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gre score calculator: how to predict your gre score

bhavin parikh

june 14, 2024

one of the hardest parts of navigating preparing for the gre is trying to assess your performance. predicting your eventual gre score can feel impossible at times. we’re here to help with everything you need to know about how the test is scored. we also have a gre score calculator to help you predict your test day performance.

gre score calculator: table of contents

the basics of gre scoring

the gre consists of three main sections testing different skills sets: quantitative, verbal, and analytical writing. the quant section is designed to test your ability to problem solve using mathematical models and numerical/measurable data. in the verbal section you’ll show your ability to analyze and draw conclusions from written material. finally, in the analytical writing section you’ll show off your ability to construct and convey strong arguments in essay form. while the sections test you on different material, there is one common denominator across the entire test. fundamentally, the gre is testing your ability to solve complex, and often confusingly constructed, problems under timed conditions. yes, you’ll need to master vocab lists and math concepts to succeed. but in order to get your scores to the next level, you’ll need to master the unique nature of the gre itself. learning how it’s scored is one crucial step in this process.

the verbal and quantitative have the same score range. for the verbal portion of the exam you will be asked to answer 27 questions in 41 minutes across two subsections. in the first you will answer 12 questions in 18 minutes. then, you will answer 15 questions in 23 minutes. when it comes to quant you will also answer 27 questions across two subsections, but you’ll have a total of 47 minutes. first, you’ll have 21 minutes to answer 12 questions. in your second section, you’ll tackle your remaining 15 questions in 26 minutes. both verbal and quantitative are scored on a range that runs from the lowest possible score, 130, up to the highest score, 170. the 130–170 scale runs in 1-point increments.

the analytical writing section does things differently giving you 30 minutes to complete one “analyze an issue” task. during this thirty minute span you’ll be asked to read your prompt, brainstorm your essay, and write and proofread your draft. you’ll then be graded on a scale that ranges from 0.0 to 6.0 in half-point increments. the aw score does not factor into your overall composite score that some schools may ask for.

verbal breakdown

verbal total questions: 27
verbal total time: 41 minutes
verbal section one: 12 questions, 18 minutes
verbal section two: 15 questions, 23 minutes
verbal scoring range: 130-170, in one point increments

quant breakdown

quant total questions: 27
quant total time: 47 minutes
quant section one: 12 questions, 21 minutes
quant section two: 15 questions, 26 minutes
quant scoring range: 130-170, in one point increments

analytical writing breakdown

aw total time: 1 essay in 30 minutes
aw scoring range: 0.0 – 6.0, in 0.50 increments

raw scores, scaled scores, and percentile rankings

in doing your gre research you’ve likely come across the terms “raw scores,” “scaled scores,” and “percentile rankings”. you may have wondered what differentiates these scores and, most importantly, which scores you should be focusing on. luckily, it’s very easy to break down the differences between these terms. let’s jump in!

raw scores

on the gre your raw scores are simply the number of questions you get correct in each of the verbal and quantitative sections. each question within a section has the same point value as any other question. after your test, when you view ets’s diagnostic service, you’ll be able to see the exact number of questions you got right in each section. this is your raw score.

scaled scores

if your raw scores are simply your number of correct answers, how do we get a score of 130-170? and why? since not everyone takes the exact same gre, ets has to account for variations in difficulty caused by different tests and via section-level adaptability. again, you may be asking why. but there’s a very good reason for this: to ensure that graduate schools can evaluate test takers on a level playing field. through a process called equating, ets turns your raw score into a scaled score to better measure your performance against all other test takers in a given time period. most graduate programs are looking most closely at your quant and verbal scores. programs that require you to deal with a lot of quantitative data – think economics, mathematics, biological sciences – will value your quant score more. fields like english, history, and other humanities programs will likely put a premium on your verbal score. some programs will want to see a strong performance across both sections.

percentile rankings

the final piece of the scoring puzzle is the percentile ranking. your percentile shows directly how your scaled score stacks up against all other test takers during a specific time window. for example, a verbal score of 156 has a percentile rank of 70. this means achieving a 156 verbal puts your performance above 70% off all other test takers. there’s a wide disparity between sections though! the same scaled score of 156 on the quant section has a percentile rank of only 49. meaning that 156 on quant only puts you above 49% off all other test takers.

some programs will report on the percentile ranks of their admitted students rather than the scaled scores. so it’s important to research your targeted programs’ score requirements and preferences and then look at score and percentile charts.

what about overall scores? some schools may say they are looking for a certain composite score, like 300. this is simply your verbal and quant sections added together. ets does not release percentile ranks for the composite score and it’s generally not as important as hitting your section benchmarks. however, as always, it is important to make sure you are diligently checking in with each of the programs you are applying to in order to set your score goals.

verbal and quant percentiles 2023-2024

score	verbal percentile	quantitative percentile
170	99	94
169	99	91
168	98	87
167	97	83
166	96	80
165	95	76
164	94	73
163	92	70
162	89	68
161	87	65
160	84	61
159	81	58
158	77	55
157	73	52
156	70	49
155	65	46
154	60	42
153	56	39
152	50	36
151	46	33
150	41	30
149	36	27
148	32	24
147	29	21
146	25	18
145	22	15
144	19	13
143	17	11
142	15	9
141	12	7
140	10	6
139	9	5
138	7	4
137	6	3
136	5	2
135	4	1
134	3	1
133	2	1
132	2	–
131	–	–
130	–	–

awa percentiles 2023-2024

score	percentile
6.0	99
5.5	98
5.0	91
4.5	81
4.0	56
3.5	38
3.0	15
2.5	7
2.0	2
1.5	1
1.0	–
0.5	–
0.0	–

the ins and outs of gre difficulty

one of the most frequently asked questions we hear at magoosh is “how does difficulty work on the gre?” this is a great question and one that is at play on two different levels on the test. the first is on a question level.

questions on the gre fall into five different difficulty categories: very easy, easy, medium, hard, and very hard. furthermore, each of the two sections that make up each the verbal and quant sections will be classified as easy, medium, or hard. a common misconception is that an easy section won’t have any hard questions. or that a hard section will be entirely composed of hard questions. while it can feel like this on test day, that’s not how the sections are actually constructed. let’s look more closely at each of the sections.

easy section breakdown: quant

very easy questions: around 25% of the questions.
easy questions: around 40% of the questions.
medium questions: around 30% of the questions.
hard questions: around 5% of the questions.
very hard questions: around 0% of the questions.

medium section breakdown: quant

very easy questions: around 10% of the questions.
easy questions: around 20% of the questions.
medium questions: around 50% of the questions.
hard questions: around 10% of the questions.
very hard questions: around 10% of the questions.

hard section breakdown: quant

very easy questions: around 0% of the questions.
easy questions: around 5% of the questions.
medium questions: around 25% of the questions.
hard questions: around 40% of the questions.
very hard questions: around 30% of the questions.

easy section breakdown: verbal

very easy questions: around 30% of the questions.
easy questions: around 40% of the questions.
medium questions: around 20% of the questions.
hard questions: around 10% of the questions.
very hard questions: around 0% of the questions.

medium section breakdown: verbal

very easy questions: around 10% of the questions.
easy questions: around 30% of the questions.
medium questions: around 30% of the questions.
hard questions: around 20% of the questions.
very hard questions: around 10% of the questions.

hard section breakdown: verbal

very easy questions: around 0% of the questions.
easy questions: around 10% of the questions.
medium questions: around 20% of the questions.
hard questions: around 40% of the questions.
very hard questions: around 30% of the questions.

making sense of section adaptability and difficulty

we’ve established that the gre contains three difficulty levels for each section, but how does that work? what does it mean that the test is section adaptive? you can get a deeper dive here, but there are some basics to know before we dive into scoring.

first, the gre is only adaptive from section to section. this means your performance on your first quant or verbal section, which will be at a medium difficulty, will determine the difficulty level of your subsequent second section. it does not mean that the test will adapt to your performance within a section. let’s look at two scenarios!

in the first scenario, you get six questions out of twelve right in your first quant section. this means that you are extremely likely to get another medium difficulty quant section. this will somewhat limit your quant score ceiling, but we’ll explore that more fully in a moment.

in the second scenario, you start your first quant section by answering the first three questions in a row wrong. this will not change the difficulty of your remaining questions. the difficulty level of each section is locked in once you begin it. in this scenario, you could go on to answer your remaining nine questions correctly and secure a hard second section.

the most important takeaway about scoring and difficulty is this: harder sections weigh more heavily in your score than easy ones. this means that you can only achieve a really great score if you do well enough on your first medium section to get a hard second section. the easier the second section, the lower your score ceiling will be.

a note about scoring

before we jump too far into scoring details, i have to make an important disclaimer. the details of the scoring system, including the equating formula and all other algorithms, used in the gre are known only by ets. they have never revealed exactly how their scoring system works. so how do we know what we know? our calculators and score charts are estimations and approximations based on analyzing lots and lots of publicly available data like official score charts and score reports. you should always read scoring data from us, and other sources, knowing that we’re providing you the best estimations possible, but they are still just estimations.

how many questions can i miss on the quantitative section?

you may be wondering just how to trigger that hard second section in quant. here are the rough thresholds. keep in mind that your first quant sections will always be of medium difficulty.

number of correct questions to open an easy, medium, or hard quant second section

easy second section: triggered if you answer less than approximately four questions right on your first section.
medium second section: triggered if you answer around four to seven questions right on your first section.
hard second section: triggered if you answer approximately eight or more questions right on your first section.

possible score ranges based on second section difficulty

now let’s look at some broad score thresholds based on the difficulty level of your second quant section.

1st section medium, 2nd section easy: your total quant score is likely to fall in the 130-151 range, give or take 2 points.
1st section medium, 2nd section medium: your total quant score is likely to fall in the 136-158 range, give or take 2 points.
1st section medium, 2nd section hard: your total quant score is likely to fall in the 146-170 range, give or take 2 points.

how to hit the 50th/70th/90th percentiles in quant

in order to get a quant score in 50th percentile or better (157 and up): answer at least 19 questions correctly across both sections. it will be much easier to do this if you achieve the hard second section, so you want to aim for answering at least 8 questions correctly on your first quant go-around.
in order to get a quant score in the 70th percentile or better (163 and up): answer at least 24 questions correctly across both sections. you will have to get the second hard section to achieve this score and will need to get at least 9 right in your first section to make this possible.
in order to get a quant score above the 90th percentile (169-170): answer at least 26 questions correctly, but more likely you will need to get every question on the quant section correct.

a flowchart depicting different quant section adaptability scenarios.

for more in-depth scoring scenarios, check out this great post by talha omer.

how many questions can i miss on the verbal section?

how about the verbal section? how do you trigger that hard second section there? here are the rough thresholds. keep in mind that your first verbal section will always be of medium difficulty.

number of correct questions to open an easy, medium, or hard verbal second section

easy second section: triggered if you answer less than approximately five questions right on your first section.
medium second section: triggered if you answer around five to eight questions right on your first section.
hard second section: triggered if you answer approximately nine or more questions right on your first section.

possible score ranges based on second section difficulty

now let’s look at some broad score thresholds based on the difficulty level of your second verbal section.

1st section medium, 2nd section easy: your total verbal score is likely to fall in the 130-155 range, give or take 2 points.
1st section medium, 2nd section medium: your total verbal score is likely to fall in the 141-164 range, give or take 2 points.
1st section medium, 2nd section hard: your total verbal score is likely to fall in the 149-170 range, give or take 2 points.

how to hit the 50th/70th/90th percentiles in verbal

in order to get a verbal score in 50th percentile or better (152 and up): answer at least 11 questions correctly across both sections. while you can do this with an easy second section, it will be much easier to achieve with at least a medium second section. aim for getting at least 5 questions right in your first section.
in order to get a verbal score in the 70th percentile or better (156 and up): answer at least 15 questions correctly across both sections. you will have to get at least a medium second section to achieve this score. you will need to get at least 5 right in your first section to make this possible.
in order to get a verbal score in the 90th percentile or better (163 and up): answer at least 21 questions correctly across both sections. while you can achieve this with a medium second section, you would need to get 8 questions right on the first section and all 15 right on the second to hit the 90th percentile. aim instead for triggering the hard second section by answering at least 9 correct questions in your first section.

a flowchart depicting possible verbal outcomes due to section adaptability.

scoring the analytic writing section

the new, shorter gre only features one essay in the gre’s analytical writing section. these aren’t simply “right” or “wrong” questions like your other sections. so you won’t get a raw score that corresponds to a 40-point score range. instead, the gre aw essay is rated based on a rubric. the rubric’s score range is 0 to 6, and scores are calculated in half-point increments.

instead of being adjusted for relative difficulty, aw essay questions are adjusted for differences between multiple scorers. each aw essay is given to a human scorer. at the same time, the essay is also submitted to a computer scorer, ets’s e-rater scoring engine. if the human score and the computer score for an aw essay are similar, the final score for the essay will be an average of the human and computer scores.

however, if thee-rater score is a lot different from the human score, a second human scorer will step in and give the essay an additional rating. in that case, the essay score will be the average of the two human scores.

while schools generally look more closely at your quant and verbal scores, your writing score does often matter. this is particularly true for programs where you are not submitting another writing sample or if you are an applicant who does not speak english as your first language. aim for at least a 3.0 unless your program indicates that you should have a higher score. typically programs that are very writing heavy, think humanities programs, will want to see higher aw scores.

interactive gre score calculator

ready to figure out your target gre score? use our interactive gre calculator! if you took a practice test, you can use those numbers to get an idea of your section and total scores. simply adjust the sliders for each section to see both your section scores and your gre total score. once you have an idea of what score you are aiming for you can refer back to our information about how many questions you can miss to form an action plan.

quant score

155

mean: 155

slide to adjust

percentile: 58%

verbal score

151

mean: 151

slide to adjust

percentile: 87%

total score: 306

achieving your score goals

the best way to achieve your score goal is to do consistent, smart practice. magoosh can help with a magoosh premium plan. we have tried and true study plans, step-by-step explanation videos, and practice tests. we also give you the ability to do customized practice sections under test-like conditions. with a magoosh plan you can set up a mock first quant section and work on hitting that magic correct questions number to hit your personal score goal!

author

bhavin parikh

bhavin sets the vision and strategy for magoosh, along with whatever else needs to be done. with a bs/ba in economics and computer science from duke university and an mba from the haas school of business at uc berkeley, he’s on a mission to change the way people learn and how they think about learning. years ago, bhavin played on several nationals-level ultimate frisbee teams. today, he’s our resident gelato connoisseur.

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27 responses to “gre score calculator: how to predict your gre score”

osaid khan

december 1, 2020

i got a score of 14 in quant section(both sections 14/20) but my final score was 153 instead of 158. please explain this!

reply
1. magoosh test prep expert
  
  january 8, 2021
  
  hi osaid,
  
  where was this score from? an ets powerprep test, magoosh test, or elsewhere? this is a good example of equating, which you can read about here. the raw score is converted to a scaled score through a process that takes the difficult of the exam into account, so the process looks a bit different for each practice test that you take.
  
  reply
ankita sharma

july 17, 2019

hi,
i am following 1- month preparation plan on magoosh. according to that i’m on day 4. m doing the practice questions as per given in the plan but my estimated score is not showing any change in numbers. m not sure is it because i’m not improving or is there any way to reset my score on daily basis?

reply
1. magoosh test prep expert
  
  july 19, 2019
  
  hi ankita,
  
  you must answer around 150 questions in each section before the score indicator will show any numbers. if you’re only on day 4, you may not have reached that threshold yet. also keep in mind that since the score predictor is based on your overall performance—and does not weigh your most recent answers more heavily—it can be slow to adjust.
  
  reply
sung roh

june 26, 2019

hello, i am getting the same issues as akash, i have been mostly getting “hard” questions for my quant practice questions. is this normal or is there something wrong? i did set my difficulty in the custom practice setting to adaptive, following the directions in the study plan.

thanks
sung joon roh

reply
1. magoosh test prep expert
  
  june 28, 2019
  
  hi sung,
  
  i forwarded your question to our team of tutors. you should hear back from someone soon in a separate email! keep in mind that as a premium student, you can always use the purple “help” tab in your account to reach out to test prep experts!
  
  reply
akash

june 18, 2019

hi,
i have been doing the quant practice problems and have only been getting “hard” questions, does my predicted score get scaled according to difficulty?

reply
1. magoosh test prep expert
  
  june 20, 2019
  
  hi akash!
  
  i noticed you were a gre premium student, so i forwarded your message to our team. 🙂 you should be hearing from someone in about 24-48 hours.
  
  reply
balaji

july 19, 2018

hello,
i am getting 17/40 in verbal and 35/40 in quant what would be my gre score
please do reply

reply
1. magoosh test prep expert
  
  july 22, 2018
  
  unfortunately, it’s very difficult to predict your final gre score just based on raw scores. this is because gre questions have different difficulty levels, and also have adaptive changes to level form one section to the next. sorry i can’t provide you with a concrete number. if you want an instant gre score prediction that’s accurate, i recommend taking the powerprep ii practice tests that bhavin linked in the article above.
  
  reply
gayathri

august 19, 2017

my raw score in verbal is for the first section is 9 and the second is 6 and in quant its is 15 and 17 how much is the score on 340?

reply
1. magoosh test prep expert
  
  august 23, 2017
  
  hi gayathri,
  
  we cannot say for sure because of the equating process that happens, but we can estimate that a raw score out of 40 by adding it to 130. so if you got 15/40 you would get approximately 145 and a 17/40 would be approximately 147. of course, this could shift slightly higher or lower depending on equating, so you should assume a margin of about +/-3. 🙂
  
  reply
richard

october 8, 2016

is the mark affected by the time you submit your answer? for instance, if i finished all math questions in 15 minutes but get one question wrong, is there a probability i score a higher mark than the case where i check my solutions for another 15 minutes and submit a all-correct version after 30 minutes.

reply
1. magoosh test prep expert
  
  october 8, 2016
  
  there aren’t extra points for finishing more quickly on the gre, nor is there a penalty for getting through all the problems at a slower pace. take the time you need! as long as you stay within the maximum time limit for each section, your score won’t be affected by your pace.
  
  reply
  1. richard
    
    october 8, 2016
    
    but i saw a “your average pace” versus “other’s average pace” section in the graph posted in this article. is there a purpose for it or is it immaterial?
    
    reply
    1. magoosh test prep expert
      
      october 8, 2016
      
      hi richard,
      
      this chart is an analysis you receive on your dashboard when you have a magoosh premium account. we show students what their pace is compared to their peers. this does not affect your scores, but provides you with helpful information on how you compare with your peers. for example, perhaps all your peers finish a specific problem in 50 seconds, but you take 2 minutes. this means that either you’re not completing the problem with the most efficient approach, or you struggle with this concept. regardless, the speed does not affect your score, unless you cannot complete a section.
      
      reply
dawn

august 24, 2016

i currently have finished the first 50 verbal questions, and scored 144-149, i need at least a 150. is this possible in a month?

reply
1. magoosh test prep expert
  
  august 24, 2016
  
  hi dawn,
  
  i definitely think that you can see that sort of improvement in a month, especially if you spend time learning the best strategies, expanding your vocabulary, and improving your reading comprehension skills. you can check out the verbal section of our blog for tips and strategy, or you can check out our full magoosh product which includes comprehensive lesson videos and practice questions guaranteed to improve your score! on average, our students improve their scores by 8 points, and many increase them by more than that. you can sign up for a free trial here: https://gre.www.catharsisit.com/plans
  
  reply
tuhin sheikh

december 12, 2015

dear mr. paikh,

in response to one of the queries you mentioned that magoosh score predictor does not take pace or difficulty into account. currently, i am in a beginner level. suppose, while answering a very difficult question, i took a long time to answer that correctly; without considering difficulty level and pacing the prediction could be misleading. as in the “practice” test, i might answer that question correctly with the cost of leaving few other questions unanswered due to unbalanced time pacing. if possible please take this as a request to take into account pacing and difficulty level to predict score.

reply
greguy

october 17, 2015

hello. i have gre in the next week and i have just given a practice test on the magoosh and my score is: 167+154 (q+v)
previously, i have given some mock tests as well. the problem is that i gave powerprep way too early
however, these are my scores:
powerprep: 162+150 (q+v)
manhattan: 160+156
kaplan: 164+150

so, i was wondering if the final score will be same as the score i got in the magoosh. thank you 🙂

reply
catherine

june 16, 2015

hello! i’m studying for my test now, and i think one thing that would be useful is if you had two options to view your predicted scores – one that shows your first attempt at the questions, and one that incorporates your most recent attempt at the questions. when i first started i was getting like 75% of the quant, but then i went back and redid like 20 questions that i had originally gotten wrong, and now it’s showing my quant average at like 95%… which obviously isn’t accurate. since this is a bit misleading about what my test-day-score will probably be, i would rather have the option to know my original (first attempt) average to see if i’ve been able to pull it up with my additional days of studying. for example, if i was getting 75% in the first couple days, but am now hitting like 90%, i’d like to see a predicted score of around 82%, rather than 92%. hope this makes sense!

reply
natalie

november 21, 2013

hi! i am wondering if you could help
me figure out if my scores on the practice tests are good or not. i took 3 practice sections so far (2 verbal & 1 math) and i scored 70% on each of them. i was kind of distracted for the math part and could have done a little better. could you tell me what my score would be if i have a 70% average in both sections? also, is this an average score? i don’t need amazing scores, i just want to have decent ones to get into grad school for nutrition at a state school. thank you!

reply
1. bhavin
  
  november 21, 2013
  
  hey natalie, thanks for sharing! your score will vary based on how reliable the practice test is. which practice test did you use (there are a lot out there that aren’t great.) we recommend using powerprep from ets, the makers of the gre. their tests are free and will give you a rough score estimate. also, if you have a magoosh account, you can take our practice tests which also give you a score estimate. as for averages, i recommend checking out this post //www.catharsisit.com/gre/2013/average-gre-scores/
  
  hope that helps!
  bhavin
  
  reply
samora charles

april 22, 2013

does the score predictor change every 50 questions? i’ve answered more than 100 practice questions but it doesn’t seem that my score is changing.

reply
1. bhavin
  
  april 22, 2013
  
  good question! the score predictor takes all the questions you have answered into account, so you’ll see less movement the more questions you answer. you can also take a practice test to assess your current score. the “take a practice test” link is just above the green math and verbal buttons on the dashboard. i hope that helps!
  
  bhavin
  
  reply
frederic ewing

april 11, 2013

bhavin,

in your 足球世界杯举办地2022, your students seem to agree that their score was accurately predicted in their estimated range, so clearly you are doing something very right. however, i am still curious about one thing. after taking all the quizzes in the magoosh math curriculum, i got an estimated score (for the first 50 questions as you mentioned). however, the quizzes are made of mostly easy questions. i began to wonder if i would see my score drop off as i continued to use magoosh. therefore, i ask, does the function you use to estimate the students’ scores uses the difficulty and the their average pace directly in estimating a score?

reply
1. bhavin
  
  april 11, 2013
  
  good question! you may see a bit of a drop off if you’ve only completed the quiz questions, since they are mostly easy. essentially, the more questions you answer (across all difficulties) the more accurate your estimated score will be. for a better indication of your score, you can also take a practice mock test, using the “take a practice test” link on the dashboard. the estimated score function does not take pace or difficulty into account; however, since the mock tests questions range in difficulties and have a fixed time frame (similar to the actual gre), they provide a better indication of actual score. the mock tests also test stamina — taking a test for 4 hours is not easy 🙂 i hope that helps!
  
  bhavin
  
  reply

gre score calculator: how to predict your gre score

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