My students often ask me, “What is the average GRE score of students in Pakistan?” This was impossible to answer until the ETS released their Snapshot report, which provides a summarized data of GRE test takers in Pakistan over the period August 2011 to June 2012.
The average GRE scores of students in Pakistan are:
Verbal: 147
Quantitative: 153
AWA: 3.4.
This translates to a total of 300 out of 340 on the new revised GRE – the global average being 302; 151 for verbal and 151.4 for quant and the AWA average is 3.7.
From Pakistan approximately 2200 students took the GRE test during this period whereas the global pool of GRE test takers stood at nearly half a million.
In this Article
Is the average Pakistan score for the GRE important?
Well in my opinion it is not. The average scores are calculated based on a pool of more than 2000 GRE test takers in Pakistan. Now this is a group of students that are from diverse backgrounds and are applying to various programs and scholarships. Infact more than half of them apply for the Fulbright scholarship in Pakistan which has different requirements and includes candidates such as engineers, economists, lawyers, public policy makers, artists etc. For you what matters is the average GRE score for your particular field of study and you target university. If you are a science or an engineering major applying to MIT or Stanford you need to have an average math score of 163. If you are a public policy major you need a verbal of around 158.
How do I know the average GRE score of my program?
First of all you must identify your intended university in which you want to apply. Research their websites and go through the US News ranking report. If the average scores are not mentioned then contact the university and your specific program directly. Ask them to share the last years GRE statistics of all the admitted applicants.
Moreover the GRE scores are valid for 5 years. Hence many admissions committees have statistics on the old scoring scale. Use this GRE score conversion table to determine the correlation between the current and the old scoring criterion.
Major and important GRE statistics
By looking at the snapshot report I see very discouraging results for Pakistani GRE test takers. We score below average on all the 3 sections of the GRE exam. Given that many of the GRE test takers in Pakistan are engineers and students from science majors, the quantitative scores were expected to be high. Unfortunately we lack in all areas of the GRE exam. Read this post which gives insights on what a good GRE score is for Pakistani applicants.
China and India on the other hand are leading from the forefront. China for example has the highest GRE quant scores of around 163 – which is indeed very high.
In summary, focus on your GRE preparation and try to maximize your scores. Contact your targeted programs and ask them to share latest GRE stats on the recently admitted students.