Comments | applyingtograd: I Hate to Write

machuchu120 in applyingtograd

I Hate to Write

Nov 03, 2007 21:21

Hi everyone. I just wanted to start off by saying that I think this is such a great journal with everyone supporting and encouraging each other. Great to see that. Anyway, this is another one of those questions regarding the GRE. I got a 780(84%) for biology subject, 600(85%) Verbal, 740(82%) Quantitative, but a 4.0(33%)Writing. I'm satisfied ( ( Read more... )

gre-subject, gre-general, gre prep, writing, scores

Comments 13

crazypumpkin November 4 2007, 04:38:17 UTC

I've never been fond of writing. And I'm not sure anyone ever really explained it to me in a way I could understand. But one thing I picked up when I was teaching high school were some simple ways to write. Thats how I did my writing section on the GRE, and I got a 6 :) (total shock to me ( ... )

machuchu120 November 4 2007, 19:24:26 UTC

I totally relate to what you say about making it a formula. Thanks for the advice on reading the newspaper. Guess I'm going to have to start reading the New York Times more often.

mbwahl November 4 2007, 05:42:44 UTC

In some other countries, the writing portion is administered separately. I don't think you can sign up for the writing portion alone here in the States.

To practice, I wrote ~5 samples essays, timed, of course. I focused on retraining myself not to edit/nitpick about wording, so that I could write as long an essay as possible. I agree with crazypumpkin about having a formula. Specifically, you want to be able to churn out introductions/conclusions without even thinking about it, so you can focus on the content and end up with a longer essay. Length is key. Don't be afraid to sound mechanical - it's not a creativity test.

evil_admiral November 4 2007, 06:39:53 UTC

I don't know how ETS does their writing sample grading, but I do know how it is done on the GMAT. I took a class before I did the test, and the instructor told us that the essays were graded first by computer, and then by a human. Both looked for a certain structure (topic sentence, thesis, body content, conclusions), certain strong wording (like "thus" and "therefore"), and of course proper spelling and grading. Since the computer is a computer and the human was grading tons of essays at once, both look for very specific things in your writing to determine your score. Of course knowing this and being a good writer naturally, I scored a 6 average (95th percentile).

But honestly, I think you are in fine shape. I would imagine that while any graduate program wants you to be able to verbally communicate very well, in the end your quant and subject scores will be way more important. So I say roll the dice and apply with your current scores. Plus, there is always the chance you wouldn't do that well on a re-test.

ashok November 4 2007, 16:00:50 UTC

You probably already know this, but ETS lists all the possible argument and issue topics on their website:

http://ets.org/portal/site/ets/menuitem.1488512ecfd5b8849a77b13bc3921509/?vgnextoid=b63ce7b9edfb5010VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD&vgnextchannel=06a7e3b5f64f4010VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD
http://ets.org/portal/site/ets/menuitem.1488512ecfd5b8849a77b13bc3921509/?vgnextoid=ef752d3631df4010VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD&vgnextchannel=06a7e3b5f64f4010VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD

machuchu120 November 4 2007, 19:20:42 UTC

Wow. I actually had no idea that they listed all the possible topics. Thanks.

cork118 November 4 2007, 20:03:00 UTC

Wow. I wish I'd gotten something different (mine was "If a goal is worthy, then any means taken to attain it is justifiable"). Some of those are cool and easy things to write about.

saralinds November 4 2007, 21:21:00 UTC

Ohhhh scary! I got that one too!!! I actually came up with a pretty good topic... a bit late in the timing-wise that I never got around to writing the conclusion. Haha, I kept thinking how grateful that I was taking a Depression/WWII senior seminar at the moment...

3708 November 5 2007, 02:10:49 UTC

"How did everyone study for the writing portion of the test? Did you just write sample essays over and over again?" as a lit person, i'm pretty comfortable with writing, but i heard that many lit majors can struggle with the writing portion of the gre, which is rather formulaic and has a lot to do with being able to bang out a cookie-cutter essay in the provided time. so, what i did was i read sample essays that got 6.0s and the graders' responses to those essays, and i paid special attention to what those graders liked and bore those strategies in mind when writing my own essays.

"And also are you able to just take the writing portion of the test?" unfortunately, i don't think so.

good luck!