GRE writing score?

[Applemiu]

Everybody talks about verbal and quant scores, but how much important is the writing score? With one week left before the GRE, how much should I focus on practicing writing essays rather than solving math problems or learning vocabulary? I feel that the writing score is less important. What do you think? By the way, I am applying to Social Psychology programs.

Thank you!

Edited September 16, 2014 by Applemiu

[when]

Some of the feedback I have personally received from various supervisors is that it is one of the most important ones, as analytical writing will be important for research papers. But opinions seem mixed on that.

[lhommependu]

i think AW is generally considered less important, as your ability to write is reflected in your personal statement + any additional writing samples anyway. that said, having a good score is still a plus. i think a lot of people assume that the AW will be a wank, put no effort into preparing, and end up doing poorly because a really specific format is expected. in my experience, it seems like the hardest section to go into blind, though it doesn't take a whole lot of preparation.

 

find some pretenseless "the GRE tests your ability to take the GRE, so we're gonna teach you how to take the GRE" type study guide, put in a couple of days of practice runs for time + reading sample essays (high and low scoring) and you'll probably get like a 4.5 or so

[lhommependu]

i also sorta doubt that one's ability to rattle off a few syllogisms under extremely tight time constraints reflects one's ability to write a research paper much at all

[Applemiu]

Thank you guys! I also found this comment:

 

"Also, from what I understand a strong writing score doesn't help you much--AW is really only looked at if it is exceptionally high (perfect) or really bad."

 

[when]

i also sorta doubt that one's ability to rattle off a few syllogisms under extremely tight time constraints reflects one's ability to write a research paper much at all

That's my feeling too. Completely different requirements and circumstances. But then the other two segments are no more relevant to what's done in grad school either. The whole test's a joke. An unnecessary, stressful, expensive joke.

[lewin]

Have they changed the AW since I wrote it?  In my day it was two questions: (1) Logically analyze an argument and (2) write a persuasive passage for or against some position. Both of those are valuable academic skills, even if one believes that the GRE doesn't capture them fully.

 

Not to get into this too much, but the rest of the GRE is as predictive of graduate school success as GPA is (and it predicts independent variance). So it's not completely irrational to use it in the selection process, so long as it's one indicator of several. All I mean is that its utility is still an unresolved question and reasonable people could think it's useful.

 

(Fully admit that I could be engaging in motivated cognition here because I scored 6.0 on the writing and had good scores on the rest.)

Edited September 17, 2014 by lewin

[when]

Have they changed the AW since I wrote it?  In my day it was two questions: (1) Logically analyze an argument and (2) write a persuasive passage for or against some position. Both of those are valuable academic skills, even if one believes that the GRE doesn't capture them fully.

 

Not to get into this too much, but the rest of the GRE is as predictive of graduate school success as GPA is (and it predicts independent variance). So it's not completely irrational to use it in the selection process, so long as it's one indicator of several. All I mean is that its utility is still an unresolved question and reasonable people could think it's useful.

 

(Fully admit that I could be engaging in motivated cognition here because I scored 6.0 on the writing and had good scores on the rest.)

In some textbook I saw last year, a study of n = 90 found that GPA predicted graduate grades and so did GRE verbal and analytical writing to a lesser extent, while quantitative scores were not predictive of graduate grades and even less predictive of PhD completion (actually, there was a slight - but nonetheless insignificant - negative correlation with the latter, if I remember correctly). The GRE overall didn't predict PhD completion either, but did predict stipend acquisition, so I agree that in some ways it is useful. It's just interesting to note that it seems to be a useless indicator of how likely a person is to actually finish a PhD. Maybe *some* of the good GRE performers end up overextending themselves and not finishing their PhD?

 

As for the verbal and analytical writing portions, I think they do reflect valuable academic skills and a good performer on both is likely to possess a lot of the necessary skills for writing for research, but the content and time limits are completely unlike in real research scenarios.

[Angua]

I had professors tell me that the AW score was not really looked at unless it was dismally bad or if there were any questions about the candidate's English skills (which a solid AW score can help answer).