Taking the subject test twice

[Dinstruction]

I saw a comment that the September and October verisons of the exam can sometimes share questions. Is this true?

And how would the most recent version of the subject test (GR1268) compare to the difficulty of recent exams? I think I saw someone say that a few of the questions were from an actual exam administered recently.

[p-adic]

(Unofficially,) I suspect they recycle a large number of the exam questions for a few years at a time, then release a recent test and change things up. The new test they just released is more or less the same exact test I took in April. A couple of the questions might have even appeared when I took the test in 2010, but most of it is different from then.

We're at the beginning of a cycle now, which means knowing the questions from September will undoubtedly help you for October. I think the difficulty this fall will be similar to the new test. I say this because having taken the test this year and 5 years ago, the tests were comparable in difficulty. That said, they're much more difficult than the released tests from the 90s.

[kevingee22]

(Unofficially,) I suspect they recycle a large number of the exam questions for a few years at a time, then release a recent test and change things up. The new test they just released is more or less the same exact test I took in April. A couple of the questions might have even appeared when I took the test in 2010, but most of it is different from then.

We're at the beginning of a cycle now, which means knowing the questions from September will undoubtedly help you for October. I think the difficulty this fall will be similar to the new test. I say this because having taken the test this year and 5 years ago, the tests were comparable in difficulty. That said, they're much more difficult than the released tests from the 90s.

I am going to be taking it in september, and I plan to sign up for the October one the same day if I feel that I did badly on the test ($25 additional late fee). Wouldn't this mean I had a significant advantage on the October test? Taking it to the extreme, what if I showed up to September and did all the questions but didn't hand it in (so my score wouldn't be processed, instead of having s low score on my record) and then took the October one? I don't plan to do this but what is stopping people from doing so other than money?

[p-adic]

There's no point. You can use scoreselect, which means you choose what scores to submit. Back when I was applying, we didn't have this option. It just means you shouldn't submit scores to the 3 or 4 schools included in the price of the September test.