On the computer-adaptive GRE General Test, a raw score for each of the verbal and math sections is computed. The raw score takes into account the number of questions that you answered correctly and the difficulty of those questions. The statistical properties of the questions, and the number of questions that you answered are additional factors that influence your raw score. Therefore, two students who correctly answer the same number of questions may receive different scores that reflect the difficulty of the questions that were answered correctly. The scoring process for the paper-based test is similar.
For the computer-adaptive GRE general exam, the type and difficulty of each question that you are presented with is based on the difficulty of the questions that you have answered correctly up to that point, the types of questions that you have seen, and the coverage of content. Remember that you shouldn't try to guess if a question is difficult or hard; just do you best to answer each question that you are given, knowing that you cannot proceed until you answer the current question.
Your raw score is then scaled to your final score by a process that is called equating. Your final score is adjusted to account for differences in difficulty of the questions among test versions. ETS indicates that scores on both the GRE general test and GRE paper-based test are comparable.
The analytical writing section will be read and scored by two readers, each of whom will rate your critical thinking and writing skills rather than your grammar and mechanics. A few grammatical errors are allowed, but if an essay is plagued with many such errors, your score will be impacted. Each of the two readers of each of your essays will provide a score on a range from zero to six, in one-half point increments. The reader scores for your essays will then be averaged to yield your final essay score. In that case that the scores that are received by the two readers differs by more than 1 point, a third reader will read your essay.
Your score report will contain three scores. For the verbal reasoning section, reported scores range from 200-800, in 10 point increments. In the Quantitative reasoning section, scores range from 200-800, also in 10 point increments. On the Analytical Writing section, scores range from 0-6, in one-half point increments. Along with each of the three scores, you'll be give a percentile rank that indicates the percentage of students who have scored as well or worse than you. Thus, for example, a percentile rank of 72% indicates that 72% of all test takers scored as good or worse than you, and that approximately 29% of test takers scored better than you.