[CalmLogic]

As an alternative to the GRECS, I guess you could do research on your own and write a short 2-page "poster paper," submit it to international conferences/journals, and if your paper was accepted by January/February, you could let the CS departments that you are applying to know that your paper was just accepted.

But unless you already have a reseach paper in mind, your best bet may be to take the GRECS exam, especially since it may be too late to apply for summer research internships.

As far as how beneficial it could be, it all depends on the score. All CS departments will give it due consideration. So I would recommend you take it unless you have a better way to improve your profile. Just don't have the scores automatically reported in case you get a low score.