800 Verbal. 4 analytical writing.

[catilina]

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?

[glasses]

GRE writing is nothing like academic writing -- or like any other kind of advanced writing, for that matter. It's strictly a 5- or 6-paragraph affair, more closely resembling SAT writing than anything else. If you want to rock it, you have to study for it specifically.

[caputmundi]

Can you believe that?

yep. i'm an 800v / 5 writing. and i'm not trying to be a perfectionist or complain for no reason. a few professors i have spoken to have reacted negatively when hearing that number. but one prof offered the advice that people in our situation just need to be sure to submit polished sop's and writing samples to redeem ourselves. let's hope.

[ScreamingHairyArmadillo]

I got a 710V/4.0AW. I'm not in the humanities, so I might not have to care as much as others, but 98th and 41st percentiles don't really fit together well.

However, one of my recommenders is the prof of a scientific writing class I had, and she said I had some of the most consistently well-written articles she's ever read from a student. So the GRE can shove it.

[palindrome]

Same here...800 V, 4.5 AW. I just don't get it...

If it makes you feel any better, my roommate got a 4.5 as well, and went to Columbia Journalism School. He said they didn't even look at the writing GRE score once they saw his writing portfolio.

[jacib]

Same here...800 V, 4.5 AW. I just don't get it...

If it makes you feel any better, my roommate got a 4.5 as well, and went to Columbia Journalism School. He said they didn't even look at the writing GRE score once they saw his writing portfolio.

I've been teaching the SAT, GMATand the GRE for about a year now (I love being in a foreign country--I could teach the GRE before taking it... and the GMAT without ever taking it). What I always tell all my students is, "This is the least creative essay you're ever going to write." It's a formula, I mean, the GRE and the GMAT actually use COMPUTERS as one of the two "readers". How much can the computer really understand of your writing? Basically, if you don't write long enough, don't vary your sentence structure, don't use transitions and perhaps most importantly if you don't follow their asinine format of basing each paragraph on a discrete example, then your writing score will suffer.

However, I don't think it's really looked at for anything that requires a writing sample. I get the impression it's mainly to weed out foreign engineers and the like... (no seriously, look at the essays that earn 1's and 2's).

[catilina]

I think the problem was the length of my essays. I spent a lot of time "crafting" my responses, which I now realize was exactly the wrong thing to do. I assumed that I would easily ace an "analytical writing" section and didn't even bother to look at what was actually required. Stupid stupid stupid. And I don't want to take the GRE over again, because my verbal score can only go down, and I'm unlikely to raise my quantitative score by any significant amount. I hate that the GRE, which I expected to a big plus for me, is now a potential minus, and might even mean my application doesn't even get looked at at some schools.

[catilina]

Also, I went back and looked at the sample "good" essays in the Princeton Review book and I thought they sucked. I don't write like that.

[JennyFieldsOriginal]

generally my professors seem not to care one way or another about the analytical writing component. some of mine (who sit on admissions committees) seemed confused that they'd done away with the logic part and were almost entirely ignoring the AW.

[poli90]

Yup, 800 V, 4.5 AWA here too. I was peeved about it for a while, but on the whole I think an 800 verbal could be more of a boost than a 6 AWA, so.... I am just focusing on polishing my writing sample and SOP, in the hopes (which I think are grounded) that committees take the AWA with a grain of salt.

[misterpat]

It sucks, but I wouldn't worry about it that much. That 800 should outshine the 4.

[coyabean]

Also, I went back and looked at the sample "good" essays in the Princeton Review book and I thought they sucked. I don't write like that.

YES! I did the same and just REFUSED. I've published. I was a copywriter and training manuscript writer for years. I write, damnit. I refused to write that crap. I got a 5. Probably could have done better, but if a department cares more about that score than my CV and sample then so be it. I'd be frustrated working with such people anyway. Hmph.

[Jennszoo]

I just got mine today and also scored a 4. I'm kinda pissed. I am definitely a better writer than that, but its not worth paying another dime to ETS, that's for sure.

[NeuroNerd86]

It might be different for humanities majors, but for sciences 4.0 is not a concern as I've been told. In any case, 800 should beat 4.0 easily.

[carpecc]

For those of you with lower AWA scores, keep in mind that your target schools get a copy of the actual essays. So if you're AWA score is a deciding factor in your app, chances are they'll take a glance at and see that it's a good piece of work.

On another note, for those of you (especially international students) that think "more is better" and want to just frantically type out as much bs as you can, I'd think twice. If you look at their sample essays and commentary, you'll see that only well organized essays get a 5 or above meaning you need an intro, two or three supporting paragraphs and a conclusion. The bs has to be nice and organized.

I got 5.5 and followed their middle school formula closely, but it helped that I spent 5 mins at the beginning planning my essay (especially for the issue), wrote a brief outline, and left 5 minutes at the end to proofread.

I also wrote my conclusion before I finished the essay. This was to make sure it was there in case I ran out of time.

I've talked to a lot of Chinese students who they just have to frantically write as much as possible and don't have time to spend organizing the essay. The people I know that do this are never scoring above a 4.5 (based on my limited experience).

Just my two cents!

[glasses]

For those of you with lower AWA scores, keep in mind that your target schools get a copy of the actual essays.

Could you confirm this somehow? Been scouring the web to figure out whether or not this is true -- I think I remember reading that schools do NOT get your essay when I was prepping for the test, but that was two years ago, and I may have no idea what I'm talking about. Just curious.

[NeuroNerd86]

Glasses, I remember reading about it in GRE prep books like Kaplan and Princeton review. I imagine they wouldn't make it up, so ETS probably does send the essays to the schools, either upon request or automatically.

[carpecc]

Could you confirm this somehow? Been scouring the web to figure out whether or not this is true -- I think I remember reading that schools do NOT get your essay when I was prepping for the test, but that was two years ago, and I may have no idea what I'm talking about. Just curious.

Glasses, Yup I confirmed it with admissions at a couple of schools I was visiting last summer. I'm sure it depends on how important the writing is to you program, but I'm sure if the see an awesome Verbal score and a strange AWA score, they'll at least take a glance at it.

[yivorechecho]

I got 730/6.0, but I did study for the Analytical section. I used that Powerprep program and looked at all the sample essays to get an idea of what they thought was good and bad. FWIW I thought the "good" essays were also unsophisticated and lacked skill, but you really have to go back to your middle school "hamburger model" essays. There is definitely a formula they're looking for.

[catilina]

Hmm. I don't know whether I feel better that the schools get copies of the essays. I don't really remember what I wrote, or even what the topics were. I felt good about it at the time, I think? But they must not have been any good.

As every other piece of objective data in my application is stellar, I just have to believe that no one will care about that score--that it will be seen as a fluke. I hope.

[twocosmicfish]

For all those freaking out - the AW section is recognized as the most arbitrary, and is therefore regarded the least. Further, your SOP and any writing samples will be available as an immediate check on your writing ability. If you get below a 4 you are definitely in trouble, but higher scores do not necessarily mean anything.

Remember also that the GRE is looking specifically for technical/scholarly writing, not literature - they value focus, organization, and logic, not style. You could be a Nobel Laureate in literature and get a 4 if you are not phrasing your essay in that scholastic manner.

[sidiosquiere]

I did pretty bad as well. 580V/380Q/4AW ... UG GPA 3.1 , MA GPA 3.7 ... feeling as if I don't have a shot and should just not apply ...

[Rodao]

730 V, 5.0AW.

I was pretty miffed myself.

[Paradeplatz]

I actually thought that AWA - at least the argument part - was the only part that was somehow related to academic work as it is a reasoning (and not really a writing) test.

Furthermore it is a possibility for international students to somewhat redeem our lower verbal score (fuck that pointless part).

[bugbear]

I got 800 verbal, 4.5 AW, somehow. What's even weirder is that I wrote the test once before. My Verbal and Quant improved dramatically since last time, but my AW score went down from a 6 to 4.5. I don't feel like I did anything different so I have no idea what happened.