February is that time of the year when most international applicants are still making up their mind regarding their future course of study. The application deadlines are still months away and taking standardized tests is not a priority right now.

However, if you have decided to apply for a masters program abroad, you must know how competitive other applicants will be. Also, if you are still thinking about which standardized test to take, you should know what is your target and how achievable it is. Either way, the information in this blog post will help you set your target GRE score and know the level of test performance that is needed to achieve that target. The individual Verbal and Quant scores are on a scale of 130-170 each.

Chemistry > Verbal 157, Quant 162

Computer/Information Science > Verbal 152, Quant 162

Mathematics > Verbal 159, Quant 165

Physics > Verbal 161, Quant 164

Natural Science > Verbal 154, Quant 156

Biology > Verbal 157, Quant 158

Medical Science > Verbal 153, Quant 152

Art History > Verbal 160, Quant 154

English Language/Literature > Verbal 161, Quant 153

Foreign Language/Literature > Verbal 159, Quant 154

Philosophy > Verbal 164, Quant 157

Economics > Verbal 158, Quant 164

Political Science > Verbal 160, Quant 155

Psychology > Verbal 156, Quant 153

Sociology > Verbal 156, Quant 153

Education > Verbal 155, Quant 153

Chemical Engineering > Verbal 156, Quant 164

Civil Engineering > Verbal 154, Quant 162

Electrical Engineering > Verbal 151, Quant 163

Industrial Engineering > Verbal 158, Quant 164

Mechanical Engineering > Verbal 156, Quant 163

Accounting > Verbal 153, Quant 156

Finance > Verbal 155, Quant 165

Management > Verbal 154, Quant 155

Architecture > Verbal 154, Quant 158

Journalism > Verbal 155, Quant 153

Remember that these numbers are not absolute. A little deviation is always there. But, if you do need a specific number to set as a target, the information above is sufficient.

Now, the question arises regarding how common these scores are. To clarify this question, here are the latest percentiles released by ETS (Education Testing Services):

170/170 > Verbal 99, Quant 97 (All values are in percentiles)

168/170 > Verbal 98, Quant 95

166/170 > Verbal 97, Quant 91

164/170 > Verbal 94, Quant 87

162/170 > Verbal 90, Quant 82

160/170 > Verbal 85, Verbal 76

158/170 > Verbal 80, Verbal 70

156/170 > Verbal 72, Quant 63

154/170 > Verbal 64, Quant 55

152/170 > Verbal 55, Verbal 47

150/170 > Verbal 47, Quant 39

We hope that this information helps you set your goals and work towards them.

Happy Learning!