How will the graduate committee regard two different TOEFL or GRE scores sent to them?

Question

Suppose a student gets two GRE and toefl scores and he can't decide which scores are more suitable for sending, so he sent all of them anyway. The students may want to decide recipients of their scores even before they know their scores just to save money(ETS allows up to 4 free recipients but they must be decided before or on test dates). His scores are: GRE >V 152 Q 168 AW 3.5 >V 158 Q 164 AW 3.0 The student improved his score a lot in verbal reasoning and dropped in Quantitative Reasoning and analytical writing since he focused too much on the preparation of verbal reasoning. TOEFL >Reading 29 listening 27 Oral 20 Writing 25 >Reading 27 listening 24 Oral 24 Writing 25 The total score of the first one is greater but the second one is better in speaking session, which is important for getting TAships. My question is, in such cases, how will the graduate committee consider this student's scores. Will they feel annoyed by having to look at two ETS transcripts? Will they only look at the latest scores?

Answer 1

Typically, the larger state schools just look at the scores and move on. However, the smaller colleges and universities try to carefully select their student body and take the time to get to know their applicants. There is no one answer for all schools. They look to see that you will succeed and thrive in their schools and different schools focus on different measures.