What are the three components of the Glasgow Coma Scale?

• A. Eyes, Verbal, Motor
• B. Arousal level, Verbal response, Motor response
• C. Eye movement, Verbal score, Motor strength
• D. Eye opening, verbal response, motor function

Answer: (A)

The key idea is that the Glasgow Coma Scale assesses consciousness through three response domains: eye opening, verbal response, and motor response. Eye opening measures how the person responds to stimuli with their eyes, verball response looks at the ability to speak and communicate appropriately, and motor response evaluates purposeful movement in response to commands or pain. These three components are scored separately and then summed to give the total GCS score.

Among the options, the one that lists Eyes, Verbal, and Motor corresponds directly to those three domains. The other choices mix terms that aren’t the standard categories—such as arousal level, eye movement, or motor strength/functional terms—so they don’t accurately reflect the components of the GCS.