How the Analytical Writing Section is Scored

How the Analytical Writing Section
is Scored
Each response is holistically scored on a 6-point scale
according to the criteria published in the GRE
analytical writing scoring guides (see Appendix A on
pages 51–52). Holistic scoring means that each
response is judged as a whole: readers do not separate
the response into component parts and award a
certain number of points for a particular criterion or
element such as ideas, organization, sentence structure,
or language. Instead, readers assign scores based
on the overall quality of the response, considering all
of its characteristics in an integrated way. Excellent
be part of the readers’ overall impression of the
response and will therefore contribute to the score,
but organization, as a distinct feature, has no specific
weight.
In general, GRE readers are college and university
faculty experienced in teaching courses in which
writing and critical thinking skills are important. All
GRE readers have undergone careful training, passed
stringent GRE qualifying tests, and demonstrated
that they are able to maintain scoring accuracy.
To ensure fairness and objectivity in scoring
• responses are randomly distributed to the readers
• all identifying information about the test takers
is concealed from the readers
• each response is scored by two readers
• readers do not know what other scores a response
may have received
• the scoring procedure requires that each response
receive identical or adjacent scores from
two readers; any other score combination is
adjudicated by a third GRE reader The scores given for the two tasks are then averaged
for a final reported score. The score level descriptions,
presented in Appendix A on page 53, provide
information on how to interpret the total score on
the analytical writing section. The primary emphasis
in scoring the analytical writing section is on critical
thinking and analytical writing skills.
Note: The GRE Program is investigating the use of
e-rater, ETS's ground breaking automated scoring
system, as part of the scoring process for the analytical
writing section. If e-rater is incorporated into the
scoring process during the 2004-05 testing year,
information will be available on the GRE Web site at
www.gre.org.
Your essay responses on the analytical writing
section will be reviewed by ETS essay-similaritydetection
software and by experienced essay readers
during the scoring process. In light of the high value
placed on independent intellectual activity within
United States graduate schools and universities, ETS
reserves the right to cancel test scores of any test
taker when there is substantial evidence that an essay
response includes, but is not limited to, any of the
following:
• text that is substantially similar to that found on
one or more other GRE essay responses;
• quoting or paraphrasing, without attribution,
language, or ideas that appear in published or
unpublished sources;
• unacknowledged use of work that has been
produced through collaboration with others
without citation of the contribution of others;
• essays that are submitted as work of the examinee
when the ideas or words have, in fact,
been borrowed from elsewhere or prepared by
another person.
When one or more of these circumstances occurs,
your essay text, in ETS’s professional judgement, does
not reflect the independent, analytical writing skills
that this test seeks to measure. Therefore, ETS must
cancel the essay score as invalid and cannot report
the GRE General Test scores of which the essay score
is an indispensable part.
Test takers whose scores are canceled will forfeit
their test fees and must pay to take the entire GRE
General Test again at a future administration. No
record of score cancellations, or the reason for
cancellation, will appear on their future score reports
sent to colleges and universities.

Analytical Writing Section

Analytical Writing Section

In the paper-based General Test, the topics in the
analytical writing section will be presented in the test
book and you will handwrite your essay responses on
the answer sheets provided. Make sure you use the
correct answer sheet for each task.
It is important to budget your time. Within the
45-minute time limit for the Issue task, you will need
to allow sufficient time to choose one of the two
topics, think about the issue you’ve chosen, plan a
response, and compose your essay. Within the 30-
minute time limit for the Argument task, you will
need to allow sufficient time to analyze the argument,
plan a critique, and compose your response. Although
GRE readers understand the time constraints under
which you write and will consider your response a
“first draft,” you still want it to be the best possible
example of your writing that you can produce under
the testing circumstances.
Save a few minutes at the end of each timed task
to check for obvious errors. Although an occasional
spelling or grammatical error will not affect your
score, severe and persistent errors will detract from
the overall effectiveness of your writing and thus
lower your score.
During the actual administration of the General
Test, you may work only on the particular writing
task the test center supervisor designates and only for
the time allowed. You may not go back to an earlier
section of the test after the supervisor announces,
“Please stop work,” for that task. The supervisor is
authorized to dismiss you from the center for doing so.
Following the analytical writing section, you will
have the opportunity to take a 10-minute break.

Preparing for the GRE

Preparing for the GRE
General Test
Preparation for the test will depend on the amount of
time you have available and your personal preferences
for how to prepare. At a minimum, before you
take the GRE General Test, you should know what to
expect from the test, including the administrative
procedures, types of questions and directions, the
approximate number of questions, and the amount of
time for each section.
The administrative procedures include registration,
date, time, test center location, cost, scorereporting
procedures, and availability of special
testing arrangements. You can find out about the
administrative procedures for the paper-based General
Test online at www.gre.org, or by contacting
Educational Testing Service (see the GRE Information
and Registration Bulletin).
Before taking the practice General Test, it is
important to become familiar with the content of
each of the sections of the test. You can become
familiar with the verbal and quantitative sections by
reading about the skills the sections measure, how the
sections are scored, reviewing the strategies for each
of the question types, and reviewing the sample
questions with explanations. Determine which
strategies work best for you. Remember—you can do
very well on the test without answering every question
in each section correctly.
Everyone—even the most practiced and confident
of writers—should spend some time preparing for the
analytical writing section before arriving at the test
center. It is important to review the skills measured,
how the section is scored, scoring guides and score
level descriptions, sample topics, scored sample essay
responses, and reader commentary.
To help you prepare for the analytical writing
section of the General Test, the GRE Program has
published the entire pool of topics from which your
test topics will be selected. You might find it helpful
to review the Issue and Argument pools. You can
view the published pools on the Web at
www.gre.org/pracmats.html or obtain a copy by
writing to GRE Program, PO Box 6000, Princeton,
NJ 08541-6000.
The topics in the analytical writing section relate
to a broad range of subjects—from the fine arts and
humanities to the social and physical sciences—but
no topic requires specific content knowledge. In fact,
each topic has been field-tested to ensure that it
possesses several important characteristics, including
the following:
• GRE test takers, regardless of their field of study
or special interests, understood the topic and
could easily discuss it.
• The topic elicited the kinds of complex thinking
and persuasive writing that university faculty
consider important for success in graduate
school.
• The responses were varied in content and in the
way the writers developed their ideas

The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE)

The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) is a standardized test that is an admissions requirement for many graduate schools in the United States,[1] in other English-speaking countries and for English-taught graduate and business programs world-wide. Created and administered by Educational Testing Service (ETS) in 1949,[2] the exam aims to measure verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, analytical writing and critical thinking skills that have been acquired over a long period of time and that are not related to any specific field of study. The GRE General Test is offered as a computer-based exam administered by selected qualified testing centers.

In the graduate school admissions process, the level of emphasis that is placed upon GRE scores varies widely between schools and between departments within schools. The importance of a GRE score can range from being a mere admission formality to an important selection factor.

The GRE was completely overhauled in August 2011, creating an exam that is not adaptive on a question-by-question basis, but rather by section, so that the performance on the first verbal and math sections determine the difficulty of the second sections shown. Overall, the test retained the sections and question types from its predecessor, but the scores were changed to a 130 to 170 scale.

The cost to take the test varies between US$130 and $210, depending on the country in which it is taken, although ETS will reduce the fee under certain circumstances. They are promoting financial aid to those GRE applicants who prove economic hardship.[3] ETS erases all test records that are older than 5 years, although graduate program policies on the admittance of scores older than 5 years will vary.