What is a good GRE score? Why a perfect 170 Quant is only the 89th percentile

On the current GRE, the Verbal mean is 151.4 and the Quant mean is 157.6, both on the same 130 to 170 scale. That identical scale hides the most important fact about GRE scoring: a 163 Verbal is the 90th percentile, while a perfect 170 on Quant is only the 89th. A 90th percentile Quant score does not exist. So a "good" score means something completely different on each half of the test, and comparing them directly will mislead you.

Most GRE advice quietly assumes the two scales are equivalent because the numbers look the same. They are not, and the gap is large enough to change which section you should spend your next month on.

What is the average GRE score?

From ETS's official interpretive data, based on everyone who tested between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2025:

Look at the six-point gap between the means. The same scale, the same test takers, and Quant sits six points higher. That is not because the questions are easier. It is because of who takes the GRE.

Why GRE Quant percentiles are so brutal

The GRE applicant pool is heavily weighted toward engineering, computer science, physics, mathematics and economics, plus a large number of international applicants from quant-intensive programs. Those candidates cluster hard against the top of the Quant scale. The scale tops out at 170 before the population does, so scores pile up at the ceiling and the percentiles compress into nothing.

Here is what that actually looks like:

Read the top row again. Answer every single Quant question correctly and you are still only ahead of 89% of test takers. Eleven percent of the pool also has a 170, or close enough that the scale cannot separate you. Meanwhile a 160 on Quant, which sounds respectable, is dead average. On Verbal, a 160 is the 82nd percentile.

Two practical consequences follow. First, never tell someone you want a "90th percentile Quant score," because there is no such score to get. Second, if you are applying to a quant-heavy program, the admissions committee knows all of this. They are not reading your 165 Quant as a strong score, because in their applicant pool it is the 67th percentile. They are reading your 165 Verbal, if you have one, as genuinely strong.

Analytical Writing scores

Analytical Writing is scored 0 to 6 in half-point increments, with a mean of 3.46. The percentiles are worth knowing because AW behaves differently again: the scale is short, so each half point is a large jump.

• 6.0 is the 99th percentile and is genuinely rare.
• 5.0 is the 93rd percentile.
• 4.5 is the 85th percentile.
• 4.0 is the 63rd percentile, and is the score most programs treat as "fine, moving on."
• 3.5 is the 40th percentile.
• 3.0 is the 16th percentile and will get noticed, unfavorably.

A curious detail from the same ETS data: the correlation between Quant and AW is 0.08, essentially zero. Verbal and AW correlate at 0.52. Being good at math tells an admissions committee nothing whatsoever about whether you can write, which is precisely why programs in quant fields still look at your AW score.

For most applicants a 4.5 is the sensible target. It clears the bar at nearly every program and the effort to push from 4.5 to 5.5 is enormous relative to what it buys. AW is scored by ETS's e-rater engine together with a trained human reader, which rewards clear structure over stylistic flourish.

What is a good GRE score for your program?

Same principle as any admissions test: good is defined by where you are applying, not by the national pool. Look up the average scores your target programs publish and treat those as the floor.

Rough orientation, and check every program individually because the variation is huge:

• Top-tier programs in any field: generally want both scores at or above roughly the 80th percentile in the terms that matter for their discipline.
• Engineering, CS, physical sciences, economics: Quant is the number that matters. A 165 is often the realistic minimum at strong programs, and it is only the 67th percentile. Verbal expectations are usually far more forgiving.
• Humanities and social sciences: Verbal carries the weight. A 160 Verbal (82nd percentile) is strong; a 163 (90th) is excellent.
• Business schools: they want balance, and they read AW more carefully than most applicants expect.

The asymmetry here is the strategic insight. If you are applying to a CS program, moving your Quant from 162 to 167 is worth far more than moving your Verbal from 150 to 158, even though the Verbal jump is bigger in raw points and bigger in percentile terms. The committee is reading one of those numbers closely and skimming the other.

How the shorter GRE changed things

ETS cut the GRE to 1 hour 58 minutes in September 2023, and this is now the only format. If your prep material describes a 3 hour 45 minute test, throw it out.

Two things went away. The Analyze an Argument essay is gone, so AW is a single Issue task. And the unscored experimental section no longer exists. That second one is worth stating plainly because it is one of the most widely republished errors in GRE prep: the current GRE has no experimental section. ETS's own information bulletin lists the unidentified unscored section only under the structure used before September 22, 2023.

This changes your test-day psychology. On the old GRE you could survive a bad section by telling yourself it might be the experimental one. Every section you see now is scored. There is no section to write off.

How does GRE adaptivity work?

The GRE is section-adaptive, not question-adaptive. Your performance on the first Verbal section determines the difficulty of the second Verbal section, and the same for Quant. Within any section you can skip a question, come back, and change answers freely.

The practical consequence: the first section of each measure disproportionately sets your ceiling, because it routes you into a difficulty tier. With 12 questions in 18 minutes on the first Verbal section, burning four minutes on one stubborn question costs you a fifth of the section that decides your tier. Triage is a skill worth practicing on its own. Decide within 20 seconds whether a question is worth your time, and be willing to guess and move.

And if your second section feels brutally hard, that is good news. It means you did well on the first one.

How many times can you take the GRE?

Once every 21 days, up to five times in any rolling 12-month period. Cancelled scores still count against that limit. Scores stay reportable for five years from your test date. The test costs $220 in the US, a fee effective July 1, 2024, which includes four score reports sent on test day.

ScoreSelect gives you real control. On test day you can send your Most Recent scores, All scores from the last five years, or nothing at all. Afterwards, paid additional score reports at $40 each let you send Any administration you choose. Scores from an administration must go in their entirety, but no indication is given that you took other tests. The caveat ETS flags itself: some programs require you to report everything, so read the instructions rather than assuming.

GRE or GMAT for business school?

ETS reports that 92% of business schools accept the GRE, including every top-ranked MBA program, and that for the Class of 2027, 44% of the incoming class at Harvard Business School and Stanford GSB, and 42% at Chicago Booth, submitted GRE scores. Worth knowing where those numbers come from: that is ETS's own marketing page, and they have an obvious interest. GMAC's competing claims are equally self-interested. Confirm with each program directly.

The direction of travel is not really in dispute, though. The GRE is genuinely accepted at business schools now, and it opens law school too: the ABA rewrote Standard 503 in 2024 so it no longer names the LSAT, and 100+ accredited schools including the entire T14 accept the GRE. If you are weighing law school specifically, the LSAT is still the safer default and we cover why on our LSAT prep course page.

How to actually move your score

Start by working out which number your programs read. Then be honest about the ceiling: if you are at a 168 Quant and your target program's average is 165, another month of Quant drilling is close to worthless, and the same month spent on Verbal or AW might genuinely change your application.

Beyond that, the loop is unglamorous. Do questions, then spend longer reviewing them than you spent answering. On text completion, find the structural signal word before you look at any answer choice, because "although" or "despite" tells you the direction of the blank before you know a single vocabulary word. On quantitative comparison, remember that answer D is only correct when the relationship genuinely varies, not when you are personally uncertain. That distinction alone is worth points.

A GRE practice test on the current format, with every answer choice explained, is the fastest way to find out which of those patterns is costing you. And once the scores are in and you are negotiating funding packages or a stipend, the skills are surprisingly transferable to making the case for a better offer, which is a conversation more grad students should have and fewer do.

The short version

Verbal mean 151.4, Quant mean 157.6, AW mean 3.46. A 163 Verbal is the 90th percentile. On Quant, a perfect 170 is the 89th and the 90th percentile is unreachable. Find out which of those two numbers your programs actually read, aim above their published average, and stop treating the two scales as if they mean the same thing.