A 338 is within touching distance of a perfect 340, and there are only a handful of ways to even assemble it. The score has stopped being a variable in your application.
At a 338 the arithmetic runs out. There are only 3 distinct ways to build this total at all, which is a decent illustration of how little room is left above you.
Yes, decisively. A 338 is above the reported average in all 8 graduate fields ETS publishes data for, and there is little room left above it.
Something unusual happens to totals this high: there are barely any ways to reach them. A 338 can only be assembled about 3 ways, because both sections have to sit near their own ceiling of 170.
The percentile ceiling arrives before the score ceiling. Because Quant maxes out around the 91st percentile, the difference between a 338 and a perfect 340 is real work for no visible gain.
Every field ETS reports sits below a 338 — the highest of them, Physical Sciences, averages 314. There is no discipline where this total reads as weak.
Read them as a temperature check. They place your score inside a discipline; they say nothing about a particular department's expectations, which vary far more than the field mean suggests.
Adding your two section scores together is something you do, not something ETS does. There is no official meaning attached to 338 as a single figure, which is why two people holding it can be in very different positions.
At this end the split matters less, simply because there is not much room to be lopsided. A 338 lands between roughly the 81th and 99th percentile whichever way you build it.
Take the even split, 169 and 169. Same number twice, 99th percentile on one section and 86th on the other. Anyone comparing their two scaled scores directly is comparing different rulers.
Probably not. A 338 is above every published field average, and ETS shows programmes your full score history under ScoreSelect unless you choose otherwise. Retaking to move a number that is already doing its job is a poor trade.
Check for one thing before deciding: a weak section in the discipline you are applying to. That is the only version of this that justifies another sitting.
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 338 against a rule of thumb.
Check your section percentilesThere is nothing left to do with this score. Spend the time on research fit and letters, which are the parts still capable of changing an outcome.
Many combinations, and they are not equivalent: 168V/170Q and 170V/168Q both total 338 but read very differently.
Only for a lopsided split. If the half your discipline cares about lags its field average, retake that section's preparation rather than the whole test.
The reported engineering average is 313, so a 338 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 338 can sit anywhere from the 81th to the 99th percentile.