800 Verbal. 4 analytical writing.

[neuropsych76]

Different IP addresses though...very different.

Could it be that two friends in different parts of the world have combined forces to flame a graduate school forum?

If so, I've lost hope for humanity.

[balderdash]

Different IP addresses though...very different.

VPN client.

[qbtacoma]

Could it be that two friends in different parts of the world have combined forces to flame a graduate school forum?

If so, I've lost hope for humanity.

But hey - think how rarely this happens!

[neuropsych76]

But hey - think how rarely this happens!

True, but it's just so lame. I'm not like depressed or anything lol. I actually enjoy reading troll posts because I find them amusing.

[PsychGirl1]

I got a 620 verbal, 5.5 analytical writing... so I wouldn't take it too personally :-). Although, to be fair, I spent 1-2 hours prepping for the writing section and I am a generally good writer. My verbal score was quite low, but I am applying to research programs and got an 800 quant, so I'm trying not to worry about my low verbal score. But I think that's more proof that your verbal score isn't necessarily correlated with your writing score.

[UnlikelyGrad]

VPN client.

Ooh. Hadn't thought of that.

They're both banned now anyway though...

[warpspeed]

I'm not gonna lie, this thread got kind of entertaining

[DrFaustus666]

I'm not gonna lie, this thread got kind of entertaining

Looking back at the thread, I can't believe I took Mr. Flame's attacks seriously. How dumb can I be?

[Eigen]

This thread (and those like it) have been entertaining from the start.

I find the "Oh no! I got double 800s and only a 5.0 writing score! How can I possibly be competitive!" posts more amusing than the flames, honestly

Applicants make such a big deal out of the GRE (positive or negative), but I have yet to meet a fellow grad student that worried much about it, or thought it was worth worry about it.

Edited February 11, 2011 by Eigen

[DrFaustus666]

Applicants make such a big deal out of the GRE (positive or negative), but I have yet to meet a fellow grad student that worried much about it, or thought it was worth worry about it.

Hindsight is always 20-20.

We applicants (esp those of us who are non-traditional applicants, and/or those who have anything unusual in our backgrounds) will probably continue to worry until we're actually in the program of our choice.

Not everyone has the maturity to realize from age 12 onwards that good grades and verifiable achievements DO matter. And that can put us in a real bind when we sooner or later realize that we want to do more with our lives than be some Kafkaesque bureaucrat in an obscure office, for an inane employer, who places us on trial but won't spell out the charges against us.

[Eigen]

Sure.

But I don't see nearly as many people bemoaning their 3.9 GPAs as I do their 4.0 writing skills- and I'm sure quite a few people have a B or two hidden in their transcript, 4.0s just aren't all that common.

[qbtacoma]

This x1,000,000. Posted from a gray cubicle in the very same obscure office where I sit daily, awaiting my metamorphosis (*rim shot*).

Hopefully your metamorphosis works out better than it did for a German wage earner I could name!

Apropos of nothing, did anyone else see the Gargoyles episode where they made a Kafka/Sartre/Nietzsche joke?

Edited February 11, 2011 by qbtacoma

[DrFaustus666]

Hopefully your metamorphosis works out better than it did for a German wage earner I could name!

Apropos of nothing, did anyone else see the Gargoyles episode where they made a Kafka/Sartre/Nietzsche joke?

(Hopefully nobody on this forum is, or ends up being, a traveling clothware salesperson.)

Tell the joke!

[cherubie]

I totally understand the frustration with this. I scored 800/800/5.0. I did not intend or expect to score the way I did; since I did, though, it is very frustrating to have a lower score on the subjectively graded portion. I've always received high praise for my writing ability - in high school, my AP English Composition teacher (an English doctoral candidate at the time who had taught at the collegiate level for several years) commented that I consistently wrote at a higher level than most of her fellow grad students. She actually called me out for it in front of the whole class at the end of the year, saying to them that they were lucky to have had a class with me. It was pretty embarrassing at the time but it still gives me a lot of pride to have been recognized in that way. I scored a 5 on that AP exam which was ALL ABOUT the use of rhetoric and argumentation.

PS - The 5.0 is meaningless for my program (computer science) where AWA averages tend to be lower but it may still impact me in other ways. I'd like to get in on the test prep racket (err, business) at some point during school; I'm a little worried the AWA score might be a stain on an otherwise strong resume at the more elite companies like Veritas or Manhattan.

Seriously, was it necessary to write a whole paragraph recalling your high school writing skills and how that's not reflected in the "subjectively graded portion" of your gre? Apparently, your AP English Composition teacher's subjective opinion of you differs from those of the people (and computer) who graded your AWA portion.

I'm not sure if you've worked with grad students before, but your attitude is going to get crushed in grad school.

Edited February 14, 2011 by cherubie

[warpspeed]

You got a near perfect score. You'll live. Cut the self righteous attitude and sass because no matter where you are, it will only affect you negatively. And from the personality you portray on the internet, it will likely affect you behind your back without your knowledge.

[Eigen]

Oh no, beware! there are mean people in grad school!

No grad student who has it in their head to be an ass is going to be able to hit me with anything I haven't dealt with before from project managers, clients and supervisors - people whose input matters because they sign the paychecks. If you think grad students can be so soul crushing, maybe it's you who can't hack it.

Furthermore, "my attitude" was on topic. Was yours? This is a thread about high verbal scores and AWAs that don't match. I might have been a little wordy but seriously, was it necessary to write a whole paragraph commenting on my paragraph?

Granted, I don't know you that well... But the attitude I see portrayed in these posts reminds me very much of the few prospective graduate students we get each year that all the grad students either really hope won't come to our school, or start playing the "we don't want him/her in my group!" cards.

Humility and interest will get you the farthest in your relationships with your prospective mentors and peers. Arrogance and sass will get you the least far.

Just something to keep in mind.

Edited February 15, 2011 by Eigen

[qbtacoma]

(Hopefully nobody on this forum is, or ends up being, a traveling clothware salesperson.)

Tell the joke!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFsRnXnb2mk

The joke starts at 1:45.

[dman1]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/05/milo-beckman-new-york-tee_n_779722.html

I'm sure the same holds for the GRE AWA. If you write more, you get a higher score. I'm currently teaching a GMAT prep course and the sample 6 essay spends two full paragraphs making a point that could easily be expressed in one sentence. The key is to never just make a point. You have to make a point, give a CONCRETE example to illustrate the point, and then provide a short remark about the example. It is the height of stupidity to think that a person's analytical writing ability is reflected in the strength of a 5 paragraph essay written in 45 minutes in response to a question so vague as to be virtually meaningless. But alas...

For the record, I took the GRE twice. The first time (5 years ago) I got a 720V and a 4.5AWA. I took it again last November and got a 690V and a 5.0 AWA.

[Eigen]

http://www.huffingto...e_n_779722.html

I'm sure the same holds for the GRE AWA. If you write more, you get a higher score. I'm currently teaching a GMAT prep course and the sample 6 essay spends two full paragraphs making a point that could easily be expressed in one sentence. The key is to never just make a point. You have to make a point, give a CONCRETE example to illustrate the point, and then provide a short remark about the example. It is the height of stupidity to think that a person's analytical writing ability is reflected in the strength of a 5 paragraph essay written in 45 minutes in response to a question so vague as to be virtually meaningless. But alas...

For the record, I took the GRE twice. The first time (5 years ago) I got a 720V and a 4.5AWA. I took it again last November and got a 690V and a 5.0 AWA.

I really don't think "if you write more, you get a higher score" is valid. I had 4 or 5 fairly short, well thought out paragraphs, and I got a 5.5. And honestly, there are quite a few times in grad school I've had 45 minutes (or less) to come up with a well reasoned response to something- either a short written summary/response, a presentation, or some combination of the two. And I'm not talking about class assignments here.

But the GRE AW writing section is not to "reflect the strength of a persons analytical writing skill", it's to provide a benchmark of their writing skill under specific conditions (namely, short time constraints & no references).

[RUin2011?]

Can you believe that?

I won't bore you with my credentials, but I am a very good writer. The rest of my application will show that score for what it is--a bizarre fluke--but I'm still a little miffed by it. What could possibly have gone wrong?

catilina,

I believe it. I offer it has less to do with your writing skills and more to do with the fact that there are dozens (hundreds?) of questions in the verbal section and only (If I recall correctly) 1 or 2 essays in the writing section for which there are only two graders each. A relatively subjective grading process that aims to measure something more-or-less intangible based on fewer data points or less information is necessarily going to be subject to greater variability in scoring. I know that the ETS graders follow a certain rubric, but the process of evaluating an individual's persuasive essay is invariably going to be subjective process. Blame the circumstances of testing and the process, not yourself.