How GMAT scoring works

Your scores

Because the exam is adaptive, your score depends on how hard the questions you answer correctly are, not just how many you get right. That’s why there’s no simple chart that turns a number right into a score. GMAC’s official practice exams give you a scaled score on the same scale.

What’s a good GMAT score?

GMAC says the average scores at top programs tend to be at the 86th percentile or higher. It also says admitted students’ scores can range anywhere from the 44th to the 99th percentile, so a lower score isn’t the end of an application.

The best target is the range a school publishes for its own class. Look that up for each program on your list, and aim for the middle of it.

What about a 700 or a 740?

Scores like 700, 740 or 800 come from the older GMAT, which was scored from 200 to 800. On the current exam every total ends in 5, so those numbers don’t exist anymore.

The two scales don’t match number for number. GMAC publishes concordance tables on its scores page that line up old and new scores by percentile, so use those to compare.

Can you use a calculator on the GMAT?

Only in Data Insights, which gives you a simple on-screen calculator. Quantitative Reasoning has no calculator, and you can’t bring your own to either a test center or the online exam.

Quant questions are built to be done by hand, so practice mental math, fractions and quick estimates.

Percentiles

Your score report shows a percentile for your total and each section: the share of test takers you scored higher than. A 75th percentile score means you did better than 75% of them.

GMAC recalculates percentiles every year using the previous three years of test takers, so the same score can move a little from year to year.

GMAT Superscore

Since August 2026, if you’ve taken the current GMAT more than once, your score report also shows a GMAT Superscore. It adds up your best Quant, Verbal and Data Insights scores from your valid attempts, on the same 205 to 805 scale. It’s free and automatic.

GMAT or GRE scores?

Many business schools accept either test. The scales are different (the GRE doesn’t use 205 to 805), so you can’t compare the numbers directly. Our GMAT vs GRE page explains how to compare them.

Scores are valid for five years, and you choose which schools see them.