A curve inside a curve
The grey curve is the whole population on the IQ scale. The violet one is a guess at GRE takers: shifted up and narrower, because they finished a degree. Your combined rank is placed inside the violet curve, then read off the grey axis.
A 82nd rank among takers becomes IQ 121 under these settings, vs 113 naively. Defaults (mean 110, SD 12) are illustrative assumptions for degree holders, not published GRE norms.
Why a 160 in Quant ranks lower than a 160 in Verbal
Both sections share the 130–170 scale, but the people taking them do not perform alike. Many applicants in engineering, physics and economics push Quant scores up; Verbal has no equivalent crowd at the top. ETS's own tables show Quant means several points above Verbal, so the same scaled score sits at a lower Quant percentile.
The meter compares your two sections at equal scaled scores. Model: Verbal mean 151.4, SD 8.43; Quant mean 157.6, SD 9.90 (ETS interpretive data, about 790,000 test takers, July 2022 to June 2025). Verbal and Quant correlate .44, which gives the V+Q total an SD of about 15.6.
Your sections: Verbal 160 (85th), Quant 163 (71st). Verbal ranks higher by 14 percentile points, even though the scaled gap is 3.
Old GRE scores need translating before converting
- ETS (2025). GRE General Test Interpretive Data, Table 1A: test takers July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2025 (Verbal 151.39 / 8.43; Quant 157.62 / 9.90; V–Q r = .44).
- ETS (2011). GRE Concordance Tables: prior scale (200–800) to current scale (130–170).
- ETS (2023). Announcement of the shorter GRE General Test.
- Kuncel, N. R., Hezlett, S. A., & Ones, D. S. (2001). A comprehensive meta-analysis of the predictive validity of the Graduate Record Examinations. Psychological Bulletin, 127(1), 162–181.