After you finish the GRE, before you see your Verbal and Quant scores, ETS gives you the option to cancel. Most people should not cancel. But the option exists for a reason, and understanding when it is worth using requires knowing exactly what cancellation does and does not protect you from.
How Cancellation Works Mechanically
The cancellation prompt appears on screen after you complete the final section of your test. At this point, you have not yet seen your scores. You must make the decision based on how you felt the test went, not the actual numbers.
If you choose to cancel, your scores are not reported. They do not appear in your ETS account. They are not visible to any schools, now or in the future. Programs you designated as free recipients on test day will not receive anything.
Cancellation is immediate and applies to the entire sitting. You cannot cancel only one section. All three scores from that sitting (Verbal, Quantitative, and Analytical Writing) are cancelled together.
One important administrative detail: even if you cancel your scores, that test sitting still counts toward your limit of 5 attempts in a rolling 12-month period.
The Reinstatement Option
If you cancel and then change your mind, ETS allows reinstatement within 60 days of your test date. The reinstatement fee is $50. After the 60-day window, cancelled scores cannot be recovered under any circumstances.
Reinstatement returns the full score report to your ETS account as if it were a normal official score. The 8-10 day processing timeline applies from the reinstatement date, not the original test date.
The reinstatement option adds a layer of reconsideration. If you cancel in the moment and later realize the scores were likely fine, or if your backup plan falls through, you have 60 days to reverse the decision at a cost.
When Cancellation Makes Sense
Cancellation is rarely the right call. Most test-takers feel worse about their performance than the actual score reflects. Anxiety distorts self-assessment. The score on the screen frequently surprises people in a positive direction.
That said, some situations do warrant cancellation:
You had a technical or environmental disruption that genuinely affected your performance. Internet failure during a remote proctored test, a fire alarm at the testing center, significant illness. If something external went wrong in a way that prevented you from performing, a cancelled score protects you from a record that does not represent your actual ability.
You ran out of time significantly on multiple sections and know the score will be substantially below your range. If you got through 60% of the Quant section before time ran out, you already know the score is going to be far below your practice results. Cancelling avoids a permanent record of an outlier result.
Your preparation was incomplete and you know it. If you registered for a test date, showed up underprepared due to circumstances outside your control, and are planning a proper preparation cycle before retesting, a cancelled score is cleaner than a low score on record. You still lose the sitting toward your 5-attempt limit, but you avoid the low score record.
When Cancellation Is the Wrong Call
Cancelling because you felt nervous is almost always wrong. Feeling uncertain or anxious during a test does not predict a bad score. Many test-takers who describe their experience as a disaster produce scores in or near their target range.
Cancelling because you guessed on a few questions is wrong. Educated guessing is normal and expected. The adaptive format of the GRE means you will encounter hard questions. Getting some wrong does not mean you failed.
Cancelling because one section went badly is wrong. Strong performance in other sections can compensate. You will not know the balance until you see the scores.
Cancelling with the intention of immediately retaking without changing anything is wrong. If the same preparation produced today's performance, the retake will produce a similar result. Cancellation only helps if you plan to approach preparation differently.
What Schools See and Do Not See
Schools see only the scores you send them. A cancelled score does not appear in your ETS account and is therefore not reportable and not visible to anyone.
If you choose to keep your scores and use ScoreSelect to send specific test dates, schools see only the sittings you choose to send. They cannot see how many times you took the test, which sittings you withheld, or whether any sittings were cancelled.
This is worth stating directly: programmes cannot tell you cancelled a score. Cancelled scores leave no record in your reportable history. The only cost of cancellation is the sitting counting toward your 5-attempt annual limit and the test registration fee you paid.
The Decision Process at the Testing Center
You have a short window to make this decision on screen. The moment passes quickly. Think through it in advance so you are not making a reactive call under pressure.
The mental model to use: if you walked out of the test and someone asked "relative to your practice tests, how did that go?" and your honest answer is "significantly worse, and I can point to specific things that went wrong that are unlikely to happen again," then cancellation deserves consideration.
If your honest answer is "I don't know, it felt weird, I second-guessed myself a lot," keep the scores. You almost certainly performed closer to your baseline than it felt.
If your honest answer is "I think it went fine," keep the scores. You will see the numbers shortly after.
After Cancellation: What Comes Next
If you cancel, plan your next test date immediately. The 21-day cooldown between GRE attempts starts from your cancelled test date. You can register for the next available slot 21 days out.
Before retaking, understand what went wrong. If the cancellation was due to a logistics disruption, your preparation is likely intact and a quick retake makes sense. If the cancellation was because your preparation was genuinely incomplete, you need a structured study cycle before sitting again.
Our GRE study plan builds the preparation structure around your test date. Start with the GRE diagnostic to establish your baseline before beginning a new prep cycle. Running a full diagnostic after a cancelled test tells you whether your actual skill level is where you thought it was, or whether the cancellation revealed a preparation gap worth addressing.
The practice section is useful for targeted work on specific question types that contributed to the decision to cancel.
One More Thing on Reinstatement
The 60-day reinstatement window is a real option, not a theoretical one. If you cancel and then learn that the programs you are targeting have flexible score policies, or if your retake produces a score that is the same or lower than what you likely would have gotten on the cancelled sitting, reinstatement at $50 is worth considering.
You would need to request reinstatement through your ETS account before the 60-day window closes. Do not wait until day 59 to make this calculation. If reinstatement is a live possibility, check the math within the first two weeks.