emusinfrance Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picklejar Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adizzygirl Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crustaceangirl Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adizzygirl Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crustaceangirl Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 It's cool, I figured you were probably kidding. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NO8DO Posted January 26, 2008 Share Posted January 26, 2008 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crossedfingers Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yannbd Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 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 ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xnormajeanx Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankdux Posted February 29, 2008 Share Posted February 29, 2008 never practice for the stupid writing section, unless ure a complete doosh! what did you score on the verbal section? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sosh Posted March 1, 2008 Share Posted March 1, 2008 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewtypedude Posted March 1, 2008 Share Posted March 1, 2008 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crossedfingers Posted March 1, 2008 Share Posted March 1, 2008 what did you score on the verbal section? lol. did not know shorthand/typos yelled incompetence. since u insist: V670 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NO8DO Posted March 2, 2008 Share Posted March 2, 2008 especially with a word like 'douche' haha...seriously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minnesotan Posted March 2, 2008 Author Share Posted March 2, 2008 The use of "ure" likely does have a negative correspondence to intelligence. =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crossedfingers Posted March 2, 2008 Share Posted March 2, 2008 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:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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