Didn't finish first AWA essay on GRE. Anyone with similar experience?

[morgana35]

I took the GRE yesterday and did fine on the Verbal and Quantitative Reasoning sections, but totally bombed one of the Analytical Writing sections. I had a panic attack during the Issue Essay, and only managed to write an introduction and one supporting paragraph before I ran out of time. I think my second essay was fairly good -- I'd pulled myself together by then -- but I'm concerned that I may have blown my chances of getting at least a 4, the minimum to get into the program I'm applying to. Has anyone had a similar experience with an incomplete essay? Did you manage to get at least a 4 in spite of it? I don't have time to retake the test before the financial aid deadline, so I'm biting my nails waiting to get the results. 

If my AWA score does come back lower than a 4, does anyone have an opinion on whether or not it's appropriate to contact the program about possibly resubmitting a second set of scores after the application due date? I'm hesitant to do this, because I don't want to come off as whiny, but I know I can do better and the rest of my application is solid. 

[bicsy]

As long as you were able to present your main ideas, write with coherence and sound logic up to the point you got cut off, and score relatively well on the other essay, I don't see a reason you'll get anything less than a 4.

I've read about other people doing similar things and still getting ideal scores, however this is looking at a small sample size. I got cut off mid-sentence and ended up with a 5.5 (although I ran out of time much further into my essay).

[fuzzylogician]

It's hard to predict your score, but if you're unhappy with it, it seems to me that you have nothing to lose by asking if you can submit a second set of scores or if there is anything else you can do to counteract the low AWA score. Generally, even when there is an official published cutoff, programs can sometimes admit someone who doesn't quite meet it if they are otherwise impressed with their application. This isn't necessarily something that they will tell you about (they wouldn't want to make any promises, and might not hold for the particular school you have in mind), so you might not know unless you apply, but I see no harm in talking to them first. 

[TakeruK]

Remember that your AWA score is reported as one single number representing the average of the two essays. So, even if you get a 3 on the short essay, a 5 on the second essay would still make your AWA score be a 4. That is, you don't have to worry about this particular essay being a 4 if you are confident about the second essay.

You'll find out your score pretty fast and if it's not good enough, you certainly have nothing to lose by asking the school to submit another set of scores.

By the way, schools using GRE scores as filters are acting against ETS recommendations of use of scores and also studies have shown that this practice leads to unfair biases (see: http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj7504-303a).