gre writing score important

Is the Analytical Writing Important in GRE Scoring?

Last Updated on November 14, 2023

Many students starting their GRE prep ask me, “Is the Analytical Writing important in GRE scoring?”

For a variety of reasons, GRE test-takers often have mistaken impressions about whether the Analytical Writing measure matters and how much it matters. So, in this article, we’ll bust some myths about GRE Analytical Writing and answer the most common questions about the Analytical Writing score.

Here are the topics we’ll cover:

What is the gre analytical writing measure, how does analytical writing affect gre scores, consider school ranking, beware the steep drop in the score percentiles, can i skip analytical writing on the gre, a little preparation goes a long way, key takeaways, what’s next.

To start, let’s review what exactly GRE Analytical Writing entails.

The Analytical Writing measure is the first section you’ll see on your GRE . This section contains one essay tasks, which you have 30 minutes to complete.

The Issue task asks you to analyze an issue. The essay prompt presents an opinion about a topic of general interest. You’ll have to craft an essay responding to that opinion, with your own reasoning and examples supporting your stance. Whether your response agrees or disagrees with the presented opinion does not affect your essay score. The point is to pick whatever position allows you to craft as logical, coherent, and convincing an essay as possible.

The Analytical Writing measure does not require you to have particular subject matter knowledge. All of the information you need to write an effective response will appear in the essay prompt, be common knowledge, or be things that you happen to know and can utilize in your essay.

You will write your essays using the basic word processing program provided by the GRE test platform. That program features common functions such as Cut , Paste , Delete , and Undo , but does not feature automated spelling or grammar check.

The Analytical Writing measure contains one essay task, which you have 30 minutes to complete.

Now that we know what to expect in the GRE Analytical Writing measure, let’s discuss how GRE essays are scored.

The Analytical Writing section is scored separately from the rest of your GRE. In fact, you won’t see your Analytical Writing score along with your other scores on test day, because your essay is scored by a trained human reader as well as the computer. So, to allow time for a human to read your essays, you receive your Analytical Writing score once your official scores are posted to your ets.org account. The score you receive is on a 0-6 scale, in half-point increments.

The Analytical Writing section is scored separately from the rest of your GRE.

Now, when test-takers hear that the GRE Analytical Writing score is separate, generally one of the first questions they ask is, is GRE writing a part of the GRE overall score? The simple answer is no. Your GRE total score reflects your performance in the Quant and Verbal sections of the exam. Since you receive your total score immediately upon completion of your exam, before your essay has been scored, it has no effect on your overall GRE score. (You can get a detailed breakdown of how the GRE is scored here .)

Your total GRE score does not include Analytical Writing.

Because the Analytical Writing score is not factored into the total GRE score, and because test-takers don’t receive their Analytical Writing scores on test day, many GRE students assume that the essay score doesn’t really matter. However, depending on the graduate program to which you’re applying, your Analytical Writing score may be an important part of how admissions views your GRE scores. Let’s discuss.

Does the Writing Score Matter to Graduate Schools?

Test-takers often mistakenly assume that graduate schools don’t really care about the GRE essay score. The general thinking is that, since the Analytical Writing score is not part of the total GRE score, it doesn’t matter.

Furthermore, test-takers applying to programs in certain fields may assume that writing skills are unimportant for those programs. Or they may think that as long as their application essays are well-written, admissions will “already know” that they have writing skills.

It’s true that programs in some fields expect higher Analytical Writing scores than others. For instance, even top Engineering programs generally don’t expect Analytical Writing scores as high as those that a good Journalism or English program wants to see. That said, even more math-focused programs may look askance at a very low essay score.

So, this begs the question, what is a good Analytical Writing score for the GRE?

What Is a Good Analytical Writing Score on the GRE?

Analytical Writing is no different from the other GRE sections in that particular section scores matter more for some programs than for others.

Let’s take our earlier example of an Engineering vs. Journalism program. The graduate program in Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon, a top 5 Engineering school, reports that the average Analytical Writing score of admitted students is 4.0. NYU’s master’s in Journalism program, on the other hand, reports that its students have an average Analytical Writing score of 5.0.

Of course, this disparity is no surprise. Advanced writing skills are central to a student’s ability to perform at a high level in a Journalism program. That said, a 4.0 average is still pretty good for a “math-centric” program such as Engineering, right?

In other words, it’s a mistake to assume that, because a program is not centered on verbal or writing skills, any Analytical Writing score will do. Would you feel super confident applying to the Mechanical Engineering program at Carnegie Mellon with a 2.5 Analytical Writing score? A 3.0?

The moral of the story is that it’s always best to research the GRE Analytical Writing score averages at the specific programs you’re interested in. Those averages will tell you how important Analytical Writing is for you. If your field of study is more verbal-focused, chances are the Analytical Writing score will matter more than if your field is more math-focused. However, even if you’re applying to math-focused programs, assuming that the Writing score doesn’t matter at all is a mistake.

Research the Analytical Writing score averages at the programs you’re interested in to determine how much the Writing section matters for admissions.

Highly ranked programs may require pretty impressive scores in every GRE section.

For instance, UC Berkeley’s graduate program in Psychology, ranked #1 by U.S. News , reports that the 2020 cohort of admitted students had the following average GRE scores: 

• Analytical Writing 4.8

It’s difficult to look at those averages and say that the program cares much more about one GRE section vs. another, or that any of the sections isn’t “important.”

Keep this example in mind when researching score averages at your desired programs, because in some cases, you may find data only on GRE Quant and Verbal scores, not Analytical Writing scores. In those cases, you’ll want to consider the program rankings. Are you looking at very highly ranked programs that will want to see fairly high scores in every GRE section?

Additionally, you can look for Analytical Writing score averages at similarly ranked programs, which will probably have score expectations similar to those of the programs you’re interested in. Furthermore, you can always reach out to admissions at your desired programs to try to get further insight into what kinds of GRE essay scores they look for from applicants.

Looking for further guidance on applying to schools? Schedule a free consultation with a TTP admissions expert today.

If Analytical Writing score averages aren’t available for your desired programs, look at averages at similarly ranked programs and consider contacting admissions for further insight.

Let’s say you’re not applying to a top-ranked school. Or, you’ve determined that Analytical Writing is the least emphasized GRE section for admissions at your desired programs. Even in those cases, you should be aware that there are sharp drops in the percentile rankings associated with Analytical Writing scores below a certain point.

Let’s take a look at the latest Analytical Writing percentile rankings, per ETS , as of this writing. Note that ETS reports that the average Analytical Writing score among all GRE test-takers is 3.6.

Notice that the differences in percentile rankings among the upper scores are not that great. However, as we approach and fall below the average Analytical Writing score, the percentile rankings quickly plummet.

So, while the difference between scoring, say, 3.5 and 3.0 may not seem that significant to many test-takers, going from “around average” to a 13th percentile ranking may seem pretty darn significant to admissions.

Given the steep drops we see in percentile rankings associated with below-average Analytical Writing scores, I think it’s generally wise to aim for an Analytical Writing score of at least 3.5, even for math-focused programs. That way, you avoid those really low percentile rankings.

Remember, you don’t want to give admissions the impression that you didn’t care enough to even try on your GRE essays. And of course, the higher the Analytical Writing averages at your desired programs, the higher you should aim.

Generally speaking, test-takers should try to at least hit the worldwide average Analytical Writing score of 3.5, to avoid very low percentile rankings.

One very common question I hear from GRE students, particularly those applying to programs that emphasize Quant, is whether it’s okay to skip the Analytical Writing section of the GRE.

For most GRE test-takers, the answer to this question will be no. Most graduate schools want applicants submitting GRE scores to have taken the entire GRE, not just parts of it.

So, unless your desired programs explicitly state that they don’t consider GRE Writing scores, you definitely should not skip Analytical Writing. Furthermore, even if a program states on its website that Writing scores are not required or considered, it’s a smart idea to contact admissions directly to confirm that policy. You don’t want an avoidable slip-up such as skipping Analytical Writing to cause any problems with your application.

Do not skip the GRE Writing unless you have confirmed with admissions that Analytical Writing scores are not factored into admissions decisions.

All things considered, most GRE test-takers have to complete the Analytical Writing section. Furthermore, many (if not most) need to aim for an Analytical Writing score that is at least average or better than average.

Fortunately, preparing for Analytical Writing does not have to take a huge chunk out of your GRE prep time. When it comes to the GRE essays, a little preparation goes a long way — even more reason not to neglect Analytical Writing! Just taking a few days to do the following could mean the difference between a mediocre Analytical Writing score and a top-notch one:

• Review the kinds of prompts you could see on your exam .
• Solidify a basic outline to follow for your essay.
• Practice writing an essay or two.

At the end of the day, this relatively small investment of time and effort will be well worth it!

Take a few days to review the GRE essay topic pools that ETS publishes, solidify a basic outline to follow for each essay type, and practice writing an essay or two of each type.

• The Analytical Writing measure contains one task in which you have 30 minutes to write an essay analyzing an issue.
• Analytical Writing is scored on a 0-6 scale, in half-point increments.
• Your Analytical Writing score is not factored into your total GRE score.
• The average Analytical Writing score among all GRE test-takers is 3.6.
• Below-average Analytical Writing scores are associated with percentile rankings in the low teens and single digits.
• It’s a mistake to assume that, because a program is not centered on verbal or writing skills, a low Analytical Writing score will be acceptable.
• To set your Analytical Writing score goal, research the GRE Analytical Writing score averages at the specific programs you’re interested in, or similarly ranked programs. You’ll want to at least hit those averages or better.
• Unless your desired programs explicitly state that they don’t consider GRE Writing scores, do not skip the Writing section of your exam.
• AWA prep doesn’t have to eat up a huge chunk of your GRE prep time. A little goes a long way!

Wondering how much GRE scores matter in general for graduate school? Check out this article for guidance .

You also may be interested in this article about what graduate schools consider a good GRE score . 

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About The Author

Marty Murray is a test prep veteran who has scored in the 99th percentile on multiple high stakes standardized tests and the former Chief Curriculum and Content Architect for Target Test Prep.

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20+ PROVEN ways to boost your GRE essay score (backed by data!)

Looking for ways to improve your GRE Analytical Writing scores? In this post, we’ll teach you some simple GRE essay tips to give you an edge over the competition – backed by real graded essay data.

There are a lot of opinions out there on what makes a good GRE essay, but we wanted to know for sure. Studying for the GRE is stressful enough, and you deserve to know exactly how to ace every section. So, we paid several GRE instructors to hand score 1,000+ GRE essay examples and determined empirically, without a doubt, the keys to writing the perfect GRE essay.

Using these GRE analytical writing examples, we trained a machine learning model capable of accurately predicting your score and letting you know exactly how you can improve. 

Here are the top 5 keys our model said have the biggest impact on getting a top analytical writing GRE score:

• Total word count
• Total noun count
• Prompt keyword usage
• Total adjectives count

Sentence variety

In this article, we’ll outline the process we took to build the machine learning-backed essay grader and answer the question of how to write a great GRE essay once and for all.

The GRE analytical writing section

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Essay writing can be a difficult skill to master , and to ace the GRE you’ll need to write two: the argument essay and the issue essay. These essays test your critical thinking and analytical writing skills, your ability to communicate complex ideas, develop logical arguments, and maintain a focused discussion. Although the GRE issue essay and the GRE argument essay follow different GRE essay prompts, the criteria they’re graded on and the way to write these essays are basically the same.

With only 30 minutes to complete each essay, you need to be efficient. But what if you had analytical writing GRE tips that could basically guarantee a high essay score, because they were reverse-engineered using machine learning? It would make getting that perfect 6.0 GRE analytical writing score Achievable 😉

Each GRE analytical writing section consists of a topic of discussion and specific instructions on how to respond. In the allotted 30 minutes, GRE takers must be able to analyze the prompt, plan a relevant response, and write an organized and coherent issue essay or argument essay supported by evidence.

Needless to say, every second counts. To help set up Achievable’s GRE course customers for success, we’ve built a machine learning-based essay grading system trained on thousands of professionally graded GRE essays, using real GRE essay prompts. Let’s dig into how it works and how we learned the most important factors for getting that perfect 6.0 GRE essay score.

The Educational Testing Service (ETS), the creators of the GRE, provide some information on how to score a perfect 6.0 on the essay sections. They mention that writers should “articulate a clear and insightful position”, “develop the position fully”, give “compelling reasons and/or persuasive examples”, and “convey ideas fluently and precisely”. It’s great that ETS is trying to give students some direction on how to get a good GRE essay score, but none of these tips are quantifiable. How do you know if an argument position is “clear and insightful,” or if an example of an issue is persuasive?

We don’t like leaving things to chance or rule-of-thumbs, and in building our GRE essay grader we dug into the details to figure out what issue essay and argument essay characteristics are empirically, data-backed, and without a doubt, the keys to getting the best score on the GRE essay sections.

We hired professional GRE instructors from different firms to hand score our essays, and analyzed the results to determine the key features leading to a high GRE essay score. Using a variety of different technologies, we built a best-in-class GRE essay grading tool that can help take your GRE essay writing skills from a 0 to a 6. We want to share the details of our process so that you can feel confident in using the Achievable platform to pass your exam without breaking a sweat.  

Let’s take a look under the hood.

The first step in building our GRE essay grader was to comb through every resource the ETS had on GRE analytical writing. Since our GRE essay grader is tailor made to help you score high on the GRE writing sections, the information provided by the creator of the test is by far the most valuable. 

We poured through ETS GRE resources, looking for the characteristics that make up a great GRE essay. We did the boring work so you don’t have to, reading through every single line of their GRE issue essay examples, their GRE argument essay examples, and the result was a document almost twenty pages long detailing our findings.  

We looked at everything from the obvious characteristics (also called traits or features ) like word count, to details like the number of adjectives used. Of course, at this point we were making intelligent guesses about what was important. The real judge of what to focus on when writing a GRE essay response would be our machine learning model.

Having twenty pages of notes was a great start but the next step would be the major challenge. We needed a reliable way of extracting these traits from a piece of English writing. Unfortunately for us, computers don’t understand English, which meant we needed to dive into the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP). 

NLP is a subfield of linguistics, computer science, and artificial intelligence that is helping to bridge the gap between the language used by humans, and the way computers process information. 

Luckily, we love to learn here at Achievable, and after a whole lot more research we were ready to build software that could take an essay and dissect it into a list of features. This process, called key entity extraction , was fundamental to building our GRE essay grader. Now that we could reliably process GRE essays and get our feature data out the other end, we were almost ready to train our model.

The last step before training was to prepare the extracted data. Machine learning is very good at one thing, and that’s discovering relationships between sets of data – otherwise it’s not as smart as you’d think. Outliers in the dataset can skew the results, especially when the outliers are very large or very small compared to the average. This meant that the data provided to the ML algorithm had to be pre-processed, or normalized .  

Data normalization usually involves rescaling the data such that all values are between 0 and 1. Using the results of our previous analysis, we determined lists of trait values that could be used to normalize the data.  

For example, most GRE issue essay templates and GRE argument essay templates follow  the conventional essay writing advice of using a 5 paragraph essay structure. This GRE essay template format includes a thesis, 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Normalizing the paragraph count by 5 would create a trait that the ML algorithm could use to work its magic. If we provided more traits to the model, such as the paragraph count normalized by 3, and also by 10, the model could give us more information, and a high degree of confidence, whether 5 paragraphs is the way to go to get a high score. Following this approach, we normalized our dataset of GRE essays and provided hundreds of traits for the machine learning model to analyze.  

With our key entity extraction software ready to go, and our sample GRE essay data normalized, we were ready to train a machine learning model using the thousands of hand scored, real-world GRE issue essay examples and GRE argument essay examples. 

We built our machine learning model using TensorFlow, and in the training stage, passed huge amounts of data through neural networks resulting in a model that could reliably predict the score of a GRE essay. Using a variety of data science tools we generated charts to help describe the results.  These charts help illustrate how each trait affects the predicted score of an GRE essay. We can see which traits have the most significant effect, and by how much, making it very clear how to write a GRE essay.

The chart shown below is called a beeswarm plot and it represents the combined results of the thousands of GRE essays graded by the machine learning model.  Here’s how to read it:

• Each row in the plot corresponds to a specific feature
• The rows are ordered from top to bottom starting with the feature that had the biggest impact
• Each colored dot in the row represents a single instance of the feature, i.e. the value of the feature for a specific GRE essay
• The dots are colored according to the size of their value, where the lowest values are blue and the highest values are red
• The gray line down the middle is the zero-impact-line, with values falling to the right having a positive impact on the predicted result and the values falling to the left having a negative impact

Now with that explained, here is the beeswarm plot results from our GRE essay research:

For example, we can see from the plot that the total number of words used in the essay had the biggest impact on the score. Because the impact of a feature increases as the distance of the dots from the zero-impact-line increases, the blue dots extending far to the left indicate that low essay word counts have a large negative impact on score. On the other hand, the red dots tend to cluster slightly to the right of the zero-impact-line, indicating that writing a longer essay can help, but the impact is much smaller. The takeaway here is that you should avoid writing too short an essay, rather than trying to write a very long one. 

The chart below is called a force plot and it gives a general idea of how each feature affects the machine learning model’s predicted result for a specific GRE essay.

• The base value (4.339) is the average predicted score across all graded GRE essay examples
• The actual prediction for this essay is shown at f(x) (5.00)
• Each feature has a positive contribution (red) or negative contribution (blue) to the final score

Examining the force plot quickly tells us about the rough impact of each feature and if any stand out. We can see that the weight distribution is fairly gradual, with no single feature having an extraordinary impact. The force plot gives us a good summary of a specific GRE essay scored feature results, but isn’t very actionable. Our next chart, the waterfall plot, gives us a much more detailed explanation.

The chart below is called a waterfall plot and it gives us a more detailed view of how each feature affects the predicted score for a specific GRE essay.

• The starting value E[f(x)] (4.339) is the average predicted score across all graded GRE essay samples
• The features are ordered from top to bottom by the magnitude of their impact, which can be either positive (red) or negative (blue)
• The final value f(x) (4.999) is the predicted score

For this GRE essay, we can see that a low spelling error rate, i.e. having a low number of spelling mistakes, had a significant positive impact on the score (+0.11). On the other hand, a low word count (-0.11) essentially neutralized the positive contribution of the low spelling error rate. Similarly, a good usage of nouns throughout the essay positively contributed (+0.07) to the score, while a low word count for the body paragraphs (-0.07) basically negated this impact.

Our top findings for what you can to do impact your GRE essay score, listed in priority order:

• Higher values for word count have a positive effect on the predicted score while low values have a significant negative effect. 
• Low word counts were more significant in their negative effect on score, so rather than trying to write a long essay, focus on not writing one that is too short. In fact, we can see that high values also had a negative effect for some essays, likely when the essay was long but low in quality. In other words, a short essay will tend to bring down your score .
• A higher value for noun count contributes positively while low values contribute negatively.  
• Since nouns identify a person, place or thing, an essay lacking in nouns would be unfocused and imprecise. It’s hard to score a 6.0 on a GRE essay if no one knows what you’re talking about! So, a low number of nouns contributes significantly to a lower score .  
• Measuring the presence of keywords found in the GRE essay prompt throughout the essay it was clear that an absence of prompt keywords contributed to a lower score .  
• This was especially true for the thesis paragraph, where the goal is to clearly specify your main position on the issue or argument topic. Using keywords from the GRE essay prompt guarantees that your response is focused on the given topic.  
• For the adjectives count we saw only a minor and somewhat ambiguous negative contribution by low values while higher values strongly contributed to a higher score.
• A higher number of adjectives indicates a more descriptive essay. Since being descriptive helps to develop and clarify your response, be sure to use lots of adjectives alongside your nouns.
• Looking at the number of short, long, and very long sentences, and the ratios between these values, we found that long sentences (16 to 49 words) were the optimal choice for sentence length. We also saw that a higher proportion of short sentences to long sentences contributed to a lower score .  
• This suggests that you should prefer more long sentences than short sentences in your writing . However, using solely long sentences can also lower your score, so be sure to include the odd short sentence to establish variety.
• A high spelling error rate contributed to a lower score.
• No surprises here, making spelling mistakes will bring your score down!
• Paragraphs with too few or too many sentences had a slight negative impact on the score.
• A GRE essay paragraph should strike a balance between accurately introducing and supporting a point, without rambling or going off topic. We found the sweet spot to be around 8 sentences per body paragraph and about 5 for the thesis and conclusion paragraphs.
• Thesis paragraphs under 100 words contributed to a lower score.
• The thesis paragraph should be long enough to describe the focus of your response and your main reasons for supporting it.
• Short sentences in the thesis paragraph showed a slight negative contribution.
• It is especially important that the thesis paragraph provides enough context to effectively introduce and focus the essay response.
• The GRE essay grader found a relationship between mentioning a person’s name in the thesis paragraph and a higher score.
• Whether you are repeating a name found in the GRE essay prompt, or trying to provide context, try to reference a person’s name in your thesis paragraph.
• Body paragraphs under 150 words contributed to a lower score.
• The body paragraph is the meat of your GRE essay and should be long enough to introduce a point, provide and analyze evidence, connect to the thesis statement, and transition to the next paragraph.
• Surprisingly, using quotations in body paragraphs contributed to a lower score.
• While quotations may help provide evidence in general essay writing, when writing a GRE essay, focus on concisely responding to the prompt.  
• The use of exclamatory sentences (those ending with an exclamation mark) contributed to a lower score.
• Exclamation marks are generally not used in academic writing. WHY??!?! They just don’t feel that professional!!!
• If you need to emphasize a point make sure you do so with your language.
• A concise conclusion (about 100 words) contributed to a higher GRE essay score.
• A conclusion should wrap up your GRE essay, and not introduce more information. Make sure to focus the conclusion on summarizing the GRE essay topic, the essay’s main points, and making the connection to your thesis clear.
• Conclusions composed of fewer but longer sentences contributed to a higher score.
• Sentence variety doesn’t play a big role when it comes to the conclusion paragraph. Focus on using long sentences to summarize your main points and tie everything together.

The following is an example of a high scoring GRE essay submitted by an Achievable user. Our human GRE instructors, as well as our machine-learning GRE essay grading system, score this as a perfect 6.0.

Here is the GRE issue essay prompt:

And the corresponding GRE essay example:

The names of the greatest rulers, artists, and scientists is what is taught in most history classes. Little attention is given to the common people. Despite the fact that the most prolific and talented members of a society have a profound effect on their nations, it is the common people that truly embody the nation and it is them who keep it running. From the plumber, to the lawyer, to the homeless person; they all contribute their grain of salt to the identity and strength of the nation. The purpose of a nation is to create a just society in which every individual can enjoy the wealth and resources of the nation. A nation without a solid base will never be able to allow artists and scientists to create their most innovative and creative master pieces. Without the combined effort of all its people, there will be no Albert Einstein or Mozart, because there will be no resources to encourage these geniuses to develop their talents to their highest potential. The only way a nation can have a solid base is by guaranteeing the well-being of all its citizens. With happy citizens, nations have the solid foundation needed to produce the greatest achievements humanity can accomplish. Thus, the greatest of all nations are those in which the general well-being of its population is at its highest because happy citizens are more productive, more generous to each other, and more knowledgeable. 

First, citizens living in a society that ensures their well being become much more productive than in a nation in which their well-being is not guaranteed. Dr. Friedman, in Berlin in the year 1975, conducted a controlled random experiment in which he tested the effects that well-being had in the production level of the subjects of the experiment. He created a control group and an experimental group, and assigned members to each group randomly. The experimental group was in a room that was very hot, whereas the control group was in a well ventilated room. Next, both groups were given simple tasks such as cutting squares out of circles and coloring an image. After 30 minutes had passes, Dr. Friedman evaluated who was able to complete most tasks in the 30 minute time window. He noticed that the experimental group completed only 80% of the tasks compared to the control group, which completed 100% of the tasks. As per Dr. Friedman: “the results of this experiment show how well-being has a negative effect on the productivity of individuals”. Less productive individuals are going to achieve less at work, meaning companies in general will be less productive and less competitive in the global market. In an increasingly competitive world, less productive companies will bring less resources to the nation, making it less likely to invest in the talent of its people. 

Second, well-being is directly related to generosity. The more generous citizens of a nation are to each other, the more likely they are to help those in need around them. This, in turn, leads to a collective effort to lift each other up, making the nation more productive and wealthy. Thomas Frank and Imelda Seo developed a randomized experiment in which they tested the relationship between well-being and generosity. The study was conducted in Seoul in 1994 in a public university. The subjects of the test were randomly selected from different levels of the class in an effort to eliminate as many confounding variables as possible. The experimental group was told the very bad news that they had just failed their most recent test. After receiving this news, they were given a limited amount of chocolate and they were told to pick as much as they needed but to think that someone else will come after them and pick what is left from the chocolate. The person that will come later will not know how much chocolate was in the box originally. In contrast, the control group was told the same regarding taking as much chocolate as needed and to be mindful of the person coming behind them, but they were not given the initial bad news that they had failed their test. The results of the experiment show that the experimental group was 70% more likely to take all of the chocolate in the box than the control group. As per Imelda Ser: “this is indicative that when a person’s well-being is jeopardized, they are less likely to be generous.” This study shows how well-being can have a positive impact on the citizens of a nation, and this generosity can lead to citizens helping each other out more and creating a more cohesive and productive society and nation. 

Third, citizens living in a nation in which their well-being is adequate are more knowledgeable. More knowledge can lead to greater discoveries. Great artists, scientists, and rulers all require proper education during their early years to achieve the success. If society as a whole is more educated, it is much more likely for a nation to be able to cultivate the talents of their next genius. For example, Amadeus Mozart was the son of a talented musical father that lived in Vienna, the classical music capital of the world at the time of this life. If Mozart would have been born in an empoverished family with no resources and no knowledge of music, who is to tell Austria would have produced such a notable musical expert. The father of Mozart lived a comfortable life that allowed him to develop his own talents, and later pass his new found knowledge to his son, who later took this knowledge to never before seen levels of musical prowess. To guarantee that the knowledge is passed on to the greatest individuals of a nation, it is necessary to ensure the general well-being of its citizens. Only then will a great nation be able to produce a Mozart, an Albert Einstein, or a Napoleon.

In conclusion, a nation can only be great if it can guarantee the well-being of all its citizenry. This is the only way a nation can ensure that the individual talents of certain prolific people can flourish. These individuals require a strong enough safety net that will allow them to pursue their dreams without having to worry about heating the house or finding the next meal. Also, citizens that are happy and living comfortable can produce more for the nation as a whole, and lift each other out of poverty, thus creating a great nation .

This GRE essay received a perfect score ( f(x) = 5.999 ) and the waterfall plot below describes what features had the biggest impact:

In this case, the feature with the biggest impact was the number of adjectives used . If you read the essay, you probably noticed how descriptive it was. The author provided plenty of detailed examples to support his thesis.  

At 1,083 words, the GRE issue essay was a good length, and this helped boost the score.

The author added excellent context to the thesis paragraph by including the names of two prominent creatives: Albert Einstein and Mozart . These names were relevant to the response and supported the idea that when a nation guards the well-being of its citizens it fosters creativity and innovation.

Using plenty of nouns relevant to the prompt, the author was able to keep the essay focused and coherent. We can also see a good use of long sentences, giving the author the space needed to elaborate on and support the thesis. An overall low spelling error rate contributed positively to the score. Interestingly, we can see that the use of places in the body paragraphs (e.g. Berlin ) helped to boost the score.

The author received a minor penalty for the overuse of verbs in the thesis paragraph as well as a few spelling mistakes throughout the GRE essay. These negative contributions were ultimately insignificant compared to everything else that the author did right, clearly illustrating how focusing on the right characteristics can guarantee you a high scoring GRE essay.

The following is an example of a medium-scoring GRE essay submitted by an Achievable user. Our human GRE instructors, as well as our machine-learning GRE essay grading system, score this as a 3.5 with room for improvement.

Here is the GRE argument essay prompt:

And the corresponding essay:

More information is needed to accurately determine if the recommendation from the regional manager of Hamburger House should be followed. Information detailing the reason for changing to canola oil, the cost of canola oil, the effect canola oil has on the taste of french fries and other foods, if the public was made aware of the switch to canola oil, public’s perception of canola oil, if the customer reviews over the past two months were about the taste of the fries, any operating changes made at the company that could have affected sales, other factors that could have increased sales, Hamburger house expanding their locations and customer base, the effects on net profits are needed. Additional evidence is necessary to evaluate Hamburger House’s internal memo to franchises.

The reason for why Hamburger House switched to canola oil is the first piece of missing information needed. If canola oil was chosen because it is cheaper than vegetable oil, it would be a sensical choice to reduce costs and choose the cheaper oil. If canola oil were the more expensive option, there must be non-cost-related reasons that justify the switch. In either of the aforementioned scenarios, one must examine if the canola oil makes the fries and other foods taste the same, better, or worse. If canola oil makes all foods taste better and has a net positive effect on profits, franchises should follow the recommendation. If canola oil makes some but not all foods taste better, franchises should only use canola oil in foods that taste better and if there will be a net positive effect on profits.

The second piece of information needed to evaluate Hamburger House’s recommendation is the public’s perception of canola oil and vegetable oil and whether the public was made aware of Hamburger House’s switch to canola oil. If canola oil is perceived to be a healthier option or vegetable oil is perceived as an unhealthier option, it can be expected that the public would react positively to Hamburger House’s use of canola oil and increase foot traffic to its locations. However, if the public was not made aware of the switch in oils, information regarding the content of the positive reviews that Hamburger House has received in the past two months and if those positive reviews were all for locations that switched to canola oil are needed. If the reviews mentioned that the foods that contained canola oil tasted better, it would be reasonable for franchises to switch to canola oil to make their food taste better and, thereby, increase sales.

The third piece of information needed is whether Hamburger House expanded its locations and customer base in the past two months. An increase in french fry sales and average unique customers would naturally increase french fry sales.

The most important aspect as a business is the impact that canola oil has on earnings. It is necessary for a business to be financially profitable to survive. Therefore, if the switch to canola oil allows franchises of Hamburger House to be financially viable, franchises should make the switch if doing so if there is a positive effect compared to keeping vegetable oil.

This essay received a low score ( f(x) = 3.503 ) and the waterfall plot below describes what features had the biggest impact:

The feature with the biggest impact for this GRE essay was the total word count (-0.29). At 526 words, this example illustrates how dramatically a short GRE essay can affect the predicted score. In fact, we can see that the argument essay is penalized for low word count in various ways by other features, such as the body paragraph average word counts, total sentence counts, etc. Writing a longer argument essay is a straightforward way to guarantee a higher score and gives you more space to elaborate on and support the position from your GRE essay topic.  

The second feature in the list measures the negative impact (-0.14) of the ratio of short to long sentences in the conclusion. In this case, the author used too many short sentences resulting in a lower score. The conclusion is meant to summarize the essay’s main points and tie them together with the thesis statement, a task that typically requires longer sentences. The conclusion of this argument essay could have been improved by using longer sentences to explain specifically how the thesis and supporting points are connected in addressing the issue laid out in the prompt.

The plot shows a high thesis noun count contributing to a lower score (-0.11). If we examine the thesis we can see the author uses an extremely long sentence that repeats many of the same nouns over and over again (e.g. canola oil). While using nouns is important to keep an essay focused on the topic, the nouns should be both relevant to the GRE essay topic and varied. Simply stuffing nouns into a paragraph will not have the desired effect. This thesis could have been improved by introducing fewer points while elaborating on how each point supports the thesis statement.

While the author did a few things right, it is clear that this GRE argument essay’s low score was majorly due to a low word count, weak use of nouns, poor sentence variety, and an overall lack of focus and specificity. Catching issues like these before the exam can help you improve your writing skills and boost your score by multiple points.

So if you want to improve your GRE analytical writing essay skills, what do you need to do?  

• Make sure your essay is long enough to avoid being penalized for a short essay
• Ensure your essay is focused by using plenty of nouns that relate to the topic
• Write a descriptive essay by using lots of adjectives to describe your position, evidence, and ideas
• Read the prompt carefully, highlight keywords, and use these keywords throughout your essay, most importantly in your thesis paragraph
• Vary your sentence length, but in general favor the use of longer sentences
• Avoid making spelling mistakes
• Aim for 8 sentences per body paragraph and 5 sentences for thesis and conclusion paragraphs
• Keep your thesis and conclusion paragraphs concise but use at least 100 words
• Reference a person’s name in your thesis paragraph if it’s relevant
• Keep your body paragraphs above 150 words
• Avoid the use of exclamation marks and quotations 

Our Achievable GRE course offers hundreds of GRE essay prompts and GRE essay topics for the GRE issue and argument essays, giving you the opportunity to practice your analytical writing skills until you are 100% confident in getting a top GRE essay score. Your work is automatically saved as you write and includes a timer to keep you on track. 

Achievable’s proprietary GRE essay grading system uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze your GRE essay writing and provides instant feedback on exactly what you can do to boost your score. Backed by our vast amount of data from real-world GRE issue essay examples and GRE argument essay examples, we’ve created the smartest GRE essay grader that exists, included with your purchase of Achievable GRE .

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12 Tips to Ace GRE Writing

Worrying about the GRE essays? A lot of test-takers find it intimidating to sit down at their computer on test day and write an essay in 30 minutes…and then write another one directly after that! GRE analytical writing can seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. A handful of key GRE analytical writing tips will help you sit down at those word processors and proceed—with confidence—to get the GRE score you want.

In this article, we’ll take a look at the GRE writing tips you can use to boost your essay score on the Argument essay and Issue task. Here are all the GRE essay tips you’ll need to send you on your way to that perfect score.

General GRE Analytical Writing Assessment Tips

While the GRE general test writing section can seem unpredictable, there are still ways to prepare for the essay! Later on, we’ll look at each type of task (Issue and Argument) separately. Before we do that, though, there are some important GRE writing tips to know for Issue and Argument essays in the GRE analytical writing section.

1. Know the topic types

If you’ve been practicing for the AWA, you may be thinking, “ What types? They’re totally random! ” But there’s definitely a pattern to GRE prompts! We’ve identified seven types of analytical writing prompts on the GRE , including:

• Government and Power
• Intellectual Endeavors

Before you take the official exam, review sample topics in these areas so you know how you’ll address different types of subjects as they come up. You can see all possible Issue tasks and Argument tasks on the ETS website before test day.

But as you look at the GRE ETS AWA prompts , make sure you don’t waste time outlining a possible essay for each and every one. The time it takes—plus the memorization it would involve—is not worth the effort! Instead, focus on perfecting your approach to different topic types.

Remember, you don’t need to be an expert in these areas, or even have outside knowledge—instead, work on coming up with examples to address different types of prompts and how to write about topics you’re unfamiliar with in a short period of time.

2. Read the directions thoroughly

Read the directions? Of course I read the directions! Almost all test-takers think this—but in our experience, not enough are reading the directions thoroughly .

Each Issue prompt and each Argument prompt comes with specific directions, which follow the prompt and are written in non-italicized letters. Make sure to read the directions; do not gloss over them. In your essay, if you do not directly address what the question is asking, your score will take a hit. Let’s take a look at two different directions that follow an Issue prompt.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address the most compelling reasons and/or examples that could be used to challenge your position.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the recommendation and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, describe specific circumstances in which adopting the recommendation would or would not be advantageous and explain how these examples shape your position.

You’ll notice that the directions begin very similarly but then veer away from each other. Nonetheless, both ask you to what extent you agree or disagree with the argument. The first set of instructions asks you to consider possible objections to your point of view (which implies you want to show how those objections are somewhat lacking). The second set of instructions asks you to offer up specific instances in which the recommendation either holds true or doesn’t.

Here’s some good news: the instructions don’t create entirely different essays. Oftentimes, being true to the instructions entails nothing more than a few well-deployed sentences in the conclusion or at the end of a body paragraph.

3. Manage time well

For each and every section on the GRE, you have a time limit —and the AWA is no exception! If you’re like most test-takers, you’ll definitely feel those 30 minutes start to shrink once you sit down at the screen.

To make the most of your time on GRE tests , we suggest dividing up the writing section like this:

• 2 minutes to read through the prompt and directions
• 3 minutes brainstorming, outlining, and writing a thesis statement
• 20 minutes writing the body paragraphs and examples of your essay
• 2 minutes to edit for small mistakes, such as grammatical errors
• 3 minutes (if available) to write an intro

Nope, that’s not a mistake—save the intro for last. Why? A few reasons. First of all, if you’ve already stated your thesis at the beginning, it’s not that important. And yet, second of all, test takers get so caught up writing the “perfect intro” that time speeds by and they haven’t focused on their body paragraphs—the meat of the essay—at all. This way, you’ll have a much better chance of getting a high score on the GRE AWA.

4. Write as much as you can

Open up the Official Guide to the essay section and you will see several sample essays. If you turn to the lowest scoring essay—the one awarded a ‘1’—what is most notable about it isn’t necessarily the egregious syntax: the essay is only one sentence long.

Now I highly doubt you will receive a ‘1’. Even if you hammer out a paragraph of barely discernible prose, you are likely to get higher than a ‘1’. The key point here is length matters. And it doesn’t just make the difference between a ‘1’ and a ‘2’; the ‘6’ essay is notably longer than the ‘5’ essay. Sure, the ‘6’ essay is of a general higher quality, but had the ‘6’ essay been the length of the ‘5’ essay it might have received a ‘5.5.’

So don’t think you can just fast and furiously scribble your way to a ‘6’. But as you work to improve the quality of your essays, keep in mind that the more high quality stuff you write, the better. While we’re on the topic, explore these GRE vocabulary words that deal directly with writing:

Issue Essay: GRE Writing Tips

The first essay you’ll see on all GRE tests is the Issue essay . In this task, you’ll be asked to analyze an issue described in the prompt, then create an essay agreeing or disagreeing with it. Read on for our best GRE essay tricks and tips for this task!

5. Come up with pro/con statements

One of the most important things about the Issue essay is that it requires you to take a side.

To do this, make a list of statements that either support or refute the prompt (pros and cons). Then, choose whichever side you think has the best statements. Take a look as Magoosh’s experts walk you through a pro/con evaluation of a topic here !

We recommend you work in shorthand. It doesn’t have to be pretty! It just has to be understandable as you go back through your notes. This shouldn’t take a lot of time—remember, you don’t have a ton of time for brainstorming! Practice pro/con lists until you can make one in under a minute.

6. Choose a side

Based on what you’ve written in your pro/con statement, it’s time to pick a side. You’ll find that the directions for the Issue essay always ask you to agree or disagree. That’s how important this is to creating a high-scoring essay—they actually put the fact that you need to state your opinion in the prompt.

It doesn’t matter what you actually think about this in real life—or even if you have no opinion on it whatsoever! All that matters is that you pick the side you can most easily support.

So how should your opinion show up in the essay? Make sure you state it immediately, as part of your thesis statement. Just as importantly, select examples that support this point of view really well, then explicitly tie them back to your opinion with reasoning throughout the rest of the essay.

7. Relate all examples and reasoning back to your thesis

As you make your pro/con list (described in Tip #5), you’ll be jotting down statements that help support different sides of the argument. Once you’ve chosen what side you’ll be arguing, as in Tip #6, you’ll need to elaborate on those with real-world examples or reasoning.

What’s the difference? Reasoning explains why something’s true (“From the statements X and Y, we can see Z”), while examples show a particular case in which that is true (“The ubiquity of Mickey Mouse proves Z”). Depending on how you brainstorm, you’re likely to have come up with a pro/con list featuring mostly reasons or examples.

Balance it out by making sure you explain why each example is important, relating it to your thesis, and providing a specific instance of each reason you give—again, one that’s relevant to your thesis. Want to see this in action? Take a look at a Magoosh expert brainstorming potential Issue task examples !

8. Make a concession point

Back in Tip #6, we encouraged you to make the position you’re taking in the Issue task really, really clear, and then support your position. But when you look closer at the Issue prompt, you’ll see that you’re also asked to look at both sides of the argument. How is this possible?

The GRE AWA requires pretty nuanced thinking, and this is no exception! You will need to bring up an argument from the side your essay disagrees with, that is true in some cases. This is called a concession point . The instructions don’t tell you to do this exactly—but it’s the best way to discuss both sides of the argument while making sure that you stick to your main argument.

How do you find a concession point? If you’ve followed Tip #5, it’s easy. You’ll need to whip out that old pro/con statement again!

In the end, while you will need to make a concession point, it’s important that the entire essay—including any concession points—all drive the reader back to one opinion: yours.

Argument Essay: GRE Writing Tips

The second task you’ll face on GRE writing sections is the Argument essay. For this essay, you’ll look at an argument and analyze it logically. How to write the GRE Argument essay? You’ll need to know the types of arguments in writing samples, as well as how to present a good argument yourself. If this type of argument test still sounds overwhelming, never fear—we have plenty of GRE analytical writing tips (and a step-by-step GRE writing video guide) for this part of the exam, as well!

9. Identify the assumptions

The first of our tips for the GRE Argument essay? To analyze an argument on the GRE , you’ll need to find out what assumptions the author is making and show why they are unwarranted. Focus on one of these tasks at a time, starting by just finding where the assumptions are in the passage.

Spend some time here: getting these assumptions correct is super important to writing a high-scoring Argument essay. You’re not looking to see how many you can find—there will often be more than one or two! Instead, you want to make sure you’ve found the most important ones the author’s used.

Identifying assumptions takes some practice, so we suggest you take another look at the pool of ETS Argument tasks to practice. As you go through these, ask yourself: what claims is the author making? Where does the author support these claims? What information is missing that would make this claim valid?

10. Find the logical fallacies

After you’ve found all the assumptions in the argument, you’ll need to take it a step further and analyze the argument. To do that, you’ll need to be familiar with the types of logical fallacies you’ll encounter in GRE Argument prompts. Luckily, Magoosh has a video describing logical fallacies in a sample essay for your review!

Just as there are lots of types of arguments in essay prompts on the GRE, so too are there lots of types of logical fallacies in them. For the Argument task GRE essay, you’ll need to identify the most important assumptions, then describe the types of logical fallacies the author is making. You won’t need to describe every single one in your essay (see Tip #12), but you will need to describe and explain the biggest ones.

11. Never agree with the argument

Don’t ever agree with the argument that the Argument task presents on the GRE! Your thesis statement should be a refutation of the logic in the prompt .

In other words, the kind of thesis you’ll need for the Argument task is NOT the same kind of thesis you’ll need for the Issue task. Remember, the Issue task asks you to agree or disagree with the presented argument. On the other hand, the Argument analysis GRE essay asks you to write an essay about an essay. Your thesis should have to do with why the argument is weak due to logical fallacies.

Think about it: if this was a great argument, why would the GRE have provided it for an Argument essay? The whole point of the Argument essay is for you to find the flaws in an argument. Therefore, your thesis should never be that this argument is great and has no flaws! Not only is that (extremely) unlikely to be true, but it also fails to show critical thinking and analysis on your part—which is what the test maker is looking for here.

Long story short? Challenge the argument in your thesis statement !

12. Choose your examples carefully

You’ve identified assumptions. You’ve found their logical fallacies. You’ve written a thesis statement. Now, it’s time to choose examples!

At this point, you may have a huge list of six, seven, or even eight assumptions. That’s great! You’re going to end up throwing a lot of them out. You can write a top-scoring essay using only three or four examples from the prompt. With this in mind, choose the ones that most undermine the writer’s point—in other words, the ones that have the biggest negative effect on the essay as a whole. Once you’ve chosen those examples, organize your body paragraphs around them, as Magoosh’s expert does with the GRE Argument here .

As you write, remember that your examples should always be points about the prompt that support your overall argument in the GRE AWA essay. ALSO remember that your argument in this task is about the construction of the essay, rather than the what they author’s saying (form, not content!). Because of that, it’s not important at all to include positive points about the argument. Unlike the Issue task, the Argument task only needs you to show flaws—not pros and cons.

A Final Word on GRE Writing Tips

While the AWA can seem overwhelming when you first encounter it, practicing with these GRE analytical writing tips can cut that frustration way, way down. Use them to work through some of the prompts on the ETS website, and you’ll see exactly what we mean. They take a little while to get used to, because these aren’t simple tasks—yet at the end of the day, they’ll help boost your score where you want it to be. Good luck as you start putting these GRE essay tips to use!

Rachel is one of Magoosh’s Content Creators. She writes and updates content on our High School and GRE Blogs to ensure students are equipped with the best information during their test prep journey. As a test-prep instructor for more than five years in there different countries, Rachel has helped students around the world prepare for various standardized tests, including the SAT, ACT, TOEFL, GRE, and GMAT, and she is one of the authors of our Magoosh ACT Prep Book . Rachel has a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature from Brown University, an MA in Cinematography from the Université de Paris VII, and a Ph.D. in Film Studies from University College London. For over a decade, Rachel has honed her craft as a fiction and memoir writer and public speaker. Her novel, THE BALLERINAS , is forthcoming in December 2021 from St. Martin’s Press , while her memoir, GRADUATES IN WONDERLAND , co-written with Jessica Pan, was published in 2014 by Penguin Random House. Her work has appeared in over a dozen online and print publications, including Vanity Fair Hollywood. When she isn’t strategically stringing words together at Magoosh, you can find Rachel riding horses or with her nose in a book. Join her on Twitter , Instagram , or Facebook !

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Introduction to GRE AWA (Analytical Writing Assessment)

Now these are two different things. One of the two tasks that you have in your GRE AWA section focuses on your ability to build an argument on your own to support a particular idea, the other task will provide an argument and ask you to analyze & evaluate the soundness of the logic of that argument . You need to be able to do both.

Its testing to measure you on both levels, of course. Last but not the least you need to be able to sustain a focused and coherent discussion . Now this discussion is going to be in the form of an essay but these are not the kinds of essays you may be used to writing in school so far or in college.

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These are going to be heavily analytical in nature and you need to be really focused. You need to have an idea of exactly what you’re going to say. It’s going to have to be structured, logical and competent .

We will look into how to write AWA general essays on the GRE so that this can be achieved. Now it’s important to know that just like the rest of the GRE – especially the verbal section – the GRE analytical writing will not try to test you on your knowledge of any particular content .

So don’t worry if you read a GRE analytical writing topic that’s about deer and the Arctic. If you have no idea about deer, if you have no idea about the Arctic or the Antarctic – that is not a problem. These questions are designed for you to be able to tackle them irrespective of your knowledge of these fields.

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The idea here is to test your skill, your ability to analyze not your subject knowledge. That being said those of you who do have subject knowledge – it’s also a good idea to leave that out of  your analyses.

Leave it out of your essays simply because it’s not 100% reliable. Your memory may not be the perfect way to judge whether you know something or you don’t.   For all you know it may not be 100% related to exactly what they’re saying or it could even be outdated information.

Evaluation Criteria for AWA

Alright, let’s go a little bit into the criteria involved in evaluating the GRE essay. When they’re assessing the quality of your writing, the testers – the ones who score your GRE Analytical Writing samples (essays) –  will be taking into account four skills. One, the content of your essay . That is your ability to present a cogent, persuasive relevant essay – Relevant ideas and arguments with sound reasoning and supporting examples.

By that we mean that your reasoning is what’s most important. Your logic has to be in place . Whenever you make a claim, you have to support it with an example. Don’t just  make an open statement saying “I disagree with the claim technology is very bad for us”.

You can’t stop right there. You have to elaborate on why you think technology is bad for you, why you feel that this is not efficient and further you need to support it with irrefutable logic.

Examples are great because they do both at the same time.   You don’t have to use very  complex words in the GRE essays to get a decent score.

The important thing to note when it comes to vocabulary is that if you are under confident about any particular word, don’t use it.

Look into the ways to improve your vocabulary and master in it.

The standard is any person who is an expert on the language in which you have written the general essay will be able to tell a mistake apart very easily. So even if you’re a little under confident don’t use it.

They are not looking for high vocabulary or complex words, they’re looking for logic, reasoning and clarity in expression . So use the words that you know very well and try to  express ideas in the clearest possible way.

[bctt tweet=”#GRETip GRE AWA Evaluation : Once evaluated by human reader and once by a software : ‘e-rater'” username=”galvanizeprep”]

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The next most important thing is organization. Not only do you need to have your reasoning and your examples in place, you need to organize your ideas in a way that builds on your previous ideas well , in a way that naturally takes the reader from point A to point B to Point C and to  your conclusion.

By the time they reach the end they should be nodding their heads and saying “yes, I completely agree.” In order to do that you need to have a good structure in mind. Of course, next on the list is language. 

Yes, you do have to be a little bit a little careful about your language  because they are looking for some sense of fluency with language. Your word choice, your word usage, your sentence structures – these are things that you should get some confidence over before you attempt to write a GRE essay.

This is going to tell them how comfortable you are communicating clearly with the language that you’re going to have use for the next two or more years in their country.

That said if you don’t have a high vocabulary or complex word knowledge , it’s okay if you don’t use a lot of complex sentence structures. You can still get a decent score on the AWA if you’re not too confident.

Don’t unnecessarily make your sentences long-winded or complex because you think  they’re expecting that. Grammar is also something they’re going to look at a little closely.

It’s okay if you make a handful of errors in one essay but the repeat errors of a particular type  will really stand out. If you have a subject verb agreement problem in your first paragraph but they don’t see another one in the rest of the essay, it’s not going to be a real issue they’re not going to mark you down for that.

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If, however, you have subject verb agreement issues throughout your entire essay that’s going to show them that this is a serious grammatical issue in your  language.

We recommend getting a little comfortable with some of the standards of written English. The best way to do this is to read a lot, get a lot of GRE analytical writing practice in. Do this using online tools that  point out mistakes in your writing. Reading GRE Sample essays will also help you understand where you are going wrong in the AWA.

In fact even if you have the latest version of Microsoft Word, it’s going to underline and give you those suggestions for any grammatical or syntactic mistakes so just get some practice writing full sentences and seeing where you go wrong frequently.

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The real important things that they’re looking for here for you to focus on would be content and organization . So for those of you in your very early stages of prep we would advise you to focus  first and foremost on these two. Without content without organization, there’s no use in your language and grammar being excellent because if the content is missing they can’t really give you a score for sounding good.

They need to give you a score for saying the things that are necessary to make this essay substantial. So first focus on understanding the issue or the argument at hand , analyzing  it, writing a clear essay, structuring it in a way that makes logical sense and everything will come together. These are the heaviest and most important things for your AWA section.

[bctt tweet=”GRE AWA section is scored out of 6 and the average of two essays is taken as a final score. Anything above 5 is an excellent GRE AWA score. ” username=”galvanizeprep”]

Why is it on the GRE?

Why is analytical writing gre a thing.

It tells all of the colleges to which you apply that you are capable of critical thinking, of exceptionally good writing and logical reasoning . So much like the GRE verbal reasoning section, this also tests your ability to think and analyze texts but more importantly also your ability to express it  in words of your own.

This is a very very important skill and the reason this is being stressed is because those of you who aspire to write the GRE to get abroad for your masters courses will be expected to write a lot of assignments, to write papers, to work on research and to submit a lot of content throughout your academic career in the US .

This is a very heavy part of their academics and not just at the college level. This is something that is emphasized right from school. So for those of you who are still uncomfortable  with that you can think of the AWA section as something that prepares you to tackle all of this – to tackle the challenge that a higher education in a country like the US where English is  their first language is going to bring for you.

Time Allocated for the AWA

There are two types of tasks. One is called an ‘analyze an issue’ task and the other is ‘analyze an argument’ task. Together they combine to form the AWA section for each of which you have 30 minutes bringing it to a total of sixty minutes .

GRE Issue Essay:

GRE Issue Essay tests your ability to present your opinion on an issue and support the your argument. Don’t get confused with the GRE Argument Essay. Here you need to support one side of the issue and present it in 30 minutes.To understand the concept better, read a few GRE issue essay samples and then practice the whole AWA.

GRE Argument Essay:

This type of essay tests your ability to criticise the author’s argument with proofs and presents his view with supporting evidences. Finally you need to give evidence to weaken the conclusion without disapproving the author’s conclusion. For this too, look at a few GRE argument essay samples before practicing for the entire AWA.

These are actually the first 60 minutes of your four hour exam. So really build your stamina and come prepared . Be prepared, practice. This kind of thing doesn’t happen beautifully overnight.

How are the Essays Scored?

They’re going to look at all of these aspects – the strength of your argument, the relevance of your examples, your grammar and finally combine all of that to get your score. It’s also  important to remember that each GRE essay of the analytical writing section is evaluated twice. Once by a human reader, the other is by a software called an ‘e-rater’ .

This was developed by ETS – the people  who made the GRE exam and it’s actually used to monitor the human reader. So the e-rater  also gives an evaluation and a score and if the two scores agree with one another then the human score is final.

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If they disagree, then a second human score is obtained so there’s a  chance that your essay may even be read a third time and that final score is an average of the two humans.

The e-rater score is never your final score , it’s just to test whether the human score sounds appropriate. They’re going through a lot of trouble to assess how good your essay is.

Now let’s talk about how the GRE essays are scored. Each of these essays are scored in two different ways . One –  it’s evaluated by a trained human reader . There is going to be a real person reading your essays so make it as legible as possible.

Try to avoid grammatical mistakes, spelling errors. They can see it. They’re going to grade each of the essays and   give it a score out of six . The final score is going to be an average of these two scores.

They  don’t give anything in decimal points, it’s always going to be a whole number and the final score may have the decimal point of five at best. That’s how you are scored. So your issue received a score of five and your argument a four, then your AWA score overall would be a 4.5.

Note that the scoring is holistic so what they’re looking for is overall quality. The essay as a whole should be quite good for you to receive a reasonably good score like a 4.

It’s okay if you’ve made a few grammatical mistakes , it’s okay if your content is not 100% perfect but say you do averagely well across all of these, then you can get a pretty decent score .

Now if the grammar is really really horrible but you have great content you still have some chances of scoring decently. Content has the highest value . That said, if it’s really hard for them  to even get through one of your sentences, that’s not going to help either. So focus on covering all four of these areas – your content, your organization, your grammar and language .

What is Good GRE Writing score?

Even though GRE Analytical Writing has two different sections, the score you get is a combined which makes it more reliable. One of the important factors that determines your good GRE AWA score is the field of study you wanted to pursue.

Take a look at the table below to know the performance of each score range.

From the below ETS performance reports between 2014 and 2017, you can observe that most of the test takers were able to score above 3.5 in Analytical writing section but only 8 percent of the test-takers were able to score above 5.0, which means you need to practice a lot to score above 5 in GRE writing.

Time Management for the AWA

The next big question that comes to mind is “how do I manage my time?”.  You have 30 minutes each to write both essays. How do you break it up into chunks? How do you deal with each part of this task well? Here are a few GRE analytical writing tips we recommend.

As always, we suggest you spend the first couple of minutes reading your topic   carefully and understanding the prompt.

The reason we say this dedicatedly is because a lot of learners personally tend to read the prompt very quickly and think “oh gosh I have to write an essay” and then rush and start writing. Don’t do this.

We’ve seen students make very big mistakes or errors in their judgment because they rush to try to write the actual essay . It’s important to understand the essay prompt and the argument first. You may even miss a really big key word and completely misunderstand what  the prompt is about.

In fact  we’ve seen students miss key words which mean the exact opposite of what they’ve  understood. Take your time to read carefully and spend these couple of minutes being really  focused here.

The next two to four minutes is going to be spent on reading the prompt again. Those of you who don’t like reading again please get that out of your system for the entire GRE AWA. Everything hinges on you reading carefully and reading maybe even multiple times to make sure you really understood what you’re reading.

This is where you begin to jot down your points and examples as they come to your mind. The moment you lay your eyes on any particular topic ideas will  come flooding into your mind. Now is the time you take to quickly note them down.

GRE AWA Tips and Tricks

Not sure what to study our youtube channel will lead you..

It’s okay if you use short forms, whatever you can do as quickly as possible. For those of you who are not comfortable with typing please get a lot of practice as it will be needed for the AWA. The next 15 minutes is the most important. 15 minutes is smack in the middle so that you  have enough time to really wrap it up. This is when you write a draft.

In addition, ETS has published the complete pool of GRE AWA topics which will ever appear on the Analytical Writing section of the test! If you have the time, we recommend checking out the list of topics so you’re not blindsided on test day.

For those of you who are not accustomed to following the proper writing technique every piece of writing that you do has  an all-important drafting stage . This means it is not the final piece.

Type up your draft, use the points and examples you came up with, jot things down, even put new things that hit you at this time but you have to do it within these 15 minutes because next you only have a few more minutes to really develop new points and clean things up.

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Now this is where the most important part of making an essay a finished product actually happens.

This is when you make your draft final. This is when you make it a complete piece of writing. You have to spend time re-arranging and re-organizing your ideas . You need to decide where you want to start talking about the most impactful thing, which is the best concluding note and move things around.

Make sure that there’s logical flow from point A to point B . So if this point B contradicts point A, there’s a space for you to use a transition. Maybe you’ve finished point A on a particular note. Before you start point B you might want to say “however it’s important for us to consider so on..”.

This is the kind of thing that gives your essay flow. It makes the reader aware of your flow of thought, of your flow of reasoning.

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Transitions are a huge part of organizing your essay and we strongly recommend taking a few minutes to get comfortable with these. The reason the last three minutes are especially important is because we really take it seriously as a part of the writing process. You’re not allowed to not do anything additional these last three minutes.

You must read your entire essay, check for mistakes and typos and see if you need to make any quick changes. At this time you make no additions or subtractions, just edit and make sure you  clean it up.

GRE Writing Practice:

Start practising the essays and schedule an hour in a day to write one argument essay and one issue essay. While writing, make yourself and the reader clear on what side of the argument you are standing. Don’t let the reader assume it.

Take up the high score GRE essay samples and compare your essays with them. Go through the differences like number of paragraphs, sentence structure, vocabulary and strong evidences to support your argument. By following these GRE writing tips you can aim for 5+ in GRE analytical writing score.

Summarizing the AWA

About word limits – it’s not the biggest and most important thing of concern here in the GRE analytical writing section. You have half an hour to write a substantial essay . We recommend writing the GRE essay anywhere between three and five paragraphs .

The reason we say this is because you need that much space at least to develop your ideas thoughtfully and substantially. Five paragraphs are good.

An absolute maximum would be seven paragraphs. Do not exceed seven paragraphs , that really means you’re talking a little bit too much and testing the readers ability to  keep up with your thinking.

Try to write at least 300 – 400 words or three to five paragraphs.

Practice is absolutely essential for the AWA. You cannot ace these AWA exams on your first try so practice . Try to type at least three to five of these essays.

This means at least three GRE issue essays and at least three GRE argument essays well before your actual GRE. Of course when you practice use a timer. Timing is all essential for organizational clarity .

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How much time can we spend for GRE AWA? 

• 60 mins in which you need to write two essays

What is a good GRE Analytical score? 

• A score of 4-6 is a good GRE analytical score

What is the evaluation criteria for GRE AWA? 

• Content,  clarity in expressing, organization of ideas and language

What are the two tasks in GRE AWA? 

• GRE issue essay : Ability to present opinion and support argument
• GRE Argument Essay : To criticize the argument with proof and present his view with supporting evidence

How is GRE AWA evaluated? 

• Once evaluated by human reader and once by a software : ‘e-rater’
• Scored out of 6 and the average of two essays is taken as a final score.  Anything above 5 is an excelling GRE AWA score. 

So Here’s a Quick Summary of GRE AWA Guide:

• GRE AWA tests thinking, writing and logical reasoning skills
• Sections of GRE : Verbal, Quant and analytical
• GRE AWA : 60 mins, 2 essays
• Good GRE analytical score : 4-6
• Two tasks : One to build an argument to support an idea. Two : To analyze and evaluate the soundness of the argument
• Tackle the questions irrespective of your knowledge on that subject : they test skills, not knowledge. 
• Content : Ability to present relevant and persuasive essay. Use examples to support your argument
• Clarity in expressing ideas
• Organization of ideas : structure of essay
• Language : Your choice of words , sentence structure and the fluency would be taken into account
• Tip : Don’t make sentences and words complex unnecessarily. 
• Focus on content and organization first. 
• Two tasks : To analyze an issue task, To analyze an argument task : 60 mins
• GRE AWA Evaluation : Once by human reader and once by a software : ‘e-rater’
• ETS has released the pool of topics : use them

Bonus GRE Resources

Structuring & Composing Your GRE AWA Essays!

How To Score 160+ In The GRE Verbal!

GRE Quant: How To Score A Perfect 170!

Now it's your turn, i'd like to hear from you.

There you have it. Everything you need in order to get your GRE AWA practice started right.

Is writing essays something you enjoy? Or is there an aspect of this you’re nervous about?

Leave a comment below letting us know right away.

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It was informative. And also happy by buying the gre test preparation course by galvanize. Hoping foe good result.

Informative.

It was of great help. I got a clear guide abhiut what gre is actually about. I am looking forward to it.

The part of GRE AWA that scares me is writing an essay.

My only problem is writing a good essay with coherence.

I read the whole article .. Gives a lot information about the GRE vocab App . I have been using the app since two weeks . Well I can get some new stuff regarding GRE everyday . This article gives information about AWA and GRE app which is important for the students who are not aware about GRE exam .

I had trouble with essays this was useful.

nic post thanks for sharing

This was interesting.

So helpful and informative. Thanks

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What Is a Good GRE Score for Graduate School Admissions?

Experts say what qualifies as a good GRE score depends on the grad school you want to attend.

What Is a Good GRE Score?

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Grad school hopefuls wondering how well they need to perform on the Graduate Record Exam should understand that programs have varied expectations for standardized tests, admissions experts say.

Admissions officers suggest prospective students look up the GRE score ranges among admitted students at the schools they are considering and check if these schools have GRE score requirements.

Researching grad program admissions statistics can help you determine which GRE scores are good enough to qualify for acceptance at desired programs.

"A good GRE score is relative to the program you’re applying to," Pierre Huguet, CEO and founder of admissions consulting firm H&C Education, wrote in an email. "The best way to assess the value of your GRE score is to look for the latest average GRE data from the program you’re applying to. If these numbers aren’t available online, feel free to contact the department itself, as they are usually very happy to help prospective students with their applications."

People who complete the GRE receive three scores: verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning and analytical writing. Here's how the scoring breaks down, according to the Educational Testing Service, the nonprofit organization that designs and administers the GRE:

GRE Score Ranges

GRE test-takers who are unsure what type of graduate program they would like to attend can use the following data from ETS for guidance on what kind of score to aim for. The chart shows approximate percentiles from those who took the test between July 1, 2018 and June 30, 2021.

GRE Verbal and Quantitative Reasoning Percentiles

Analytical writing percentiles, guidelines for setting target gre scores.

According to ETS, the mean verbal reasoning score among all GRE test-takers between July 1, 2018 and June 30, 2021 was 150.61. Meanwhile, the mean quantitative score was 154.34 and the mean analytical writing score was 3.6.

A score above a 155 on the quantitative section would typically put a test-taker "in pretty decent shape," especially for programs that are less focused on math, says Ryan Starr, an instructor with Manhattan Prep, a Kaplan test-prep company. He adds that a score near or above 160 is generally good enough to get into most programs, though some top programs with a math focus might still want to see higher scores around 165. For verbal scores, anything in the high 150s or above is a good score, Starr says.

Experts say that math-heavy grad programs tend to desire students with high quantitative scores and put less emphasis on verbal scores. In contrast, grad programs in humanities subjects typically want students with high verbal scores.

"So a low math score, for example, won’t necessarily hurt your chances of acceptance to great humanities and social sciences programs, and a low verbal score won’t necessarily hurt your chances of acceptance to a competitive math-based program," Huguet says.

Andrew Selepak, program coordinator of the graduate program in social media at the University of Florida , says GRE scores that are good enough for someone to qualify for one grad program may not allow them to be a competitive candidate elsewhere.

It is "important for the applicant to learn the minimum score for the program they are applying to," Selepak wrote in an email. "But a few points higher or lower can make all the difference when applying for graduate school and it is important for the applicant to not only keep this in mind, but to also know the minimum score required."

Dozens of law schools in the U.S. and abroad accept the GRE in place of scores from the Law School Admissions Test, known as the LSAT. An EST tool converts GRE results into equivalent LST scores, and law schools can differ from each other in how they view GRE scores.

The Importance of Percentiles

Grad school admissions officers sometimes care as much about a candidate's GRE percentiles, meaning the percent of fellow test-takers who the candidate outperformed on each section of the exam, as they do about actual GRE scores.

"Ultimately, they want to know how you do compared to your peers," says Nellie Gaynor, a graduate school admissions counselor at IvyWise, an admissions consulting company. "A score of 160 on one test and 165 on another test can have two very different percentiles. I think it’s important to understand that in the context."

Anything in the 75th percentile or higher in all three tests will generally be good enough to get into most competitive grad programs, Gaynor says. However, some prestigious programs may want to see higher scores.

U.S. News data reveals that there are some grad programs where admitted students tend to have exceptionally high GRE scores, including the doctoral program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's School of Engineering . The average GRE score among MIT engineering Ph.D. students entering in fall 2022 was 161 out of 170 on the verbal section, 4.4 out of 6 on the writing section and 167 out of 170 on the quantitative section.

How Much GRE Scores Matter

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, many grad programs have become test optional. Submitting GRE scores can benefit an application, but it may not always be necessary. Experts suggest weighing the benefits of taking the test alongside the cost and time required for test prep.

For applicants who struggled in their undergraduate programs, strong performance on the GRE can demonstrate academic prowess, Starr says. Further, experts say that grad school applicants with subpar test scores can sometimes compensate by writing compelling admissions essays and submitting a strong resume

"Basically, most schools are considering your GRE score and your academic transcript in the same bucket,” Starr says. “If that bucket’s a little light on the academic transcript, then you top it off with a good GRE score essentially to give the schools some indication that you can handle the rigors of an academic program in a way that the transcript doesn’t show."

Many grad programs offer standardized test waivers for candidates who have high college grades or extensive work experience, so candidates may want to investigate this, experts say.

Grad school applicants who intend to take the GRE and perform well on it should prep for the exam thoroughly. Gaynor says most test-takers typically spend two or three months preparing, though that varies.

However, GRE test-takers who do not perform as well as they hoped should not automatically assume that a low score will prevent them from attending grad school, Huguet says.

"Of course, test takers should try to get the highest score possible on the GRE exam," he says. "However, there’s a misconception among graduate school applications that your GRE score can make or break your application. It is important to understand that the GRE is only one aspect among many others. Things like research or work experience, or published papers, carry much more weight in a grad school application than your GRE score."

Gaynor emphasizes that grad school admissions officers look at applicants' credentials in a holistic way, evaluating GRE scores alongside other information.

"I think you have to understand that it’s one piece of the admissions puzzle," she says. "Ultimately, you can demonstrate your verbal or your quantitative skills in different parts of your application. In a GRE-optional world, there’s lots of different options for applicants to put their best foot forward and still be competitive at top schools."

Searching for a grad school? Access our complete rankings of Best Graduate Schools.

10 Steps to Tackle a Low GRE Score

Tags: graduate schools , GRE , education , students

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The GRE ® Tests

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Analytical Writing Measure Scoring

Score level descriptions for the analytical writing measure.

The reported Analytical Writing score ranges from 0 to 6, in half-point increments.

The statements below describe, for each score level, the overall quality of analytical writing demonstrated. Critical thinking and analytical writing skills (the ability to reason, assemble evidence to develop a position and communicate complex ideas) are assessed, along with the writer's control of grammar and the mechanics of writing.

Scores 6 and 5.5

Sustains insightful, in-depth analysis of complex ideas; develops and supports main points with logically compelling reasons and/or highly persuasive examples; is well focused and well organized; skillfully uses sentence variety and precise vocabulary to convey meaning effectively; demonstrates superior facility with sentence structure and usage, but may have minor errors that do not interfere with meaning.

Scores 5 and 4.5

Provides generally thoughtful analysis of complex ideas; develops and supports main points with logically sound reasons and/or well-chosen examples; is generally focused and well organized; uses sentence variety and vocabulary to convey meaning clearly; demonstrates good control of sentence structure and usage, but may have minor errors that do not interfere with meaning.

Scores 4 and 3.5

Provides competent analysis of ideas in addressing specific task directions; develops and supports main points with relevant reasons and/or examples; is adequately organized; conveys meaning with acceptable clarity; demonstrates satisfactory control of sentence structure and usage, but may have some errors that affect clarity.

Scores 3 and 2.5

Displays some competence in analytical writing and addressing specific task directions, 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 usage, with errors that often result in vagueness or a lack of clarity.

Scores 2 and 1.5

Displays serious weaknesses in analytical writing. The writing is seriously flawed in at least one of the following ways: serious lack of analysis or development; unclear in addressing specific task directions; lack of organization; frequent problems in sentence structure or usage, with errors that obscure meaning.

Scores 1 and 0.5

Displays fundamental deficiencies in analytical writing. The writing is fundamentally flawed in at least one of the following ways: content that is extremely confusing or mostly irrelevant to the assigned tasks; little or no development; severe and pervasive errors that result in incoherence.

The test taker’s analytical writing skills cannot be evaluated because the responses do not address any part of the assigned tasks, are merely attempts to copy the assignments, are in a foreign language or display only indecipherable text.

The test taker produced no text whatsoever.

“Analyze an Issue” task scoring guide

Score 6 outstanding.

In addressing the specific task directions, a 6 response presents a cogent, well-articulated analysis of the issue and conveys meaning skillfully.

A typical response in this category:

• articulates a clear and insightful position on the issue in accordance with the assigned task
• develops the position fully with compelling reasons and/or persuasive examples
• sustains a well-focused, well-organized analysis, connecting ideas logically
• conveys ideas fluently and precisely, using effective vocabulary and sentence variety
• demonstrates superior facility with the conventions of standard written English (i.e., grammar, usage and mechanics), but may have minor errors

Score 5 Strong

In addressing the specific task directions, a 5 response presents a generally thoughtful, well-developed analysis of the issue and conveys meaning clearly.

• presents a clear and well-considered position on the issue in accordance with the assigned task
• develops the position with logically sound reasons and/or well-chosen examples
• is focused and generally well organized, connecting ideas appropriately
• conveys ideas clearly and well, using appropriate vocabulary and sentence variety
• demonstrates facility with the conventions of standard written English, but may have minor errors

Score 4 Adequate

In addressing the specific task directions, a 4 response presents a competent analysis of the issue and conveys meaning with acceptable clarity.

• presents a clear position on the issue in accordance with the assigned task
• develops the position with relevant reasons and/or examples
• is adequately focused and organized
• demonstrates sufficient control of language to express ideas with acceptable clarity
• generally demonstrates control of the conventions of standard written English, but may have some errors

Score 3 Limited

A 3 response demonstrates some competence in addressing the specific task directions, in analyzing the issue and in conveying meaning, but is obviously flawed.

A typical response in this category exhibits one or more of the following characteristics:

• is vague or limited in addressing the specific task directions and in presenting or developing a position on the issue or both
• is weak in the use of relevant reasons or examples or relies largely on unsupported claims
• is limited in focus and/or organization
• has problems in language and sentence structure that result in a lack of clarity
• contains occasional major errors or frequent minor errors in grammar, usage or mechanics that can interfere with meaning

Score 2 Seriously Flawed

A 2 response largely disregards the specific task directions and/or demonstrates serious weaknesses in analytical writing.

• is unclear or seriously limited in addressing the specific task directions and in presenting or developing a position on the issue or both
• provides few, if any, relevant reasons or examples in support of its claims
• is poorly focused and/or poorly organized
• has serious problems in language and sentence structure that frequently interfere with meaning
• contains serious errors in grammar, usage or mechanics that frequently obscure meaning

Score 1 Fundamentally Deficient

A 1 response demonstrates fundamental deficiencies in analytical writing.

• provides little or no evidence of understanding the issue
• provides little or no evidence of the ability to develop an organized response (e.g., is disorganized and/or extremely brief)
• has severe problems in language and sentence structure that persistently interfere with meaning
• contains pervasive errors in grammar, usage or mechanics that result in incoherence

Off topic (i.e., provides no evidence of an attempt to address the assigned topic), is in a foreign language, merely copies the topic, consists of only keystroke characters or is illegible or nonverbal.

The essay response is blank.

“Analyze an Argument” task scoring guide (for General Tests administered before September 22, 2023)

In addressing the specific task directions, a 6 response presents a cogent, well-articulated examination of the argument and conveys meaning skillfully.

• clearly identifies aspects of the argument relevant to the assigned task and examines them insightfully
• develops ideas cogently, organizes them logically and connects them with clear transitions
• provides compelling and thorough support for its main points

In addressing the specific task directions, a 5 response presents a generally thoughtful, well-developed examination of the argument and conveys meaning clearly.

• clearly identifies aspects of the argument relevant to the assigned task and examines them in a generally perceptive way
• develops ideas clearly, organizes them logically and connects them with appropriate transitions
• offers generally thoughtful and thorough support for its main points

In addressing the specific task directions, a 4 response presents a competent examination of the argument and conveys meaning with acceptable clarity.

• identifies and examines aspects of the argument relevant to the assigned task, but may also discuss some extraneous points
• develops and organizes ideas satisfactorily, but may not connect them with transitions
• supports its main points adequately, but may be uneven in its support
• demonstrates sufficient control of language to convey ideas with reasonable clarity

A 3 response demonstrates some competence in addressing the specific task directions, in examining the argument and in conveying meaning, but is obviously flawed.

• does not identify or examine most of the aspects of the argument relevant to the assigned task, although some relevant examination of the argument is present
• mainly discusses tangential or irrelevant matters, or reasons poorly
• is limited in the logical development and organization of ideas
• offers support of little relevance and value for its main points
• does not present an examination based on logical analysis, but may instead present the writer's own views on the subject
• does not follow the directions for the assigned task
• does not develop ideas, or is poorly organized and illogical
• provides little, if any, relevant or reasonable support for its main points
• provides little or no evidence of understanding the argument
• provides little evidence of the ability to develop an organized response (e.g., is disorganized and/or extremely brief)

Off topic (i.e., provides no evidence of an attempt to respond to the assigned topic), is in a foreign language, merely copies the topic, consists of only keystroke characters, or is illegible or nonverbal.