How to Calculate GMAT Focus Scores
Updated for the new GMAT in 2024
Your overall composite GMAT score is calculated by combining your subscores from the GMAT Quantitative Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning, and Data Insights sections. Each of those sections is reported on a scale from 60 to 90 points, and the composite score is graded on a scale of 205 to 805 points.
Because the GMAT Focus Edition is an adaptive test, your scores are NOT determined solely by the number of questions you answer correctly.
Keep reading to learn more about GMAT exam scoring, and how the scoring algorithm might change your approach to the exam.
What is an adaptive test, and why is the GMAT adaptive?
The GMAT is adaptive, which means that when you answer GMAT questions correctly, the test will give you harder questions as you move through each section. If you get a bunch of questions wrong, on the other hand, the GMAT will adapt and show you easier questions.
The purpose of making a test adaptive is so that the exam can tailor the difficulty level to match your skill level. This allows the exam to efficiently reveal a wider range of scores with a smaller number of test questions.
Imagine that two students -- a quant genius and a quant struggler -- take a non-adaptive quant test of 21 questions. In just 21 questions, there’s a limit to how many easy or hard questions each test-taker will see. So if the quant genius easily aces the test, then the exam probably won’t accurately measure how awesome she really is at quant. Similarly, if the quant struggler gets her head (proverbially) knocked off, then the test will probably fail to identify the exact level of question that she can handle.
An adaptive test such as the GMAT fixes this issue by changing the difficulty level of the question to match the test-taker’s performance. The quant genius will see harder and harder questions until the test finds her ceiling and scores her accordingly. Meanwhile, the GMAT quant struggler will see easier and easier questions until the exam finds her floor.
How is the score calculated in an adaptive test like the GMAT?
Because different students will see questions with different difficulty levels, it wouldn’t be fair to grade them on the number of questions that they miss.
Instead, the primary driver of your GMAT score is the difficulty level of the questions that you miss.
For example, let’s say that you miss 8 easy questions sprinkled throughout your GMAT quant section. The test will never adapt upwards, and could give you a quant section score in the 60s or low 70s.
But let’s say that you miss 8 questions again, but you only miss difficult questions -- now, you could score an 80Q or better, even though you’ve made exactly the same number of errors.
The GMAT Verbal Reasoning and Data Insights sections operate in a similar way, although the verbal section is somewhat more sensitive to the number of errors than the GMAT quant section is. The reason for this is simple: it’s hard to write very, very difficult verbal questions. On quant and Data Insights, the test can adapt up and down more easily.
The bottom line: your GMAT section subscores are calculated based primarily on the difficulty level of the questions you miss -- not how many questions you miss.
GMAT quant and verbal subscore scales
Technically speaking, the official scale for the GMAT Quantitative Reasoning and Verbal Reasoning sections range from 0 to 60, but on the official GMAT website, the test’s creators claim that “scores below 6 and above 51 are rare.” In our decades of GMAT tutoring, we’ve never seen a subscore lower than 6 or higher than 51.
So practically speaking, think of a 51 as a perfect score on a GMAT quant or verbal section, and assume that 6 is the lowest possible score on these two sections.
For a fun story about a student who earned a 6 on the GMAT verbal section and ultimately earned a 700 (and a partial scholarship to an Ivy League MBA program), check out this video.
CALCULATING YOUR GMAT COMPOSITE SCORE FROM QUANT, VERBAL, AND DATA INSIGHTS SUBSCORES
Your composite GMAT score is calculated using your subscores from each of the three test sections – Quantitative Reasoning, Verbal Reasoning, and Data Insights – each of which is reported on a scale from 60 to 90. All three sections are weighted equally in determining your composite score.
If you’re interested in seeing the composite scores that result from different GMAT section scores, try this GMAT Focus score calculator, created by our friends at GMAT Club.
Calculating GMAT percentile rankings
When you receive your GMAT score report, you’ll see a percentile ranking next to both your subscores and your overall composite score.
For example, a verbal score of 84 might put you in the 91st percentile for that section. This means that only the top 9% of students score at or above an 84V, while 91% of students score below an 84V.
You can find the latest percentile rankings for each section of the GMAT on MBA.com.
Is your GMAT score “good”?
Now that you’ve seen how GMAT scores are calculated, how do you know what a “good” GMAT score is?
The answer to this depends on your target MBA program. As a general rule of thumb, a GMAT score above the median for your desired program will help your case as you seek admission. That doesn’t mean that an above-average GMAT score will guarantee you an offer -- for many top MBA programs, you’ll need a stellar test score AND a profile that is compelling in other ways.
Similarly, a below-average GMAT score doesn’t spell doom for your application -- you’ll just need to show that the other pieces of your MBA application compensate for your GMAT score.
Learn more about the GMAT:
New to the GMAT? Here’s a pile of articles about the logistics and fundamentals of the exam.
Our free, complete GMAT video course, featuring a series of lessons for all three sections of the GMAT Focus Edition