GRE Percentiles—What They Mean and Why They Don’t Matter

The GRE percentile is a test measure released by the Educational Testing Service (ETS). It can be used as a tool to compare your performance with others who attempted the exam in a marked period.

While the GRE percentile may sound like an objective tool, there are better ways to determine if your GRE score is good enough to secure your admission to graduate school. Having said that, it is worthwhile to take a quick look into percentiles. 

What Does a Percentile Score Mean?

A percentile score denotes the percentage of candidates who have received a GRE score below yours in a period of three years. For example, if your Verbal Reasoning Score is in the 99th percentile in 2022, then 99% of candidates scored less than you in the past three years. And, intuitively, if your GRE Quantitative Reasoning score is in the 50th percentile, half of GRE test takers scored lower than you over the past three years.

Percentile rank information is separated by test section, meaning that you may have a different GRE percentile for each of the Analytical Writing, Verbal, and Quantitative sections. Percentiles are not available for total GRE test scores.

How are GRE Percentile Scores Calculated?

ETS calculates the percentile for a particular score by determining what percentage of candidates have a score lower than it in a three year testing period.

GRE test takers might be tempted to calculate the percentile for the total score by simply adding together the marks of the Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning sections of a particular percentile. However, this is an approximation at best because usually, a candidate will not earn the same Verbal and Quantitative scores. 

Official ETS Percentiles Table

Again, the ETS does not release percentiles for total GRE scores. It releases the percentile scores for the three sections, Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, and Analytical Writing section as three separate tables. The percentile tables are calculated based on the scores of all the candidates over a three-year period beginning July 1 and ending June 30.

The latest percentiles table released by the ETS says that to be in the 99th percentile for Verbal Reasoning, you need a score of 170. However, scoring the same mark in the Quantitative Reasoning section means you are only in the 94th percentile.

Score	Verbal Reasoning Percentile	Quantitative Reasoning 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	1

Score	Analytical Writing 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

A percentile scores table is published for each of the subject exams as well.

Why Does My Percentile Score Change?

Percentile scores change because, every July, the ETS updates the GRE score percentiles data table to include the latest testing year. Because average GRE scores increase or decrease year-to-year, the percentile rank information must change to reflect this.

For example, if you took the exam in July 2021, then your first percentile score is based on the performance of candidates taking the exam from July 2019 to June 2021. However, when the results for 2022 come in, the ETS  revises the percentile table to include the latest scores, thus leading to an increase or decrease in your percentile value.

Are GRE Percentile Scores Important? 

While GRE percentiles are a good way to understand your standing among other competitors, you must remember that the final goal is to secure admission to your school of choice. Therefore, what is more important for you is that you have a competitive GRE score as compared to the GRE score range of your target institution.

Most graduate schools have their average GRE score ranges published on their website. Thus, it is important to research your target schools and evaluate your GRE scores in the context of the score requirement of your desired school. It is also vital to note that, in some cases, scholarships may have an average GRE score requirement too. 

Some schools may refer to the percentiles as a criterion for admission. In that case, you can refer to the table released by ETS to figure out if you have a good GRE score.

The nature of your graduate program also plays a role in deciding the relative importance of the scores of the different sections. For example, if you are getting a Master’s in Economics your Quantitative scores will be more important to admissions officers. In contrast, if you’re applying to an English Literature program, the Verbal Reasoning section will be more important.

It is also important to note that many graduate programs have waived their standardized testing requirement which means that submitting your test scores is now optional.

Conclusion

A percentile score table is a good way to compare your scores with other test takers but it’s not much more than that unless your target graduate programs have a percentile requirement. Therefore, you should research the requirements of your target schools before evaluating your test scores.

For a tailored and result-oriented approach to improve your GRE percentile score, explore our GRE tutoring services.