PeakPerformance

You might address why it is in the nation's interest for the government to fund students' education. You do not address any points about the role of the government or why national resources should go to fund individuals' education. You approach this topic strictly in terms of how this will benefit individuals (it will allow them to have a better life), but you offer no reasoning that indicates why funding individual pursuits' is appropriate for the government or in the best interest of the nation.

Hi, I think you make a number of problematic assumptions in your essay and are not showing very strong critical thinking skills. If I had to rate the essay, I would give it a 3.5. Here's a few suggestions for improvement. 1) You need to engage more with the idea of what defines success and the role of the university. Are you speaking strictly about grades as an indicator of success? What about fields of study pursued simply for intellectual curiosity/interest but which are not necessarily an area a student will work in? Can a teacher really rule out improvement or even say what type of success a student may encounter in the future? 2) The relevance of the third paragraph is questionable at best; I don't think this paragraph connects to the prompt well. I also do not understand your counterargument -- what you mean by "not working hard on the student"? 3) You need to work on incomplete sentences/fragments. Good luck!

Hi, You might check out testbig.com. They have essays written by students with a rating system on a number of the GRE topics. I have a number of sample essays as well. Drop me a line with your email and I'll send you several. Good luck.

Hi, You should create an example bank that you can draw on to support your position on various prompts. Think about examples from personal experience, politics, history, art/literature/etc. that you could could use in discussing prompts on various themes. In particular, try to find examples that you can apply to multiple themes and for those examples perhaps do a little research and write out a practice paragraph. In my 4-week 12 hour course focusing specifically on the GRE Analytical Writing section, I discuss various strategies that help optimize prep time -- from developing an example bank to creating essay templates and more. On the Argument Essay, learning the primary logical fallacies and recognizing the patterns of logical errors makes it very easy to develop points and reduces the need to work through as many sample prompts. If you're interested in learning more about the upcoming GRE Analytical Writing course starting September 19, check out the link below. Good luck,

A number of posts questioning the importance of the writing sample in the admission process inspired me to write the blog post I've included below. I'd hate to see other applicants make the same mistake that I did... When I applied to English Ph.D. programs after finishing my Bachelors, what worried me most about the application process was the GRE. I had never done well on standardized tests (my SAT scores were embarrassingly low when compared to my friends’ scores), and I was convinced that my chances of being accepted to a good school hinged almost entirely on my GRE scores. Determined not to let the GRE stand between me and my dream, I dedicated six months to studying for the exam. I learned thousands of new vocabulary words, took hundreds of practice tests, and deconstructed the GRE question type by question type, learning how to master each and every component of the exam. My hard work paid off in some respects: I ended up with scores in the 99th percentile and proved to myself that I could accomplish anything to which I set my mind. Unfortunately, my high scores provided little solace once the rejection letters started piling up. My high scores meant even less when I found out that my friend “Joe,” who had GRE scores in the 70th percentile and a mediocre 3.2 GPA, ended up getting accepted to Berkeley and received a full fellowship offer from another top-ranked program. Nor, in the end, were my high GRE scores the reason why I was fortunate enough to receive a last-minute phone call from the Graduate Director at the University of Iowa, a school from which I had already received a rejection letter, informing me that a space had opened up for me. Based on my own experience, that of my friend's, and what I have since learned in my 15+ years in academia, GRE scores are probably the least important component of a candidate’s application. In my own case, I had placed so much importance on my GRE scores, that I failed to recognize the importance of the writing sample in the admission process (at least for humanities and social science programs): I didn’t give my writing sample nearly enough thought. I ended up submitting a seminar paper I had just completed that semester simply because it was the only paper that fit the length requirements, not because this paper best demonstrated my potential to produce original and compelling scholarship. My writing sample no doubt fell far short when compared to the work of the many other applicants with high GRE scores, many of whom had already received Master’s Degrees or presented papers at conferences. By contrast, despite his low GRE scores and GPA, my friend was accepted to Berkeley and Indiana primarily on the basis of his very strong writing sample, a paper that had won an undergraduate essay contest. After reading this paper, a professor on the AdCom at Indiana working in the same field contacted Joe to express a desire to work with him and offered him a full fellowship. Having a strong advocate on his side, Joe’s low GRE scores and GPA became unimportant — he did not need to convince an entire committee he was a worthy candidate, simply one well-placed person. It worked the same way for him at Berkeley: one of Joe’s recommenders was close friends with the head of the graduate program at Berkeley, and the strong paper, combined with the use of a connection, worked to secure Joe’s acceptance. As both Joe’s case and my own illustrate, strong advocates mean everything in academia. Though my weak writing sample failed to turn AdCom members into advocates, I was lucky enough that at least one of my recommenders was willing to enlist her connections to advocate for me behind the scenes. To this day, I suspect the only reason I received a post-rejection acceptance to the University of Iowa was because one of my recommenders, who was very well-known in my field and a former Graduate Director at Iowa, made a call on my behalf. Ultimately, this is the way things work in academia — whether you are applying for entry into a grad program or a tenure-track job, you will always need to have advocates willing to make a call and use their connections on your behalf. At the very least, you will always be competing against other candidates with advocates who are doing just that. While high GRE scores ultimately end up being the least important component of a candidate’s profile, there are two contexts in which GRE scores matter more. Some schools use cut-off GRE scores to determine whether an application will be reviewed and receive full consideration (e.g., applications with GREs below 600 will be rejected without review). In such cases, candidates with lower GRE scores should make contact with Professors of Interest at schools to which they are applying and enlist their advocates’ support very early in the process. In addition, many schools have a few special, more prestigious fellowship positions that provide more money or less teaching responsibilities than the standard package received by most students in an entering class. High GRE scores may be one of the criteria for determining who receives these special fellowships. Finally, it is worth emphasizing that my experience is based on the application process for Ph.D. programs as opposed to Master’s programs and is most applicable for humanities and social science programs. GRE scores may indeed assume more significance in the admission process to a Master’s program because these programs generally are larger, do not offer funding, and do not presuppose the same experience with and/or a future career path requiring academic research and writing. At many schools, Master’s programs are specifically designed to weed out unworthy Ph.D. candidates. The simple fact is that the attrition rate in Ph.D. programs is extremely high – some sources place it at 50%, but in many programs and fields it can be higher. I think less than five of the approximately 30 students in my entering class at the University of Iowa actually went on to complete their Ph.Ds. Most applicants to Ph.D. programs have very little clue about what is really involved with getting a Ph.D. and what it means to be an academic. This is as true for applicants with high GRE scores as it is for those with low GRE scores. It is precisely because there is no correlation between high GRE scores and the likelihood that a candidate will actually stick around to complete her Ph.D., that AdComs are willing to overlook low GRE scores when presented with evidence that a candidate possesses the internal drive, intellectual curiosity, and capacity for original thinking critical for both survival and success in academia.

Hi Everyone, I will be conducting a free 2-hour workshop online on March 2nd focusing on the GRE Argument Essay. If you would like to sign-up, go to: https://peaktestprep.com/course/gre/events/free-gre-awa-argument-essay-workshop-mar I also provide a 2-page Score Report with extensive feedback for GRE practice essays for only $18. If you need feedback on your strengths and weaknesses and a sense of specific steps you can take to improve, go to: https://peaktestprep.com/essay-scoring/gre-essay-scoring-feedback Thanks!

Sorry -- official GREs are the hardest test to get your hands on. Many torrent sites have plenty of Kaplan & Princeton Review practice tests to download, but you need to be careful about viruses.

Hi, If you have professors who want to work with you, than you really don't need to worry about your GRE scores. You are doing exactly the right thing in building relationships with potential mentors and I would aggressively follow up on any interest shown by professors at the schools you're interested in. I have seen people with embarrassingly low GRE scores and unimpressive GPAs get accepted to Berkeley and other top grad programs based simply on a single professor communicating a desire to work with the applicant to the AdCom. Other factors -- like publications, a spectacular writing sample, awards, having a recommender call a friend at universities you are applying to -- also can trump GRE scores and GPA. Of course, there is no harm in doing both -- making connections and retaking the test. But ultimately, a good connection with a professor can accomplish far more for you than a higher GRE score can. Good luck!

Valkener, If you go to gmatclub.com/forum/download.php and do a search using the filter for Reading Comprehension, there's some attachments you can download that have hundreds of reading comprehension passages from the GMAT, GRE & LSAT. If you do a similar search for Sentence Correction, you'll find several compilations of practice questions. There's numerous strategy guides for both types of questions on the site. Hope this helps!

You don't mention if you're an international student or what type of schools you plan on applying to (e.g., top ranked programs with an excess of qualified applicants or....). If you're an international student, a lower AWA score would be more significant; similarly, if you're applying to the top programs in your field, competition among highly qualified candidates becomes more extreme and your AWA score more significant. Other issues to consider is whether the program is requesting a writing sample as part of the application process and whether your program/field of study is writing intensive. The AWA is by no means a precise measure of students' writing skills, so it becomes less meaningful as long as you hit a minimum of around 4. A score below a 4 will be noticed and raise questions/doubts, though there is no saying for sure whether a 3.5 alone will be cause for rejection. In most cases, it is not the AWA score alone that is problematic, but the way the lower AWA score magnifies or functions in relationship to other concerns an AdCom may have regarding your candidacy. One thing that could offset any possible doubts about your academic writing (which is not really the same as writing a SOP) is if your letters of recommendation specifically address your strong writing skills or excellent course papers. Ironically, though the AWA is not given the same importance as the other sections of the GRE, strong academic writing skills are actually a better predictor of student success in graduate humanities and social science programs than high GRE Verbal and Math scores. You should be fine as long as other aspects of your application demonstrate that you're a strong writer. Good luck!

Hi, Unfortunately, there is no quick and easy way to improve your vocabulary for the test other than by making flash cards and memorizing thousands of words. That's what I did when I took the GRE and I was able to raise my score more than 100 points and end up in the 99th percentile on the Verbal section (which is pretty amazing for me, as I was never a good tester and am too embarrassed to reveal to anyone what I got on my SATs:). Be sure that your flash cards include the parts of speech and that you you are including the various shades of meaning for a term (connotative and denotative), as many questions require you to demonstrate a more nuanced understanding and choose the definition that best fits the specific context. Other than cramming with flash cards, I found it extremely important to take timed practice tests as often as I could to work on my pacing and concentration skills.I don't just mean practice tests of one or two sections; I mean full tests! As far as finding good practice tests and questions, I would consider looking at past official GMAT tests for the Verbal section: official tests are the best study tool and real GMATs are more reliable than many companies' practice GREs. Good luck,

Hi, I tend to agree with IowaGuy: the AWA score is more important for international students, as it is used to assess a candidate's ability to communicate effectively in English. The GMAT Verbal, on the other hand, is just about reading knowledge/comprehension of a language and it is easier for non-native speakers of English to achieve high scores in this section. How did you do on the TOEFL? Did you take this exam? High TOEFL scores could offset a low AWA score. But 3.0 is very low and you really need at least a 4. While you may not have enough time to retake the test before the application deadline, you could always take it after you submit the application and indicate in your application that another GMAT score will be arriving shortly after the deadline -- if it is indeed possible to set up a test date quickly. Good luck.