GRE Scores Explained: Range, Sections and Percentiles

GRE scores come in three parts. Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning are each reported on a 130–170 scale in one-point steps, and Analytical Writing on a 0–6 scale in half-point steps. ETS does not report an official total, so the best possible result is 170, 170 and 6.0. To judge how strong a score is, look at its percentile rank.

This guide explains how each measure is scored, what ETS's percentile tables show, and how to read a score against the requirements of the programmes you are applying to.

The three GRE scores at a glance

If you do not answer at least one question in a measure, ETS reports NS (No Score) for that measure instead of a number.

Is there a GRE total score?

No. ETS reports the three measures separately and states that scores from different measures should not be compared directly, because each measure is scaled on its own. You may see Verbal and Quant added together into a single figure between 260 and 340. That number is plain addition, not an ETS score, and it hides the balance between the two measures — a 160 and a 160 and a 150 and a 170 both add up to 320.

So when someone asks for the maximum GRE score, the precise answer is 170 in Verbal Reasoning, 170 in Quantitative Reasoning and 6.0 in Analytical Writing. When a programme states a requirement, check which measure it refers to before comparing it with your own result.

How Verbal and Quantitative Reasoning are scored

The structure the score is built on

Since 22 September 2023, the GRE General Test has taken about 1 hour and 58 minutes, in five sections. Analytical Writing always comes first; the Verbal and Quantitative sections follow in any order. The official GRE test structure page sets out the timing:

Section-level adaptation

Verbal and Quant are section-level adaptive. The first section of each measure is of average difficulty, and the difficulty of the second section depends on your overall performance on the first: do very well on the first Quant section and the second will be harder. Within a section the set of questions is fixed: you can skip questions, mark them and come back, change answers and choose the order in which you work. The Quantitative Reasoning sections come with an on-screen calculator.

From correct answers to a scaled score

ETS starts with your raw score: the number of questions you answered correctly across the operational sections of a measure. Within each section, every question counts equally. The raw score is then converted to the 130–170 scale through equating, a process that accounts for small differences in difficulty between test editions and for the difference in difficulty introduced by the adaptive second section. As a result, a given scaled score reflects the same level of performance whichever second section you received and whenever you took the test.

Two practical points follow. Because only correct answers are counted, a wrong answer costs you nothing more than a blank, so leave nothing unanswered. And because the first section sets the difficulty of the second, and the scoring takes the difficulty of both sections into account, the first section of each measure deserves your full attention rather than a warm-up pace.

How Analytical Writing is scored

Analytical Writing is a single "Analyze an Issue" task, written in 30 minutes. ETS evaluates the essay on a 6-point holistic scale: the score reflects the overall quality of the response to the task, not a tally of separate features. The evaluation includes a score from e-rater, ETS's automated scoring engine, which identifies features of an essay related to writing proficiency. A single score from 0 to 6, in half-point steps, is reported.

Every essay is also reviewed by trained analysts using ETS's essay-similarity software and by experienced content experts, so text borrowed from elsewhere is a risk, not a shortcut. ETS publishes the scoring guide for the Issue task together with descriptions of each score level; reading them is the most direct way to see what separates a 4 from a 5.

What GRE percentiles mean

A percentile rank is the percentage of test takers in a reference group who scored lower than a given score. As of October 2026, the percentile ranks ETS uses on score reports are based on everyone who tested between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2025 — about 788,000 test takers in Verbal Reasoning, 791,000 in Quantitative Reasoning and 786,000 in Analytical Writing. ETS updates this interpretive information every year, so the same scaled score can carry a slightly different percentile on a later report.

The table shows why the two measures cannot be read the same way. A 160 in Verbal is higher than the score of 82% of the reference group; a 160 in Quant is higher than half of it. Even a perfect 170 in Quant sits at the 89th percentile, which means about 11% of the group scored 170, against roughly 1% in Verbal. The mean scores for the same group point the same way: 151.39 in Verbal Reasoning and 157.62 in Quantitative Reasoning.

Analytical Writing has its own table:

The mean Analytical Writing score for the group is 3.46. Between 3.0 and 4.5, each half point moves you more than 20 percentile places — from the 16th at 3.0 to the 40th, the 63rd and then the 85th — so that is the range where a modest improvement in the essay changes your standing most. All of these figures come from ETS's Interpreting Your GRE Scores guide and its interpretive data tables.

Reading a score report: a worked example

Take a report showing 157 in Verbal Reasoning, 163 in Quantitative Reasoning and 4.0 in Analytical Writing. On ETS's tables those scores sit at the 72nd, 60th and 63rd percentiles. Three things stand out:

• The Quant score is the higher number but the weaker relative result: 163 is above 60% of the reference group, while 157 in Verbal is above 72%.
• Added together, the two scores make 320 — a figure that says nothing about this balance, which is why it is better to quote and compare the measures separately.
• The essay score sits in the range where each half point counts most: a 4.5 would move it to the 85th percentile.

For an applicant to a programme with a strong quantitative focus, the useful conclusion is not "320 is fine" or "320 is not enough", but "Quant is the measure to raise, and the percentile table shows how far it has to move". ETS also notes that a scaled score represents about the same level of ability whenever it was earned, while its percentile rank can shift as the reference group changes.

What is a good GRE score?

A good GRE score is one that meets the expectations of the programmes on your list, and those expectations differ by programme. A practical way to set your own target:

1. Collect what each programme publishes. That may be a minimum for each measure, a typical range for admitted students, or nothing at all. Where nothing is published, ask the admissions office rather than relying on second-hand figures.
2. Split any combined figure into its two measures. If a programme or a classmate quotes a single number, ask how it divides between Verbal and Quant, because the same total can hide very different profiles.
3. Compare measures through percentiles, not raw numbers. A 158 in Verbal and a 162 in Quant look close on the scale, but on ETS's tables the first is at the 76th percentile and the second at the 57th.
4. Set a target per measure, then a practice target. Aim a few points above the published figure in the measure the programme stresses most, and track that measure in every practice test.

Getting, sending and choosing your scores

Scores appear in your ETS account 8–10 days after your test date. Your test fee includes four free score recipients, and the ScoreSelect option lets you choose which scores to send, either on test day or whenever you order score reports later. After a computer-delivered test you can also use the free GRE Diagnostic Service in your ETS account to see more detail about your performance on the Verbal and Quant questions. The GRE scores page on the ETS site links to each of these services.

Practising on the same scale

ETS's free POWERPREP Online practice tests let you try the official test design before test day. On NewEducare, GRE practice tests are scored on the same 130–170 and 0–6 scales, with the second Verbal and Quant sections adapting to your performance on the first, and every report breaks the result down by section, topic and timing. Start with the free full-length GRE practice test, which needs an account but no payment. When the report shows what to work on, the GRE practice tests and question bank let you practise that measure by topic and difficulty, and the full practice-test catalogue lists every exam.

One caution applies to every practice provider, NewEducare included: a practice score is a reading of one test on one day, not a forecast of an official result. The trend across several practice tests, each reviewed properly, tells you far more than any single number.

Frequently asked questions