Grading a practice Analytical Writing test?

[lost_0101]

Hey guys,

I'm chugging along on my GRE studies - and I've done 3 of the Kaplan tests now. I seem to have wasted my time writing a response to their practice writing sections - as there does not appear to be a mechanism to get these graded.

Two basic questions:

1) I'm thinking of switching to Manhattan, do they have a way to get the Writing tests graded? (pay extra or ?)

2) Does Kaplan have a method for this?

Thanks!

[amlobo]

I know you can pay test prep companies to review essays for you, but I wouldn't recommend paying someone to review your AW essays. I personally think self-scoring is adequate for the AW portion. Sorry to be blunt, but at this point in your life, you probably know how well you can write. You can work on structuring your essays and reading the "tips" from the test prep companies, but in large part, your writing ability is what it is. I didn't practice the AW portion at all because I knew writing was a strength of mine. I would just skip it on all of the practice tests. I looked at the "sample" essay answers and could gauge where my writing would fall... and I was pretty spot-on as to my score on the actual GRE.

If you feel that you cannot objectively gauge your own abilities, just have a friend whose opinion you trust look at a practice essay and give you some feedback. Basically, I would focus on the Verbal and Quant portions and not worry as much about the AW. And, just FYI, some programs say that they absolutely do not look at the AW score, so I'd check out the programs where you are applying to see if they say anything about it before putting too much effort into the AW portion. Best of luck! The GRE is annoying, but you will feel so good when it's over

[alf10087]

I bought Princeton Review's Cracking the GRE and on both the online tests I got a score for AW and very good feedback.

It takes a couple of weeks, but being graded by people who actually know how AW is scored and how you can improve your writing is really useful.

+100 points for Princeton Review.

Edited August 22, 2012 by alf10087