A 312 is roughly the average admitted score in several fields and short of it in others. Which one you are applying to decides the answer.
This is the middle of the applicant pool, and the middle is where the split does the most work. A 312 weighted toward Quant is a decent engineering application; the same total weighted toward Verbal is a decent humanities one.
It depends on your field, and that is not a dodge. A 312 clears the published average in 5 fields and falls short in 3.
A 312 is a sum, and admissions committees do not read sums. They read a Verbal score with its own percentile and a Quant score with its own, which is why two applicants with identical totals can look nothing alike.
The consequence is dramatic at this total. Across the realistic ways of reaching a 312, the published section percentiles run from the 7th all the way to the 99th. Same number on the score report; completely different applications.
Balanced, a 312 is 156 Verbal and 156 Quant — the 70th and 39th percentile. Notice they are not close. Quant is compressed at the top because so many test takers do well on it, so an identical scaled score is worth far less in percentile terms there.
Sorted by field rather than by percentile, a 312 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.
Do not treat any of these as a cut-off. A field average is a description of who applied, not a rule about who gets in, and every discipline admits well below its own mean.
Do not study "the GRE" from a 312. Study the section that is costing you, which for most people is not the one they find least pleasant.
Percentile-wise the Quant section is the weaker half of a balanced 312. Points bought there tend to go further, because fewer people are stacked at each scaled score.
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.
Five minutes of due diligence: put each half of your 312 through the GRE percentile calculator and check the weaker one against your discipline's average rather than against the other section.
Check your section percentilesThis is a real decision rather than an obvious one. A 312 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.
Look up your field's average Verbal and Quant, compare them against your two scores rather than your total, and go again only if one is clearly behind.
Find the average for your field first — the spread runs from about 301 to 314 depending on discipline, and a 312 lands on different sides of that line.
There isn't one for the total — ETS percentiles each section and never the sum. Built as 156 Verbal and 156 Quant, the published figures are the 70th and 39th.
It depends on the discipline. A 312 clears 5 field averages including Social Sciences, and misses 3, nearest Engineering at 313.
Anything summing to 312, from 142V/170Q at one extreme to 170V/142Q at the other. Evenly, that is 156 and 156.
Only with a named target. Compare each section against your field's average rather than the total, and go again if one is clearly behind.