Scoring the GRE

With the GRE, you receive three separate scores: Verbal, Math, and An alytical Writing. Although you get your unofficial Verbal and Math scores immediately after taking the test, you must wait 10 to 15 days to get your Analytical Writing score in the mail. The following sections explain in more depth some important scoring tidbits you may want to know.

Knowing How the Scoring Breaks Down

On the GRE, you can score a maximum of 340 points on the multiple choice and 6 points on the essays. Here s the scoring range for each of the three sections: * Verbal: The Verbal score ranges from 130 to 170 in 1-point increments. You get 130 points for just showing up, which accounts for about 80 percent of a job well done . It doesnt help much , though: You need to score as well as or better than most of the other people who took the test. Refer to the chapters in Part II of the book for the lowdown on the Verbal sections. * Math: The Math score also ranges from 130 to 170 in 1-point increments. Head to the chapters in Part III of the book for more on the Math sections. * Analytical Writing: You get 1 to 6 points per essay, with 6 being the highest. Two essay evaluators grade each essay, and your score per essay is the average of the two. If the two evaluators score your essay very differently (more than one point apart), then another grader steps in, and your essay score is the average of the three. Finally, the scores for the two essays are averaged for your Analytical Writing score of 1 to 6. Essay responses that are blank or filled with typed nonsense receive a score of 0. So in essence, if you perfectly ace the Verbal and Math sections, you get 170 points for each, or a total of 340. If youre perfect on the two essays, you can get an essay score of 6. The three scores are separate. You get a Math score and a Verbal score, each from 130 to 170 in 1-point increments, and an essay score of 0 to 6, in halfpoint increments.

<Remember>
On the multiple-choice questions, you earn points only for completely correct answers. Answer incorrectly, and you dont get the points, but you dont lose any points, so guessing behooves you. If the question requires two or more answers, you have to get all the answers correct: There is no partial credit for a partially-correctly

answered question. See Playing the Guessing G ame, later in this document, for more on this.

Giving Your Essay a One-Digit Score

The highest score you can receive on the Analytical Writing portion of the GRE is a 6; 0 is the lowest score, but I know yo ull do much better than that. Following are the descriptions that evaluators associate with each essay score as they grade your essays: * Outstanding (6): The essay demonstrates the ability to develop a position on an issue, identify strengths and weakness of an argument, support personal views and insights, and write with clarity and focus. * Strong (5): The essay demonstrates a generally thoughtful analysis of the issue or argument and presents a clear and convincing analysis of the argument or presentation of the issue. Presentation is logical and main points are well supported. The essay may have minor errors in grammar and spelling but demonstrates control of the language, good diction (word choice), and variety of sentence structure. * Adequate (4): The essay demonstrates overall competence in adequately analyzing the argument or presenting the issue, organizing and supporting the thoughts, and expressing them clearly. It may not flow smoothly due to lack of effective transitions, and it may contain some errors, but it demonstrates sufficient control of the language. * Limited (3): Competent but flawed, the essay misses the main point or ideas in the argument or presents the issue poorly, lacks order, offers little or no support for the ideas presented, and contains occasional glaring errors or lots of minor errors in grammar, diction, and mechanics. * Seriously flawed (2): The essay completely misses the point, presents the authors point of view with no or irrelevant support, is poorly organized, and is riddled with errors in grammar, diction, mechanics, and sentence construction. * Fundamentally deficient (1): The essay demonstrates little or no evidence of the ability to understand the issue, analyze the argument, or develop a well organized presentation of ideas. In addition, the essay contains extensive errors in grammar, diction, mechanics, and sentence structure. * No essay (0): This one is self-explanatory: If no essay is submitted, the score is a 0. Your goal is to score a perfect 6 on each essay, especially if your test score or GPA is borderline.

Calculating Your Math and Verbal Scores

Each question in each section counts exactly the same toward your score, regardless of the difficulty of the question. Because you can move back and forth within each section, a good strategy is to skip around and answer all the easy questions first ; then go back and work the hard questions. Also, the more questions you get right, the higher your score not the case with the old, adaptive-style GRE, where each section s score was mostly determined by the first 15 questions. When you take a practice test, you can easily approximate your Math and Verbal scores. For the Math score, count up the math questions that you answered correctly. Add 130 to that number, and youll have your Math score. Because the GRE has 40 math questions (two sections with 20 questions each), this method will give you a score from 130 to 170. You can find your Verbal score the exact same way, because the GRE also has 40 verbal questions.

<Remember>
The way that the actual GRE calculates your scores is slightly more complicated. It takes into account the difficulty levels of the second Math and Verbal sections, weighing the scores accordingly. A more difficult section results in a higher score, which is important. For example, if you do very well on the first Math section, the second M ath section will be more difficult. Regardless of the sections difficulty level, each question within that section counts exactly the same toward your scor e. Short of this fine detail, however, you can closely approximate your practice-GRE scores using this scoring method.

Knowing How Your Scores Measure Up

If you score a perfect 340 or something close to it, you know you did well. If you score a 260, you know you bombed. But what if you score something in between? Did you pass? Did you fail? What do you make of your score? Well, you cant really tell much about your score out of context. Theres no pass or fail; no A, B, C, D, F; and no percentile ranking just yet. Because Im writing this in the first year of the new-and-improved GRE, I dont have median scores from the previous year scores that half the people taking the test scored above and half scored below. How well you did is relative to how well the other people taking the test performed and the requirements of the graduate program youre applying to. Whats most important is that you score high enough to get accepted into the program you have your heart set on.

<Remember>
Your GRE score is only one part of the total application package. If you have a good undergraduate GPA, a strong resume, and relevant work experience, you m ay

not need as high of a GRE score. On the other hand, if the converse is true, then a stellar GRE score can compensate for your weak areas.

Playing the Guessing Game

The GRE doesnt penalize you extra for guessing. Sure, if you guess wrong, you dont get the points you wouldve gotten for answering correctly, but the GRE doesnt deduct extra po ints for incorrect answers, so * If you dont know the answer, rule out as many obviously incorrect choices as possible and then guess from the remaining choices. * Finish the section, even if you must take wild guesses near the end. Wrong answers count the same as not answering a question, so you may as well guess.