Understanding the GMAT scores can be tricky since there is limited information on how these sections are scored and how they contribute to your overall score. However, a GMAT score calculator 2022 can help you clear doubts in case you have any. The score calculator aids you in predicting your overall GMAT score and percentile ranking.
If you are still confused, this article will give you an insight into how a GMAT score is calculated using a calculator, along with the section-wise scores of the GMAT.
How the GMAT Exam is Scored?
The GMAT exam consists of four sections — Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA), Quantitative Reasoning (QR) section, Verbal Reasoning (VR) and Integrated Reasoning (IR). All these sections are scored separately. However, the overall GMAT score is calculated based on your performances in the Verbal and Quant sections, and the sections are scored based on the following factors.
- The number of questions attempted in each section
- The number of questions answered correctly
- The difficulty level of the questions
The verbal and quant sections of the test are computer-adaptive, which means, the computer’s algorithm adjusts the difficulty level of upcoming questions based on your answer in the previous question.
Now, let’s take a look at the section-wise breakdown of GMAT scores.
Section | Number of Questions asked | Score range |
Analytical Writing Assessment | 1 Essay writing task | 0-6 |
Quantitative Reasoning(QR) | 31 | 6-51 |
Verbal Reasoning (VR) | 36 | 6-51 |
Integrated Reasoning (IR) | 12 | 1-8 |
You are expected to answer all these questions within the specified time. Your GMAT score will be affected by each question you leave unanswered.
GMAT Score Calculator Percentiles
The maximum score you can achieve in the GMAT test is 800. As mentioned above, the overall score of the GMAT is calculated based on your verbal and quant score. However, this doesn’t mean that the AWA and IR scores are not important. Business schools consider these scores to assess your problem solving and communication skills.
GMAT uses a certain algorithm to calculate the overall score. However, the specifics regarding this have not been mentioned anywhere. Besides, the process of translating the ‘raw’ score (which you receive on completing the exam) to a ‘scaled’ final score is also unclear. However, if you want to check how your scores on both the verbal and quant sections contribute to your total score, you can refer to the following GMAT score calculator chart.
Apart from this, if you are taking the GMAT exam, it is imperative that you understand what percentile rankings are. The percentiles indicate how well you have done in the test as compared to other aspirants who have appeared for the test. For example, if your percentile is 83%, it means you did better than 83% of test-takers. Thus, the higher your percentile rankings are, the better your performance is.
The percentiles will vary from section to section for the same score. For instance, if your verbal score is 40, you’ll be placed in the 91st percentile, whereas the same score in Quant could push you to the 41st percentile. This happens because a candidate who is not good at verbal might be great at math and this can affect their performances in each section.
Given below is a GMAT score calculator table that will help you understand your percentile based on your raw scores and scaled scores.
Percentile | Raw Score | Cooked Score |
0 to 5 | 0 to 6 | 0 to 17 |
6 to 12 | 7 to 10 | 18 to 23 |
13 to 16 | 11 to 12 | 24 to 26 |
18 to 22 | 13 to 15 | 27 to 29 |
25 to 30 | 16 to 17 | 30 to 32 |
33 to 36 | 18 to 19 | 33 to 35 |
40 to 46 | 20 to 21 | 36 to 38 |
48 to 54 | 22 to 23 | 39 to 41 |
57 to 63 | 24 to 25 | 42 to 44 |
68 to 73 | 26 to 29 | 47 to 47 |
78 to 90 | 30 to 34 | 48 to 50 |
98 | 35 to 37 | 51 to 60 |
GMAT is a competitive exam that is taken by thousands of MBA aspirants like you. Hence, to create a plan that helps you score 700+, you need to understand how important the verbal and quant scores can be combined to predict your overall score. We hope the information given in this article helps you!
Good luck!