Advantage Testing GRE Q&A

What defines a good score depends on your goals. The mean GRE score is 151 Verbal, 154 Quantitative, and 3.6 Analytical Writing. The 75th percentile is around 157 Verbal, 161 Quantitative, and 4.5 Analytical Writing. The 90th percentile is around 162 Verbal, 168 Quantitative, and 5.0 Analytical Writing.

When setting goals, you should take into account the mean scores at the schools to which you are planning to apply, your practice test scores, and the other strengths of your graduate school application. Different schools enroll students with different average scores, and different programs approach the test differently. For example, the Quantitative Reasoning section may be weighed more heavily when applying to math and science programs, and the Verbal Reasoning section may be weighed more heavily by English and humanities programs.