Aramark wrote:Hey everyone!
So, GRE subject test scores just came out, and I got a 790 (77th percentile). I've registered already for the October one, but I think they give a partial refund for cancellation, and there's also the money saved from having to take a cab for an hour to and from the testing center. (Also with very busy classes + writing apps, there's probably not much time for studying, and chances are this would take up half a day) I'm kinda wondering whether it's worth it to retake or should I just settle for this and focus on other stuff.
As it stands my list is kind of up in the air. Some subset of top 6, probably MIT and Stanford for sure, then UCLA, Michigan, Cornell, Columbia, Madison, Penn, Northwestern, UIUC, Washington, and Twin Cities.
Also I guess this is a good place for our general collective angst.

I took the math GRE for a second time in September, and got an 810 (80th percentile). I really didn't prepare much more than I did last time, but I had the advantage of having taking a math GRE before and having gotten more sleep - both factors are seriously understated in how much they help. I improved from a 770 (74th percentile) in the October 2017 test.
Conventional wisdom (at least, among most of the posts that I've read on this website) seems to be that if you apply to top schools with at least an 800 or 80th percentile, if you get rejected it won't be because of the GRE. We're both basically on that borderline, so my guess is that it won't help our applications to schools like MIT and Stanford (which I'm also applying to), but it won't hurt either. If you're absolutely set on going to a top 6 school, then I'd suggest a retake and aim for around an 850, but a 790 is definitely high enough so your application won't get thrown out anywhere. Otherwise I'd say cancel and buy something nice with your $75, and celebrate never having to take a standardized test pretty much ever again!
That being said, I'm probably going to cancel, because taking the math GRE three times sounds awful, and I'd consider the top 6 schools reaches for me. I'm hoping that schools like Michigan, NYU, Duke, UCLA, and Caltech can be considered "matches" for me, which I believe an 810 is good enough for (someone please correct me if I'm wrong though).