GRE Exam Score 2023: Check Score Validity, Chart & GRE Total Score
Have you been aiming at scoring 320+ in your GRE exam? Or have you been wondering what exactly should you score to sail through your admissions?
No wonder with all the false information and rumours on the internet; you must have been confused about what exactly is a perfect GRE score. *Enter Yocket as your knight in shining armour*
Well, harsh or not, the GRE score is a filtering mechanism. How? Wait for it.
First, solve this question for us, and we shall give you a life changing answer at the the end of this article-
Sita and Geeta went to give their GRE papers. Given below is a representation of their verbal sections, you’ve to predict their GRE scores:
Section | No. of Correct Answers |
Verbal 1 (Medium) | 4 |
Verbal 2 (?) | 15 |
GRE Score | ? |
Section | No. of Correct Answers |
Verbal 1 (Medium) | 14 |
Verbal 2 (?) | 6 |
GRE Score | ? |
Let’s now hope you can come up with accurate results for Sita and Geeta’s GRE scoring chart!
Okay, no more building curiosity like reality TV shows, let’s dive in.
GRE Score at a Glance
Before delving further into the depths of good, and bad GRE scores, here is how the GRE score averages look like:
Section | GRE Score Range | Increment |
GRE Verbal Reasoning | 130-170 | 1 point |
GRE Quantitative Reasoning | 130-170 | 1 point |
GRE Analytical Writing | 0-6 | 0.5 points |
Now, with the minimum score being 130, and the maximum score being 170 in each section; the total GRE total score is entirely dependent on the Quantitative Reasoning and Verbal Reasoning sections. And therefore, the GRE exam score ranges from 260 to 340.
How would you score if you took the GRE today? Try taking this 30-minutes FREE diagnostic test to find out!
What is a Good GRE Score?
And now fasten your seat belts for we are going to answer one of the most anticipated questions- What’s a good GRE score? To answer this question in a very layman manner- a good GRE score is any score that can get you into your desired dream university. Period.
While most top tier universities and schools across the globe expect a GRE score of 300+, there are also colleges and particular programs accepting a GRE score of merely 270.
To make your minds stop boggling, here is a clear cut distinction between a good and bad GRE score:
GRE Scoring | Verbal Reasoning | Quantitative Reasoning | Analytical Writing |
Best GRE Score | 163-170 | 165-170 | 5.0-6.0 |
Competitive GRE Score | 158-162 | 159-164 | 4.5 |
Good GRE Score | 152-158 | 153-158 | 4.0 |
Below Average GRE Score | 151 or below | 152 or below | 3.5 or below |
Given below are also major-wise GRE scores to help you understand what is expected out of you in terms of your chosen major:
Major | Verbal Range | Quant Range | Writing Range |
Economics | 157-161 | 162-166 | 3.8 |
Chemistry | 156-160 | 163-167 | 3.7 |
Mathematics | 156-160 | 168-170 | 3.8 |
History | 159-163 | 150-154 | 4.1 |
Psychology | 155-159 | 151-155 | 3.9 |
English | 160-164 | 151-155 | 4.2 |
Sociology | 155-159 | 151-155 | 3.8 |
Suggested: Know About the GRE Subject Test
Average GRE Scores for Top Universities
Like we mentioned before- GRE helps universities “weed-out” applicants based on the program and university chosen. Although specific university cut-offs may be hard to find, you can always look at their average accepted GRE scores. And don’t you worry, we have compiled these averages for you:
University | Verbal (Average Score) | Quant (Average Score) |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 157 | 162 |
Stanford University | 158 | 163 |
University of California Berkeley | 155 | 161 |
University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign | 155 | 163 |
Carnegie Mellon University | 159 | 161 |
Georgia Institute of Technology | 155 | 161 |
University of Texas Austin | 155 | 160 |
University of Michigan Ann Arbor | 154 | 161 |
Cornell University | 160 | 162 |
Purdue University | 158 | 163 |
University of Southern California | 158 | 163 |
Another thing to note is that particular programs at specific universities might have their own GRE requirements. For instance, Sita scores an average score of 160 in Verbal Reasoning and about 147 in Quantitative Reasoning and is not able to get into Harvard for Economics. Geeta, on the other hand, scores 160 - Verbal and 166 - Quantitative, and gets herself into Economics Princeton!
Sita and Geeta might turn out to be your best friends by the end of this read, lol!
Suggested: Universities Accepting GRE Score 300-310
GRE Score Conversion
Listen - we get it. You may often wonder how the raw GRE score is converted to a scaled GRE exam score. This GRE scoring chart below might be your saviour for once and for all! To carefully, yes, carefully analyse your GRE total score (and Sita and Geeta’s); go through this table below.
Correct Answers (verbal/quant) | Raw GRE Score (verbal/quant) | GRE Scaled Score (verbal/quant) |
0 | 0 | 130 |
1 | 1 | 131 |
2 | 2 | 132 |
3 | 3 | 133 |
4 | 4 | 134 |
5 | 5 | 135 |
6 | 6 | 136 |
7 | 7 | 137 |
8 | 8 | 138 |
9 | 9 | 139 |
10 | 10 | 140 |
11 | 11 | 141 |
12 | 12 | 142 |
13 | 13 | 143 |
14 | 14 | 144 |
15 | 15 | 145 |
16 | 16 | 146 |
17 | 17 | 147 |
18 | 18 | 148 |
19 | 19 | 149 |
20 | 20 | 150 |
21 | 21 | 151 |
22 | 22 | 152 |
23 | 23 | 153 |
24 | 24 | 154 |
25 | 25 | 155 |
26 | 26 | 156 |
27 | 27 | 157 |
28 | 28 | 158 |
29 | 29 | 159 |
30 | 30 | 160 |
31 | 31 | 161 |
32 | 32 | 162 |
33 | 33 | 163 |
34 | 34 | 164 |
35 | 35 | 165 |
36 | 36 | 166 |
37 | 37 | 167 |
38 | 38 | 168 |
39 | 39 | 169 |
40 | 40 | 170 |
Suggested: GRE to GMAT score conversion guide
GRE Score Percentiles
The GRE score percentiles as elaborated by ETS will give you an idea how you fare well in comparison to other GRE takers. These percentile scores basically add value to your scaled scores.
Given below is the table having Verbal and Quantitative percentile scores:
Scaled Score | Verbal Percentile | Quantitative Percentile |
170 | 99% | 96% |
169 | 99% | 95% |
168 | 98% | 93% |
167 | 98% | 90% |
166 | 97% | 89% |
165 | 96% | 86% |
164 | 94% | 84% |
163 | 93% | 82% |
162 | 90% | 79% |
161 | 88% | 76% |
160 | 86% | 73% |
159 | 83% | 70% |
158 | 80% | 67% |
157 | 76% | 64% |
156 | 73% | 60% |
155 | 68% | 56% |
154 | 64% | 53% |
153 | 60% | 49% |
152 | 54% | 45% |
151 | 51% | 41% |
150 | 46% | 37% |
149 | 41% | 34% |
148 | 37% | 30% |
147 | 33% | 26% |
146 | 29% | 23% |
145 | 26% | 19% |
144 | 22% | 16% |
143 | 19% | 13% |
142 | 16% | 11% |
141 | 14% | 9% |
140 | 11% | 7% |
139 | 9% | 6% |
138 | 8% | 4% |
137 | 6% | 3% |
136 | 4% | 2% |
135 | 3% | 2% |
134 | 2% | 1% |
133 | 2% | 1% |
132 | 1% | 1% |
131 | 1% | 1% |
130 | 1% | 1% |
Moving on, here is how you can comprehend your GRE score for GRE Analytical Writing section:
Score Levels | Writing Percentile |
6.0 | 99% |
5.5 | 98% |
5.0 | 92% |
4.5 | 81% |
4.0 | 57% |
3.5 | 39% |
3.0 | 15% |
2.5 | 7% |
2.0 | 2% |
1.5 | 1% |
1.0 | 1% |
0.5 | 1% |
0.0 | 1% |
Suggested: GRE General vs GRE Subject Test
GRE Score Validity
Now that you’ve gained immense knowledge about the passing score for GRE and the maximum score on GRE, you might want to know how long is GRE score valid for?
The GRE score is valid for 5 years. To also answer- when do GRE scores come out? Your GRE scores come out within 15 days of giving your GRE exam.
Sample GRE Score Card
Well, we hope we haven’t drained you yet with this wholesome piece of information. To give your brains a little pictorial transition, given below is a sample GRE score card:
Suggested: How to Check Your GRE Score Report?
Prepare for GRE with Yocket Prep
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And well, not just that, Yocket Prep will offer you:
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- 7 GRE style tests (which are very difficult to get tbh), 40+ topic-wise tests, access to Priority Dashboard and much more than you can imagine through Yocket Prep+
The Takeaway
Well well, it’s time guys.
Sita and Geeta have had them all waiting while you were fixated into understanding their GRE scoring. While we can always hope you were able to predict Sita and Geeta’s scores, here’s what they actually got:
Section | No. of Correct Answers |
Verbal 1 (Medium) | 4 |
Verbal 2 (Easy) | 15 |
GRE Score (with a penalty) | 145 |
Section | No. of Correct Answers |
Verbal 1 (Medium) | 14 |
Verbal 2 (Hard) | 6 |
GRE Score (with a bonus) | 154 |
Hurray! if you predicted their scores right, and no worries, if you couldn't, we are here for you! Now, to understand John and Sarah’s score you must be aware that the GRE is section adaptive. Meaning based on your performance in the first section, the level of your difficulty will keep increasing or decreasing.
The major takeaways are:
- Your second section must always be Medium or Hard so as to avoid penalization.
- To avoid your second section to be easy, you must answer at least a minimum of 7-8 questions.
- The verbal and quantitative sections are scored similarly.
- You just cannot afford to be John, for a difference of even 2 marks will snatch away your dream university!
With all this humongous overload of information, you must be wondering- what should be my plan of action for GRE? Well, we would suggest the first and foremost thing would be to firmly choose your course of study and university. You can also always take consultation from our Yocket Study Abroad Experts if you might stumble at any stage of your entire study abroad process.
And next, to implement your plans you can start preparing for your GRE with the help of Yocket Prep which will give a great deal of study material as well as help develop a personalised strategy for yourself. So, why wait? Pull up your sucks, kid!
Frequently Asked Questions about GRE Scoring
1. What is the passing score for GRE?
Ans. The passing score for GRE is 130.
2. How to check GRE score?
Ans. You can check your GRE score through the official website of ETS.
3. What is the GRE score reporting fee?
Ans. The GRE score reporting fee is 27 USD or 2,010 INR.
4. What is full score GRE?
Ans. The full score GRE is 340.
5. GRE score is valid for how many years?
Ans. The GRE score validity is 5 years from the date of taking the test.