What's a Good Score on the GRE Test?

Question: What's a Good Score on the GRE Test?

Answer: Every graduate school program has a different understanding of what constitutes a "good" GRE score. As you begin to prepare for the GRE, remember that different schools emphasize different qualifications during the admissions process.

You already know that your GPA, research experience, classwork taken, and GRE subject test scores may be much more important than GRE scores during the admissions process. Likewise, different schools may expect very high scores in one section of the GRE, but will accept mediocre scores in another.

Thus your first step should be to research the average GRE test scores of the students who were accepted into the specific universities, departments, and degree programs you're interested in. Most departments publish these numbers online, so find them and take note of the average scores for each section of the GRE.

It's a good idea to aim higher than the average to make yourself a competitive candidate for graduate school admissions.

Generally, PhD programs will show higher average GRE scores than Master's programs. And technical departments like engineering will expect very high quantitative scores - often the average score is close to 800! - but they will accept mediocre verbal and writing scores.

So find out the average scores for students accepted into the schools you're interested in, and target your test prep to match or beat the average scores for each section. For example, if you see that 84% of admitted students scored >550 on the Verbal section, with an average score of 623, it behooves you to aim for at least 600 to be a competitive candidate.