Frequency of 800s on the Verbal Section

[JonRiemann]

I know that 800 on the quantitiative portion isn't that uncommon, but just how rare is an 800 on the verbal section? Is it 1 out of 500? 1 out of 1000?

[tomintampa]

Average = 465
SD= ~130

Excel: {=normdist(800,465,130,true)}
Percentile ~0.996
about 4 in 1,000
This is assuming that the distribution is completely normal, but I have a feeling the test gets harder and far less than 4/1000 get an 800.

[tomintampa]

OK, I just did some looking and came up with an approximation of ~600/275,000 which is ~1 in every 458 test takers...ouch.

[Jive Miguel]

OK, I just did some looking and came up with an approximation of ~600/275,000 which is ~1 in every 458 test takers...ouch.

Strange -- That's about the rarity I would have guessed for an 800.

I suppose 730 (the lowest scaled score in the 99%ile) is roughly 1 in 100, but I wonder what the breakdown is as far as rarity goes from 730 on up.
Not that it matters, but it is interesting.

To reiterate what I've opined elsewhere, I don't think there's any difference at all in ability in the 99%ile from 730 to 800. Schools that value the verbal score seem to treat all such high score as the same...a 730 V puts a verbal IQ at roughly about 145+ (on a standard deviation of 15). An 800 might be around a 155 IQ, but the difference between a 145 verbal IQ and 155 verbal (if you buy that IQ is being measured by a few missed questions) is just statistical noise and other factors matter far more after hitting such a high threshold.

[tomintampa]

Another source is the reports section on the powerprep. Look at the distribution graph, they give an actual # of test takers for each score. I'm just too lazy to add up all of the test takers to get the total but the info is there. I don't understand why they test up to such a high level on verbal but lower on quant. why not design the test so a "500" is the same percentile on each section?

[tomintampa]

Actually, I think that a 99%tile would be a verbal IQ of higher than 145, as I think the assumption is that the "average" GRE taker is the top of the aggregate college class, with an assumed IQ of ~115, rater than a 100.