The Admissions Process: How it Works

[emusinfrance]

Yeah, I got a 4.5 on the AWA. And I am a professional, published writer. I must not have read the right code-cracker for this one. I'm hoping my writing samples and other stellar test scores will outweigh this stupid assessment.

I'm also a published writer, and I got a 4.0. My hubris prevented me from practicing, I guess. Quite simply, I hate questions that ask me to b.s. for 30-45-minutes. And I couldn't think of examples quickly enough for my prompt--some days just aren't good for certain types of questions (e.g., science for humanities people)

I met a woman recently who was valedictorian at Berkeley (now in a competitive PhD program), and she had only gotten a 4.5 on her second test.

[picklejar]

I met a woman recently who was valedictorian at Berkeley (now in a competitive PhD program), and she had only gotten a 4.5 on her second test.

Well, since you shared that, I'll disclose even more: I got a 4.5 TWICE. I suppose I could take that as irrefutable evidence that I am a slightly-below-average writer. Or I could take it as a sign of my inability to rock the five-paragraph essay. I'M A REBEL! YOU CAN'T FENCE ME IN!

[adizzygirl]

I got a 4.5 also.. I'm a scientist though, I don't have to know how to write, so I don't think it's had any major effect on my applications.

In all reality, I studied for about a week for the GRE and skipped over the part where structure and length were most important for the writing section. I was too busy learning ridiculous GRE vocabulary words.

[crustaceangirl]

Hey, scientists do have to write! Your data is no good to the community if you can't report it clearly and concisely. I mean, journals do have an editorial staff to help you, but it's important to have good persuasive (grants!) and descriptive writing skills.

Now, the GRE writing test is another thing... I agree with the poster who said that Florida Writes! in the 10th grade was the best prep of all. I've had the five paragraph essay beaten into me from a young age. Plus one of my "critique this argument" questions was all about bad statistical methods, so I wrote a lot for that one.

[adizzygirl]

Oh I know we do, I meant it in jest but it probably didn't come across that way 'cause it's the Internet and my brain is preoccupied with some mystery flu/fever thing right now

[crustaceangirl]

It's cool, I figured you were probably kidding. :-)

[NO8DO]

I got a 6.0 on the AWA (sadly the only section I excelled in), and I thought it was also pretty lame. I've always been a strong writer so the arguments I thought were rather silly. I think a plus might have been the examples I used (espec in the one regarding education), because I came in on it with the perspective of a historian, and as an undergrad history/spanish double major I think it def helped me out in the long run - I just stretched out one example throughout and applied the different arguments to it. What I really wonder tho is what they think of someone who aced the AWA, but did just barely above 50% (57%) on the verbal.. I'm going into the humanities so that sort of worries me, though the majority of the schools I applied to (MA programs) only require a combined score above 1000, and stress the importance of the overall strength and fit of the applicant - good luck to everyone!

[crossedfingers]

I got a 4.5 on AWA, even after having known what was on the test! ha so much for preparation! Two days before the test, I went to the GRE website and was browsing through the 200 something issue topics they had. I decided to randomly pick one topic and write the whole spiel. The essay looked grand on my pc. It took me a total of 50 minutes to come up with what i proclaim a master piece (i'm a freelance writer too btw). That prize worthy essay however did me no good on test day. 8.10 am I got the SAME topic. Awful stroke of luck. Yes awful. Because the entire time, I was trying to conjure whatever I had come up with two days ago. I wasted too much time and wrote a really lousy essay. moral of the story: never practice for the stupid writing section, unless ure a complete doosh!

[yannbd]

I got 4.0 at the Analytical Writing and was very surprised about it !

I am a foreign student and never studied in an English-speaking country. However I am a published writer, I have a BA in philosophy at the Sorbonne, which is one of the best European universities in humanities, and I ranked in the 81th percentile at the verbal test, 88th in the quantitative, and got good Toefl results.

I was quite surprised by the subject I had (about the relevance of the study of history) and I think I have done a bit 'too much', that is : I treated the subject as an academic essay.

I read it happens sometimes for good philosophy students, and the Grad schools staff I got in contact with told me they wouldn't care about it at all, specially for foreign students (anyway I give them a 25 pages sample writing with which they can appreciate my ability to 'articulate complex ideas' - what 'analytical ability' stands for, according to ETS).

I'd like to ask whether I should ask for a rescoring of the AW.

Do you know if there is really a chance to score lower ?

[xnormajeanx]

i'm a journalist... i got a 4.5 on the GRE writing. i've published in major daily newspapers across the country and won distinctions for editorial writing. journalism writing apparently does not fit well with this "hamburger" set-up... in fact, i think I remember not writing much of a conclusion.

[frankdux]

never practice for the stupid writing section, unless ure a complete doosh!

what did you score on the verbal section?

[sosh]

i'm a journalist... i got a 4.5 on the GRE writing. i've published in major daily newspapers across the country and won distinctions for editorial writing. journalism writing apparently does not fit well with this "hamburger" set-up... in fact, i think I remember not writing much of a conclusion.

That's exactly what happened to me. Do a byline search for me in Nexis and you'll come up with 700+ responses... but apparently I'm middling when it comes to a logical argument. But I guess 50 minutes in two essays is enough judge your logic/writing ability.

[anewtypedude]

I got a 4.0 on my GRE writing...twice! I got a 670 in verbal (95%) and always get A's on my class paper, so go figure.

[crossedfingers]

what did you score on the verbal section?

lol. did not know shorthand/typos yelled incompetence. since u insist: V670

[NO8DO]

especially with a word like 'douche' haha...seriously.

[Minnesotan]

The use of "ure" likely does have a negative correspondence to intelligence. =)

[crossedfingers]

ha ha- very funny! Now if i had made a similar mistake in French, it would have certainly hung my head in shame. but with English? ha.. i consider it a mini genius display that one is able to comprehend what I convey, especially since it took me 5 years to learn the language from scratch. so consider it a downfall of competence or a lack of intellect:it is still pretty 'kick ass' that i can use URE langauge to convey whatever I would have preferably said in French.

plus it makes the immigration people happy:)