This is probably a stupid question...

[GradSchoolHelp]

But I'm confused.

So I took the new GRE for the first time this weekend and I'm trying to understand my scores. I'm using http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/concordance_information.pdf that ETS provides to compare to the old test.

V: 159 (84%)

Q: 151 (56%) eeps I know.

Except, when I look at the corresponding scores form the old GRE it says:

V: 590

Q: 640

So I would have had a higher math score on the old test?

[anthropy]

I'm a bit confused about what's confusing you. Your score would have been a larger number, but it wouldn't have been a higher score. The concordance table tells you that a score of 640 on the old 200-800 scale corresponds to a score of 151 on the new 130-170 scale. That is, ETS have calculated that they are equivalent, insofar as the two can actually be compared. As I gather, what you really need to understand is your percentile score. In this case, both 151 on the new scale and 640 on the old scale correspond to a percentile rank of 56.

[emmm]

Maybe people didn't pay as much attention to the percentiles with the old scores, and figured 5XX = average, 6XX = pretty good, 7XX = great. With the new scale, the numbers don't mean anything to anyone, so we have to look at the percentiles. And it's often a bit disappointing to people who were used to the old scoring system.

[GradSchoolHelp]

Thank you for the responses. I guess it's just weird to me that I'd have a 6XX "pretty good" score that translates to the 56%ile and a 5XX "average score" in the 86%ile. Disappointing to say the least.

[Hopin'-n-Prayin']

Math scores tend be considerably higher than verbal, so the 640 math, though seemingly impressive on its face, would not really be "pretty good" because of how many test takers would have scored higher (as opposed to a 640 raw verbal, which would typically be in the low to mid 90th percentile)...

I hope that makes more sense of it

[GradSchoolHelp]

That does make more sense, thank you. Hopefully the rest of my application is strong enough to balance out those scores. I'm not applying to any top schools so I'm not super worried. Thanks again for your responses!

[emmm]

Yeah, the new system evens things out. Pretty low V scores used to have great percentiles, with the opposite seen for Q.