What Is a Good GRE Score? Percentiles and Targets by Program Type

What Is a Good GRE Score?

A good GRE score depends entirely on your target program. As a rough benchmark, a total near 320 (roughly 160 Verbal and 160 Quant) with an AWA of 4.0 or higher is competitive for most graduate programs. Top-20 and STEM programs expect more - often 325-plus overall and a Quant score of 165 or higher.

Those are benchmarks, not cutoffs. GRE Verbal and Quant are each scored 130 to 170 in one-point steps and reported separately, so the same scaled score means very different things by section. The percentile and program tables below show exactly what each score is worth and what admitted students actually bring to competitive programs.

• •Scale: Verbal 130-170 and Quant 130-170, reported separately; AWA 0-6 in half-points.
• •Broadly competitive: 320-plus total (about 160V / 160Q), AWA 4.0 or higher.
• •Top-20 and STEM: 325-plus total, with Quant often 165 or higher.

How Do GRE Scores and Percentiles Work?

The GRE General Test reports two main scores: Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Reasoning, each on a 130 to 170 scale in one-point increments. Analytical Writing is scored separately from 0 to 6 in half-point steps. There is no single official composite - people commonly add Verbal and Quant to quote a total from 260 to 340, but ETS reports the two sections separately and does not officially sum them, so treat the total as a convenient convention rather than an official number.

What makes a score good is its percentile - the share of test-takers you outscored. The table below shows Verbal and Quant percentiles from the ETS Interpretive Data covering test-takers from July 2022 through June 2025, the window in force for 2026. The headline point: identical scaled scores are not interchangeable across sections. A 160 is the 82nd percentile on Verbal but only the 50th on Quant, because the Quant pool is far more competitive.

Judge where you stand by percentile, not raw score, and reconfirm the figures at ets.org before you rely on them - ETS refreshes its Interpretive Data annually, so the exact percentile attached to a score can shift year to year. For the score ranges specific graduate programs look for, see the grad-school requirements guide.

What Is a Good GRE Score by Program Type?

The honest answer to what makes a good GRE score is that it is program-specific. Admissions committees weight the sections differently by field, so a score that is excellent for a humanities PhD can be merely adequate for a computer science program. The table below sets out target ranges by program type. Read them as ranges to aim for, not as hard cutoffs - programs rarely publish minimum scores, and these benchmarks are synthesized from prep-provider and admitted-student data rather than a single official source.

Two patterns drive the table. Quant-weighted fields - engineering, computer science, data science, and the physical sciences - expect a high Quant score and are more relaxed on Verbal. Verbal-weighted fields - humanities and most social sciences - flip that, prizing a strong Verbal score and a high AWA while tolerating a mid-range Quant. Business master's programs such as a Master in Management or MS Finance tend to want a balanced profile, with both sections at or above 160.

Whatever your field, the safest approach is to look up the admitted-student profile for each program on your list and aim above its median rather than at it. For a deeper breakdown by program, see the GRE score requirements guide, and if you are also weighing the GMAT, the GMAT versus GRE comparison covers how programs treat the two tests.

Why Is a High Quant Score Harder Than a High Verbal Score?

A high Quant score is genuinely harder to convert into a high percentile than a high Verbal score, and the gap has grown. On the current ETS table, 160 Quant is the 50th percentile while 160 Verbal is the 82nd. Even a perfect 170 on Quant reaches only the 89th percentile, whereas 170 Verbal is the 99th. In other words, half of all test-takers score at or above 160 on Quant, so a good Quant number has to be higher to stand out.

The driver is the test-taker pool. GRE Quant percentiles have drifted down over recent years - a 160 Quant sat around the 61st percentile a few years ago and now maps to the 50th - largely because of a large, strong cohort of international STEM applicants, particularly from India and China, who score very high on the math section. The exact prior-year figures vary by source, so date any specific comparison, but the direction is well documented.

The practical consequence: if you are applying to a Quant-heavy program, budget more preparation for the math section, because you need a higher raw score to reach the same percentile a Verbal-focused applicant gets more easily. To gauge how demanding the test itself is, see the how-hard-is-the-GRE guide.

What GRE Score Do Top-20 Programs Expect?

Top-20 graduate programs expect scores above the general good benchmark. A total of 325 or higher is a reasonable target, and at the very top of the rankings admitted students often cluster between 328 and 333. Those figures come from admitted-student profiles and admissions-consulting data rather than official ETS thresholds, so treat them as competitive targets, not guaranteed cutoffs.

The most important thing to understand about program medians is that they describe admitted students, not the applicant pool. If a program reports a median of 328, roughly half of its admitted class scored above that - and the applicants who were rejected are not in the number at all. That is why your target should sit above a program's published median, not at it. Aiming for the median leaves you merely typical among people who applied, many of whom were turned down.

Score is also only one factor. Many US programs kept GRE-waiver or test-optional policies that spread after 2020, so a strong score can be required at one school and optional at another on your list. Confirm each program's current requirement before you decide how hard to push your score, and use the grad-school requirements reference for field-level context.

How Has the Shorter GRE Changed Scoring?

The GRE got shorter on September 22, 2023, but the scoring scale did not change. The test now runs about one hour and 58 minutes, down from nearly four hours, and the unscored research section was removed. Analytical Writing dropped to a single Analyze an Issue essay; the old Analyze an Argument task is gone. Verbal and Quant are still scored 130 to 170, and AWA is still 0 to 6, so a good score means the same thing it did before.

Because the scale is unchanged, the percentile tables and program targets in this guide apply to the current, shorter test. What changed is the experience, not the yardstick: fewer questions per section and a tighter clock, which puts more weight on pacing. Official scores now arrive faster too - typically within about 8 to 10 days of your test date rather than the longer wait under the old format.

One practical effect of the shorter essay: with only one AWA task, there is less room to recover from a weak start, so programs that value writing - many humanities and social science departments - still expect a 4.5 or higher. Confirm current format details at ets.org, and if you have not registered yet, the how-to-register-for-the-GRE guide walks through the steps.

How Can You Reach Your Target GRE Score?

Reaching a good GRE score starts with a target, not a vague goal. Pull the admitted-student profile for each program on your list, note the section they weight, and set a number a few points above their median. A Quant-heavy program means most of your prep should go to the math section, where percentiles are harshest; a Verbal-weighted program shifts the balance the other way. Knowing which section carries your application prevents you from over-investing in the one that matters less.

From there, the work is diagnostic. Sit a full-length practice test under timed conditions, convert your raw scores to percentiles using the table above, and compare against your targets section by section. Rebuild your study plan around the widest gap rather than grinding the material you are already comfortable with, and re-test at intervals so you can watch the percentile move rather than guessing.

If the timeline is tight and the gap is real, Exam Assist supports GRE candidates on pay-after-pass terms - you pay only after you reach your target result, not upfront. Message us with your target programs, your registered test date, and your weakest section, and we will lay out your options confidentially. Exam Assist is independent and is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, ETS.