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analytic writing for GRE

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 2:02 pm
by Indigojoker
I was wondering what the general consensus is for getting the rescore on the analytic writing section of the GREs. Do people tend to get a better score after the rescore or do the scores usually drop?

Re: analytic writing for GRE

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 2:44 pm
by dlenmn
I don't think the sample size here is large enough for there to be any consensus. At least one person's score dropped. Use the forum's search function to learn about it...

Re: analytic writing for GRE

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:30 pm
by quizivex
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
IF ANYONE HERE HAS RESCORED THE WRITING OR KNOWS SOMEONE ELSE WHO RESCORED, PLEASE TELL US THE RESULTS HERE SO WE CAN GET MORE DATA FOR FUTURE APPLICANTS WHO MIGHT CONSIDER RESCORING!!!

Here's my story with the writing section:
http://www.physicsgre.com/viewtopic.php ... it=writing
I scored a 5.5 originally and was rescored to a 4.5.

Also, someone else heard of a rescore leading to a lower score:
xdebugger wrote:I doubt that getting a regrade will help at all. It probably will cost you a lot too. I know somebody who requested a regrade on the writing and got a lower score than the original.


Basically, I'd only advise requesting a rescore if you were given an awful score and you feel absolutely sure it was caused by clerical error/typo. (i.e. you were expecting a 5 and got a 3). Do not rescore if you're just hoping to get lucky and score a half point higher...

From my experience, it seems that either ETS is always harder on rescored essays by policy, or that perhaps someone was offended that I'd want to rescore a 5.5 and thought he'd show me a lesson. I know that sounds silly, since we'd expect everything at ETS to be handled by computer except for the reading of the essays themselves, the difference between 5.5 and 4.5 is so drastic that something fishy had to be behind it... Also, note that when I first decided to rescore, I talked to an ETS operator and was told that we're allowed to rescore upto twice, but then after what happened, when I sent in my second rescore it was rejected; I got a letter saying you can only do it once. Finally, the rescore process takes a long time, so if you don't do it soon, your schools may end up getting your original score report followed by an updated one.

In short, save yourself the trouble.

Re: analytic writing for GRE

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 11:59 pm
by trupti
How important is analytical writing score for admissions? I have a miserable 4. I think that I would have done better, but I was feeling very nervous during my GRE and as analytical writing is the first question in the exam, I did badly in it. But my verbal score is reasonable (610). Also I have a very good TOEFL score (115/120 with 30/30 on writing). So will my TOEFL writing score makeup my bad analytical writing.

Re: analytic writing for GRE

Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 12:55 am
by doom
@trupti:
I think you're fine. They just want to know that you can read and write English decently well. The writing on the GRE is not very much like writing a physics paper, and they know that. I think you've demonstrated that you're all right.

Re: analytic writing for GRE

Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 3:35 am
by excel
In other words, trupti, you are not doomed.

By the way, in the context of analytical writing, I found Peterson's book to be quite useful. I liked its systemetic approach to GRE's analytical writing.