GRE Test Pattern:
The Graduate Record Examinations or popularly known as GRE is an exam which is taken by the test takers to get admission
in the various international grad schools. The GRE can be broadly classified into two types;
- GRE general test
- GRE subject test
The GRE general test is a standardized test with mainly three sections which are
- Analytical writing
- Verbal reasoning
- Quantitative reasoning
On the other hand, the GRE subject test is taken by the test takers to establish their knowledge in a specific field.
The different subject tests that are being conducted include,
- Chemistry
- Biology
- Mathematics
- Psychology
- Literature in English
- Physics
How score is calculated?
When it comes to the GRE general test the scoring pattern for each of the categories are described below;
- Analytical Writing: For the Analytical writing part, scoring is done on a scale of 0 to 6 with
half-point increment. That means one can get the lowest score of 0 and the highest score of 6. Also, you can score
4.5 or 5.5, but you can’t get a score of 4.25 in the Analytical writing section. In this context to be mentioned,
there are two human graders for the paper based GRE test. And for the computer based test, there is one human
grader and one e-grader. And when there seems to be a conflict between the human and computer grading, one more
human grader is called in. - Verbal Reasoning: the Verbal reasoning part, scoring is done on a scale of 130 to 170 with one
point increment. That means, the lowest possible mark that can be obtainedis 130, and the highest one is 170.
After 130, the next score would be 131. You can’t get 130.5. To increase your GRE verbal score within a month,you
need to deal with as many practice tests as possible.Get Free verbal practice tests here. - Quantitative Reasoning: the Quantitative reasoning part, the scoring pattern is similar to Verbal,
i.e. scoring is done on a scale of 130 to 170 with one point increment. To improve your GRE Quant score in a month,
you must take the GRE practice tests. They would increase the level of familiarity and help you to achieve a good
score. Get Free Quantitative practice tests here.
Alternatively, in GRE subject tests, the scoring is done on a scale of 290 to 990 with 10 point increment. That
means, the lowest you can get is 290, and the highest you can get is 990. Scores would increase in the pattern
of 290, 300, 310, likewise.The score sending procedure for GRE subject test is same as the GRE general test. The
subject test scores are available after 4 to 5 weeks of the test, and you can send your scores for free to any
four institutes of your choicewith the help of the score select option. To send your scores to more than four grad
schools, you need to pay $27 for each application.
What is Score select option in GRE?
The GRE score select option gives a lot of control in the hands of the test takers. While registering for the GRE
exam, you can select through the score select option which score you wish to send to the grad schools. It can either
be the score of your latest GRE test, or it can be the best score among all the GRE tests you have taken. Therefore,
the score select option gives a preference of choice to the test taker to decide his preferable score. In case
you can’t find your desired grad school on the list of universities, y ou need to inform to the concerned person,
may be the person who monitors the testcenter.
What is GRE score report?
The GRE score report is basically the report which contains your official GRE scores. When it comes to the GRE general
test, you would receive your raw scores of the Verbal and Quantitative sections right after your computer based
GRE exam is completed. But these scores are not the official scores. To get your official GRE scores, you need
to wait for 10 to 15 days. After almost 15 days, your official GRE scores would be available in your ETS account
. For the paper based GRE test, there is no option to receive your raw scores, and you can only view your official
GRE scores in your ETS account after 4 to 5 weeks. Now if you’re wondering, how you can send your scores to the
grad schools then let us tell you that there are two ways.
- The first option is to send your scores on the test day itself. To do that you need to opt for the computer based
test. After the completion of the computer based GRE test, you would get your raw scores of the Verbal and Quant
sections. You can send these scores for free of cost to four grad schools from the test center. And there are
no restrictions with the score you are sending. You can send your latest scores, you can send your best score,
or you can even send all of your scores. But you can’t mix the scores of any two tests. You might have scored
very well in Verbal, but the Quant score for that particular session of GRE was not up to the mark. In such a
case, you can’t mix the two scores. We suggest you to send only your best GRE scores. - The other way of sending scores is by getting additional scores. You can get additional score reports through your
ETS account and send them to your desired grad schools. But to do that you would have to pay $27 for each new
score report. ETS takes a maximum of 10 days to send your additional score reports.
In this context to be mentioned, sometimes your official scores might differ from your raw scores; but the difference
would not be macroscopic, and so it is advisable to send your scores on the test day itself. To get an idea about
the scoring process you might take the power prep tests one or two days prior to the test. In that way, you would
get habituated and the impact would be reflected in your test scores.
What is average GRE score?
The average GRE score keeps changing as it depends on the question type and the number of test takers. But on an
average, it can be said that the average GRE score varies in the range of 300 to 305. When it comes to grad schools,
the average score differs on the basis of courses and subjects. But it can be said that the standard grad schools
prefer 150 to 152 score in both Quant and Verbal sections. And for the Analytical writing section, a score more
than 3.5 is considered to be good. When it comes to the best business schools in the world, they typically prefer
scores in the range of 325 to 330, which is quite high compared to the grad schools. In this context to be mentioned
that, if the students are aiming for the best grad schools or the best business schools, then they should not limit
themselves within average scores and try to achieve better scores. Average scores would not help them to get admission
to the top schools.
Are you targeting Harvard? If so then here is a list which we’ve prepared to help you in understanding the level
of scores Harvard accepts. Take a look;
| Subject | Average Verbal Score | Average Quant Score |
|---|---|---|
| Biology | 157-162 | 159-165 |
| Computer Science | 150-155 | 156-162 |
| Economics | 158-164 | 165-170 |
| English | 161-165 | 154-158 |
| Mathematics | 158-162 | 168-172 |
| Physics | 160-165 | 157-170 |
| Chemistry | 157-162 | 165-170 |
To clear your doubts further, we’re listing here the average as well as goodand topscores for all three sections
of GRE;
| Name of section | Top score | Good score | Average score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Analytical writing | 5 -6 | 3.5 �” 4.5 | 3.5 – 4 |
| Verbal reasoning | 162-170 | 155-161 | 150-154 |
| Quantitative reasoning | 165-170 | 155-165 | 150-155 |
How to interpret the scores of GRE practice tests?
If you’re a potential GRE test taker, then you probably know that there are tons of GRE practice tests available
in the internet. Some of these tests are free, and some are paid. These tests can help you in a large way to boost
your GRE scores. But you need to be careful in choosing the practice tests. Not all GRE practice tests show the
right score. If you’re practising with the mock tests of Kaplan, Princeton and ETS, then you can be sure that your
scores are calculated correctly. Other than that, you should be very alert. The practice tests offered by McGraw
Hill are also very effective as they try to maintain the difficulty level of actual GRE tests in order to make
sure that the students are properly prepared for the exam. The scoring patterns of these tests are also accurate.
How to get a good score in GRE?
The secret to get a good score in GRE is to practice more and more. There are various study plans available in the
internet and you can choose one, concerned with your time limit. If you’ve a duration of 6 months in your hand,
then here is a 6-month GRE study plan
Normally, most of the test takers start preparing for GRE before three months. Here we’re providing the link to
a 3-month study plan.
In case, if you only have a time period of 1 month left to prepare yourself and you’re getting anxious, then there
is a solution for that as well. Here is 1-month GRE study plan.
Without proper preparation, it is impossible to get a good score in GRE. So, never even think of sitting for the
GRE test without the right level of preparation.
What is GRE percentiles?
ETS awards score percentiles to all individuals appearing for GRE. The percentiles vary from 1 till 99 in the Verbal
Section and from 1 till 97 in the Quantitative Section of the examination. Scoring a 99 percentile means you are
in the top 1 percent of the test takers and you are ahead of 99 percent of the test-taking populace
If you’re confused and can’t understand how to calculate the GRE percentiles for the Quant and Verbal sections,
then here is a table that would help you in figuring out the whole thing;
| Score | Verbal Percentile | Quant |
|---|---|---|
| 170 | 99 | 97 |
| 169 | 99 | 96 |
| 168 | 98 | 94 |
| 167 | 98 | 92 |
| 166 | 97 | 91 |
| 165 | 96 | 89 |
| 164 | 94 | 87 |
| 163 | 93 | 84 |
| 162 | 91 | 81 |
| 161 | 88 | 78 |
| 160 | 86 | 76 |
| 159 | 83 | 73 |
| 158 | 80 | 69 |
| 157 | 76 | 66 |
| 156 | 73 | 62 |
| 155 | 69 | 59 |
| 154 | 65 | 55 |
| 153 | 61 | 51 |
| 152 | 56 | 47 |
| 151 | 52 | 43 |
| 150 | 48 | 38 |
| 149 | 43 | 35 |
| 148 | 39 | 30 |
| 147 | 35 | 27 |
| 146 | 31 | 24 |
| 145 | 27 | 20 |
| 144 | 24 | 17 |
| 143 | 20 | 14 |
| 142 | 17 | 12 |
| 141 | 15 | 10 |
| 140 | 12 | 8 |
| 139 | 9 | 6 |
| 138 | 8 | 4 |
| 137 | 6 | 3 |
| 136 | 4 | 2 |
| 135 | 3 | 2 |
| 134 | 2 | 1 |
| 133 | 2 | 1 |
| 132 | 1 | �” |
| 131 | 1 | �” |
| 130 | �” | �” |
Source:https://www.prepscholar.com/gre/blog/gre-score-percentiles/
You can notice from the above table that, the percentiles for Verbal and Quant modules are different. A perfect
score 170 is considered as 99 percent ile for Verbal section, whereas 170 is considered to be 97 percentile in
Quant section.
Everything you need to know about the scoring pattern of paper based GRE?
Apart from the computer based GRE test, there is another mode of GRE exam and it is called the paper based GRE test.
There are still some test takers who’re more comfortable with pen and paper. And also there are certain test centers
where it is still not possible to arrange computer based tests; the paper based GRE test is handy for those places.
These tests can be taken by test takers only thrice a year and in the months of October, November and February.
The scoring pattern of paper based test is similar to the computer based test. But the disadvantage of the paper
based test is, test takers can’t view their raw scores or unofficial scores right after the exam. We’ve already
mentioned that for computer based GRE test, the unofficial scores of Verbal and Quant are visible to the test takers
right after the test and they can send them to universities as well. But this facility is unavailable for the paper
based test and you can only view your scores on your ETS account after 4 to 5 weeks. So, if you’re planning to
sit for the paper based GRE test, make sure that you would be able to meet the deadlines of your desired grad schools
and plan your schedule accordingly.
In this context to be mentioned, the GRE test does not penalize you for wrong answers. Your score would be calculated
onlyon the basis of the number of questions you’ve answered correctly.
What is raw score in GRE?
The raw scores in GRE are the unofficial scores you receive after the completion of your computer based test. The
raw scores are typically based on the number of questions you’ve attempted in the test. As you know, there are
40 questions in both Verbal and Quant sections each. The raw scores are based on how many right answers you’ve
given. But when your official scores appear on the ETS website, you’ll see that your scores are scaled on a scale
of 130 to 170. Also, the raw scores depend on the overall difficulty level of the question paper. You by yourself
can make rough estimates and convert your GRE raw scores into official scores. For example, if 35 out of 40 questions
are right, then you can expect the official score to be 165 out of 170. This is applicable for verbal and quant
sections. But for the Analytical Writing section, it is hard to make a prediction. That is because this section
is descriptive and the raw scores are not available after the completion of the exam. But keep in mind one thing,
predictions can sometimes mislead you. There is always the probability of change in the official scores.
How long are the GRE scores valid?
The GRE test scores are valid or reportable for the next five years. If you’ve taken your GRE test on or after 01/07/2016,
your GRE score would be valid till 01/07/2021. That means 2016 scores are reportable or valid till 2021. But a
GRE score which was earned prior to July 2012 the score is not part of the reportable history, i.e. score earned
prior to July 2012 are no longer reportable.
While concluding, we must tell you that there are certain business schools which also support GRE scores for admission.
On an average, more than 60% of the top business schools are now accepting GRE scores to enroll students in MBA
courses. Also, not all graduate courses require GRE scores. Here is a URL to the graduate programs which don’t require GRE
The test takers require to be calm and believe in themselves. We wish you all to get good scores in GRE.
