Took GRE two times, same scores with minor differences - worth sending both?

I actually think that sending both tests would be detrimental for your application:

  • it decreases the ratio of signal to noise in your application
  • [opinion based] it shows the lack of improvement in your math and verbal scores over the year (which would be my interpretation if both results are sent) as opposed to your intent to show the will to improve
  • generally adds confusion

Since your most recent result is in all aspects better/equal (I don't count 153/154 to be different, while 6 on the essay is much better than 5) than the previous one, I strongly suggest sending only the newest GRE score.


Differences in GRE scores verbal or quantitative scores which are smaller than three have no meaning. For analytical writing, differences of 0.5 are meaningful. Therefore your second score is better. However, for your field of research, the writing score is probably not given much weight.

I do not find Anton's arguments convincing, so I conclude that sending both scores or only sending the last score are equally good options. The prices are also the same.

Reference: https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_guide_reliability_sem.pdf