Should you take the GRE Physics Subject Test in 2026?

For years the safe assumption was that the GRE Physics Subject Test (the "PGRE") was on its way out. That assumption is now wrong for several of the most selective programs. Harvard's Griffin GSAS physics page (accessed 2026-08-02) lists the Physics GRE as required, with the General GRE optional. UC Berkeley Physics (accessed 2026-08-02) has announced that the Physics GRE is required for Fall 2027 applicants — with the General test strongly recommended — and that both tests are required from Fall 2028. Caltech Physics (accessed 2026-08-02) lists the Physics GRE as required and the General GRE as recommended for Fall 2027 applicants.

At the same time, other strong programs remain optional, split by subfield, or explicitly refuse scores — UC Santa Barbara says scores are not required and not accepted for 2026 (accessed 2026-08-02). So whether you should take the test in 2026 depends almost entirely on your target list. If any program on it requires the PGRE — and at least three prominent ones now do — the decision is made for you.

If your mental model of the PGRE is a 100-question, roughly three-hour paper marathon, update it. Since September 2023 the test has been computer-delivered at test centers and at home, and the Physics test was shortened to fit a two-hour window, per ETS's subject-test-changes page (accessed 2026-08-02). Today ETS describes it as approximately 70 five-choice questions in 2 hours, per the ETS content and structure page (accessed 2026-08-02), which also lists the content weights: classical mechanics 20%, electromagnetism 18%, quantum mechanics 13%, atomic physics 10%, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics 10%, specialized topics 9%, optics and waves 8%, special relativity 6%, and laboratory methods 6%.

Scores are reported on the 200–990 scale in 10-point increments, tests taken since September 2023 add three percent-correct subscores (mechanics; electromagnetism; quantum mechanics and atomic physics), and scores are reportable for five years, per the ETS score-user page (accessed 2026-08-02).

Logistics for the 2026–27 cycle, per the ETS test dates page (accessed 2026-08-02): registration opens in July 2026, and the testing windows are September 14–27, 2026, then October 19 to November 1, 2026, then April 19 to May 2, 2027. Note the ordering problem that creates: for a Fall 2027 application, only the September and October–November windows fall before winter deadlines, so check each program's deadline against the score-reporting date for your window before assuming the spring window is usable.

The fee is $199 worldwide effective August 1, 2026, with a $55 reschedule fee and $40 per additional score report, per the ETS fees page (accessed 2026-08-02). If you test at home, ETS requires a desktop or laptop, a human proctor, a whiteboard rather than paper for scratch work, and — as of January 5, 2026 — a second camera, per the ETS at-home testing page (accessed 2026-08-02).

The research record on the PGRE is genuinely contested, and it is worth knowing both sides before deciding what an optional score is worth. The most-cited study, Miller, Posselt, Zwickl and colleagues in Science Advances (2019) (accessed 2026-08-02), reported that Physics GRE scores did not predict PhD completion in their multivariate analysis. Weissman's published comment (Science Advances, 2020) (accessed 2026-08-02) argued the analysis was undermined by statistical problems including range restriction and stratification bias, and the original authors replied in the same journal (accessed 2026-08-02). A later study by Verostek, Miller, and Zwickl (Physical Review Physics Education Research, 2021) (accessed 2026-08-02) found undergraduate GPA to be the strongest predictor of graduate grades in their sample, with the Physics GRE a small but statistically significant predictor of graduate course grades rather than of completion.

Two honest conclusions follow. First, the predictive value of the test for PhD outcomes is disputed among researchers, not settled in either direction. Second — and this is the part prep marketing tends to skip — we could not find any published study measuring whether voluntarily submitting a score to a test-optional program changes your admission odds. Anyone who tells you "a strong optional score always helps" is asserting something no one has measured. What you can read is each department's own signal: Maryland's FAQ says a submitted score should only help (accessed 2026-08-02), while UT Austin says an optional score is ignored unless you justify it in your statement of purpose (accessed 2026-08-02). Those are different policies and deserve different decisions. For a practitioner-level discussion of how programs weigh scores, the American Institute of Physics published Real Talk: GRE Scores and Physics Graduate Programs (accessed 2026-08-02).