I know that every subject GRE test has the maximum score 990 and the maximum percentile 99. However, upon looking some data on the ETS website, I found that the math subject GRE score starts from 920. Also, I heard that somebody got score 930 and percentile 99. What is the truth? What is the maximum math subject GRE score?
2 Answers
I'm not a mathematician and not involved with this test; all I know is what I read on the internet. If anyone can confirm that they've seen someone get a perfect score in the last few years, that'd be great.
The maximum score is (almost certainly) 990. I assume you were looking at this, which shows that any scores 920 and above are in the 99th percentile; that is, only 1% of test takers score 920 or above. This does not (necessarily) imply that scores above 920 are impossible.
From the GRE website:
Every Subject Test yields a total score on a 200 to 990 score scale, in 10-point increments. Note that each of the individual test scales occupies only a portion of the 200 to 990 score range.
The second sentence is a little vague, and in principle could imply that the top few scores are "not used." What we know for sure is that since 200-990 in 10-point increments is 80 possible scores, and there are only 66 questions, there will be at least 14 values that are not used. Since they said the scale is from 200 to 990, it would make little sense to "not use" the top few scores...but it's possible.
One wrinkle: there is also this practice test in which a 66/66 only gets you a 910. But, I don't think we can necessarily extrapolate from that; it may just be that the practice test is easier than the current test.
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That means it is possible to get higher than 920? The score can be higher?– KeithMay 19, 2018 at 17:55
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en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GRE_Mathematics_Test Here it says the maximum score reported is 920 currently. So this Wikipedia is wrong?– KeithMay 19, 2018 at 17:57
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Edited my answer. I think the Wikipedia page is misinterpreting the document linked in my second paragraph -- that document does NOT imply that scores above 920 are impossible (I've seen perfect scores on ETS tests in which the 99 percentile was in the 600s). That said, I can't find any definitive proof that the 990 score is possible for the math subject test.– cag51 ♦May 19, 2018 at 19:25
According to below, from 2014 up to June 2017 the top score was a 940.
https://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_guide_table2.pdf
However, this year the test must have been rescaled.
I have gotten a 970 (99%) on the Sept 2018 test today.
As I left one question blank by mistake, I believe that now the top score of 990 may be obtainable.
