subject test to make comparability easier when applying with an international degree?

[Nuya]

I have been wondering:

most of the schools I want to apply to list the GRE subject test as "optional", "encouraged", "recommended".

So I am unsure whether its a good idea to take it or not.

 

My thoughts are, since I am applying with an international degree, a GRE subject test might make it easier in terms of comparability (since the admissions commitee might possibly have more difficulty judging the curriculum of a non US degree? Or maybe thats entirely wrong, but I thought if taking the subject test, I would get a score in relation to others who took the test regardless of being an international student or a domestic student. Do you think that would be helpful in order to make it easier for the admissions commitee to judge my qualifications?)

 

Taking the subject test in addition to the TOEFL, and GRE general and paying all the application fees and possibly official translation of documents might, however, make it necessary for me to cross a school or two off of the list of schools I am planning to apply to. (Money is really tight and it was really hard for me to save up the money in order to finance the whole application process)

 

I took the practice subject test (Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology) offered on the GRE webpage. I didnt find it all that difficult, but it is of course still possible that I get a bad result when taking the test (one can never be sure...). So IF i decide to take the test, will the scores automatically be send to schools since they need to send in the GRE general anyways? Are those two different things in terms of sending results? Can I decide to send the GRE general results but not the GRE subject test results?

 

Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer advice.

Edited June 6, 2013 by Nuya

[aberrant]

you can take the subject test and not send the score to the schools -- until you know what your score is. if it is a good score, why not? if it isn't exceptionally good, then you can consider not sending the score. if money is a concern, then I would not take it just because it is not mandatory.