What is the typical range of the Glasgow Coma Scale score?

What is the typical range of the Glasgow Coma Scale score?

• A. 3 to 15.
• B. 0 to 24.
• C. 1 to 20.
• D. 5 to 25.

Answer: (A)

Understanding how the Glasgow Coma Scale works helps explain this range. The score sums three areas of response: eye opening, verbal, and motor. Eye opening goes from 1 to 4, verbal from 1 to 5, and motor from 1 to 6. Add the best score from each domain to get a total that can only fall between 3 and 15. So the minimum possible score is 3 (no eye opening, no verbal response, no motor response) and the maximum is 15 (fully awake, oriented, and obeying commands). Any range that goes below 3 or above 15 doesn’t fit the scale’s structure. In practice, higher scores mean better consciousness, with 15 indicating normal function and lower scores signaling greater impairment.

Understanding how the Glasgow Coma Scale works helps explain this range. The score sums three areas of response: eye opening, verbal, and motor. Eye opening goes from 1 to 4, verbal from 1 to 5, and motor from 1 to 6. Add the best score from each domain to get a total that can only fall between 3 and 15. So the minimum possible score is 3 (no eye opening, no verbal response, no motor response) and the maximum is 15 (fully awake, oriented, and obeying commands). Any range that goes below 3 or above 15 doesn’t fit the scale’s structure. In practice, higher scores mean better consciousness, with 15 indicating normal function and lower scores signaling greater impairment.