AWA: Computers don't know jack about wit

[DrFaustus666]

I would add:

- Give them what they want. Review the materials for ETS materials for analytical writing. Compare the "6.0" essays to the other essays and read the graders' comments closely.

- Write about what you know. The "issue" topics are purposefully broad, so you can frame the essay around something you are confident writing about. Going into the test I decided that I would write about architecture, art, or computer science.

I got a 5.0 on the AW section. It's not the highest score, but it's good enough for my purposes.

I like "write about what you know" ! .... BTW, I've taken it three times in the last two years, and gotten 5.5, 4.5, and 5.0, in that chronological order, and have no idea what I did wrong for the 4.5, or what I did right for the 5.5 ... except ... I vaguely recall being able to find something I knew about the first time(!)

So edwu19, I think your advice is "spot-on" as the British say.

[Trin]

I like "write about what you know" ! .... BTW, I've taken it three times in the last two years, and gotten 5.5, 4.5, and 5.0, in that chronological order, and have no idea what I did wrong for the 4.5, or what I did right for the 5.5 ... except ... I vaguely recall being able to find something I knew about the first time(!)

So edwu19, I think your advice is "spot-on" as the British say.

Agreed about write what you know! As it turned out, my position essay was on a topic closely related to a paper I had just turned in the day before! I pretty much hammered out a summary of the larger paper, and that was that. :-) I alo used the word "hermeneutically", which my friends now tease me about -- it's the "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" of GRE essay vocabulary!

Edited January 14, 2011 by Trin