A 310 is roughly the average admitted score in several fields and short of it in others. Which one you are applying to decides the answer.
A 310 is neither a problem nor an advantage. It sits close enough to most field averages that the rest of your application decides the outcome — or a few more points shifts it into clearly-above territory.
It depends on your field, and that is not a dodge. A 310 clears the published average in 5 fields and falls short in 3.
The total is a convenience, not a measurement. ETS scores Verbal and Quant separately and never publishes a combined percentile — a point our GRE percentile calculator makes at length.
Run through the ways of assembling a 310 and the section percentiles swing from the 5th to the 99th. A committee sees where you actually landed in that swing; the total does not.
Take the even split, 155 and 155. Same number twice, 65th percentile on one section and 37th on the other. Anyone comparing their two scaled scores directly is comparing different rulers.
Sorted by field rather than by percentile, a 310 is above average in Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities, Biological Sciences and below it in Engineering, Computer Science. Those averages span about thirteen points, which is why a single verdict on a GRE total is impossible.
A field average is a blunt instrument: it blends elite departments with open-enrolment ones. Use it to see whether your score is in the conversation, then look up the two or three programmes you actually care about.
Improving from a 310 is a targeting problem before it is an effort problem. Points are not equally valuable across the two sections, and they are not equally cheap either.
On a balanced split your Quant score is the lower percentile of the two, which usually makes it the cheaper place to buy points: the distribution is thinner there, so each scaled point moves you past more people.
Practically: quant drills or verbal drills depending on which half you picked, a two-month plan so it has an end date, and full timed tests to check it is holding under pressure.
A total hides the two numbers programmes read. Run your Verbal and Quant through the GRE percentile calculator to see the published percentile for each, then compare those against your field rather than comparing 310 against a rule of thumb.
Check your section percentilesThis is a real decision rather than an obvious one. A 310 is close enough to the field averages that a few points changes which side of them you are on, and close enough that those points are gettable.
Get your discipline's two averages, line them up against your two scores, and let the bigger gap decide whether to book and what to study.
Find the average for your field first — the spread runs from about 301 to 314 depending on discipline, and a 310 lands on different sides of that line.
Engineering averages 313, so a 310 is 3 short. The Quant half matters more than the gap in the total.
Split, usually. A department in a quantitative field is reading one number, and across the ways of building a 310 that number ranges from the 5th to the 99th percentile.
The honest answer is that a total percentile does not exist. Your two halves do: 65th and 37th respectively on a balanced 310.
For some fields yes, others no. 5 of the eight ETS reports sit at or below a 310; Engineering at 313 is the closest one above.