You’ll receive four scores for the GMAT:

1. A scaled Quantitative score on a 0–60 scale
2. A scaled Verbal score on a 0–60 scale
3. A total score, on a 200–800 scale, based on both your Quantitative and Verbal scores
4. An AWA score on a 0–6 scale, which averages (to the nearest one-half point) the final scores for each of your two GMAT essays

For each of these four scores you’ll also receive a percentile rank (0–99%). A percentile rank of 60%, for example, indicates that you scored higher than 60% (and lower than 40%) of all other test-takers. Percentile ranks reflect your performance relative to the entire GMAT test-taking population during the most recent three-year period.

How the Quantitative and Verbal Sections Are Scored

The scoring system for the Quantitative and Verbal sections is a bit tricky. Your score for each of these two sections is based on three factors:

• The number of questions you answer correc
• The difficulty level of the questions you answer correctly
• The range of question types and topics among the questions you answer correctly

So, even if you don’t respond to all 37 Quantitative (or 41 Verbal) questions, you can still attain a high score for the section if a high percentage of your responses are correct—especially if you respond correctly to a wide variety of question types. The CAT system’s scoring algorithms are well-guarded ETS secrets; however, knowing exactly how the system works wouldn’t affect your exam preparation or test-taking strategy, anyway.

How the GMAT Essays Are Scored

The evaluation and scoring system for GMAT essays is also a bit tricky. Initially, one person will read and evaluate your Issue-Analysis essay, while a different person reads and evaluates your Argument-Analysis essay. Each reader will award a single score on a scale of 0–6 in whole-point intervals (6 is highest).

Readers apply a holistic scoring approach, meaning that a reader will base his or her evaluation on the overall quality of your writing. In other words, instead of awarding separate sub-scores for content, organization, writing style, and mechanics, the reader will consider how effective your essay is as a whole—accounting for all of these factors.

Scoring Criteria for the GMAT Essays

All readers are trained by ETS in applying the same scoring criteria. Here are the essential requirements for a top-scoring (“6”) Issue-Analysis essay (note that you can attain a top score of 6 even if your essay contains minor errors in grammar, word usage, spelling, and punctuation):

1. The essay develops a position on the issue through the use of incisive reasons and persuasive examples.
2. The essay’s ideas are conveyed clearly and articulately.
3. The essay maintains proper focus on the issue and is well organized.
4. The essay demonstrates proficiency, fluency, and maturity in its use of sentence structure, vocabulary, and idiom.
5. The essay demonstrates an excellent command of the elements of Standard Written English, including grammar, word usage, spelling, and punctuation—but may contain minor flaws in these areas.

Here are the essential requirements for a top-scoring (“6”) Argument- Analysis essay (notice that the last two requirements are the same as for a top-scoring Issue-Analysis essay):

1. The essay identifies the key features of the argument and analyzes each one in a thoughtful manner
2. The essay supports each point of critique with insightful reasons and examples.
3. The essay develops its ideas in a clear, organized manner, with appropriate transitions to help connect ideas.
4. The essay demonstrates proficiency, fluency, and maturity in its use of sentence structure, vocabulary, and idiom.
5. The essay demonstrates an excellent command of the elements of Standard Written English, including grammar, word usage, spelling, and punctuation—but may contain minor flaws in these areas.

The criteria for lower scores are the same as the ones above; the only difference is that the standard for quality decreases for successively lower scores.

Computerized Rating of Your Two Essays

While two human readers evaluate your GMAT essays (one reader per essay), a computer program called E-Rater® will evaluate your essays in terms of grammar, syntax (sentence structure), repetitiveness (overuse of the same phrases), sentence length, and spelling. Like human readers, E-Rater awards a score of 0–6 for each essay.

In many respects, E-Rater is similar to the grammar- and spell-checkers built into popular word-processing programs such as Word and WordPerfect. However, E-Rater is custom-designed for ETS to weigh certain criteria more heavily than others. For instance, very little weight is given to minor mechanical errors (e.g., in punctuation and spelling). Also, E-Rater overlooks so-called “gray” areas of grammar (e.g., use of the passive voice), and flags certain problems (e.g., repetitiveness) that off-the-shelf checkers might not. Of course, E-Rater is only useful to a point. It cannot evaluate your ideas or how persuasively you have presented and supported those ideas. That’s what human readers are for.

Computation of Your AWA Score

Here are the specific steps involved in calculating your AWA score:

1. As mentioned above, one reader will read and score your Issue-Analysis essay, and a different reader will read and score your Argument-Analysis essay. Each reader will award a single score on a scale of 0–6 in whole-point intervals (6 is highest).
2. E-Rater will also evaluate and award a score of 0–6 for each essay.
3. For either essay, if the human reader’s score differs from E-Rater’s score by more than one point, a second human reader will read and score the essay (and E-Rater’s score will be disregarded).
4. For each essay, your final score is the average of the scores awarded by the human reader and E-Rater (or by the second human reader).
5. You final AWA score is the average of your final scores for each essay; AWA scores are rounded up to the nearest half-point.

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