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5 Ways to Get an Extra Point on the GRE AWA

By vivian kerr posted February 17, 2012

The GRE Issue and Argument essays don’t have to be laborious. It’s relatively easy to achieve a high score with good time management, a solid template, and a little hard practice. Looking to add .5 to 1 extra point on top of your score? Follow these 5 easy tips to take your GRE essays to the next level!

1. Be forceful. Avoid any kind of wishy-washy qualifying language in your Issue and Argument essays. Your tone needs to be forceful, confident, like an expert’s. Remove words like “could be”, “might be”, “perhaps”, “maybe”, etc. from your essay when you proofread. Go through scholarly business articles and/or other students’ successful GRE AWA essays, and highlight phrases that particularly stand out to you as impressive, well-wrought, and cogent. Make a list of your favorites and try to incorporate them when appropriate in your own essays. Don’t shoehorn them in if the essay really doesn’t call for it, but the act of even researching and putting together such a list will really get you headed in the right direction!

Find out how you can get expert advice and customized feedback on your practice essays before test day.

2. Keep it in third-person. There’s no easier way to sound less self-assured than to pepper your essays with “I think”’s and “I believe”’s. Of course you believe it, you’re the one writing the essay! Referring to yourself does not add anything to the essay and distracts the reader from your argument. Keep the focus on the points you are trying to make. If you would like to use an example incident from your own life, then by all means

3. Use strong transitions. You will need to steer the reader from paragraph to paragraph while always holding the thread of your argument together. The best way to do this is to use good transition words and phrases. Try to beef up these words and avoid common clichés. If you are just beginning to practice, it’s better to be clear and use words like “firstly…” and “secondly…” when you set up a transition rather than have no transitions at all, but as you get better at GRE AWA, try to mix it up.

4. Control your sentence structure. Sometimes longer just isn’t better. Be wary of your sentence structure meandering out of your control and getting wordy, redundant, or just plain pedantic. Especially if English is your second language, it will behoove you to keep your sentences on the shorter side. Don’t get so lost in the description of your example that you forget to clarify how it supports your position. It’s better to be succinct and forceful than prove you have an extensive vocabulary but lose sight of your argument.

5. Stay away from rhetorical questions. Don’t be tempted to start your essay with a question. It’s cliché and is often overused. Rhetorical questions just never sound as good on paper as they do in speech, and can give the impression that you don’t really know what you are talking about. Especially avoid this in your introduction and conclusion.

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Top 5 Tips for Better Organization on the GRE Essays

By vivian kerr posted February 15, 2012

The GRE currently requires two essays, the Issue and the Argument, both of which must be completed before the Quantitative and Verbal sections are attempted. These essays are not graded simply on content alone. Structure is important as well. The layout of the essay must be cogent and easy to follow. If you can demonstrate impressive writing skills as well as a strong ability to organize, you’ll be well on your way to a perfect score on the AWA! Here are 5 tips to get your layout in tip-top shape!

1. Avoid filler. Always be direct, not wordy. “Filler” are the unnecessary words and phrases that will bloat your paragraphs. No one wants to read a body paragraph that is 10 sentences long. You should be able to get across your points in 4-7 sentences. Meandering sentence structure is the death of emphasis. Ultimately, your argument and organization is what will impress, not your vocabulary and length.

Get more expert advice on structuring your GRE essays here.

2. Place your thesis at the bottom of your intro paragraph. Remember that the GRE is graded “holistically” and readers are only spending a couple minutes on each essay. Put your thesis where it’s easiest to spot. This is the #1 GRE organizational rule! Read more »

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How to Get Better Scores on the GRE Issue Essay

By vivian kerr posted February 13, 2012

One way to get better scores on the GRE Issue Essay is to make your essay examples much more specific. Strong logical reasoning can go a long way towards impressing a reader, but if you can illustrate your points with real-world examples, as opposed to just general discussion, you will elevate your argument’s strength.

Create an “Example Chart” like the one pictured below, and add at least 3 items to each category. Choose items that you already know a lot about, and don’t worry about them sounding scholarly. You should know enough about each example so that you could write a detailed paragraph about each one. If you feel like adding 4 or 5 to a certain category (if you’re a political junkie or a history buff, for example), rather than just 3, then go for it! Not everyone will have a lot of ideas for “Science” or “Videogames,” and you may skip certain categories altogether. Everyone’s Example Chart is different. You can even make your own categories!

The idea is that by the time you arrive at GRE Test Day, you will already have a lot of possible examples stockpiled in the front of your brain. When you see the prompt for the Issue Essay, you won’t waste valuable time trying to “come up” with good examples. You’ll just ask: which examples from my Example Chart best match this specific prompt?

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7 Tips for a Perfect GRE Issue Essay

By vivian kerr posted February 10, 2012

If you get a perfect score on the GRE’s Issue Essay (a 6), it can really boost your graduate school admissions chances! The best schools want good Verbal and Quantitative scores, but also students who are clear, competent writers. Lots of students have excellent transcripts and are good at taking tests – but not everyone can demonstrate impressive writing skills! Here are 7 tips to take your Issue essay to that perfect 6!

1. Write at least three practice essays. Practice makes perfect! You can study for the GRE online by looking up the AWA prompts and practicing writing several of them within the 30 minute guideline. The only way to get comfortable with the time constraints is to practice them, so set up test-like conditions and get to work. You can see the Issue essay prompts here.

2. Don’t waffle. Choose one side of the issue only, and don’t try to “have it both ways.” Even if you don’t believe in the side you choose, you’ll only have time to argue one side effectively. If you take a middle-of-the-road approach you won’t sound as confident or clear. Remember, according to ETS, the “readers are evaluating the skill with which you address the specific instructions and articulate and develop an argument to support your evaluation of the issue.” What exactly you say (what side you choose to defend) is less important than how you defend it!

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How to Structure the Argument Essay on the GRE

By vivian kerr posted February 8, 2012

The GRE’s Argument essay can be remarkably straightforward. The thesis is pre-written (some version of “the argument is flawed”) and you know it should be about 5-6 paragraphs in which you will criticize an argument, describe how it could be improved, and reiterate that is it overall weak and unconvincing. The following template is only a suggestion, so feel free to adjust it slightly into a version that best works for you! Remember to practice writing at least 2-3 full essays within the time constraint before Test Day! You can also look at GRE’s official website to access the Argument Essay topic pool to start applying this template to those prompts.

Paragraph 1 – Intro (3-4 sentences)

Start by showing the reader that you understand the premise. Make sure you have identified the Conclusion, Evidence, and underlying Assumptions of the argument in your pre-writing phase. Do not use self-reference, or the words “I agree” or “I disagree” anywhere in your essay. You will absolutely use phrases like “the argument” and “the author” but too much self-reference can come across as unconfident and wavering. Here are the main points to hit:

Try this GRE reading comprehension question for more practice.

Introduce the timeliness of the argument’s topic

Describe the argument in your own words

Thesis (final sentence): state unequivocally that the argument is flawed.

For example, your introduction could take a form like this:

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How to Structure the GRE Issue Essay

By vivian kerr posted February 3, 2012

The GRE Issue essay is similar to any 5-paragraph short essay you’ve written in college. You may opt for 4-6 paragraphs, but this structure plans for 5. The official GRE website states that readers of the Issue essay “are evaluating the skill with which you…articulate and develop an argument to support your evaluation of the issue.” The better organized your essay, the clearer it will become to the reader. Here’s how to structure each paragraph:

Paragraph 1 – The Intro

How do you begin your essay? One of the following rhetorical devices is the most common: a generalization about the topic, a quotation, a short anecdote to set-up your position, a historical framework, a piece of news illustrating the relevance of the issue. Regardless of how you “get in” to the topic, you’ll score points if you can admit the complexity of the issue, and show how it applies to contemporary life. Show the reader what about the topic will be your focus.

Most students open with a general blanket statement about the issue, but feel free to be creative! You can find sample prompts from the Issue Essay topic pool to practice.

KEY TIP: Always place your thesis as the final sentence in your introduction.

Paragraph 2 – First Body Paragraph

Use your strongest, most specific example first. Your example can be from history, science, politics, business, entertainment, pop culture, current events, personal experience, etc. Anything can be an example, but choose ONE only for each paragraph. It needs to be something you are knowledgeable about and also something that you believe strongly supports your thesis. You have three tasks in your body paragraphs:

-Bring up your example.

-Explain how it relates to the topic.

-Show that it fully supports your thesis.

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How the AWA is Scored on the GRE

By vivian kerr posted February 1, 2012

The AWA section of the GRE is made up of two essays – the Argument essay, and the Issue essay. Each essay will be given two independent scores, but the scores are averaged into one score from 0 to 6. According to ETS, this is done because “it is more reliable than a score for either task alone.” The final score will be in half-point increments. For example, if you receive a 5 on the Argument essay, and a 6 on the Issue essay, your score will be a 5.5.

The readers of AWA are extremely familiar with the “look” of the graded GRE essays for each of the possible prompts, so they “know” ahead of time what a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 essay should “look like.” You will receive “NS” or no score, if you do not type any text. You will receive 0 if you write in a foreign language, or completely off-task.

According to the official ETS rubric, the highest scoring essays (those given a 5.5 or a 6) demonstrate: “insightful, in-depth analysis… logically compelling reasons and/or highly persuasive examples…is well organized; skillfully uses sentence variety and precise vocabulary to convey meaning effectively; demonstrates superior facility with sentence structure and language usage, but may have minor errors that do not interfere with meaning.” This means that they are not looking for perfection – obviously within 30 minutes you may have some spelling and grammar errors (and that’s okay!).

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The main qualities that the readers look for are the organization of your ideas, the quality of the ideas themselves, the strength and relevance of the examples, and your grasp of standard written English. Readers are trained to take non-native speakers’ abilities into account when grading so that scores are fair.

Below is the official AWA Scoring Percentile ranking from ETS. You can see that a score of 5 places you in the 87^st percentile. It’s quite plausible to achieve such a high score!

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The GRE Analytical Writing Measure: What to Expect

By jill muttera posted January 19, 2012

The analytical writing measure consists of two writing tasks which are timed separately. You will write these two essays first when taking the GRE, before any quantitative or verbal sections. The two tasks are:

-Analyze an Issue

-Analyze an Argument

Timing: You will be given 30 minutes to complete each essay, which includes any time spent brainstorming, outlining, or revising. With such a limited amount of time to compose your best possible work, background knowledge of the tasks and practice writing the essays are crucial.

Format: For the issue task, you will be given a statement (a sentence or short paragraph), followed by a prompt that asks you to explain whether you agree or disagree with the statement and the reasoning behind that perspective. There are six different sets of instructions that might appear after the issue. Pay attention to the wording of these instructions.

Try this GRE text completion question for more GRE practice!

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GRE Issue Writing Task: Use What You Know

By jordan schonig posted October 21, 2010

Admittedly, the toughest part of the Issue Task is coming up with ideas that you’re confident in. You might think that, with the 200+ topics available, you’ll have to read an encyclopedia, scour the newspaper, dust off an old history book, and exhume those half-read classics from high school English. I’m sure none of you wants to do that (though I bet it’s been done before), and, more importantly, the ETS doesn’t expect this from you. Though it seems certain issue prompts necessitate a thorough knowledge in some particular area, such is not the case. Students from all kinds of backgrounds take the GRE; a chemistry student isn’t expected to know Shakespeare, and an English student isn’t expected to understand hydrogen bonding. Still, if you come across a prompt that could benefit from your expertise, by all means go for it.

Let’s look at a relatively esoteric issue prompt and explore varying avenues of analysis, some appropriate for the expert and others for the layman:

“The arts (painting, music, literature, etc.) reveal the otherwise hidden ideas and impulses of a society.”

What we have here is a veritable breath of fresh air for any humanities or arts major, but it’s a kiss of death for anybody without a predilection for the arts. In fact, I want to offer an often unheeded caveat for those art lovers: don’t get too excited. If you come across a topic that allows you to exploit your studies, don’t reproduce your senior thesis in 45 minutes. In other words, keep in mind that your readers may not be conversant with your academic discipline, so try to temper your genius, as hard as that may be.

Find out how you can get customized feedback on your essays, whether they are for the exam or admissions, to hone your skills with a Grockit tutor.

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Structuring Your Analysis of an Argument Essay on the GRE

By andrea alexander posted August 31, 2010

Your GRE essays are unlikely to be the linchpin of your application. Although I don’t like to say “never,” I personally have not heard of a student getting into grad school because of his or her GRE essays. It certainly seems possible, though, that your essays could keep you out, if your entire application package is borderline and you write one or two truly awful essays. For that reason, it’s important that you keep the AWA in perspective: it shouldn’t take up much of your prep time, but it’s certainly to your advantage to spend some time familiarizing yourself with what makes for a good essay, and getting some feedback from a qualified source, whether that is a professional mentor, a professor, or a test-prep specialist.

Of the two essays you’ll be expected to write, the Analysis of an Argument is likely to be the more challenging, if only because the task is not a familiar one to most grad school candidates. The easiest format to use in writing this essay is the classic 5-paragraph style, and a simple, effective format will look something like this:

Paragraph 1: Brief recap of argument and statement that the argument has merit but also contains multiple flaws. Also include a “roadmap” of the points that you will make, in the order that you will make them.
Paragraph 2: Explanation of first flaw– this paragraph should have a strong topic sentence and then several sentences explaining the flaw in detail.
Paragraph 3: The second flaw gets the same treatment here as the first one did in the previous paragraph.
Paragraph 4: The third flaw is explained here in the manner established in the previous two paragraphs.
Paragraph 5: Briefly recap the flaws you’ve presented and diplomatically explain how those flaws could be remedied to present a stronger argument.

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