<p>Exactly how important is the analytical writing section? I am a bit concerned with my score of 2.5. Is it overly optimistic to think that my 780 verbal might compensate for this? </p>
<p>I have also won a few essay contests.</p>
<p>If you won a few essay contests, how did you do so poorly on the analytical writing? Did you not follow the instructions? Didn't defend your argument in proper essay format? </p>
<p>You may have to re-take the GRE because if you're applying to top-ranked humanities/social sciences (writing-intensive) grad programs, they will seriously question why your AW score is low. This is my opinion, but AW score is more important than Verbal. This is how adcoms can judge your writing skills which are necessary to do well in grad school. (I didn't study when I took the GRE, but at least I got a 4.5 AW score on the first try.)</p>
<p>Wouldn't the adcoms have a writing sample that they could look to? Seems to me like this would be more important than than one's AW score. </p>
<p>Also, 780 verbal is 99th percentile. This would indicate that my poor AW score is more a problem with the graders than the test taker. Indeed, I did win two fairly prestigious writing competitions.</p>
<p>This seems to me like a serious problem for you. I'm sure it will raise eyebrows in a 'not good' way. If you think the issue lies solely with the graders, can't you appeal to have the score reviewed? (sorry I don't know the rules on this.) I wouldn't assume they will just dismiss it if the schools require the GRE. </p>
<p>I also can't imagine how a score of someone competent could be so very very low. Did you not follow instructions, run out of time, not use a standard format? seriously, my d got 5 or 5.5 without studying and said the questions were ridiculously easy to write to. And she is math major who didn't even have a comp class in college except one foreign lit class. So something must be very wrong. There are 2 essays, right? did you do both?</p>
<p>Go look at some review book to see if you misread the instructions. Then I guess you can email the colleges, but I'd take it over again. Hope someone else will have insight for you, and sorry about this predicament. So puzzling.</p>
<p>I've got to chime in on this. </p>
<p>At this point, many graduate programs do not take the AW score all that seriously. It's a relatively new element, and scoring seems to focus on how well the essay conforms to a rather rigid "Intro, Evidence, Counterexample, Conclusion" five paragraph essay format.</p>
<p>I would venture to say that it is likely that most humanities programs would not pay much attention at all to the AW score, particularly when the verbal score is 780.</p>
<p>Therefore, I don't really see the point of contesting the score when it is not that important for admissions.</p>
<p>Professor X, some grad school programs have minimum AW score cut-offs. It is true that the AW section is fairly new and not used at some places. What should the OP do if the graduate program of their choice has an AW minimum (let's say at least a 4 at comptitive schools)?</p>
<p>Analytical</a> Writing Score Level Descriptions</p>
<p>A score of 2.5: "Displays some competence in analytical writing skills, although the writing is flawed in at least one of the following ways: limited analysis or development, weak organization; weak control of sentence structure or language usage, with errors that often result in vagueness or lack of clarity."</p>
<p>Given that you've won several essay contests and obviously know the English language, this score is just too weird not to bear further investigation. I'm a friggin' bio/chem major and I got a 5 just for showing up. Did you write about something very specialized and referenced publications etc. that were completely foreign to the readers? Did you write creatively to the point it crossed the boundary between prose and poetry? If, as BrownParent asked, you only wrote one of the two (possibly by fluke...maybe one got lost?) you could have received a 5 on one and a 0 on the other and the two were averaged.</p>
<p>Anyway, if we all think it's weird, the adcoms will probably think so too and err on your side instead of ETS'.</p>
<p>tkm,</p>
<p>After a bit of investigation, I realize that I only did one of the two essay sections. This is extremely frustrating. That said, I could hardly justify throwing away another 100 dollars (or whatever it was) and 4 hours of my life to ETS just to retake their stupid test. I will give the adcoms the benefit of the doubt that they will able to assess fairly the extenuating factors in my resume. </p>
<p>We'll see how it goes.</p>
<p>How could you miss an essay?</p>
<p>tenisghs,</p>
<p>Thank you for your post! I was honestly unaware that some grad programs actually have AW minimum scores. If the OP were applying to such a program, then I would counsel the OP to retake the exam, regardless of cost.</p>
<p>You can pay to have your essays rescored. Alternatively, you could re take the GRE and opt out of the quantitative and verbal sections (only get scored on your writing). Or you could blow it off and focus your efforts on writing good personal statements that would more appropriately show that you can communicate effectively.</p>
<p>On a different note, those ETS descriptions of the scores are so obnoxious.
Displays some competence in analytical writing skills, although the writing is flawed in at least one of the following ways: limited analysis or development, weak organization; weak control of sentence structure or language usage, with errors that often result in vagueness or lack of clarity.
"Some competence" "Weak control of sentence structure", these are pretty harsh given that the graders spend no more than a couple of minutes looking at writing samples taken during a stressful four hour period.</p>
<p>Well I'm applying to political science programs, and as far as I can tell, none of them have minimum required GRE scores, much less AW cutoffs. It would be idiotic for a serious top program to have such a cutoff. Honestly. </p>
<p>Plus, isn't it too late to retake the GRE anyway?</p>
<p>Curious, you will need to talk to someone on the admission committee at the schools of your choice and ask them if your AW score (it doesn't reflect your true writing abilities) will hurt you and if it is necessary to retake the GRE. Some PhD programs receive over 200 applications annually for a few (10-20) spots. That's a lot of weeding. This is the best route you can pursue. Some might be lenient on you; others might toss your application into the reject pile. It's a very unfortunate situation, but take it as a lesson learned: Familiarize yourself with the entire GRE format before you take the actual test!!</p>
<p>I find myself in a similar situation. I scored 99th percentile on the verbal, but got a weak 4.5 on the AW. I think this is crazy because I know I am excellent in anlytical writing. I already have an MA in English, I taught composition for 12 years, have several publications to my credit, and I have always received As on all my academic writing. Actually, I suspect that I am probably more qualified to be grading my exam than the person who actually graded it. I know the essay I produced, and I find it hard to believe that anyone gave it less than a 5. My suspision is that my essay was not formulaic enough, which is something that I, as an English instructor, do not believe in. I am really disheartened to think that this one score on this one little exam may cause the admissions team to ignore all my many years of hard work.</p>
<p>
[quote]
After a bit of investigation, I realize that I only did one of the two essay sections.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Wow, that sucks. Looks like you were so confident in your writing that you didn't even read the directions. But still, how could you have done this? The computer practically forces you to write the 2nd essay! You had to literally submit a blank essay.</p>
<p>I am applying for PhD work in Musicology, and I found out from a current student at Ohio State University that their is a 4.0AW cutoff for university-wide fellowships. I have been told, however, that such arbitrary standards do not apply to departmental awards (assistantships, general scholarships, etc).</p>
<p>The best thing to do is to notify the admissions committee and hope for the best. It's too late to re-take the GRE (I'm not sure why people are suggesting this as a valid option?) and it might not be worth your time. Given that you missed an essay, I think your verbal score shows that you aren't a complete screw-up. If you actually scored an honest 2.5 then I think there would be legitimate reason for concern on behalf of the admissions committee.</p>
<p>It seems that many people question the validity of the writing score. Here, I would disagree. It seems to me that scoring is relatively standard across the board (if you read the ETS website, they explain the scoring process and give you relevant statistics to back up their methodology). Also, I do not think that the scores only conform to the 5 paragraph (intro, body, conclusion) model, as I wrote a non-standard essay and got a 6.0. I think people are forgetting that the main component of this section is ANALYSIS and even if your writing is not very good you can still score well. I personally think that my essays were not well organized and I certainly didn't use any $5 vocabulary words- but the analysis in them was strong, so I got a 6.0 (and I didn't even study for them). You can write beautifully in this section, but if your analysis isn't good, you won't score well. Simple as that.</p>
<p>Respectfully, I've got to disagree with your conclusion Somebody. The section which tests your analysis skills in writing in the verbal comprehension section ("Read and analyze the following paragraph..."). The "Analytical (qualifier) writing (object)" section is to analyze your writing ability. </p>
<p>I will admit that the standard grading procedure still escapes me (if there is one). Five years ago, like you, I did not follow a format, and scored a 6.0. Since that test, I have spent the majority of the time studying academic writing. I have been published multiple times and may even have my first book published during the coming year (please pardon my boasting). This year I took the GRE twice, however, and scored a 3.5 and a 4.0.</p>
<p>I've read so many stories like mine of trained writers who score poorly on the test (on this discussion board and others), which leads me to conclude that either there is either no uniform standard or a generally ineffective one for the AW section.</p>
<p>Just my two cents...</p>
<p>I can't offer a reasonable explanation for why trained writers perform poorly on the AW section of the test. To me, this would indicate that certain forms of "good writing" are selected against in the grading process. It could also be that instead of saying "trained writers" we should really be saying "specialized writers" -in the sense that you have been trained to write in a highly specialized field. I think the format they expect in this type of essay is best captured in the organization taught in most introductory college writing courses. In learning a specialized form of writing, perhaps you have learned to make your writing more understandable to your specialty, but less accessible to the general public. This is often the case in scientific writing (which is completely inaccessible to the general public) and in fact, it takes a really good writer (on the level of Dawkins) to communicate scientific ideas to the mass market. Just a thought, but maybe there is a certain degree of truth to it.</p>
<p>Also, I am quite certain that the AW score is an indicator of both writing AND analytical skills, but with the emphasis on analytical. I got this impression from looking at the grading sheet, but it was a few months ago so I can't be entirely sure. I do know that neither of my essays were beautifully written (they were probably written at the same level as this post) and I received a 6.0. From this, you could guess that 1) scores are inconsistent, or 2) writing ability isn't the focus of the grading system. I personally think it is (2) but to each his (or her) own. :)</p>
<p>Somebody,</p>
<p>Care to tell us your Verbal score?</p>