run into this? Any advice? I'm not seeing much of anything on the ETS site. Thanks!!

[orst11]

We have had a similar discussion about this before, I think on the GRE forum. ETS uses their own calendar similar to an academic calendar, and while the test scores may be 5 years old, they may not be 5 years by their standard. If this makes any sense. Am I reading your post correctly you are worried that when sending your scores both scores will be reported? If this is the case, I would advise not to worry much about this since it has been some time in between your test dates and hopefully you improved.

[lolopixie]

The schools are going to look at ones that are from the past 5 years. They may be able to see older ones, but if you have retaken and done better, the schools are going to use the new scores. I'm pretty sure we all have scores we would rather not send, but they will all go out.

[Grunty DaGnome]

I had a similar confusion. My older scores were from 2006. I didn't know exactly when the 5 years went into effect or whether the scores would be fine for December deadlined apps, but not for January. I took them again just to be safe, but the old scores still appear on my reporting sheet, so I assume they're valid.

[hermia11]

I had a similar confusion. My older scores were from 2006. I didn't know exactly when the 5 years went into effect or whether the scores would be fine for December deadlined apps, but not for January. I took them again just to be safe, but the old scores still appear on my reporting sheet, so I assume they're valid.

Same here. I took the test December 2006 and didn't know if the official expiration was based on 5 years exactly from the test date, or by the application deadline for the schools you're applying to (December 2011/January 2012) the anticipated time of enrollment (fall 2012), or what. While I understand score expiration if you've been out of academia for, say 10 years, and you've "lost" a lot of knowledge in between, it seems ridiculous for them to be invalid after just 5 (just over the time it takes to go through a MA program).

And the bloody scores still show up even if we retake it? What kind of definition of "expired" is ETS working from?