GMAT Percentiles
October 11, 2018
Determining your GMAT percentile is an important tool when assessing your odds of admission to the school of your dream. After all, admissions committees work greatly with percentiles, as they are tools of organization, high performance, as well as a convenient way to categorize prospective students. If you look at the benefits of percentiles, you will find it paramount to determine your own. How do you do that? Well, this article will present to you charts to find out where you are in terms of your percentile on all sections of the exam.
Knowing is power, right? Hence, the knowledge of knowing your percentile from your GMAT score is essential to fully comprehending the admissions process. Why sit in the dark any longer wondering why you might or might not get accepted into the school of your dreams? Equip yourself with data, with tools, with information. This article will prepare you and aid you in doing great things towards the completion of your academic aspirations and goals.
Take a look at the following tables detailing percentiles. In order to most effectively determine yours, you must know your GMAT score. Have you taken a free practice test already? We offer a highly realistic one at Manhattan Review. Knowing your score is nearly half the battle, raising it with hard work and determination is the rest.
GMAT Composite Score Percentiles
Most GMAT percentiles are published by composite or "total" score. Many schools will release percentiles based off of this, as opposed to a section-by-section breakdown. The following is the most accurate percentile ranking based off of composite scores you will find. Please note that we stop at the 48%/580 score, as we want to focus on high scorers and elite MBA admission. Can you find your own ranking somewhere below?
| Percentile | Composite GMAT Score |
|---|---|
| 99% | 760-800 |
| 98% | 750 |
| 97% | 740 |
| 95% | 730 |
| 94% | 720 |
| 90% | 710 |
| 88% | 700 |
| 85% | 690 |
| 82% | 680 |
| 80% | 670 |
| 77% | 660 |
| 73% | 650 |
| 68% | 640 |
| 66% | 630 |
| 63% | 620 |
| 59% | 610 |
| 56% | 600 |
| 52% | 590 |
| 48% | 580 |
Scaled Score Percentiles
When you're focusing on improving your Quant or Verbal section, you want to determine it working off of a scaled score for each first; that scaled score will equate to a percentile ranking. In this chart, we begin with the 96% Quant Percentile and the 99% Verbal Percentile. Some schools will publish percentile data based off specific GMAT sections, especially if a given school has a particular focus on the particular skills tested.
| Quant Percentile | Quant Scaled Score | Verbal Percentile | Verbal Scaled Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 96% | 51 | 99% | 51 |
| 85% | 50 | 99% | 50 |
| 74% | 49 | 99% | 49 |
| 67% | 48 | 99% | 48 |
| 61% | 47 | 99% | 47 |
| 58% | 46 | 99% | 46 |
| 55% | 45 | 99% | 45 |
| 50% | 44 | 98% | 44 |
| 47% | 43 | 96% | 43 |
| 43% | 42 | 96% | 42 |
| 41% | 41 | 93% | 41 |
| 39% | 40 | 90% | 40 |
| 35% | 39 | 88% | 39 |
| 33% | 38 | 85% | 38 |
| 32% | 37 | 82% | 37 |
| 29% | 36 | 80% | 36 |
IR & AWA Percentiles
While not as readily accessible as the Quant and Verbal section percentiles, AWA and IR ones are also available by taking a raw score and equating it with a percentage. Below is a sample chart detailing this. If writing is a particularly important aspect of your MBA program, then AWA percentiles might have a greater weight.
| AWA Percentile | AWA Score | IR Percentile | IR Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 88% | 6 | 92% | 8 |
| 79% | 5.5 | 82% | 7 |
| 53% | 5 | 70% | 6 |
| 42% | 4.5 | 54% | 5 |
| 17% | 4 | 38% | 4 |
| 11% | 3.5 | 24% | 3 |
| 4% | 3 | 11% | 2 |
| 3% | 2.5 | 0% | 1 |
| 2% | 1.5-2.0 | --- | --- |
| 1% | 0.5-1 | --- | --- |
| 0 | 0 | --- | --- |
In the end, the strategy for raising your GMAT percentile is easy—practice, practice, practice. When your overall GMAT score raises, so does your percentile ranking. Try not to focus so much on your percentage and ranking, but instead strive to learn and implement effective test day strategies that will naturally take care of those concerns. Assessing your percentile throughout your course of study is valuable, particularly if you are regularly taking mock exams.
Your percentile correlates with your academic capabilities, which are always far greater when met with hard work and determination.