Writing portion of the GRE General test?

[jhefflol]

In the GRE section of The Grad Cafe I have seen a lot of anxiety surrounding the essay portion of this test. I figured that since I have made it through half of my MA I should have a skill set adequate enough to score high on this portion. However, someone posted that a 5.0 is in the 90th percentile and for some reason that makes me nervous.

 

What resources have you used to prepare yourself, if any? Am I absolutely crazy for worrying about this section of the test?

 

I keep trying to convince myself that I'm prepared since I got high marks on the WPE and a perfect score on the high school exit exam twice, given the math portion allegedly tests high school freshman standards (I had to retake it during my undergrad because my BA was in English Education), but I am forever anxious about everything. 

Edited August 17, 2014 by jhefflol

[Dr. Old Bill]

In the GRE section of The Grad Cafe I have seen a lot of anxiety surrounding the essay portion of this test. I figured that since I have made it through half of my MA I should have a skill set adequate enough to score high on this portion. However, someone posted that a 5.0 is in the 90th percentile and for some reason that makes me nervous.

 

What resources have you used to prepare yourself, if any? Am I absolutely crazy for worrying about this section of the test?

 

Honestly, there's not a lot you can do to prepare for this section other than read some past examples of questions and work on your critical thinking skills on the fly. The first time I took the GRE general, I got a 4.5 on the AW section, and was quite annoyed about it. I truly expected to have at least a 5, and in my heart of hearts thought I would have gotten a 6. And that 4.5 was the primary reason why I went back to retake the GRE, even though I know it's not a huge factor in decisions. Well, the second time I took it, even after reading a GRE prep book and studying a hell of a lot harder than the first time, proved even more of a challenge...especially the AW portion. I didn't wind up making a cogent argument until at least 15 minutes into the 30 minutes allotted for the first portion. I felt I probably had a 3 on that at best. The next question was a little better, but still not great. I figured I may have gotten a 4.5 on that one. So I was actually a bit surprised that my AW score was once again a combined 4.5 when I got my results back.

 

Most of us here are surely very-good-to-excellent-writers. It's what we do. A B+ on a paper for us is like a C on a paper for others. But the AW is honestly not about "good writing." I'm serious -- it's not! It's more about coming up with as many problems with a particular chunk of text as possible (for one section), and developing a germ of an idea -- no matter how valid -- in the other. If you write well enough and make no spelling / grammatical errors, you're probably always going to get a 4.0 or above. And from what I've heard / read, the AW score, if it is even looked at, receives less weight than the verbal...which itself is often more of a "checklist" item.

 

Bottom line: study however you can, but certainly do not fret about it. There are too many other elements of the application worth fretting over (namely the WS and SOP) to waste excessive time worrying about the AW section of the GRE, I assure you.

Edited August 17, 2014 by Wyatt's Torch

[ProfLorax]

Every few years, we have a discussion about the role of the AW section in admissions, and we usually come to the verdict that it is probably the least important aspect of your application. Sure, I imagine a low low score (3.5 or below?) could raise some eyebrows, but since adcomms will be reading a writing sample, they will be able to evaluating your writing and analysis skills regardless of your AW score.

 

That being said, I got a 5.5 both times I took the GRE. Like Wyatt's Torch suggests, the AW section isn't about good writing. Rather, it's about formulaic writing. I followed the advice given in the Princeton Review: write a standard five paragraph essay, write a lot, and support your claims with specific examples. I spent three or so minutes in the beginning sketching out my essay, basically just listing the main ideas for the three body paragraphs and the specific examples I'd use. Then, I wrote wrote wrote until there were about three minutes remaining, which I then used to wrap it all up and proofread. My thesis wasn't nuanced: I stated my position and the three reasons I stood by my position. I didn't do any prep, just followed the advice in the book. I imagine the GRE readers will be looking for the same qualities as the WPE and high school exit exam readers. Good luck! 

[jhefflol]

Thanks for the input! I have been shunned away from the five paragraph essay as I'm sure most of you have. Sounds like I will just be very blunt with my writing and come up with as many arguments as I can in the allotted time and then not stress about it. I may try to shove in the colons and semicolons, as apparently these lift writing scores automatically (or at least that's what they teach us teachers-in-training in CA). Whew!

[toasterazzi]

I only took the GRE once, and I scored a 5 on the writing. Before the test, I looked over some of the past test passages and the types of questions asked, but I didn't do any practice writing. The way I attacked it pretty much comes from my experience as a teacher. I thought about the basic components of essay writing that teachers typically try to impress upon students because I figured those were the sorts of things they'd be looking for, and I incorporated those components into my responses. So I paid attention to things like having strong intros & conclusions, points to support a clear thesis, examples to explain the points, etc.

[Francophile1]

I took it twice and ended up using my 4 score. Got into most programs. Basically what have been said here is true. This score is not as significant as the Verbal and Math. I do advise carefully reading on notes in study guides what exactly they want you to do in these essays. It is very specific and not your average way of constructing a college essay. Everything that was said about including problems and solutions is very true and you are on a time frame so that makes it more difficult. I believe there are essay examples what is considered good and what is not, so look over those and also try to write some at home (time yourself).

Good luck

[fuzzylogician]

Honestly, there's not a lot you can do to prepare for this section other than read some past examples of questions and work on your critical thinking skills on the fly. The first time I took the GRE general, I got a 4.5 on the AW section, and was quite annoyed about it. I truly expected to have at least a 5, and in my heart of hearts thought I would have gotten a 6. And that 4.5 was the primary reason why I went back to retake the GRE, even though I know it's not a huge factor in decisions. Well, the second time I took it, even after reading a GRE prep book and studying a hell of a lot harder than the first time, proved even more of a challenge...especially the AW portion. I didn't wind up making a cogent argument until at least 15 minutes into the 30 minutes allotted for the first portion. I felt I probably had a 3 on that at best. The next question was a little better, but still not great. I figured I may have gotten a 4.5 on that one. So I was actually a bit surprised that my AW score was once again a combined 4.5 when I got my results back.

 

Most of us here are surely very-good-to-excellent-writers. It's what we do. A B+ on a paper for us is like a C on a paper for others. But the AW is honestly not about "good writing." I'm serious -- it's not! It's more about coming up with as many problems with a particular chunk of text as possible (for one section), and developing a germ of an idea -- no matter how valid -- in the other. If you write well enough and make no spelling / grammatical errors, you're probably always going to get a 4.0 or above. And from what I've heard / read, the AW score, if it is even looked at, receives less weight than the verbal...which itself is often more of a "checklist" item.

 

Bottom line: study however you can, but certainly do not fret about it. There are too many other elements of the application worth fretting over (namely the WS and SOP) to waste excessive time worrying about the AW section of the GRE, I assure you.

I meant to up vote this post but accidentally down voted it instead.. ugh. I agree with everything here, especially not to worry about it too much.

[Dr. Old Bill]

I meant to up vote this post but accidentally down voted it instead.. ugh. I agree with everything here, especially not to worry about it too much.

 

No worries! I took the heretofore unheard-of, self-serving approach and upvoted myself on your behalf.

 

One thing I neglected to elaborate on is the time factor Like Francophile1 states, it truly makes it more difficult. And even when you sit here, reading those words, you don't automatically make that connection. Half an hour seems like a reasonable amount of time, but once you get in there, even if you're not the type of person who clams up under pressure (I'm not), the clock on the top right corner of the screen inexorably ticks away. There's the option of hiding it, of course, but that makes it even worse, because then half of your mind starts thinking about the time, and usually overcompensates, making you go even faster than you need to. So yes, time is key, and even when you have the time management tips of Princeton Review, Kaplan etc. in mind, there's just no way around the fact that you have to read a few paragraphs you've never read before -- one of which is riddled with logical fallacies, while the other is extremely open-ended -- and write about them at length. Sometimes they're based on science, sometimes they're based on politics, sometimes they're based on economics...but you're probably not going to luck out and get one right in your wheelhouse. So you're left with thirty minutes to read something new, analyze it, either figure out the most flaws possible or a definitive approach to a vague question (depending on the section), then write confidently about it. In other words, just to reiterate, it's not like writing a college paper, where you have the luxury of time for research, thesis development, and revision.

 

The one thing I will say is that Queennight made a post a couple of months or so ago about her experiences with taking the GRE. She suspected that creativity went a long way in helping her perfect AW score, as she figured that the ETS staff readers must get so bored with reading all of the mini-essays that they probably just blend together...so writing something creatively might make them sit up and take notice. So if she's right, then perhaps if you're faced with a question about how a new bathroom cleanser should be used in elementary schools, talk about camel-riding space aliens and just figure out some way to tie it back to the matter at hand.

[ProfLorax]

Oh! One more note because I totally forgot about the second essay. I did read a handful of sample Analyze an Argument essays. The questions are weirdly phrased and at first threw me off. Then, I realized that the question was actually just asking me to point out (three) fallacies with the argument: maybe the sample set used to back up the argument didn't adequately represent the whole, or the argument overlooked other potential causes. These essays don't need to be as long as the Analyze an Issue section, but I still stuck with the basic five paragraph structure: intro explaining generally how the argument is shortsighted (and the argument is always shortsighted!); three body paragraphs, each detailing a specific fallacy (and since this is a general GRE test, you don't need the names of the rhetorical fallacies. You just need to explain them to a broad audience. However, knowing the rhetorical fallacies helped me spot the errors in the argument); and a conclusion wrapping up the general shortsightedness of the argument. 

 

Hope this is helpful! 

[lyonessrampant]

I took the GRE once and got a 6.  I think it is because I did competitive speech and debate and approached the essays on the GRE as I did writing persuasive speeches and debate cases.  These things all share basic structure in common (persuasive speech is basically problem, cause, solution or variations on that structure) and debate cases also have stock structures.  As has been noted, clear and obvious thesis/argument.  I'd stick to three main points that are supported by as many examples as you can think of (I drew widely on literary, philosophical, and real world examples. . . again thanks to competitive forensics and all the books we read as English majors), and try to pay attention to things like addressing likely counterarguments, using logical structures (syllogisms, identifying fallacies, etc.), and clearly re-stating main points/argument in the conclusion.  Standardized tests like standardized approaches/formulas, so don't overthink things or treat this like a typical paper for an English class.  Get a firm outline and get writing.  

[queennight]

The one thing I will say is that Queennight made a post a couple of months or so ago about her experiences with taking the GRE. She suspected that creativity went a long way in helping her perfect AW score, as she figured that the ETS staff readers must get so bored with reading all of the mini-essays that they probably just blend together...so writing something creatively might make them sit up and take notice. So if she's right, then perhaps if you're faced with a question about how a new bathroom cleanser should be used in elementary schools, talk about camel-riding space aliens and just figure out some way to tie it back to the matter at hand.

Thanks for the shoutout Wyatt! ^This is basically an excellent summation of what I found to be effective. Also handy - if you buy the GRE Princeton book and take their online tests, they will actually grade you for the writing portion (a free service they offer, with somewhat lethargic and uninspired comments on how you can improve). It's a little bit useless but also a little bit handy. On my GRE, I scored a 6.0 in the writing section (while scoring 5.0 on my practice online graded tests). It's my personal belief that the reason why I was graded a 6.0 was because my GRE essay was one of the wildest things I have ever written - I pulled out all the stops. At one point, I literally wrote "dreamers never die" and then referred to the fact that a 13 year old Indian girl climbed Mount Everest back in June. This being said, I solidly think I lucked out with a bored marker who was maybe interested by my crazy style - it is a risk to be creative, but so long as you follow the standard arguments you're taught in the prep books (and just add dashes of creativity to each point you state), it might be a risk that pays off.

[queennight]

Also to add: if you have a firm outline, you will do well. My creativity suggestion hinges on the fact that you already understand exactly what it is that ETS is looking for: a mundane, boring - as - hell essay outline that mimics what we were taught an essay should contain back in high school. Once you have that, you should be solidly set - also use the GRE vocab words!! There are going to be very few times in your life when you can casually drop a bombshell word into your argument ("I really feel like a Starbucks latte is specious in regards to pricing" - you might get punched in the face by your less than impressed friends), so you might as well maximize the usefulness of the largely useless (let's be frank) GRE verbal during this section.

[hreaðemus]

I second (or third, or fourth) the "be straight-forward" advice! I have no debate experience, don't frankly know what a logical proof is, didn't use any counter-arguments, and was definitely NOT creative with my writing - but I got a 5.5 on the AW portion with very little practice, and it wasn't because of my scintillating prose.  

 

One note, however - the longer your essay, the better. I'm not sure why the GRE thinks word-per-minute is an analytical skill, but I swear to you it does. Every example on the ETS website shows an unfailing correlation between higher numbers and greater length. And when I used the ScoreItNow! service, I got a better score on my longer essay - even though otherwise I couldn't tell them apart!

[xolo]

I'm glad the GRE is behind me.  I took the thing and got a 4 on the writing.  This really hurt my pride so I re-took it and got a 5.  So you can improve your score with a retake.  Main difference is I studied for about 10 hours but also thought about what my strategy would be for time management, etc.  My math score suffered because of the time constraint.  I'm really pretty good at math but I do things 'my way' and it takes longer.  Anyway, one surprise, without really spending a huge effort studying I got a 168V which was a nice ego boost.  But I don't think you can study for the verbal, at least not in my case, or at least because I wouldn't spend months studying.  That would be boring beyond words.  The time constraint is really severe, I just 'felt' my way through the answers.  But I'm glad to be done with the GRE, it really isn't the most important part of the application in my opinion.

 

One thing about writing length.  The writing is partially computer scored.  Computers are pretty illiterate but they can tabulate transitions, connecting phrases, vocabulary, count words, etc.  So I'm thinking the scoring is aided by increased number of words.

Edited August 20, 2014 by eyepod

[Dr. Old Bill]

 

Anyway, one surprise, without really spending a huge effort studying I got a 168V which was a nice ego boost.  But I don't think you can study for the verbal, at least not in my case, or at least because I wouldn't spend months studying.  That would be boring beyond words.  The time constraint is really severe, I just 'felt' my way through the answers.  But I'm glad to be done with the GRE, it really isn't the most important part of the application in my opinion.

 

That's great, Eyepod, and I truly agree with the "you can't study for the verbal" sentiment to some degree. I know others disagree, and it is all relative (i.e., you can always improve the breadth of your vocabulary at least, which helps), but the wide variance in practice test scores seems to bear out the difficulty, at least, of studying for the verbal. I've mentioned it elsewhere, but the first time I took the GRE, I didn't study much, and got a 162 verbal. Pretty good...not excellent, but probably good enough for most, if not all institutions to at least let the rest of my application be considered (i.e., probably wouldn't keep me out of any "first cull" system). But I wanted to take it again for various reasons (specifically because I thought I could improve my AW as well as my verbal score). I studied quite a bit for the second sitting, and was getting 168 and 167 scores on the practice tests, so I figured I could at least pull off a 164 or so on the real test. Nope. 159. There's not much I can say as to why. I had a rough start to the day which kind of set me off on the wrong foot, but in terms of preparation, I was far more prepared than the first time around, yet wound up doing slightly worse on the V and the Q, and equal on the AW. Even though this is a "small sample size," so to speak, I nevertheless deduce that while studying probably helps overall, it's just not a good enough analog for the real test to make it worth a huge chunk of your time. In fact, there's a small part of me that is tempted to go back yet again -- completely without advance studying -- to give it a third shot. I'm not going to, since there are money and distance factors, and since my scores probably pass enough muster to keep me in the running for all of my applications...but since I do have a very large vocabulary, and use many, if not most of those "GRE words" in papers and conversation on a regular basis, it's tempting...

 

One thing about writing length.  The writing is partially computer scored.  Computers are pretty illiterate but they can tabulate transitions, connecting phrases, vocabulary, count words, etc.  So I'm thinking the scoring is aided by increased number of words.

 

That's very interesting. I hadn't heard that before. Do you mind sharing where you learned that?

[ProfLorax]

That's very interesting. I hadn't heard that before. Do you mind sharing where you learned that?

I didn't know this either! But after a quick Google search, yup, the ETS website states that the second reader is a computer:

 

 

For the Analytical Writing section, each essay receives a score from at least one trained reader, using a six-point holistic scale. In holistic scoring, readers are trained to assign scores on the basis of the overall quality of an essay in response to the assigned task. The essay score is then reviewed by e-rater®, a computerized program developed by ETS, which is used to monitor the human reader. If the e-rater evaluation and the human score agree, the human score is used as the final score. If they disagree by a certain amount, a second human score is obtained, and the final score is the average of the two human scores.

 

 

So, it seems that the human reader has more power than the computer program, but still, that the computer program has ANY power in the analytical writing assessment is mind-boggling! 

[Dr. Old Bill]

Ho lee crap.

 

Mind: blown.

 

Seriously, this disturbs, nauseates, and even slightly angers me...yet also shouldn't really surprise me, given that ETS is pretty much soulless anyhow. I'm willing to bet that anyone who strings together a bunch of highfalutin' vocab words and manages to type out nine or ten paragraphs per AW section will wind up getting at least a 4, if not a 5 (or a 6, if the ETS human decides to flick the "autopilot" switch).

[xolo]

Wyatt, my first verbal was 163, so I'm thinking over 160 or so and it is just sort of luck what you score.  Bummer that you went to all that effort for naught. I just hope it's the last time I ever need to take the GRE.  Thank God it's not too important.  I'm thinking 50-60 years ago it was more important, if it existed back then.

 

Look at the ETS explanation of computer scoring, the human reader scores the essay holistically (ie, heuristically, ie, a quick impression)   The computer is the safety net and arbiter!  Welcome to the new world.

[Dr. Old Bill]

Wyatt, my first verbal was 163, so I'm thinking over 160 or so and it is just sort of luck what you score.  Bummer that you went to all that effort for naught. I just hope it's the last time I ever need to take the GRE.  Thank God it's not too important.  I'm thinking 50-60 years ago it was more important, if it existed back then.

 

Look at the ETS explanation of computer scoring, the human reader scores the essay holistically (ie, heuristically, ie, a quick impression)   The computer is the safety net and arbiter!  Welcome to the new world.

 

Yeah. Seriously. I'm not joking when I say how amazed I am by this information. It really blows my mind, and I have to wonder if adcomms know. If so, that could be why I've heard (albeit apocryphally) that the AW score isn't really considered. As mentioned above, I thought my first AW attempt was leaps and bounds better than my second AW attempt, yet both wound up with the same score. It's probably because my ratio of "big words" remained consistent. Perhaps if I'd focused more on using bloated words rather than creating readable essays, I would have done better. O brave new world that has such [computers] in 't!

Edited August 20, 2014 by Wyatt's Torch

[mikers86]

All my grad school friends with significant others in the sciences (a goodly amount, surprisingly) always report their s/o did better on the writing section than they did. Perhaps thinking like a scientist is the key to increasing your writing score?

[xolo]

Well, I took an oral Spanish test to get a TA and it was computer scored between 20-80.  So I took it two times.  The first time I scored 73.  ugh!  The second time I almost cancelled the test because I messed it up, but my score was 77!  And now that I think about this it is really weird.  Exactly what are they grading?  A speaker from the streets of Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid? Those sound pretty different.

Edited August 20, 2014 by eyepod

[Poiple]

I thought I'd add my experience with the A/W. I've taken the GRE 3 times (twice over 5+ years ago though). The first 2 times I got 5.5 and the second I got an astounding 4.5. I say astounding as for the first question I was feeling a bit ill so only managed to write 3 sentences total and then the time ran out. I tried my hardest on the second question but I've always wondered how I managed to score a 4.5 when the first was most certainly a 0 or 1. I'm still confused now.

 

If it makes anyone feel better though, a good friend of mine took the test around the same time and scored a 4.0 - she was devastated...until February when she got her admittance letter to Berkeley (Rhetoric). 

[Dr. Old Bill]

I thought I'd add my experience with the A/W. I've taken the GRE 3 times (twice over 5+ years ago though). The first 2 times I got 5.5 and the second I got an astounding 4.5. I say astounding as for the first question I was feeling a bit ill so only managed to write 3 sentences total and then the time ran out. I tried my hardest on the second question but I've always wondered how I managed to score a 4.5 when the first was most certainly a 0 or 1. I'm still confused now.

 

I bet those sentences were full of big words, like "The juxtaposition of the integration of the secular and the sacrosanct coincides with the obsequious perspicacity of the assorted monastic colloquia of which the latter is comprised and the former eschews."

 

If it makes anyone feel better though, a good friend of mine took the test around the same time and scored a 4.0 - she was devastated...until February when she got her admittance letter to Berkeley (Rhetoric).

 

You know, the more instances I hear like this, the better I feel...even though I already know that the GRE isn't a big factor. It still looms large, no matter how much one tries to reason it away, so hearing "meh GRE, good admittance" examples is somewhat soul-assuaging.

[xolo]

Hey Wyatt,  My theory is that you know too much vocabulary and English.  You're overshooting the mark.  Don't take it so seriously and you'll score up around the maximum.  Just my opinion.  I felt the same way as you when I didn't score how I wanted to - it just bugged me no end.

[portia_of_belmont]

I got a 6.0 when I took the GRE in December 2008. (I'm retaking this October since my score is now expired.) The number one thing that I think helped me succeed was structuring my essay exactly like I would structure an argument for the debate team I was on at the time.

 

It's easy enough to Google how arguments are structured in parliamentary debate. That way you hit evidence, counter-evidence, and a strong conclusion. Hope that helps!