Note that most grad programs pay little or no attention to your AW score unless they're writing-centered programs, like a creative writing MFA. In contrast, humanities and social sciences programs would likely place more emphasis on your Verbal (and possibly AW) score.
For example, if you were applying to STEM programs, you'd want to focus on earning a high Quant score (and at least an average Verbal score). Many grad programs only look at one section score or weigh one section much more heavily. In general, you should focus on scoring well in the GRE section that's most closely tied to your field of study. This requires you to research the programs you want to apply to. But before you can set a target GRE score, you need to figure out which scores will be used and how they'll be used. Many schools weigh GRE scores in their graduate admissions processes. Source: ETS How Will Your GRE Scores Be Used? Source: ETS GRE Analytical Writing Percentiles, 2017-20 Percentile GRE Verbal and Quantitative Reasoning Percentiles, 2017-20 Percentile Some GRE scores are estimates based on available percentile data.
Note that percentiles for scores can change slightly from year to year. Refer to the tables below for a look at good GRE scores based on percentiles from individuals who took the test between 20. For example, a 160 Quant score corresponds to the 70th percentile, meaning you outscored 70% of test-takers (but scored lower than 30%). Your percentile indicates how well you performed compared to all other test-takers. In addition to the scaled score, every GRE score has a corresponding percentile rank. Here are the median scores for each GRE section based on 2017-20 test-taking data: The Verbal and Quant sections are scored in 1-point increments on a scale of 130-170, whereas the AW section is scored in half-point increments on a scale of 0-6. The GRE consists of three sections: Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, and Analytical Writing (AW). This is especially true for whichever test section is most relevant to your field of study. Nevertheless, many graduate programs will expect above-average scores, often in at least the 75th percentile. While there's no blanket cutoff that directly constitutes a good GRE score, in general any score above the 50th percentile, or median, can be considered a good score, since this would mean you did better than at least half of all test-takers. In other words, what qualifies as a good GRE score for you will depend entirely on the programs you're applying to. If you plan to apply to grad school, you're probably wondering, "What is a good GRE score?" The short answer is, it depends.īecause graduate programs maintain different admission requirements, GRE score expectations can vary greatly by school and field of study.
The GRE General Test, or GRE, is the most commonly required admission test for U.S.