IDAT score requirements – what's considered a strong result for postgraduate admissions?

From my experience applying to two European programs, they looked at the composite but flagged the quantitative section specifically during the interview when it was notably lower than verbal. A 15-point gap got mentioned. Anything under 10 points difference seems to pass without comment.

For the quantitative section, timed practice is everything. I boosted my quant score by 9 points in 3 weeks just by drilling under time pressure – the content wasn't the issue, the pacing was. Try sets of 10 questions in 12 minutes and compress from there.

I scored 71% composite and got into my first-choice program. The admissions coordinator told me informally that 65%+ is where serious consideration starts for their intake. I'd treat anything above 70% as comfortable and above 75% as strong.

Score validity is 2 years for most institutions I applied to, though a couple accepted 3-year-old scores with an explanation letter. Check directly with each program's admissions office – there's real variation and you don't want to assume.

Quick update since I'm in the same boat. I sit the real exam in about two and a half weeks and my mocks have crept up to roughly 70% over the last few sessions, so somewhere close to where you are. What actually moved the needle for me wasn't more hours, it was being honest about which sections I kept fumbling. I was averaging fine overall but bleeding marks on the same question types every single time, and I didn't even notice until I started tracking it.

If you've got 3 weeks I'd stop chasing the overall percentage and just grind the weak topics. I've been running through these free idat administration and logistics sets on repeat and that one area went from my worst to one of my steadiest. On the score question, from what I've gathered most programs care more about a solid balanced result than one big number, so a consistent high 60s to low 70s usually reads as a strong, safe result rather than borderline. You're closer than you think.

Honestly, 62-68% puts you in a pretty decent spot depending on the program, but what moved the needle for me wasn't grinding more practice questions — it was spending time on the ones I got wrong and actually figuring out why the wrong answers were wrong, not just accepting the correct one and moving on. There's a ton of good breakdowns on idat/questions/preparation and study resources 2 that helped me understand the reasoning behind answer choices, which is way more useful than it sounds.

Most postgrad programs I've seen don't have a hard cutoff but they're looking at your score relative to the applicant pool, so it's less about hitting a magic number and more about whether you can demonstrate you understand the material. I'd say if you can get your weaker sections consistently above 65% by test day you're in a solid position — just don't ignore the diagnostic side of your prep.

I was in almost the exact same spot a few months back, working full time and squeezing prep in during lunch breaks and late evenings. Honestly 62-68% is a decent starting point and most programs I looked at seemed to treat anything above 65-70% as competitive, though it really does depend on the field and institution. The idat/questions/preparation and study resources 2 page helped me figure out where to focus my last few weeks of prep. Short sessions are fine as long as they're consistent.

Three weeks is enough time to move the needle if you're strategic about it. I stopped doing full mocks every day and switched to drilling the sections I kept losing points on. It wasn't glamorous but my score jumped about 8 points in the final stretch. You've already done the hard part by building the habit, just make sure you're reviewing your mistakes and not just logging hours.

I failed my first attempt last year, and honestly it was a wake-up call. My score was around 58% and I'd been doing the same thing you are now -- just running through full mocks without really diagnosing where I was bleeding points. What changed for me the second time was I stopped treating every section equally. I was actually decent at reading comprehension but absolutely tanking the quantitative reasoning portion, so I shifted probably 60% of my prep time there and drilled specific question types instead of just doing timed full tests.

Second attempt I hit 74% and got into my program. The difference wasn't more hours, it was more targeted hours. If you're sitting at 62-68% with three weeks left that's genuinely a workable position, but you need to pull apart your mock scores by section and figure out what's actually dragging you down. Don't waste the next three weeks doing what isn't moving the needle.

Honestly I was in almost the exact same position a few months back and I nearly quit after week two because my scores weren't moving. 62-68% actually isn't as bad as it feels — I was hitting similar numbers three weeks out and ended up scoring just above the threshold the program needed. The verbal reasoning section was killing me and I kept second-guessing every answer, which made everything take longer than it should.

What eventually clicked was stopping the full mock tests for a bit and drilling individual question types until they felt automatic. It's tedious but it works. Most postgrad programs I've seen are looking for somewhere in the 60s as a baseline with higher expectations in the area closest to your field, so you're probably closer than you think. Don't give up on it now when you've already done the hard part.