165V (95%) 157Q (71%) 3.5AW (30%)

[nycplanning]

I've worked as a professional writer and editor in New York City for the past 10 years.

Got my GRE scores today and was floored by my AW, espcially given my Verbal!

Has anybody out there SUCESSFULLY challenged their AW score?

I honestly felt confident while writing both essays, and have no idea what "errors affecting clarity" ETS could have found.

I'm applying to Master of City Planning programs for Fall 2013; hoping for USC or UCLA.

Undergrad GPA 3.7.

Thanks in advance!

[midnight]

At least one person here has challenged her AW score and won--ETS changed the AW score from a 4.0 to a 5.0, I believe.

However, your programs may not give much credence to the AW in general. If you provide a strong SOP along with strong LORs, a CV that shows your professional writing experience, and your high verbal score, I honestly can't see many schools placing too much emphasis on lackluster ETS essays that were scored in a rote manner.

Edited November 1, 2012 by midnight streetlight

[excellrec]

I'm in a similar boat, 165 Verbal and 4.0 AW. I also have multiple publications and a fair amount of professional writing experience. For our sakes, I hope these scores are seen as proxy measures for actual ability. If this is the belief of graduate programs, they would just look at your actual writing achievements rather than the AW score. I honestly don't know who in their right mind would say, "They have plenty of proven professional writing experience but this GRE writing score is pretty poor, I wonder if they can hack it in the professional writing world?".

[nycplanning]

Thanks guys,

I'm contesting it - especially after hearing that it's worked in some cases. 3.5 is not where I think I should be, even if the system is a flawed one.

I'll let everyone know whether it was $55 down the drain or not!

@excellrec are you going to contest or retake?

[Darth.Vegan]

Same problem here. I got a 5 on the ETS score it now! practice, but only got a 4 on the actual test. I'm not sure it was faulty grading or the fact that I got flustered a bit by my first question and ran out of time while typing. Good luck on the challenge. If you can get it changed to a 4 or 4.5 you should be fine!

[shockwave]

I would contact the professors you want to work with as well as the graduate chairs and get their take. Sometimes AW is taken very lightly and your superior verbal may be of much greater impact.

[excellrec]

@excellrec are you going to contest or retake?

I'd not heard that you could contest it prior to reading this thread, so it hadn't really crossed my mind. At this point I don't really think there is time for that this season. If there were time, however, I probably still wouldn't. I have published multiple articles as first and co-author in peer-reviewed journals in my field. I honestly could not fathom a school doubting my ability to write based on a test score despite proven ability writing in my field.

Edited November 2, 2012 by excellrec