GRE Analytical Writing Advice

[amymars]

Hi everyone! 

 

This is my first blog post. 

I am currently studying for my GRE and am a bit worried about the analytical writing section. I am confident in my writing skills, especially given the time constraint, but what I am worried about is using real world examples!

 

Some of the sample essays I have read that scored a 6 on the GRE use examples from politics and history which I have a lack of knowledge in. For example, a prompt asking the writing to take a position of leadership lead to a sample essay that looked more like a lesson on the history of American Presidents instead!

 

Does anyone have any advice on how to approach this? I know I could look up some of the prompts on the ETS website but I really don't have time, or the cognitive effort to study numerous subjects in preparation for 1 essay. 

 

Are using hypothetical examples a valid way to support an argument on the GRE? 

 

 

[eeee1923]

Most GRE prep material give tips such as this. The way I approached the writing section was not to stress too much about it and not actively aim for a 6. I ended up with a 165Q/167V/4.5AW and got into 6/7 programs I had applied. 

 

A 6/6 is honestly quite a difficult task to accomplish and partially due to luck since you would have to know about the topic plus be lucky enough to have the prompt be the one generated on the test day. Unless you're going into an English program aim for a 4.5-5 out of 6. You'd be in the 80-93 percentile which is solid enough for most PhD programs. Just make sure your verbal and quant sections of the GRE are in the high percentiles as well. 

[velua]

I don't know about a 6. My guess is you need it to be long (5 full paragraphs) and full of big words. If you need to make up an example, that's fine. Just as good as a personal example. My only worry was when you get a really horrible topic that you just don't have any opinion on one way or the other.

[scarvesandcardigans]

eteshoe's link is incredibly helpful. Since you say you are a strong writer I'll try to focus my advice on examples only, hopefully that will help!

 

One thing that I actually carried over from an SAT prep class was to create my own relevant categories of strong examples and familiarize myself with them before the test. I very briefly skimmed the long list of topics, and I picked out some of the overarching themes in the prompts, listed them out, and then tried to think of relevant examples from a variety of fields (art, history, politics, social science, etc.) that I could draw upon when it came time for the test. I made sure I knew a good amount about a few, and at least a thing or two about most of them. Not having to think about real-world examples while actually writing the essay helped me to focus on the strength of the essay as a whole and not just my own support. I found this useful primarily when writing about analyzing an issue. Personal examples can be strong as well. It is my belief that hypothetical examples could very well be strong ones as long as they are things that could realistically happen given the situation from the prompt.

 

With regard to analyzing an argument, I tried to take both perspectives of the argument presented in a different way. Say I supported the yea over nay side of the presented issue. I would include logical support for that yea side, but then speculate (in come the hypothetical examples again) as to why the nay side could be considered valid, but then bring back the logical side to further the point that it was not. I think that showing a consideration for multiple perspectives rather than hashing out as many supportive examples for one side made for a more thorough essay. But that's just me.

 

My AWA score was a 5.0. Your mileage may vary on the advice, but I hope it helps a little. Good luck!

[knp]

Don't use fancy words excessively! No! This is a fast way to lose .5 or 1 from your score. Personally, I had to quit Magoosh two days before the test so that all of the Dumb Big Words that were seeping into my head for verbal reasoning did not display themselves in the AW portion—"objurgate" is a useless word for which English has at least fifteen better synonyms, and you'll never convince me otherwise. Good to know for V just in case, but absolutely not to be used on AW. I mean, you should have at least one three-syllable word per paragraph, but considering that English has lots and lots of fairly "regular" three-syllable words, that shouldn't be much of a requirement. For instance, that preceding sentence has about four unique ones.

 

My essay topic ended up being something about "how should a town dispose of its plastics to save the environment?", so being a history type didn't help me much. This could all be irrelevant!

 

But even if you do get a question that could use more historical examples, I don't think you need to worry about it too much. I think if you have a few easily deployable ideas about a few key topics on hand, which I'd recommend compiling before you take it, you'll be fine. Look at the GRE pool of potential essays for key topics: if I recall correctly, most of them are about "leadership," "education," or "technology." So because the essays are so short, if you have a couple leadership examples and their main characteristics on hand, e.g. "Steve Jobs: successful! design! jerk!" "Bill Gates: successful! not necessarily a genius, just right place right time! philanthropy!", you can work with that. I don't think you can make up examples, like you can in some other standardized tests; but because it is a standardized test, your use of the examples really doesn't require knowing much, nor do they require history rather than technology.

If it matters, I got a 5.5 AW. If I had to hypothesize about the breakdown, I'd guess that I got a 6 on the "analyze an argument" because "poking holes in arguments" comes naturally to me, but a 5 on the "analyze an issue" because it was well written, but my thesis ended up being something along the lines of "this whole question's stupid, and so's your mother."

[amymars]

Personal examples can be strong as well. It is my belief that hypothetical examples could very well be strong ones as long as they are things that could realistically happen given the situation from the prompt.

 

 

Thanks for the great advice everyone, I really appreciate it. 

 

In terms of "personal examples" how would you go about using this strategy if I wanted to avoid personalizing my essay too much by using the pronoun "I"? 

[wh815]

I scored a 170/170/5 on the test. I agree with the above posters that getting higher than a 5 is somewhat of a crap shoot. You should shoot for a 4.5+ (fine scores for any graduate program). 

 

I'm terrible at timed writing, but I came up with a system that worked for me. Here are a few tips: 

 

1) Use a consistent essay structure, no matter the prompt. For example, for the Analyze the Issue essay, my essay always consisted of: 1) intro/thesis paragraph taking a hard stance on the issue but acknowledging the potential for situations in which my position didn't hold; 2) body paragraph supporting my position with example; 3) second body paragraph supporting my position with different example; 4) body paragraph acknowledging my position isn't foolproof, usually starting with "This is not to say that" or "And yet"; 5) concluding paragraph restating thesis. No matter my response to the issue - whether for or against - I always used this structure. 

 

2) Have a stock intro/thesis paragraph that you can use for every prompt. If you know the structure of your essay beforehand - if you know, for example, that you will have two supporting body paragraphs and a third taking the contrasting view - you can come up with a general intro that sets up the essay, one that you only have to modify slightly for each prompt. Doing this will save you time and make sure your essays consistently start on a strong, polished note. Aim to have brainstormed your examples and completed your intro paragraph no more than five minutes into the section. 

 

3) Don't attempt to write perfect essays! Remember you are being graded as much for length and fluency as for intellectual content. As long as your ideas make sense and are written well, you'll be fine. I like to compare GRE essays to a topical debate with a friend after too much alcohol - impassioned but perhaps a little thin. 

 

Hope this helps. Good luck! 

 

EDIT: Rereading your post, I see that you weren't really looking for general advice haha. Like the above poster mentioned, personal examples are great! I wouldn't worry about using "I" too often. Likely you will be using "I" only in the body paragraph with your personal example, which is fine. 

Edited May 27, 2015 by wh815

[MathCat]

I scored a 5, which was above what I was aiming for. I got an absolutely horrible topic for the analyze an argument topic that I felt like I had nothing to say about. Before the exam, a friend gave me the advice of explaining all steps in your reasoning clearly - this is a good way to add length to your paragraphs without needing to generate a ton of ideas, show your reasoning skills, and get the writing flowing. I think length does matter a lot for your scores. Be sure to actually answer the prompt and not go off on a tangent.

 

For the argument topic, I'd suggest being nitpicky - identify all possible flaws in the argument, no matter how small, (or whatever the prompt asks) and explain what is wrong with them, perhaps with examples. I think this is the reason my score was higher than I expected, despite the topic making me say "oh no" when I saw it.

[quirkycase]

Thanks for the great advice everyone, I really appreciate it. 

 

In terms of "personal examples" how would you go about using this strategy if I wanted to avoid personalizing my essay too much by using the pronoun "I"? 

 

As others have already pointed out, personal examples can be useful and naturally require "I," which is fine in this case.  I think the main thing is to make sure you stay focused and treat the example as evidence; it can be easy to veer too much into personal narrative territory.  Keep it focused and relevant, making sure to stay argumentative in style.

[scarvesandcardigans]

As others have already pointed out, personal examples can be useful and naturally require "I," which is fine in this case.  I think the main thing is to make sure you stay focused and treat the example as evidence; it can be easy to veer too much into personal narrative territory.  Keep it focused and relevant, making sure to stay argumentative in style.

 

Exactly what I would say. Make sure your personal examples don't digress too much. Leaving time to review what you write in full is usually where any corrections can be made in that regard. (Side note: It is easy to avoid too much usage of "I" if the personal example that you have involves other parties!)

 

I wasn't sure if I could provide a specific example from my test-taking experience, but one essay topic of mine ended up being about general education in college. Because my undergrad university has a general education program that is subject to lots of change and scrutiny, it was easy to talk about. That was a personal example, but "I" was hardly used because it was just something I could speak about without inserting myself into the essay. 

[Brent@GreenlightGRE]

When it comes to examples, you can always make up personal examples (if they pertain to the prompt). For example, if the prompt asked you to discuss whether or not honesty is the best policy, you could provide fake examples in your personal life that highlighted your position. 

 

For the AW section, the most important thing is to have an essay template in mind for each prompt. Then it's only a matter of filling it in. 

 

We have a complete set of free videos that cover everything you need to know about the AW section: http://www.greenlighttestprep.com/module/gre-analytical-writing 

 

Cheers,

Brent

[Jay's Brain]

I'm echoing what everyone is saying already, but more often than not most schools don't require a very high AWA if your other scores are excellent. Of course, it can never help to do well on all three of the sections of the GRE regardless of which program you're pursuing. Here's some tips that may or may not work for you that helped me get a 6 on AWA. 

First, before you assume I'm a prolific writer, that's not the case. While I do enjoy writing, I make mundane grammatical errors all the time. You will too given that you have 30 minutes to read the prompt, decide on what to write, maybe create an outline, write the passage, and then leave time for yourself to quickly glance over it for glaring mistakes. Time is precious, so you must gather your thoughts quickly. This can be done by doing enough practice. I write creatively for fun sometimes and I do a bit of hobby blogging, so all of that probably helped. That's not necessary for you to do well, though. Just take a look at practice prompts and decide what's the best way to break the question down.

 

In my opinion, I found the "Analyze an Issue" section to be more challenging than the Argument one. I would say this one is where creating an outline is practical. From the get go, you want to have chosen a side and found strong evidence to defend or support your opinions. And, yes, as others have indicated, there are instances where the topic relates to you more than others. The questions, however, are meant to be general enough that anyone who is attempting the GRE for graduate schooling should be able to chime in with opinions or comments. That's really what it is. You want to decide which direction you want to pursue, and look at reasons that strongly support the evidence. Is it necessary to know a lot of historical details? Well, depending on the question, it may help. But questions such as these are open-ended. They allow for almost anything (as long as what you write is relevant!). You want to be able to move from paragraph to paragraph with ease. Don't end anything abruptly, and in ways that don't really follow through with the previous sentences. 

For the "Analyze an Argument" task, I say this section is "easier", because I think this requires less of an opinion and more logic. The previous essay is challenging, because you need to tie in experiences or examples that relate to what you're trying to say. For this one, however, everything you need is right in front of you. In fact, you may even lose marks for being opinionated! Read the prompt, usually a story of some kind, and then ask yourself, what about it doesn't sound right? If you were in the shoes of the person or situation, would you make the same decisions? If not, then you have a couple of points to bring up already! Sort through each sentence, and identify what makes sense logically. Find the 3-4 that make or break the passage and relay it in your writing. You do not need to add anything beyond what it says. if the decision or the choice or whatever the passage suggest does not seem valid, there's probably an issue wroth arguing there.

Remember, ultimately, with 30 minutes, you can't really write an essay well. It WILL NOT be one you are proud of. But, the markers also know that too.

The AWA section is the first part of your test, so make sure you're thinking positive thoughts going into the exam. Good luck!

[L13]

I got a 5.5 on the AW section. I suspect I got a 6 on the Analyse an Argument portion and a 5 on the other one.

 

I did not prepare for this section in any way other than by looking at the ETS website guidelines and reading the sample scored essays. I did not try to think of appropriate examples beforehand.

 

I don't even remember what my AI essay was about, but I remember that the topic touched on dreams and personal motivation and I briefly discussed aspiring sportsmen, saying that if the best athletes in the world hadn't pursued their dreams seriously to the detriment of more "realistic" career options, they would have never achieved success. I think I may have mentioned a couple of sports I am familiar with (figure skating, rhythmic gymnastics, chess) where an early start is almost obligatory for success.

 

It was not a high-brow example and I did not develop it fully. I don't think I talked about it at length. It was enough for a 5.

 

Don't worry about coming up with an example drawn from politics or history. Just make sure your example is clear, coherent, and relevant.

 

The AI topics tend to be pretty broad, I think. I imagine that most of them lend themselves to a wide range of associations. My advice would be to grasp the first specific idea that coalesces in your mind after reading the prompt and go with it.

[amymars]

Great, thanks everyone! I'll keep practicing and might come back for more questions!