How GRE Test Is Scored?

Preparing for GRE Test takes dedicated effort and time, but staying informed on how GRE Exam is scored will definitely give an edge for GRE Test taker. I have seen many students preparing for GRE find it bit tough to understand the GRE Test scoring concept. Here’s a question I came across

Question on GRE Scoring

I just finished giving the first test in the ETS PowerPrep software, and was pleasantly surprised to have a score of 750. But when I was reviewing my mistakes, I was shocked to see that I made 11 mistakes! And the mistakes were pretty evenly spread out through out the section. The mistakes were in Questions: 3,5,9,14,16,18,20,21,24,27,28. We know it is a CAT exam, despite that fact, how did I end up with such a high score?

That made me wonder whether PowerPrep is reliable? I have heard people getting 780/790 with 4 mistakes, but still 750 with 11 mistakes looks like a bit too much. But if this is actually the normal scenario, I am more than happy . By the way, my math percentile rank was 84, if it helps by any way. I am hoping that I the reason for this score can be partly explained by the fact that I got 11 of the first 15 correct. Anyone knows how the math is scored in the real exam? I have heard though PowerPrep is a pretty good indicator of the real exam.

GRE Exam – First Few Questions

• GRE Test is adaptive and first few questions will have more weight/points
• Questions that appear in later part of the GRE Exam has less value.
• All the questions that appear in the exam should have been previously appeared in exam under Experimental Section and based on how students answer that question, points/difficulty level will be assigned

GRE questions determined in such way will appear during first few questions and getting few answers wrong will bring down the score for sure.

GRE Score Range – Big Range

• In the GRE Exam first few questions will help the system determine which score range the student fit in. For example, if test take get first 6 to 8 questions right, then GRE Test system will assign the range of 700 to 800. So, test takers score will be only above 700.
• Next few questions tries to determine the scores within 700 to 800 range. If GRE test taker gets 2 or 3 questions wrong in first 6 to 8 questions, then the score range of say 650 to 750 will be assigned and following questions will help the system determine the score within 650 to 750.
• It’s my understanding that first question will have value around 700 and getting it right will have next question of 730 in value. If student gets second question then next question will have 720 value. So, first 6 to 8 question will help determine the Big Range in GRE Exam.

Final GRE Score – Within Big Range

One the outer GRE Score range is determined, then rest of question will help determine the sub range of that. For example,if the Outer Range is 700 to 800, then next few questions will have value within 700 to 800. If the GRE test taker gets all the questions right, then next range will be set between 750 to 800.

Providing incorrect answers for one or 2 questions will reduce the range from 700 to 780 or so. But the hard part is to identify what is the value of each question. Best thing GRE test take can do is try to get all the questions right.

In the pattern Final GRE score will be determined. To answert the above students question, he should have got all the high value/weight questions right even though 11 answers were incorrect.

Image Credit : ibm4381

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