A 314 sits just above the average for most graduate fields. That makes it workable, and it makes the next few points unusually cheap.
A 314 sits just above the average for most graduate fields, which is a comfortable but not commanding position. The upside is that points are still cheap here in a way they stop being in the 330s.
Above average and workable. A 314 clears the reported average in 8 of the 8 fields ETS tracks.
Here is the thing most pages about a 314 get wrong: it is not one score. ETS reports Verbal and Quant separately, publishes a percentile for each, and publishes nothing at all for the sum. A committee reads the two halves.
Run through the ways of assembling a 314 and the section percentiles swing from the 10th to the 99th. A committee sees where you actually landed in that swing; the total does not.
Take the even split, 157 and 157. Same number twice, 73th percentile on one section and 42th on the other. Anyone comparing their two scaled scores directly is comparing different rulers.
Every field ETS reports sits below a 314 — the highest of them, Physical Sciences, averages 314. There is no discipline where this total reads as weak.
Treat those averages as orientation, not thresholds. They are means across everyone who reported a score in that discipline, which mixes together programmes with very different expectations.
The single most useful decision from a 314 is which section to fix. Splitting your study time evenly is the default, and it is almost always wrong — one section is further from your field's expectation, and that is the one worth the hours.
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 314 against a rule of thumb.
Check your section percentilesThis is a real decision rather than an obvious one. A 314 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.
The comparison to make is section against field average, not total against rule of thumb. If both halves are close to par, another sitting buys very little.
Decide which section to push before booking anything. Adding points to the section your field actually reads is worth several times as much as adding them to the other one.
Many combinations, and they are not equivalent: 144V/170Q and 170V/144Q both total 314 but read very differently.
Maybe. The points are gettable here, but a retake without a specific section in mind tends not to move much.
The reported engineering average is 313, so a 314 is above it — but those programmes read Quant closely, so check that half against the 163 field average.
The total is mostly an administrative convenience. What varies — and what gets read — is the section score, which at a 314 can sit anywhere from the 10th to the 99th percentile.