HOW MUCH DOES GRE AWA WEIGH?

[LouiseHearl]

Hey guys,

I just got my gre score with Q800, V620 but AWA 2.5. So will this influent my chance of admission a lot?

 

[nikhilguptak]

GRE AWA does count when universities consider you for the admission. Generally, universities have a AWA cut-off which they expect everyone to cross.
I personally know a student who has been rejected because of his low AWA score.

You can probably check with the universities to ask for an exemption or to consider your case seperately ( by mentioning in your additional essay)

 

[Andy Nguyen]

You did not mention your TOEFL or other scores where language skill can be judged.
2.5 is really bad score, even worse if you are native English speaker. I actually pay more attention to your AWA, your essay than the verbal score.

 

[roni]

I didn't take TOEFL. I have my undergrad at U.S so I don't have to take the TOEFL. I actually took several composition class in my school with B+ and my AW in the GMAT is 4.5. So I don't understand how could it happen. Do you know anyelse that I can do to help with it?

If you are planning on retaking the GRE, you can find the essay topics on ets.org
And, you can get the book "ARCO_GRE_Answers_to_Real_Essay_Questions" (you can google the name to find the pdf). You will find in the book full essays for many if not for all of the topics.

 

[LouiseHearl]

You did not mention your TOEFL or other scores where language skill can be judged.
2.5 is really bad score, even worse if you are native English speaker. I actually pay more attention to your AWA, your essay than the verbal score.

I didn't take TOEFL. I have my undergrad at U.S so I don't have to take the TOEFL. I actually took several composition class in my school with B+ and my AW in the GMAT is 4.5. So I don't understand how could it happen. Do you know anyelse that I can do to help with it?

 

[LouiseHearl]

If you are planning on retaking the GRE, you can find the essay topics on ets.org
And, you can get the book "ARCO_GRE_Answers_to_Real_Essay_Questions" (you can google the name to find the pdf). You will find in the book full essays for many if not for all of the topics.

But the problem is I can't retake the GRE. The deadline is coming fairly close. Is retaking the only choice for me?

 

[roni]

But the problem is I can't retake the GRE. The deadline is coming fairly close. Is retaking the only choice for me?

I'm not in any program yet, so I can't really comment on this.
However, if you decide to retake it now, the scores will be out in 2 weeks and that's enough time to apply.
Actually, you can apply now, tell the schools that you are retaking it in a week or so.
Btw, the deadline to many schools is around April/March (CMU, Baruch, NYU). I believe it's enough time.

Good luck !

 

[zimingsk]

2.5 is terrible....I only know someone are getting 3.5 and it's already a bad score.

 

[Tsotne]

I don't find writing section that difficult. Verbal part seems to be a disaster for international students. We have to work on vocabulary much.

 

[JayNicholas]

I don't find writing section that difficult. Verbal part seems to be a disaster for international students. We have to work on vocabulary much.

well, for Chinese applicants, maybe the AWA is the only thing that they should be worry about.

 

[Tsotne]

well, for Chinese applicants, maybe the AWA is the only thing that they should be worry about.

For international students verbal part as a whole seems disaster. For me it is not easy too. But the writing section is not that difficult. Verbal part contributes less - in quantitative it is not difficult to get high scores also - so we have no worry about GRE unless we have some other disadvantages to recover like GPA, low math based scores, etc.

 

[lonely]

I also got AWA 2.5 and having hard time understanding how can it be so low. I am pretty ok with writing. I saw sample answer on ets and one with score of 4 looked awful there is no way I could be that bad. I think problem with AW is that its left to individual judgment and if he is not in good mood he can drop any number he wishes

 

[Andy Nguyen]

It's not unusual for me to see applicants with 700+ Verbal GRE and 3 AWA or less. You can cram for verbal part, learn all the key vocabularies, tricks and get a very high scores. Applicants from Korea, China are experts in this area.
You can't just do the same thing in the AWA section. I got 4.5 the first time I took GRE back in 2004 and all I did was to look at few sample essays. The key, in my opinion is to get yourself comfortable with writing long augmentative essays to defend your opinion.

And online forums like Quantnet provide an excellent playground to sharpen your pen. (You can't use one liners like "LOL...OMG, that shiz iz the shizzle" to improve your writing). Reading Op-ed sections on NYT or such would give you idea how people can have 100% valid and opposite essay on the same question. You can do that if GRE is the first time you try to do that in English.

If I remember correctly, 3 people grade the essay and 2 people have to agree on the same AWA score. So, it's not one person deciding how much your writing is worth.

 

[goldski]

I also got AWA 2.5 and having hard time understanding how can it be so low. I am pretty ok with writing. I saw sample answer on ets and one with score of 4 looked awful there is no way I could be that bad. I think problem with AW is that its left to individual judgment and if he is not in good mood he can drop any number he wishes

Lol What? Is that what you told yourself?