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Tips for a Perfect GRE Argument Essay

A lot of us dread writing, especially when it comes to writing for an exam. But worry not, because the GRE Analytical Writing can be aced with a few tips and strategies up your sleeve.

GRE Analytical Writing section:

Apart from the Verbal and Quantitative skills, the GRE also tests your ability to critically think about and analyze a given topic. They do not test content knowledge–for example, how much you know about the issue at hand. The topics are such that they are of general interest or issue to the public, such as education, healthcare, a philosophical view, etc.

They basically want to assess how well you can analyze a certain argument, evaluate and articulate your views, and sustain a coherent essay consisting of an introduction, body, and conclusion.

There are two tasks within the Analytical Writing section:

Analyze an Argument

Analyze an Issue

Time and Word Limit:

For each of the two tasks, you will be given 30 minutes. The GRE scorers consider the short time limit and assess your essay as a first draft. Nevertheless, you have to make sure that there are no persistent errors related to grammar, punctuation, or spelling. Occasional typos are okay and will not result in negative marking. However, always budget your time such that you have at least five minutes to go over any surface-level errors and typos.

Always spend the first 5–7 minutes planning your essay. Believe me, it will save you time later on. Moreover, it will make your essay more structurally sound and cohesive. Develop a rough structure of the essay on the spare sheets given to you during the exam. Also, remember you can always ask for more whenever you need it.

You will be given a ballpark word limit for each of your essays. Still, remember while practicing writing that ideal GRE essays (scored the highest by ETS) fall between a range of 600–750. So practice keeping a minimum of 600 as your word limit. And never exceed 1000.

Scoring:

Each of these writing tasks is scored within a range of 0–6, 6 being the highest score. More details on exactly what they put under each score are available on the ETS website: https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/analytical_writing/issue/scoring_guide

Analyze an Argument:

This 30-minute task will have specific instructions you will have to follow. Basic guidelines are NOT to agree or disagree with a viewpoint, but critically assess the logic and soundness of the argument presented. Moreover, you are not to claim whether the arguments are true or not.

Below are some tips that will help you score high in your Analytical Writing section:

Tips:

In this task, you will be assessing someone else’s argument, so make sure that you do not focus on what or how you feel about the issue at hand.

Form your essay keeping the standard format in mind: start with an introduction, write separate arguments in each body paragraph, and finally, end with a conclusion paragraph.

Use transition words and phrases to link your essay together. These words are, however, in addition to, to begin with, in conclusion, etc. This signals to your scorer that you are capable of forming connections and articulating structured thoughts.

Even though the essay primarily evaluates critical thinking, grammar and punctuation are equally important. So make sure you proofread your essay at least once after writing it.

Do not start writing immediately after reading the essay prompt. Plan your essay before you begin writing. It saves time and results in fewer structural errors.

Now that you have these tips and tricks for the GRE Analytical Writing, it is time to practice some! There is an excellent pool of issue and argument topics on the ETS website itself that you can use to practice your writing.

You can find these here:

Analyze an Issue: https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/analytical_writing/argument/pool

Analyze an Argument: https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/analytical_writing/issue/pool

Finally, remember while preparing to read a lot of articles–this will help both in comprehension (which is good for the Verbal section) as well as in the Analytical Writing section.

Source : https://bit.ly/3zCUcFa

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A Detailed Overview of the GRE Test

In this introduction to the GRE guide, we will give you an overview of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE).

Who manages the GRE General Test?

GRE General is a standardized test that is a mandatory requirement for admission for the majority of graduate schools around the world, especially in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe. It is administered by the Educational Testing Service (ETS).

Types of GRE:

 There are two types of GRE Tests:

GRE General

GRE Subject

All graduate schools accept GRE General (with few exceptions). However, in certain programs, GRE Subject is also a requirement. There are eight fields that sometimes require the GRE Subject exam too. For further details about the GRE Subject exam please click here.

Who should take the GRE Test?

Applicants pursuing a master’s degree or MBA or doctoral degree (Ph.D.), have to take the GRE General Test. Similarly, as applicants come from varying educational and cultural backgrounds, the GRE General Test provides schools with a common measure for comparing candidates’ academic abilities in addition to Grade Point Average (GPA).  

GRE Structure and Pattern: 

GRE tests are taken in both computer and paper-based formats. In the majority of countries, you can only take computer-based GRE.

The testing time for the computer-based GRE General Test is about 3 hours and 45 minutes. There are six sections with a 10-minute break following the third section.

The GRE General Test is a multistage test. This format allows the student to move back and forth between questions that are a part of the same section, and the testing software allows the student to “mark” questions within each section so that they can be reviewed later if time permits.

GRE Sections:

Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA)

This section consists of two different essays, “Issue” and “Argument”. Students will have to write essays on a computer. It does not contain a spell-checker or any other advanced word editing features.

Issue Essay:

It tests the student’s ability to convince the examiner to agree to his/her point of view.  Issue topics are usually selected from a pool of questions, which are published on the ETS website.

Argument Essay:

The students are given an argument (i.e. a series of facts and considerations leading to a conclusion), and they are asked to write an essay to criticize the given argument. Moreover, students are required to carefully understand the argument’s logic and then make suggestions about how the logic of the argument can be improved.  Basically, students are required to focus on the logical flaws of the argument and not give their own viewpoints on the subject.

Quantitative Section

Assesses a student’s basic high school level mathematics and measures basic concepts of arithmetic, algebra, statistics, geometry, data analysis, problem-solving, and critical thinking abilities. The break-up of each quantitative section is as follows:

It also includes numeric entry items, which require the students to fill in the blanks and answer multiple-choice questions.

A basic on-screen calculator is also available.

Verbal Section

The verbal sections assess a student’s reading comprehension, critical reasoning, and vocabulary usage. Therefore, every section consists of around six text completion, four-sentence equivalence, and ten reading comprehension & critical reading questions.

Experimental Section:

The experimental section (verbal or quantitative) consists of new question types that ETS is experimenting with for future use. However, the experimental section does not count in the main score. Therefore, students have no definite way of knowing which section is experimental, it is advisable for students to give their best in every section.

GRE Scores:

GRE report will reflect three scores:

Verbal and Quantitative Reasoning have 1-point increments and AWA has half-point increments. Moreover, if you score all the questions incorrectly, then you would get 260 scores in total out of 340. In other words, 130 is a zero score. On the other hand, the total score of the Verbal and Quantitative sections is 340. This means, 170 is a perfect score in each verbal and quant section.

Test Dates:

You can take the GRE Test (computer-based) year-round at Prometric testing centers. In addition, students can take the GRE test once every 21 days. Also, they can only take up to five times within a 12-month period. Also, this applies even if a student has canceled his scores on a previously taken test. However, students can register for their tests on a specific test date by going to the ETS website.

Registration:

To register for GRE, students have to create a ‘My GRE Account. Moreover, there are four ways to register for the GRE general test- Online, Phone, Mail, and Fax registration.

Official Report:

After the actual exam, you can access the official report on your ETS account after approximately 10 working days.

How do I send scores to my university?

Your test fee entitles you to send scores to as many as four graduate institutions or fellowship sponsors for FREE.

On the test day, you can send scores to your respective universities.

Validity & Fee:

GRE scores are valid for five years and the fee is US $205/-.