How many times can you take the GRE?

You can take the GRE General Test once every 21 days, up to five times within any continuous rolling 12-month period. The limit applies even if you canceled your scores on a previous attempt. Scores remain reportable for five years.

Do MBA programs see how many times you took the GRE?

They see only the administrations you send. On test day you can send your most recent scores or all scores from the past five years for free (four reports); after test day, ETS's Additional Score Reports cost $40 per recipient and include an 'Any' option to send exactly the administrations you choose.

How much does it cost to retake the GRE?

The test fee is $220 in most of the world and $231.30 in China, rising to $249 on August 1, 2026. Rescheduling an existing booking costs $55, and each Additional Score Report after test day costs $40 per recipient.

What GRE scores do top MBA programs expect?

Harvard Business School's Class of 2027 reports GRE medians of 164 Verbal and 164 Quantitative, with 44% of the class submitting a GRE. London Business School weighs the GRE and GMAT equally and suggests roughly 163-164 per section as a working target. Evaluate each section separately - ETS does not report a combined GRE total score.

How long after the test do GRE scores arrive?

Official scores appear in your ETS account 8-10 days after test day, and ETS sends institution score reports to your designated recipients at that time. Factor this window plus the 21-day retake wait into any deadline planning.

Should You Retake the GRE?

Should you retake the GRE?

Retake the GRE if either section score sits below the published medians at your target schools and your earliest deadline is more than 31 days away; skip the retake if both sections already clear every median on your list. A second attempt costs $220 and a 21-day wait, and ETS's ScoreSelect rules mean schools see only the administrations you choose to send, so the decision rests on the score gap and the calendar.

What are the rules for retaking the GRE?

Rule	Detail
Wait between attempts	21 days
Attempts allowed	5 in any rolling 12-month period — attempts with canceled scores still count
Cost per attempt	$220 inm os t o f t h e w or l d ($ 231.30 in China); rising to $249 on August 1, 2026
Official scores arrive	8–10 days after test day
Score validity	5 years
What schools see	Only the administrations you send (ScoreSelect)

One timing detail: the same retake booked on or after August 1, 2026 costs $29 more.

Do business schools see every GRE attempt?

No. GRE score reporting is opt-in per administration through ETS's ScoreSelect option:

On test day, you get four free score reports and two choices: send your Most Recent scores (that day's) or All scores from the past five years. You can also decline to send any and decide later.
After test day, Additional Score Reports cost $40 per recipient with a third choice — Any: exactly the administrations you pick, and nothing else.
Once a report request is submitted it cannot be canceled or changed, so the test-day All option is the one to handle carefully if an earlier attempt went badly.

The practical consequence: a weak first attempt does not follow you. If you retake and improve, you can send only the stronger administration; the report a school receives contains just the administrations you selected.

When is a retake worth the 21 days?

Either section is below your target schools' medians. Harvard Business School's Class of 2027 reports GRE medians of 164 Verbal and 164 Quant, with 44% of the class submitting a GRE. London Business School states it weighs the GMAT and GRE equally and suggests roughly 163–164 in each section as a working target alongside its 702 GMAT average; LBS publishes no official GRE class average.
Your sections are unbalanced. The same scaled score carries very different weight per section: a 164 is the 93rd percentile in Verbal but the 63rd in Quant (ETS data, July 2022–June 2025 test takers). Evaluate each section against its own percentile table — ETS reports no combined GRE total score, so an informal "328" can hide a Verbal-Quant imbalance that section-level medians expose.
Your gap is in Quant, at almost any level. Quant percentile gains stay steep all the way up the scale because scores pile up near the ceiling: moving from 164 to 170 lifts you from the 63rd to the 89th percentile — roughly four percentile points per scaled point. A Quant retake keeps paying right up to a perfect score.
You're already at the median but applying to a long school list. A score above a school's median still adds real value across a multi-school application: it protects options at the most selective programs on your list, strengthens merit-scholarship cases, and offsets softer parts of a profile. A higher score is worth having even after you clear a median.

When should you skip the retake?

Both sections clear every median on your list. Further points still help at the margin, but past this line the tradeoff becomes real: the same weeks might be worth more in your essays and interview preparation. Make that call deliberately, not by default.
Your earliest deadline is under 31 days away. The 21-day mandatory wait plus 8–10 days of score processing means a retake booked today can't reliably deliver scores inside a month. The full backward-planning arithmetic is worked through in when to take the GRE for MBA applications.
Your gap is Verbal above 166. Verbal percentiles compress hard at the top: 166 is already the 96th percentile, and each further point buys roughly one percentile more. If Quant is at or above target, that effort is better spent elsewhere in the application.
You can't name what capped the last attempt. A retake with the same preparation reproduces the same score. Before booking, identify the specific cause — pacing, a content area, test-day conditions — and change the plan to address it. If you can't diagnose it alone, that is exactly the situation working directly with an experienced coach is designed to fix.

How do you make the call in one pass?

Compare each section score to the medians of every school you're applying to; check your earliest deadline is at least 31 days out; confirm you can say specifically what will be different this attempt. Three yeses make the retake close to a free option — with ScoreSelect, the downside is $220 and three weeks, not your application. The framework reflects 15+ years of coaching MBA candidates through this exact decision.