GRE ScoreSelect Explained: Choosing Which Scores Each School Sees

ScoreSelect works at the level of a test administration. You decide which dates go to which school; you do not pick individual measures. The Bulletin says scores from an administration must be reported in their entirety, so a strong Quant result from one sitting cannot be matched with a strong Verbal result from another.

What you gain is privacy for the dates you leave out. ETS says institutions receive only the scores you chose to send, and the report carries no special indication that you took other GRE tests.

At the end of the test you first decide whether to report (view) or cancel. If you view, the Bulletin says you will see unofficial Verbal and Quantitative scores right away, but not your Analytical Writing score, which is still being evaluated.

You then have two paths. You can decline to send anything for now, or you can use your four free score reports. For each free report, ETS offers two choices: Most Recent, which sends the test you just took, or All, which sends every General Test administration from the last five years.

Once you leave the test, sending scores means ordering Additional Score Reports through your ETS account. The fee page lists these at $40 per recipient, and ETS lets you order them at any point while your scores remain reportable.

Later orders unlock a third choice. Along with Most Recent and All, you can pick Any, which sends one administration or any combination you like from the last five years. That is the option most retakers want, because it lets you send, say, your second and third attempts but not your first.

ETS says an order cannot be canceled, changed, or refunded after you submit it, and processing takes about five business days. Double-check the recipient and the dates before you pay.

According to ETS, an institution score report includes your contact details, date of birth, gender, intended graduate major, and the test dates and scores you selected, along with their percentile ranks. It leaves out the other schools you sent scores to, any scores you chose not to report, and any sign that you took additional GRE tests.

One detail matters for retakers. ETS makes your test-day photo and your Analytical Writing responses available to recipients through the ETS Data Manager for each administration you select. If you send two test dates, a program can read both essays, not just see two numbers.

ScoreSelect does not override a program's own rules. ETS notes that some programs require applicants who tested more than once to report all of their GRE administrations, and it recommends checking each program's requirements before you send anything.

If a program asks for everything, the All option exists for exactly that case. For programs without such a rule, ETS's guidance to institutions lists several ways departments may handle multiple scores, including taking the most recent, the highest, or an average. Knowing a program's approach tells you whether sending an extra date could help or hurt.

The fee page lists no separate charge for ScoreSelect itself. What costs money is the reports: four are included with the test fee if you name the recipients on test day, and ETS says that if you skip them, sending later costs a fee per recipient.

At the current $40 rate, waiting to send four reports would cost $160, before any taxes or service fees that apply to your order. That is a real trade-off against the flexibility of the Any option, and it is worth deciding in advance rather than at the end of a long test.

Suppose your first attempt was clearly weaker and your second is the one you want schools to see. If none of your programs requires every score, ordering reports later with Any, or choosing Most Recent on test day, keeps the first sitting out of view.

Now suppose your two attempts split: a better Verbal score on the first, a better Quant score on the second. ScoreSelect cannot merge them. You would either send the single test date that is stronger overall for each program, or send both and let the program apply its own method, which ETS notes may be the highest, the most recent, or an average.

Finally, suppose a program's instructions say to report all GRE scores. Choose All for that recipient. You can still use Most Recent or Any for other programs, because ETS lets you make the choice separately for each report.

If you have no strong earlier result, using the free reports with Most Recent is often reasonable: you will have seen your Verbal and Quant numbers before choosing, and those are usually what you retook for. The unknown is your writing score.

If you already hold a good earlier score and want to protect it, sending nothing on test day keeps every option open. You can then use Any once official scores arrive. Programs that insist on all scores simply get the All option, whenever you send.

RetakePrep's practice exam gives you a readiness score before you book, which can help you decide ahead of time how confident you will feel about sending Most Recent on the day.