GRE Score Percentiles - What Does Your Score Mean for You? (2024 Update) (2024)

GRE score percentiles give you an idea of how well your GRE scores stack up against other GRE test takers. Each score corresponds to a percentile, which tells you the percentage of students who scored below you. We’ll share the current Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning percentiles for 2023-2024 (using ETS’s most recent data) so you can find where your section scores fall. Finally, we will share tips to help you figure out which GRE score percentile to aim for. Let’s get to it!

GRE Scores and Percentiles: Table of Contents

• What is a good percentile on the GRE?
• The GRE’s “Big 3” Benchmarks
• What percentile is my GRE score? Try our Interactive GRE Score Percentile Calculator!
• ETS’s GRE Percentiles 2023-2024: All Verbal and Quant Percentiles
• What percentile should I aim for on the GRE?
• Improving your GRE score

What is a good percentile on the GRE?

Just like a good GRE score overall, a “good” percentile on the GRE general test varies a lot, depending both on the school and the type of program. Percentiles and exam scores will be different for each section of the exam. To get an idea of how this works, let’s look at a few example standards for 2024 GRE percentiles.

• The Economics program at the University of California Davis currently requires 60th or higher percentile in Verbal (30th if you’re a non-native English speaker), and at least the 70th percentile in Quant.
• MIT’s Sloan School of Business class of 2025 had Verbal scores ranging from 65th to 97th percentile and Quant scores between 52nd to 87th percentile for the middle 80% of the class.

We can get a closer look at the GRE percentile bands for each section here:

The GRE’s “Big 3” Benchmarks

As you can see, many degree programs especially favor the 50th and 60th GRE percentile benchmarks (meaning you scored better than 50% or 60% of students who took the GRE). Other graduate admissions offices like to see you reach a benchmark score of 155 points. Additionally, some admissions programs may ask for one of these “big three” 50th/60th/155-point benchmarks on one section of the GRE, while asking for a different benchmark on another section. With all of that in mind, let’s look at each of the benchmarks that many schools highlight, looking at standards as of 2023-2024.

For Verbal, 152 is the 50th percentile. That means, only a score of 153 or higher will put you above this benchmark for the Verbal section.

Quant scores skew slightly higher. 156 is 49th percentile, while 157 is 52nd percentile. So here, 157 is your minimum to be above the 50th.

In the Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA/essays) section, there are far fewer points to be had. With a score range of 0 to 6 in 0.5 point increments, there are a limited number of possible Analytical Writing scores. This means there are only 10 possible percentiles for AWA.

As you can imagine, there is a pretty big point spread between these percentiles. A 4.0 puts you in 56th percentile, a full 6 percentiles above the benchmark. But the next score down, a 3.5, places you at the 38th percentile. This is 12 percentiles below the benchmark, a dramatic drop!

For Quant, a 160 in GRE Quant puts you at the 61st percentile. A 159 puts you at the 58th percentile.

With the AWA’s very different range and scaling, there isn’t actually a 155 score. Still, a 4.0 AWA score is the closest equivalent to a 155 Verbal/Quant score. This will put you in the 56th percentile, which is not too far off from the Verbal and Quant percentiles we mentioned above.

Interactive GRE Percentile Calculator

If you took a practice test or used an online GRE score calculator to predict your score, you can use those numbers to get an idea of your percentiles. Simply adjust the sliders for each section to see both your section percentiles and your GRE total score.

ETS’s GRE Percentiles 2023-2024

Looking for all the possible scores and percentiles? ETS is kind enough to post their GRE score report with percentile rankings and score conversion chart.

I’ve reproduced the charts of the 2024 GRE score percentiles below. The first table shows the percentile that corresponds to each verbal reasoning score and quantitative reasoning score, separated by one-point increment on the 130-170 scaled score GRE score range. The second table shows the Analytical Writing section percentiles, separated by half-point increment.

GRE Percentiles 2023-2024

AWA Percentiles 2023-2024

What percentile should I aim for on the GRE?

You’re probably wondering how your GRE score percentiles affect your chances of admission. As you saw earlier from my UC Davis and MIT examples, in a very broad sense, a “good” GRE score is the percentile your target school would ideally like to see. But “aim for what your school wants” is perhaps too broad to be helpful. There are numerous factors involved in the admissions decisions and most of those aren’t determined by the GRE alone. And there are certainly a few ground rules for percentiles, no matter where you want to go to school.

My universal recommendation is that you check where you stand compared to the GRE score percentiles above. Then have a look at the forums to see other students’ experiences.

Avoid the bottom half of the percentiles

Obviously, it’s best not to be below the 50th percentile, because that puts you in the bottom half. Most schools post a recommended or required score that is 50th percentile in at least one section. (Check out the graphs below for a rough estimate for each section.) If you’re below the 50th percentile in a section of the GRE, that may be acceptable in some cases.

However, even if your target school allows for this, such a low score could still be a red flag for an admissions officer. And if you’re below the 50th percentile in Verbal, Quant, and AWA, your score probably isn’t going to impress anyone. So although being below 50th percentile in just one section of the test isn’t always a deal-breaker, you should avoid being in the bottom half of the percentiles if possible.

How to achieve a perfect GRE Verbal Score (or get close!)

Feeling particularly ambitious? We put together a video on how to achieve a GRE Verbal score of 170! Don’t worry—even if your school doesn’t require this kind of score, you can still take advantage of these tips.

Check the scores for your academic discipline

If, for example, you’re wondering about GRE scores for your Engineering program, then your peers aren’t going to be exactly the same as the standard GRE test-takers (think: lots of math).

In this post on average GRE scores, you’ll see that the average Verbal score for Engineering majors is 151, the 46th percentile. In this case, being at 50th or just over could make you quite competitive. On the other hand, the average Quant score is 160. So if you want to go to grad school for Engineering, you’ll need a Quant section score that’s 61st percentile or higher.

To figure out the best minimum percentile for your discipline, check out the rest of that table in average GRE scores post. Then compare your average score to the percentile information in this post.

For a detailed and a bit complicated breakdown of percentiles by major, see pages 25-27 of the official GRE Guide to the Use of Scores.

Look at requirements for your target school’s program

After checking your discipline, remember school-by-school percentile requirements are all different. And top graduate school programs like Harvard, Stanford, and the like are looking for higher GRE score percentiles than your discipline might require. This is where our post on GRE scores for top schools comes in. You can use this post to compare the scores needed for your discipline against your target school to find which GRE percentile to aim for. For top ranked business schools that also accept the GRE for their MBA programs, you’ll want to check out their average GRE scores as well.

To use one last example, let’s say you want to study Biological Sciences at UCLA.

• Average GRE scores for Life Sciences
• Verbal: 151 (46th percentile)
• Quant: 150 (30th percentile)


• UCLA’s average GRE scores for Biological Sciences
• Verbal: 159-163 (81st to 92nd percentile)
• Quant: 156-160 (49th to 61st percentile)

Therefore, you’ll want to aim for well above the 50th percentile for this program.

Improving Your GRE Score

Ultimately, knowing all about GRE score percentiles and program requirements is only part of the battle. Once you have the knowledge about what your target score should be, you need a plan to achieve it. If you’re looking to improve your GRE score percentile, think about giving Magoosh GRE prep a shot. You can start with our free GRE Prep App and see if a little extra dedication to prep helps your confidence.