What is the retake policy for the Test Prep GRE-Test exam and how many times can I retake it?

ETS lets you retake the GRE General Test once every 21 days, up to five times within any continuous rolling 12-month period. Those two numbers govern everything: the 21-day gap is counted from your previous test date, and the five-attempt cap is not a calendar-year allowance — it is a rolling window, so an attempt only stops counting against you once it is more than 12 months old. Every attempt is a brand-new registration at the full fee. The test is listed at $220 in the United States at the time of writing; ETS publishes its fees by country, and the price in your region may differ, so check the current fee table for your location before budgeting.

The rules, precisely

• 21-day spacing. You cannot sit the test again until 21 days after your last attempt — not 21 days after you receive scores, not 21 days after you register. The clock runs from test day to test day.
• Five attempts per rolling 12 months. If you have tested five times inside the last 12 months, you must wait until the oldest of those attempts ages out of the window, even if 21 days have passed since the most recent one.
• The rules apply even if you cancelled. An attempt you sat and later cancelled the scores for still counts toward both limits. There is no way to "un-take" a sitting.
• At-home and test-centre attempts are treated identically. The GRE General Test at home follows the same retake rules, the same spacing, and the same cap. Switching delivery format does not reset anything.
• Scores stay reportable for five years. Every score from every attempt remains on your record and reportable for five years after the test date, whether or not you ever send it anywhere.

What retaking actually costs

There is no retake discount and no discounted second attempt. Each sitting is the full fee again — at US pricing, two attempts are $440 and three are $660 before any other charges. On top of that, ETS charges fees to reschedule an appointment or to cancel at short notice, and those fees change over time; confirm the current amounts in ETS's fee table rather than relying on any figure quoted in a forum. The practical conclusion: treat the first attempt as a real attempt, not a paid rehearsal. A "let's see how it goes" sitting costs the same as a prepared one, consumes one of your five attempts, and starts the 21-day clock either way.

ScoreSelect changes the strategy — a little

The GRE's ScoreSelect option means a retake is less risky than it once was. When you report scores, you can choose to send your most recent scores, all of your scores, or scores from specific test dates (subject to what each institution accepts). So a weaker second attempt does not have to be sent to a school that accepts ScoreSelect choices. Two cautions keep this honest. First, some institutions ask applicants to submit all scores, and their instruction overrides your preference — always check each programme's stated policy. Second, as a consideration rather than a rule, admissions readers who do see a long string of attempts may wonder about it; retaking to fix a genuine shortfall is normal and common, retaking repeatedly for marginal gains is a weaker use of money and of your five attempts.

ScoreSelect has a cost angle too. On test day you can send scores to a small number of institutions free of charge; sending additional score reports afterwards costs extra per recipient, and that fee is charged per report, per school. If you are applying widely, the reporting fees across two or three test dates can quietly add up — another practical reason to make one sitting good enough to send everywhere, rather than scattering attempts and reports across an application season.

The 21 days between attempts: using them properly

The mandatory gap is only useful if it becomes a repair window. Start with evidence: your official score report and the diagnostic detail ETS provides show where the marks went — a quant section dragged down by data interpretation is a different problem from one lost to time pressure, and they need different fixes. Then study narrowly. Three weeks is enough to rebuild one weak topic family or to change a pacing strategy (for example, practising to bank time on early questions so the hardest ones are not rushed), but not enough to relearn the whole syllabus — which is precisely why a retake booked in hope, without a diagnosed fix, usually reproduces the first score with a second fee attached.

When a retake is worth it — and when it is not

A retake makes sense when you can name the problem. If illness, a disrupted at-home session, or running out of time on one section suppressed the first score, the fix is clear and a second attempt after focused repair work is rational. It also makes sense when your score sits just below the published range of the programmes you are applying to and you have identified a specific, trainable weakness — a quant topic family, say, or Analytical Writing structure. A retake is a poor bet when nothing will change between attempts: same preparation, same weaknesses, three weeks later. Scores rarely jump on familiarity alone, and each unchanged attempt burns fee money and window capacity you may need later in the application cycle.

Planning attempts against application deadlines

Work backwards. Unofficial scores for Verbal and Quant appear at the end of your session, but official scores — including Analytical Writing — take roughly 8–10 days to reach your account, and score reports then need to reach institutions. If a deadline is fixed, your last safe attempt is usually at least three weeks before it, and earlier if you want a retake buffer. Build the calendar honestly: attempt one early enough that a 21-day gap plus preparation time still leaves room for attempt two before the deadline. Candidates who test for the first time a fortnight before applications close have no retake option at all, whatever the policy allows — and steady timed practice beforehand, such as the free practice tests on Study4Pass, is how you make the first attempt the one that counts.

Before you book again, two background reads help: how difficult the GRE actually is for most candidates, and the average salary figures for GRE holders people cite when weighing the test’s value.

Between attempts, keep the preparation timed and section-scored — the free GRE practice tests on Study4Pass can help you judge when you are ready to book again.