The AWA section of the GRE has to do with essay writing. This is the only section of the test that doesn’t have MCQ-type questions. Instead, you have to write two essays. In one, you have to analyze an issue, whereas you have to analyze an argument in the other one. You receive 30 minutes per essay, and your performance is scored on a 0-6 point scale in half-point increments.
Many test-takers don’t pay much heed to the essay writing portion of the test, thinking it doesn’t carry much significance. However, this is not necessarily true and depends on the program you are applying to.
Traditionally, humanities and arts programs have placed greater emphasis on AWA scores. This makes sense because these programs typically contain far more writing assignments than STEM programs. Moreover, a mathematics or physics paper can do without elevated prose as the emphasis is on the logic of arriving at a mathematical proof.
However, a Political Science student, on the other hand, has to express their thoughts purely in words. They have to structure their arguments and back them up by evidence and derive conclusions. Hence, such programs tend to pay more attention to the GRE essay score.
A significant hurdle that students face during their GRE prep is not being able to assess their writing. This is one of the few significant disadvantages of self-studying for the GRE. Unlike, Verbal and Quant sections, you cannot get away with one-word answers. Nor are there any formulas to help you.
You need to have an excellent understanding of what the examiners look for in an essay to score in the 4-6 range. Prep-books can only take you so far, and online courses that offer essay evaluation cost an arm and a leg.
Fortunately, ETS has released different official resources to help students grasp what they look for in an essay. You will learn about the scoring system, what raters look for in an essay, and read official essays taken out from actual GRE papers.
Sample Essay Responses and Rater Commentary for the Argument Task
The first thing any test-taker should do is read the official sample essays published by ETS on its website. These essays are taken from genuine GRE past papers, and they are all responses to the same “argument task.”
What is great about this resource is that ETS has included a detailed commentary from the rater to all the different responses. Each essay response is scored on a 1-6 scale, and there are a total of six essays, one for each score-point.
Moreover, the essays are left untouched without any corrections to either spelling or grammar. I would suggest that you first go here and read what ETS requires in an essay response. Once you understand that, go over to the sample essays, read the issue task, and write your essay without reading any responses.
Once you are done, compare your writing to the sample responses and determine what score you are likely to get for it. The commentary is the most valuable part of all this.
In this Article
Official Topic Pools for both essays
Students often don’t know this, but ETS has published all the issue and argument topics on its website. Your test tasks are selected from the following two pools. That’s right. You can know in advance what topics GRE will test you on.
Issue Topic PoolArgument Topic Pool
Downloadable sample essays with commentaries # 1
This is the first sample essay compilation published by ETS. You will find a detailed explanation of raters’ scores for each essay. Half of the responses are taken from the issue topic and the other half from the argument topic.
The topics remain the same. However, multiple essays correspond to a different score-point on a 1-6 scale. Read the essays and then pay special attention to what the examiner is saying in the commentary. The essays appear in their original state without any correction to spelling or grammar.
Downloadable sample essays with commentaries # 2
This downloadable PDF file contains a detailed explanation of how essays are scored, and each sample essay is followed by commentary.
Half of the essay responses are taken from “analyze an issue” and the other half from “analyze an argument.” I also like how ETS has included a complete breakdown of what each score-point means.
Moreover, if you don’t have access to an online course to evaluate your essays, the commentary will give you a lot of insight into writing responses.
Downloadable sample essays with commentaries # 3
This is the third and final compilation of sample essays published by ETS. It contains responses for both writing tasks as well as commentaries and scoring information.
These three PDFS should be plenty for anyone looking to improve their AWA performance. Pay special attention to what the commentaries point out. There are explicit instructions on what to write and what to avoid.
If you want to learn more about how graduate schools view your AWA score, go here.
Non-official GRE AWA Resources
Magoosh AWA Blog Articles
Magoosh is quite the big name in test-prep circled, and their GRE online course is top-rated and affordable. One of the great things about Magoosh is that they publish helpful material regarding GRE on their blog for free.
Their library of AWA articles contains a wealth of knowledge and helpful tips regarding essay writing.
You can visit their AWA library here.
PrepScholar AWA Library
You have probably come across PrepScholar’s GRE blog if you have been searching GRE stuff online. They have the most popular and extensive GRE blog out of all the different companies out there. If you want to learn about the AWA section of the test, I highly suggest you check out their blog.
You can visit their AWA blog here.
Kaplan AWA Articles
Kaplan isn’t mainly known for its blog posts, but they have some interesting articles on the test’s essay portion. They don’t do analysis-type pieces. However, their various articles on AWA tips and tactics are very informative.
You can visit their AWA articles here.
Manhattan Prep AWA Articles
Manhattan Prep is a well-known test-prep company mainly known for its premium GRE courses. They don’t have as frequent a blog as either Magoosh or Manhattan, but you should nonetheless check out their AWA articles.
Visit Manhattan’s AWA articles here.