A lot of our students ask us about how to interpret their GRE scores. To put you on track, let me tell you that you’ll receive a score from 130 to 170 for each section, math and verbal on the revised GRE. Before 2011, this was 200-800 for each section. For the analytical writing section, the scale remains unchanged at 0-6.
Essentially what this means is that if you leave your test blank or if you do all questions wrong, you’ll still get 130 (each of Math & Verbal) of the revised GRE test (200 each of Maths/Verbal on the old scale). Don’t be too happy if you score close to 130 because you have flunked the test wholly or partially.
Correlating and Understanding your New GRE score
Many students, teachers, colleges, and universities are still only familiar with the old GRE scoring of between 200 and 800. Therefore here I have included a table that will help you match your New GRE score to the old GRE score.
What do Percentiles mean in the score report?
In addition to knowing your score based on the old scale, it’s also essential to understand your percentile rank. This tells you about the percentage of GRE test takers that have scored below you. So if your percentile is 97.3% on Math section, 97.3% of all GRE test takers on that test day scored less than you did.
| New score | Quantitative Old Score | Verbal Old Score | Quantitative Percentile % | Verbal Percentile % |
| 170 | 800 | 760-800 | 99 | 99 |
| 169 | 800 | 740-750 | 98 | 99 |
| 168 | 800 | 720-730 | 96 | 98 |
| 167 | 800 | 710 | 95 | 98 |
| 166 | 800 | 700 | 94 | 97 |
| 165 | 790 | 680-690 | 93 | 96 |
| 164 | 790 | 660-670 | 91 | 94 |
| 163 | 780 | 650 | 88 | 93 |
| 162 | 770 | 630-640 | 87 | 90 |
| 161 | 770 | 620 | 86 | 89 |
| 160 | 760 | 600-610 | 84 | 86 |
| 159 | 750 | 590 | 82 | 84 |
| 158 | 740 | 570-580 | 79 | 79 |
| 157 | 730 | 560 | 77 | 77 |
| 156 | 720 | 540-550 | 74 | 72 |
| 155 | 700-710 | 530 | 69 | 69 |
| 154 | 690 | 510-520 | 67 | 64 |
| 153 | 680 | 500 | 65 | 62 |
| 152 | 660-670 | 480-490 | 61 | 56 |
| 151 | 640-650 | 460-470 | 56 | 51 |
| 150 | 630 | 450 | 53 | 48 |
| 149 | 610-620 | 430-440 | 49 | 42 |
| 148 | 590-600 | 420 | 44 | 40 |
| 147 | 570-580 | 410 | 40 | 36 |
| 146 | 550-560 | 390-400 | 36 | 31 |
| 145 | 530-540 | 380 | 32 | 28 |
| 144 | 500-520 | 370 | 26 | 26 |
| 143 | 480-490 | 350-360 | 22 | 21 |
| 142 | 460-470 | 340 | 19 | 18 |
| 141 | 430-450 | 330 | 16 | 16 |
| 140 | 400-420 | 320 | 12 | 13 |
| 139 | 380-390 | 310 | 10 | 10 |
| 138 | 350-370 | 300 | 7 | 8 |
| 137 | 330-340 | 290 | 6 | 6 |
| 136 | 300-320 | 280 | 4 | 5 |
| 135 | 280-290 | 280 | 3 | 4 |
| 134 | 260-270 | 270 | 2 | 3 |
| 133 | 240-250 | 260 | 1 | 2 |
| 132 | 220-230 | 250 | 1 | 1 |
| 131 | 200-210 | 240 | 1 | 1 |
| 130 | 200 | 200-230 | 1 | 1 |
| Analytical Writing score | Writing % |
| 6 | 99 |
| 5.5 | 96 |
| 5 | 87 |
| 4.5 | 72 |
| 4 | 48 |
| 3.5 | 29 |
| 3 | 11 |
| 2.5 | 4 |
| 2 | 1 |
| 1.5 | 1 |
| 1 | 1 |
| 0.5 | 1 |