Scoring Pattern

Each section of the GMAT exam is scored separately:

1. AWA is scored on a scale of 1-6
2. IR is scored on a scale of 1-8,
3. Quantitative from 1-60
4. Verbal also from 1-60.

Each section receives a percentile score of 100. The percentile score is significantly more revealing than the scaled scores, particularly in comparing Quantitative and Verbal section scores — for instance, a score of 42 is around the 51st percentile in Quantitative and the 96th percentile in Verbal. This means that a “balanced” score” (one where Quantitative and Verbal performance are relatively similar) will have very different scaled scores but similar percentile scores.

The total score on the exam is reported from 200-800; this is the score that most people talk about when they talk about your “GMAT score”. The total score is calculated using the Quantitative and Verbal scores only, and weighs performance on each section equally. AWA and IR scores are reported separately.

It is important to remember that the GMAT is an adaptive examination, repeated accuracy in answers would lead to generation of a tougher upcoming question, whereas a wrong answer proves to be very expensive as it leads to easier questions being generated, which implies lower weightage in marks being alloted.