The GRE + PA School

The GRE is not a requirement for every program, but it is still common as part of PA school applications. For most schools, it is not going to make or break your application, it is more of a checkmark. Since most PA programs are master's level, and that will eventually be true for all of them, they need a form of standardized testing to justify that level of education.

It also helps to show you can perform on standardized tests, because at the end of PA school you have to pass the PANCE. These are very different exams. The GRE is a strategy test and the PANCE is a knowledge test with some strategy mixed in, but the ability to handle a high-stakes standardized test still matters. Finally, schools use the GRE as a screening tool. It is not feasible to thoroughly evaluate thousands of applications, so requirements like the GRE help programs narrow the pool. Keep in mind these are my recommendations, and there are plenty of students accepted without stellar GRE scores.

This is a subjective question because many programs do not publish a required score or minimum. If a program does advertise a specific score or percentage, you need to at least hit that number, or your application will likely be discarded right away.

As a rule of thumb, aim for a combined score of 300 across the Verbal and Quantitative sections. The Writing portion does not really matter much for PA schools. You also want to try to score above the 50th percentile in each section. One good way to judge whether your score is competitive for a particular program is to look at whether they publish their class averages. Some schools post the average GRE scores or percentiles of their most recent incoming class, so you can aim to make yours comparable.

For most programs the GRE is more of a checkbox than anything else. It does not tell a program much about how you will perform in PA school or on the PANCE, so it is usually not the first thing they look at. A low score may get your application thrown out, but a high score is not going to make a huge impact on its own.

That also answers a common question: can a high GRE score make up for a lower GPA or a lack of healthcare hours? To a degree, testing well can be a strength, but your GRE score will not fully counteract weaknesses elsewhere. If your GPA does not meet the minimum, a great GRE score will likely not save the application, and the same goes for healthcare hours. Do well on the GRE, but do not put all your eggs in that basket.

If you do not do well the first time, retake it. One nice thing about the GRE is that you can take it as many times as you need, and programs generally look at your highest scores. The main downside is cost, since retaking is expensive. But the GRE is one of the easier parts of your application to improve compared to something like GPA, so trying again is usually worth it.

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This is a question I get a lot. Even though many schools no longer require the GRE, taking it can increase your chances by minimizing your competition. Think about it this way: if a school requires the GRE, it may receive 1,000 applicants who all took the test. If a school does not require it, that same school may get those 1,000 test-takers plus another 1,000 applicants who did not take it, so the pool is bigger and more crowded.

The more specific requirements a school has that you can meet, the higher your chances of landing an interview. Having a GRE score in hand simply qualifies you for more programs and removes one possible reason for a school to filter you out. So if you are on the fence, taking the GRE keeps more doors open.

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