OK GPA, Great Verbal Score, Meh Writing Score: Should I Retake the GRE?

[Puffer Fish]

Hi everybody,

This year, I'm applying to speech-language pathology programs for the second time. My stats are in my sig, but in case you're on mobile I'll repost them here. 3.07 undergrad GPA, 3.3 post-bacc GPA, and GRE scores of 162V/152Q/3.5AW.

The writing score is killing me. Most schools in my department look for a 4.0, some even have a minimum cutoff of 4.5!

Is it worth taking the whole GRE again just to try to improve my writing score? If so, should I study for the whole thing or just try to improve my writing? Schools only look at the top scores in each section, don't they?

Thanks in advance.

[MrsGrad]

You should try to get that AW score up. When I signed up for my test, ETS sent me a link to an essay evaluation site (http://www.ets-cls.org/ya/GreEssayRating/gre.htm). If you log in with the email address you used to register for your test, you will be given the opportunity to read sample essays and guess what score each one receives. It was very enlightening to see what essays rated high and low scores, and really helped me understand what to focus on when writing my own practice essays (and eventually the real ones). I would have to say that this exercise was every bit as valuable as the Magoosh materials and even writing practice essays because I had a feel for what the examiners are looking for. 

The other thing that really helped me: I printed out the entire list of potential essay topics (they're all available on the ETS website). I went through the list and thought about each topic and whether I could mentally compose a quick outline of an essay. The topics that I struggled with were the ones that I focused on when writing practice essays. I was shocked on test day to find that one of my essays was a topic that I had practiced, and greatly relieved that I had given it some forethought.