What is a good GRE score?
A good GRE score is one that clears the averages for your intended field and the published medians at your target programs — and both references are section-specific, because ETS scales Verbal and Quantitative separately and reports no combined total. Against all test takers (July 2022–June 2025), the mean scores are 151.4 Verbal and 157.6 Quantitative; a 160 sits at the 82nd percentile in Verbal but only the 50th in Quantitative, so the same number can be strong in one section and average in the other.
How are GRE scores reported?
- Verbal Reasoning: 130–170, in one-point increments
- Quantitative Reasoning: 130–170, in one-point increments
- Analytical Writing: 0–6, in half-point increments
- Each measure is scaled separately, and ETS states the measures "should not be directly compared" — the percentile ranks on your score report are the tool for comparing performance across sections
- There is no official combined GRE total score. Informal sums like "320" come from third parties, not from ETS — and a sum hides exactly the section imbalance the real score report presents section by section
What do GRE percentiles look like?
Percentile ranks below are ETS's official figures, based on all test takers from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2025:
| Scaled score | Verbal percentile | Quantitative percentile |
|---|---|---|
| 170 | 99 | 89 |
| 167 | 97 | 75 |
| 165 | 95 | 67 |
| 163 | 90 | 60 |
| 160 | 82 | 50 |
| 158 | 76 | 45 |
| 155 | 64 | 37 |
| 152 | 48 | 29 |
The two columns diverge sharply at the top because Quant scores pile up near the ceiling: a perfect 170 in Quant is only the 89th percentile, while a 170 in Verbal is the 99th. Reading your own score without the percentile column will mislead you in both directions — a 164 is excellent in Verbal (93rd) and unremarkable for quant-heavy programs in Quant (63rd).
What is a good GRE score for your field?
ETS publishes mean scores by intended graduate major field. Selected fields (seniors and non-enrolled college graduates, July 2022–June 2025):
| Intended field | Verbal | Quant | Analytical Writing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business | 154 | 160 | 3.7 |
| Education | 152 | 150 | 3.7 |
| Engineering | 151 | 160 | 3.4 |
| Law | 154 | 152 | 3.9 |
| Life Sciences | 150 | 150 | 3.7 |
| Physical Sciences | 152 | 162 | 3.4 |
| Social & Behavioral Sciences | 154 | 155 | 3.8 |
Two things to read out of this table. First, these are averages of people planning to apply in each field, not admitted-student cutoffs — competitive programs sit well above them. Second, the bar moves by section: business, engineering, and physical sciences applicants average 160 or higher in Quant, so a 158 Quant that beats the all-tester mean still trails the pool you're actually compared against in those fields.
What counts as a competitive GRE score?
Defined in percentile terms against the same ETS table:
- 75th percentile: roughly 158 in Verbal, 167 in Quantitative
- 90th percentile: roughly 163 in Verbal — and in Quantitative, no score reaches it (170 = 89th)
- Program medians beat generic thresholds. Where a program publishes section medians, that's your real benchmark: Harvard Business School's Class of 2027 reports GRE medians of 164 Verbal and 164 Quant (44% of the class submitted a GRE), and London Business School suggests roughly 163–164 per section as a working target while publishing no official average. Selective programs in other fields publish similar profiles — check each program's class profile page before fixing a target.
How should you set your GRE target score?
- List your programs and collect their published section medians. Use class-profile pages, not third-party "average GRE score" roundups. If a program publishes nothing, fall back to the field means above plus a 75th-percentile floor in your program's dominant section.
- Convert your diagnostic score to percentiles, section by section. A 12-point gap in Verbal and a 12-point gap in Quant are different projects: 152→164 in Verbal moves you 48th→93rd percentile; the same scaled jump in Quant moves you 29th→63rd.
- Spend points where they buy the most. Quant gains keep paying all the way up (163→170 lifts you 60th→89th), while Verbal compresses above 166 (96th) to about one percentile per point. Target the section that moves your percentile profile most against your programs' medians.
- Aim above the median, not at it. A score over the median adds options across every school on your list, strengthens scholarship cases, and offsets weaker parts of an application. Set the target you'd want with your strongest application, then build the plan to reach it — adaptive GRE practice with error diagnostics shows you which section, and which question types within it, are holding the percentile down.
A good GRE score, concretely: at or above your field's section means at minimum, at or above your target programs' published medians to be competitive, and above those medians when scholarships or a weaker profile component are in play. Get the section-level diagnosis first — a free practice session tells you which column of the percentile table to work on.