When should I take the GRE Psychology test?
August 2nd, 2009 | 
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I graduated in May with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. I’m cuurrently in Master’s program for psychology, which will take about 3 years. After that I would like to apply to a PhD program in education psychology, or something closely related to ed psyc. When should I take the GRE Psychology test? Should I take it now while all my undergraduate courses are still fresh in my mind or wait a year or two when I will have some graduate level work under my belt?
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GRE results are only good for five years, but if you’re going to be ready to apply to a PhD program in three years, you could go ahead and take it now. You’ll definitely do better when everything is fresh in your mind.
Check to make sure the programs you want to apply to require the Psychology Subject Test, though. Many programs just ask for the General Test.
I would really suggest taking it twice. Take it this fall under no pressure and then again the September in which you will be requesting application forms from doctoral programs. I worked in a laboratory for two years before returning for my Master’s and Doctorate. The two years delay actually improved my score and I wasn’t even taking advanced courses. It was just two years of experience leading to an understanding of the field instead of factual knowledge only. The fact that there was the preparation of having seen the test followed by real experience interacted to help me. The only preparation that I did each time was to thouroughly read the current intro text "Psychology" by Gleitman. I didn’t really study the text; I just read it with good concentration. I also took the practice tests online at ETS at the time. Now, I am a specialist in assessment and evaluation and design psychometric tests and questionnaires as well as consult on improvement of higher education.
Hey, just wanted to shout out that you have great answers to share with everyone here.
For your question, I am not aware that any doctoral programs that require a subject GRE, only the standard GRE. You might know differently.
If you must take the subject test (good luck, it was the hardest standardized test I ever had to take), take it after one or two years of graduate work.