Improving GRE Writing Score

[bluejay16]

Hey everyone,

I'm currently registered to take the revised GRE in late September of this year, but I'm not sure of what I can do to improve my writing score. The first time I took the GRE, my mind had writer's block and I scored terribly on the writing section. Can anyone of you share your writing practice strategies with me? I would love some advice on how to improve my writing score! Thanks!

[emmm]

I worked as a writing tutor for a year before I took the GRE. I even ended up grading 100 sets of 2-question exams almost identical in format to the GRE essays. I'm sure it helped me when I took the GRE, but I wouldn't wish the experience on anyone. Lots of terrible writers out there.

[bluejay16]

I worked as a writing tutor for a year before I took the GRE. I even ended up grading 100 sets of 2-question exams almost identical in format to the GRE essays. I'm sure it helped me when I took the GRE, but I wouldn't wish the experience on anyone. Lots of terrible writers out there.

Thanks emmm, for sharing your strategy with me. When you took your GRE, how did you brainstorm your ideas for the prompts? I think that's what freaked me out the most and led me to having writer's block. I received a prompt that I knew little information about, and I had very little ideas to write with.

[emmm]

It sounds as though you just had bad luck with the prompt. There really isn't much time for brainstorming if ideas aren't coming to you right away. Then the nerves kick in and make everything worse. For what it's worth, I really did not like my issue essay, and I felt it was going off on a tangent, but I didn't have time to "fix" it, so I tried to pull things together at the end to make things sort of fit the prompt. I guess it worked out well enough, but it's such an artificial form of writing. I think you can look at the different prompts on the ETS website. You could try to do short outlines for some -- brainstorming without the pressure of taking the actual test.

[canberra]

Don't try to do too many things at the same time, it will confuse you and the evaluator as well. Keep it simple, that's the philosophy, that way clarity will be maintained.