<p>Long story short: 170 V, 166 M, and yes, a whopping 4.0 AW score, which is in the bottom 50%. I'm continuing my fall from grace as my highest standardized timed writing test score (by percentile) was back in 8th grade when I took the SAT. Joy.</p>
<p>There're lots of reasons for this, I guess, but I don't especially want to bore you with excuses. Just assume I suck at timed writing, and that I especially suck at timed writing on the computer in particular. I want to know if I should even mention this in my SOP (I ... sort of have a legit reason), or if I should just leave it be and let the rest of my application speak for itself.</p>
<p>Note: Applying to interdisciplinary studies programs that will require boatloads of writing. Undergrad GPA is not an issue.</p>
<p>My AW score for my first go-around on the GRE (old format) was a 4.0, too. If you have a “sort of” legit reason, you might want to mention it. It depends how you can squeeze it in, though.</p>
<p>Hope the rest of your application process goes well!</p>
<p>Edit: Congrats on your awesome Verbal and Math score!</p>
<p>It’s an old injury (literally). I have pretty severe CTS in both wrists, so I can’t type on a keyboard for more than 15 minutes non-stop if the height of the chair/desk and placement of the screen and keyboard aren’t ideal; the chairs, unfortunately, were not adjustable at the test center, and my wrists were busted enough at the end of the AW section that having to use the onscreen calc for the math section was actually painful. I mean, all this in addition to the fact that I am horrible at timed writing (just in case I sound like I’m making too much of an excuse). :(</p>
<p>I imagine they will scrutinize my writing sample super-closely in this case. I don’t know if it’s worth a retake … maybe if I fail this round, I’ll give it a go, but that money. I heard that grad schools typically care less about the writing section, since it’s timed and they care more about your ability to churn out papers over a period of months, not two essays in the space of an hour, but maybe I am just trying to convince myself. :/</p>