The AWA section of the GRE is often a confusing score to interpret. AWA is scored separately from the verbal and math sections on a six-point scale. If you are new to GRE, you have probably heard people say that their verbal and quant scores are so so, but you rarely hear people mentioning their AWA score. The mysterious nature of this score makes you wonder if schools even care about it at all.
Meanwhile, it may play a significant role, especially for the students that will have to deal with numerous written assignments like research papers, essays, case studies, and so on. Of course, one can always use an essay service to simplify their academic life. That way, you won’t have to care about the AWA score.
However, depending on the program you are applying to, your AWA score may carry more importance than you think. Since GRE is a test designed to measure your readiness for grad-school, the AWA score reflects your ability to present convincing arguments. This may mean little to an engineering school, but in humanities, your prose’s quality is an essential factor.
Humanities subjects typically include a lot of writing, and so the ability to organize your thoughts on paper and deliver a persuasive argument is lauded.
In this article, I will discuss what a good AWA score is and if it matters.
In this Article
What is a good AWA score?
The analytical writing section of the GRE is scored on a 0-6 scale in half-point increments. The obvious answer would be that 5+ points on AWA is a “good” score. However, it is not that simple. As I said previously, it all depends on what area of study you are applying to. STEM programs typically aren’t as picky about your AWA score as humanities. Moreover, we know that students who apply for STEM programs usually have average AWA scores.
According to data published by ETS, students who applied to STEM programs had a mean AWA score lower than humanities and arts.
| Graduate Field Applied to | AWA Mean Score |
| Business | 3.4 |
| Education | 3.6 |
| Engineering | 3.2 |
| Humanities and Arts | 4.0 |
| Life Sciences | 3.7 |
| Physical Sciences | 3.4 |
| Social Sciences | 3.9 |
| Other Fields | 3.6 |
| Undecided | 3.0 |
| No Major Provided | 3.3 |
| Total | 3.5 |
As you can see, humanities and arts have a higher mean AWA score than other fields. Moreover, ETS has also published extensive data related to scores that give us a better understanding of how test-takers score about each other.
According to GRE’s Guide to the use of scores, we can deduce the following insights from the provided data.
| Score Levels | Percentile |
| 6.0 | 99 |
| 5.5 | 98 |
| 5.0 | 93 |
| 4.5 | 82 |
| 4.0 | 60 |
| 3.5 | 42 |
| 3.0 | 18 |
| 2.5 | 8 |
| 2.0 | 2 |
| 1.5 | 1 |
| 1.0 | < 1 |
| 0.5 | < 1 |
| 0.0 | < 1 |
If we compare the two tables, we can see that you only have to score better than 60 percent of test-takers to achieve a 4.0 AWA score, the highest mean score among all the fields.
Whereas for STEM degrees, you can get away with a lower score. Hence, irrespective of the program you are applying to, I would say a good AWA score is 4.5-5.0. An excellent score is 5.5-6.0, and an average score is 3.5-4.0.
How Would I know what my AWA Score should be?
When it comes to GRE, nothing is set in stone. Graduate schools take a holistic approach to your application. Things like excellent work experience or research experience may make up for a relatively low GRE score in some instances. That being said, your first concern should be cut-off scores.
Fortunately, not many schools have AWA cut-off scores, but if they do, it’s usually around 3.5-4. An excellent way to determine if the program you are applying to has a GRE cut-off score is to check the program requirements.
You can also request this information from the school by sending them an email. Another way to check the average AWA score of a school is to use websites like U.S. News. U.S. News has a vast library of data on hundreds of U.S. grad-schools.
Once you know either the cut-off score or your school’s average AWA score, you would know what to aim for.
How can I evaluate my AWA skills?
This is the most tricky part of GRE prep. Unlike quant and verbal sections, AWA doesn’t have an “objective” standard. By objective, I mean that there isn’t a one-word right or wrong answer and hence evaluating your writing is a tricky thing to do.
One thing that you can do is consult essays published and evaluated by ETS on their website. Six essays have been taken out from actual GRE tests and scored accordingly. Read the prompt in the highlighted box first, then write your essay without reading the essays provided there. Once you are done, compare your essay with those published by ETS and read the “rater commentary” too. This will give you an idea of what your essay score would be.
Another lesser know resource is ETS’s own “Analytical Writing Sample Essays and Commentaries” that you can download from here. This is a 70-page document containing a wealth of information and real sample essays taken from GRE tests. You will learn about the scoring system and what the examiners are looking for in an essay.
However, if you want to go all out, you can sign-up for a GRE course such as the ones offered by The Economist, Magoosh, and Manhattan. The courses give you the option to submit your essays to get them evaluated by GRE experts. The only problem is that these courses can cost hundreds of dollars and is not an option for everyone.