What Does It Mean When a Baby Is the 10th Percentile?

How to Understand Your GMAT Percentiles

Past on April seven, 2021 , UPDATED ON Baronial 3, 2021, in GMAT Score

How can y'all turn test scores and section scores into GMAT score percentiles? And what about GMAT Quant score percentiles and Verbal score percentiles? Don't worry—we've got all the info you need to know to understand your score. First off, your total GMAT score ranges from 200-800, and your section scores accept their own score scales too. But focusing on your GMAT percentiles tin requite you extra insight into your strengths and weaknesses on the test.

The GMAT is all well-nigh competitive advantage. Your score is literally determined by how well y'all perform in relation to hundreds of thousands of exam-takers over the by three years. In a nutshell, a ranking in the 75th percentile means that 25% of test-takers performed likewise or meliorate than yous, and 75% did non.

Knowing the percentiles lets you know if y'all've merely achieved an average GMAT score, or if you've shot through the roof with your scores. GMAC produces this information on GMAT percentile charts. For your convenience, we've cleaved these scores down beneath.

This post has been updated to include GMAC'due south nearly recently published GMAT score percentiles, which represent a sample of 550,000+ students who took the GMAT from 2018-2020.

Table of Contents

• GMAT Score Percentiles Nautical chart
• GMAT Quant Percentiles
• GMAT Verbal Percentiles
• GMAT AWA Percentiles
• GMAT IR Percentiles
• How does GMAT calculate percentiles?
  • Quant vs. Verbal Percentiles and How to Interpret Them
  • When are score percentiles useful (and not and then useful)?
  • How much should I score to get in the 99th percentile on the GMAT?
• GMAT Percentiles for Business Schools
• Takeaways

GMAT Score Percentiles Chart

Let's start with the big one: your overall GMAT score percentile, which is on a 200 to 800 bespeak scale. Your overall score is made upwards of your sectional scores in Quant and Verbal. Very importantly—your Verbal score counts slightly more in the weighting!

This 200 to 800 score range is a pretty mutual one in standardized testing. Encounter which score corresponds to your percentile in the GMAT score chart below.

While schools will see your exclusive scores, this is the one that they'll employ as their master consideration. (To detect out almost how these are calculated from sectional scores, check out information on GMAT score calculations!)

Click here for the GMAT Score Percentiles Chart

Percentile	Score	Percentile (cont'd.)	Score (cont'd.)
99%	760-800	28%	520
98%	750	26%	510
97%	740	24%	500
96%	730	22%	490
94%	720	twenty%	480
91%	710	18%	470
88%	700	16%	460
85%	690	14%	450
81%	680	13%	440
80%	670	12%	430
76%	660	11%	420
72%	650	10%	410
66%	640	9%	400
64%	630	8%	390
61%	620	7%	380
57%	610	6%	370
53%	600	half dozen%	360
49%	590	5%	350
46%	580	4%	330-340
42%	570	iii%	310-320
39%	560	2%	260-300
36%	550	1%	220-250
34%	540	0%	200-210
30%	530

GMAT Quant Percentiles

Where does your overall percentile for the GMAT come up from, you might be wondering? It comes from your sectional scores in Quant and Verbal. And yes—in that location are percentiles for both of these sections as well!

GMAT Quant is scored on a scale of 0 to 60. To get a sense of how your scores stack up, take a expect at the GMAT Quant score percentiles below. This isn't a chart of GMAT raw scores and percentiles—rather, information technology's a chart of your scaled sectional score in Quant and its percentile.

Click here for the GMAT Quant Percentiles Chart

Quant Percentile	Quant Scaled Score
97%	51
87%	l
74%	49
67%	48
59%	47
56%	46
53%	45
47%	44
44%	43
39%	42
37%	41
35%	40
31%	39
29%	38
28%	37
25%	36
22%	35
21%	34
20%	33
17%	32
15%	31
15%	30
13%	29
12%	28
10%	27
10%	26
viii%	24-25
7%	23
6%	22
5%	twenty-21
4%	18-19
3%	14-17
ii%	12-13
i%	seven-11
0%	6

GMAT Verbal Percentiles

GMAT Quant scores and percentiles are unlike than they are for GMAT Verbal, but at least the scoring range is the same. Here'south the GMAT score and percentile tabular array for GMAT Verbal.

Click here for the GMAT Verbal Percentiles Chart

Exact Percentile	Verbal Scaled Score
99%	45-51
98%	44
96%	42
94%	41
90%	40
88%	39
84%	38
82%	37
80%	36
75%	35
70%	34
68%	33
65%	32
sixty%	31
58%	xxx
55%	29
50%	28
45%	27
42%	26
38%	25
35%	24
31%	23
29%	22
25%	21
22%	20
xviii%	nineteen
17%	18
fourteen%	17
11%	sixteen
ix%	xv
8%	14
6%	13
4%	12
iii%	eleven
2%	10
2%	nine
ane%	vii-eight
0%	6

GMAT AWA Percentiles

While your AWA (and IR) scores exercise not count towards your overall 200 to 800 score, business schools will still see how yous performed. GMAT essays are scored on a calibration of 0 to half-dozen, in half-point increments. That'due south right—on the writing department, half a indicate changes your GMAT AWA percentile, and sometimes drastically. Have a look.

Click hither for the GMAT AWA Percentiles Chart

AWA Percentile	AWA Score
88%	vi
81%	v.5
57%	5
47%	iv.5
eighteen%	four
12%	iii.5
4%	three
three%	two.five
1%	0.5-2
0	0

GMAT IR Percentiles

At this indicate, it probably won't surprise you to acquire that GMAT Integrated Reasoning (IR) has its very own grading scale: it is scored on a scale of 1 to eight. Unlike the AWA, IR does not apply one-half-betoken increments; these are scored in whole points. As you might imagine, this affects IR percentiles drastically.

Here's what GMAT score vs percentiles look like for IR.

Click here for the GMAT IR Percentiles Nautical chart

IR Percentile	IR Score
90%	8
79%	7
64%	half dozen
48%	five
31%	4
18%	three
8%	2
0%	1

How does GMAT calculate percentiles?

To come up up with these tables, the GMAC (not a typo—that's the GMAT test-maker) takes a look at the about recent cohort of examination-takers. Currently, this includes 555,174 examination-takers from January 2018 – December 2020.

You may be wondering why they don't compare your scores to people who took the aforementioned test you did. Well, call back that the GMAT is an adaptive examination—you see harder or easier questions depending on how well you answered the previous questions. So in theory, very few GMATs are exactly alike.

But in that case…why non compare your score to anybody who always took the exam to get a sense of how you lot stack upwards over fourth dimension? First of all, because the exam does alter every few years, sometimes a little bit and sometimes a lot, so that wouldn't be entirely off-white.

Secondly, and more importantly, it would be meaningless. GMAT scores are valid for 5 years, just realistically, most people volition apply their scores to apply to business schools inside a year or two of taking the examination.

By giving percentiles from this most contempo group of exam-takers, the GMAC helps admissions committees encounter exactly where each score stacks up in a group that is very similar to the one currently applying.

Quant vs. Verbal Percentiles and How to Interpret Them

Here'southward where it gets interesting, from a strategy bespeak of view. Y'all may find while your scaled score for the Quantitative department is college than your scaled score for the Verbal section, you rank lower from a percentile point of view. This is because many test-takers have excellent quantitative abilities merely are non native English speakers.

This means that while your Quant abilities can be amazing, you might non rank nigh the top of the pile of GMAT test-takers. Your scaled scores, therefore, are not the all-time style to judge your relative abilities on the GMAT. Focusing on your percentiles is much more accurate in terms of accessing your relative performance between the ii sections.

And, as we mentioned before, your Verbal sectional score counts slightly more than than Quant in the weighting calculation for your final score—so don't neglect the Verbal section! Boosting your score in the Verbal Section volition add together more than to your terminal score than boosting your score in the Quant section, by the same amount.

When are GMAT score percentiles useful (and not so useful)?

Percentiles are a smashing way to admission your relative power—between Verbal and Quant likewise as compared to other test-takers.

Your GMAT score is determined not only by how many questions yous answer correctly just past how difficult these questions are. Thinking virtually GMAT questions in terms of higher and lower percentile/difficulty levels can requite you lot insight into the nuances of the exam while y'all are practicing.

Given that the question 'level' is important, information technology can exist hard to tell how yous are performing during your practice. Remember—official mock tests from MBA.com are the best mode to get an accurate idea of how you are performing before test day.

• Nosotros likewise created a free GMAT practice test for yous to practice with before test day.
• If y'all need even more resources, we've got y'all covered. Magoosh students get twoscore% off of official GMAT practice exams here.

The one-time thinking about the scoring algorithm, percentiles, and the difficulty level of questions is super unhelpful is during the test itself. It's a waste of mental free energy and effort, in function due to the experimental questions in the test, that doesn't count towards your total score.

How much should I score to get in the 99th percentile on the GMAT?

A score betwixt 760 and 800 will get yous that elusive 99th percentile GMAT score. Nigh 0.02% of GMAT test-takers, or about 30 people a yr, volition score a perfect 800 on the test.

At this indicate, you may be wondering about the number of test-takers who get each top scores each yr–what's the competition like? Some simple calculations can aid u.s.a. figure this out. If around 250,000 test-takers take the examination each year (as they did in 2014-2018), that means effectually:

• 2,500 scored between 760-800 (99th percentile)
• 2,500 scored betwixt 750-760 (98th percentile)
• 25,000 scored between 700-750 (88th-98th percentile)

Starting to come across a trend? Yep! The GMAT scores fall along a bell curve. Very few people become very high or very low scores, and well-nigh people autumn somewhere in the eye. In fact, the GMAC tells us that around two-thirds of test-takers score betwixt 400 and 600 on the test.

GMAT Percentiles for Business organization Schools

Every bit ever, the admissions process is holistic and non only focused on the GMAT. Yet, the higher your percentile number is, the ameliorate. At the 99th percentile, merely i% of students got a better score than you, and the 100th percentile places you lot at the very top among all exam-takers.

In contrast, if you're at the 50th or 60th percentile, you're non that competitive. And once yous driblet beneath the 50th percentile, your score is quite poor, and you may need to retake the GMAT (and, unfortunately, pay the GMAT exam fee in one case more).

Acquit in listen that some schools volition have minimum sectional scores for the Quant department every bit well. Others may insist on a 'balanced score' between the two sections.

To empathise the GMAT score y'all'll need to obtain for a top schoolhouse, the best thing to exercise is look at boilerplate GMAT scores for top programs. Every bit you tin run into from running down this list, they all tend to be above 700–sometimes well higher up 700, as in the instance of Columbia (an average of 732!).

Put this in terms of percentiles using the chart to a higher place. A 700 on the GMAT is in the 88th percentile, while a 732 would be around the 96th percentile. From this information, nosotros can depict the determination that top schools need acme scores.

Rankings don't represent precisely to score percentiles—but in this case, it's pretty fair to say that if you're applying to a meridian-10 school, a score in the summit ten% of GMAT exam-takers (i.e. placing yous in the 90th percentile in a higher place) is definitely a helpful tool.

Takeaways about GMAT Percentiles

And then many numbers! Then what exercise you need to recollect?

• The GMAT is about competitive reward, and GMAT percentiles show the percentage of test-takers whose scores yous beat.
• You'll receive a GMAT percentile for Quant, Exact, IR, and AWA sections.
• Your overall percentile and score (200 to 800) come from a combination of your Quant and Verbal sectional scores—Non their percentiles.
• Top schools need elevation scores, preferably in the top 10% (90th percentile) or higher up.
• Very few students score in a higher place a 750 on the GMAT each year. Those who do put in long study hours!

Getting a great score on the GMAT tin can seem overwhelming, fifty-fifty impossible. But if there'southward ane thing that these percentile charts should show you, it'due south that it's not! Thousands of students go great scores on the GMAT every yr. With hard piece of work and smart studying, you merely might be amid them!

• 

  Cara is a communications specialist, admissions consultant, and one of those lunatics who genuinely loves the GMAT. Cara is the Senior Editor at Studyportals, a global report choice platform used by over 50 million students each twelvemonth. Prior to working at Studyportals, Cara wrote for BusinessBecause, an MBA news site owned by the GMAC, and co-founded a company dedicated to admissions support for business school candidates from Africa. She has an MBA from Oxford University and a Bachelor of Journalism from Rhodes University. Reach out on LinkedIn if you lot'd like to get in touch!

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Source: https://magoosh.com/gmat/gmat-score-percentiles/

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