GRE Computer Science Subject Test – Percentile and Ball-park Scores
Students from a wide range of universities apply for GRE tests. Their scores are different and therefore there is a need of a common platform to compare the scores. In GRE, there are two types of scores – a raw score and a percentile score. The latter is more important and gives a better idea of your performance. The meaning of the percentile score is that the number of students who have scored less than you and this score is also given separately for each section. It is calculated in a very simple manner.
- Your score will be compared with the scores of the other applicants who have appeared for the examination.
- Then the numbers of students who have scored less than you are considered to compute your GRE percentile.
The college authorities attach more importance to the percentile scores and they are able to interpret the raw scores from these too. The logic behind this testing is that the college authorities see the raw scores of the applicants, who apply to their colleges but are unable to find out how the students have fared amongst all the other GRE applicants. They get a comprehensive view of the student with the help of the percentile. While most of the colleges use this score, there are many which do not ask for them probably because they have other ways of judging the students’ merit.
- Since this field is highly competitive, therefore the percentile requirements are also high. For the computer science test, the percentile is expected to be approximately in the higher 90s, preferably somewhere around 95 percentile or so, if you wish to enter in to the institutes such as the Stanford.