Retake? Didn't Have a Chance to Study.

[patientpatient]

Hi, all. I may seem a bit whiny, but I am kicking myself for not studying more for my GRE. Some family flew in last minute the week before my GRE and, as a result, I did little more than take one full-length practice test out of the official guide. I honestly had only scheduled a week to study as I took the GRE 5 years ago and scored pretty well without prep (165V and 156Q) and I'm a teacher and decided to wait for the summer to study ;-). That said, I took my test today and scored a 170V and 164Q. I know that two of the questions that I missed in quant had to do with probability and I regret not reviewing this before test day. I read somewhere that retaking after a high score looks like score-grubbing and I'm nervous that my Verbal will fall a bit if I retake. Also, I can't comfortably afford the cost to retake (recall I'm a teacher). 

I'm applying to Doctorate in Ed Leadership programs (including Harvard's infamous Ed.L.D program) as well as Stanford's dual MBA/Masters in Education. My UGPA is imperfect (3.0), but I have a solid grad school GPA from a high-ranking Ed School (I know these aren't as telling due to grade inflation in grad schools). Do you think I should retake given that I am confident that I can boost quant to a 166 or 167 even if my verbal falls to a 167-168? I don't want that verbal score to appear to be a fluke! 

[AspiringGC]

Honestly, I don't see why you would retake it. Keeping a 170V is much better than raising your Q. You're going into math education, but 164Q after you've been out of school for a while looks great. And from your past GRE, it shows that you have considerably improved already. 

Edited July 7, 2016 by slaybackc