What is a "percentile" ?



How GRE Section level adaption works to obtain your percentile




What percentile ranks?

The GRE score report also gives you the percentile rank for each test score. The scaled score raises the question if the scores you’ve got would be considered a good score or not. How do you compare your test performance with others who have taken the test?The percentile ranks are a good way to know where you stand.



(Percent of test-takers scoring lower than selected scaled scores. Based on the performance of all individuals who tested Between July 1, 2017, and June 30, 2020)


These ranks are based on the GRE scores of those who tested earlier within a three-year period. For those testing in 2016-17, the percentile ranks are calculated on the performance of those who were tested between July 1, 2012 and July 30, 2015.




Source: ETS




Standardized tests are used to forecast which students will be the most successful and obtain the greatest benefit from graduate education in disciplines ranging from medicine to the humanities and from physics to law. However, controversy remains about whether such tests effectively predict performance in graduate school. Studies of standardized test scores and subsequent success in graduate school have often suffered from limited sample size and present mixed conclusions of variable reliability.
Several meta-analyses have been conducted to extract more reliable conclusions about standardized tests from a variety of disciplines.

Four consistent findings emerged:

(i) Standardized tests are effective predictors of performance in graduate school.
(ii) Both tests and undergraduate grades predict important academic outcomes beyond grades earned in graduate school.
(iii) Standardized admissions tests predict most measures of student success better than prior college academic records do.
(iv) The combination of tests and grades yields the most accurate predictions of success.



Tests as predictors. Standardized test scores correlate with student success in graduate school.


This is also confirmed largely by the existing literature




On the other hand, several meta-analyses have been conducted to extract more reliable conclusions about standardized tests from a variety of disciplines. One of the most important was released in 2021 after peer-reviewed and the author did not find a strong correlation between standardized tests - particularly the GRE General Exam - and Graduate Students’ Success.



The answer probably is in the middle

Standardized admission tests provide useful information for predicting subsequent student performance across many disciplines. However, student motivation and interest, which are critical for sustained effort though graduate education, must be inferred from various unstandardized measures including letters of recommendation, personal statements, and interviews.



Source: Effectively using predictors of success for student funding - Texas A&M University
Standardized Tests Predict Graduate Students’ Success - Nathan R. Kuncel* and Sarah A. Hezlett (2007)
A Meta-Analysis on the Predictive Validity of Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test - Mohammad Hasan Razmi, Masoud Khabir, Shouket Ahmad Tilwani (2021)
The Validity of Scores from the GRE® revised General Test for Forecasting Performance in Business Schools: Phase One - John W. Young, David Klieger, Jennifer Bochenek, Chen Li, Fred Cline (2014)