Yes, try to score well on the exam but folks need to see beyond the scores and not be so obsessed with silly comments 'I got a 85% on the exam.so disappointed. The GRE is divided into three sections: Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, and Analytical Writing (AW). Their admittance to Berkeley are on more important factors like strength of UG math institution, math gpa, grad courses taken, research undertaken, letters, etc. For example, there are a few at Berkeley (past and entering) who have test scores in the 60% range. The Analytical Writing section is scored on a scale of 0 to 6, with half. As mentioned above, the exam is scored on a scale of 130 to 170 for both the Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning sections, with 1-point increments. Though the test score is a factor, it is fortunate to see some top departments have flex and see other factors. Understanding GRE scores can get confusing as like any standardized test, it does not have a direct scoring system. I see it all the time with students having amazing GRE math subject test scores but are very suspect in the classroom with homework details and course examinations. The correlation is far from perfect between standardized GRE math subject test taking and core math ability. Figure 1: Sample score reports from GMAT (above). Many internationals are strong in terms of standardized testing which has caused this re-adjustment. Each test scores on a different scale, but both apply the concept of a percentile score. The dramatic increase in test takers is primarily due to more internationals taking the test. I'm sure that is because a lot more people are taking the test today than took it fifteen years ago, but I also wonder whether some of the increase in the number of tests is due to an increase in the number of people who are taking the test more than once.Ĭurious to hear what people think about this trend - what might explain it, and what significance it could have for graduate admissions. Every possible GRE is associated with a percentile ranking, so it’s easy enough to translate a percentile into a numerical GRE score. (Scores now in the mid-80s used to be in the mid-90s.) The mean has also increased quite significantly, and the number of tests has almost doubled. Those percentiles are: 71.3 in Quant, which translates to roughly 159 78.2 in Verbal, or roughly 158 71.2 in Writing, which is a score of about 4.0-4.5. Percentiles for the Verbal, Quant, and Analytical Writing (AW) sections of the GRE vary just a little each year with new tests and test takers. In some cases the percentile rank for a certain scaled score has dropped up to 10 or 11 points since 2001-2004. I haven't been able to find the percentile tables for a few years, but there is a definite trend: more people are scoring higher. The data comes from ETS's Guide to the Use of GRE Scores, released each year. The test was rescaled in October 2001 (according to this), so there's almost fifteen years of data. I thought it would be interesting to see how the subject test distribution has moved over time.

Gre percentiles