How is the GRE Score Calculated?

GRE is the only standard admission test in the world that is accepted for admission to business programs and graduate courses including MS programs in universities abroad. So, if you wish to study abroad, taking the GRE General Test has to be in your plans. Given the current level of competition, merely taking the GRE is not sufficient. You need a good GRE score, especially if you aim to get into a top-ranked college in the world.
How do you get an ideal GRE score? One, by preparing exhaustively, and two, by being conversant with how GRE scores are calculated. We focus on the latter in this post.

 How is the GRE Score Calculated?

In most places, GRE is a computer-based exam, but in a few regions, the test is paper-based. In both mediums, the GRE General Test has three main sections -

1. Verbal Reasoning
2. Quantitative Reasoning
3. Analytical Writing

The Score Scale for them is - 

How is the GRE Sectional Score Calculated?

To help you understand how the GRE sectional scores are calculated, let us first explain what ‘measures’ are. The three sections of the GRE test - Verbal, Quantitative, and Analytical - are known as ‘measures’. Now, the computer-delivered GRE test is adaptive, i.e., if you perform well in the first measure/section, that is, in the analytical writing section, then the next measure/section, for example, a quantitative section, will be more difficult. The paper-delivered GRE is not adaptive. It is why the scores of each GRE is calculated a bit differently. 

Computer-Delivered Test Scoring Method

Both the Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning sections have 2 measures. All the questions asked within them are worth the same points. How well you score in verbal and quantitative reasoning depends upon:

Performance on the Questions Asked

The Number of Questions Answered in the Time Allotted

GRE Verbal Score Calculation

Based on the number of questions you answer correctly, you get a raw score. This raw verbal score is converted into a scaled score. For this, GRE uses equating. The equating process ensures that the variations in different test editions and difficulty levels don’t impact your score.
For instance, on a particular day, the difficulty level of the test you take is higher than that of the test that happened a few weeks ago. Equating makes certain that your score isn’t lower than the score of those who took the previous test. 

Quant Score Calculation

The GRE quant score is calculated exactly as the verbal score. You get a raw score which is computed on the basis of correct answers. That is converted into a scaled version by equating.

What is the importance of GRE score in abroad admissions?

How Does Adaptive Testing Impact the Score?

Let’s say A got 12/20 questions correct on the first Quant measure. In the second measure, A got perfect 20/20 points. B, on the other hand, scores 18/20 in the first measure and 14/20 on the second. 
Both A & B answered the same number of correct questions 32/40, yet A’s score won’t be as high as that of B. 
This is because GRE is an adaptive test. B had to answer more difficult questions in the second measure because he/she performed fairly well in the preceding measure. Therefore, B will have a slightly higher final score.

Analytical Writing Score Calculation

AW has two essays - the "Issue" task and the "Argument" task. A trained reader reviews and scores you on the basis of the overall quality of each essay. The reader places major emphasis on critical thinking and analytical writing skills instead of grammar and mechanics, e.g. spelling.  Besides the trained reader, a computer program, known as e-rater, also reviews the essays. 

Now, There are 2 Possibilities - 

1. The human reader and the computerised program allot you similar scores in an essay. In this case, the average of the two scores becomes your final score for that particular task.
2. The human reader and the e-rater grant you varied scores in an essay. In this case, another human reader is called in to review the essay. The final score for that task is the average of the marks given by the two human readers.

The marks you obtain on the two essays are then averaged to report a single score. It becomes your final Analytical Writing score.

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Read more about: How to Calculate SGPA: Calculations Simplified

Paper-Delivered Test

The paper-delivered GRE is not adaptive. Therefore, its GRE test score calculator works a little differently. 
You get a raw score in the Verbal and Quantitative sections based on the number of correct answers. The raw score is turned into a scaled version through the equating process to make sure that any variations between the distinct test editions are evened out. 
For the Analytical Writing section, two trained GRE readers are used to allot marks for both the essay tasks. The paper-test doesn’t utilise the e-rater computer program to judge the essays. The human readers check your critical thinking and writing ability. The two scores assigned by the readers are then averaged out.
In case the score they assign “differs by more than one point on the scale,” then a third reader is roped in.  The rest of the scoring system in the AW section is the same as in the computer-based test.

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GRE Model Papers

How is the GRE Total Score Calculated?

The total scores for Verbal and Quantitative sections range from 130 to 170. The overall score of the AW section ranges from 0 to 6. The three parts of the GRE are scored separately. They are not added to make one composite score like in SAT.
In short, when the GRE test score is delivered, it has three scores for Verbal, Quant, and Analytical Writing.

To know more about How is the GRE Score Calculated?, click here.

What is the GRE Score Calculator Percentile?

Besides the total score, the Test Taker Score Report also has GRE scores percentiles. It tells you what percentage of test-takers scored lower than you. Take, for instance, you scored 94th percentile in the Quant section. It means your score was higher than 94% of all test takers.  
The higher the GRE score percentile, the more impressive your score.

What are the GRE Scores of Top Universities?

Listed below are the average GRE scores which top B-schools and US universities for MS in Engineering accept. Students applying to these universities should target these scores or even higher to boost their chances of getting an admit from these universities. 
 

Ideal GRE Scores for MS in Engineering for Top US Universities

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Ideal GRE Scores for Top MBA Colleges

Business Schools	Verbal Scores	Quant Scores	Writing Scores
Yale SOM	165	164	4.7
Stanford GSB	165	164	4.9
Harvard	164	164	NA
UCLA (Anderson)	164	164	4.5
UC-Berkeley (Haas)	164	161	5.0
Virginia (Darden)	162	161	5.0
NYU (Stern)	162	161	4.4
Cornell (Johnson)	161	161	4.5
Duke (Fuqua)	161	160	4.5
Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)	159	162	4.0

A Glimpse of Past GRE Average Performance

To help test-takers understand which score fell within which percentile, ETS published the average performance of students based on their marks. This will help students to understand how difficult it may be to score a particular mark in the test. The following data was compiled over a three-year period, from 2015 to 2018. 

GRE Score Percentiles

Scaled Scores	Verbal Reasoning Percentile Ranks	Quantitative Reasoning Percentile Ranks
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

 

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GRE Score Scales

Analytical Writing Scores	Analytical Writing Percentile Ranks
6.0	99
5.5	98
5.0	92
4.5	81
4.0	57
3.5	39
3.0	15

How to Send Your GRE Score to Schools?

It’s fairly easy to send your GRE score to colleges with the help of the Score Select option. You have two options:

On the test day, after you finish taking the computer-based exam, you can select to send either the most recent GRE score or all your GRE scores for the last 5 years. It is a free service that GRE offers. You can also choose to not send your GRE scores to any university.  

You can submit the scores after the test day by ordering additional score reports for a fee of US$27. Here, you can choose to send all/ the most recent/any score. 

For the computer-delivered test, you need to pick your free score recipients at the test center. For the paper-delivered test, the choice has to be made during registration. Here’s a self-explanatory video on how to send scores after taking the test.

A key point to remember when reporting your GRE score to colleges abroad is that there is no “total GRE score.” Universities are more interested in knowing how much you scored in each section of the GRE, rather than overall.

Check Also - Free IELTS Study Guide 

To Sum up GRE Score 

The GRE score average mentioned above gives you a reasonable idea of what to target. If you aim to be accepted by a top business school in the world or a great engineering program, a high GRE percentile (and score) is a must. It is one criterion you have to fulfil undoubtedly.

Knowing how to calculate the GRE score is one step to cracking a good score, familiarity with the syllabus is another, and preparing well for the test is the last.