Your GRE essays will be graded by both an e-rater and a human grader. The
e-rater is a computer program, designed to evaluate your writing
according to the pre-programmed criteria. If the computer and
human grader differ greatly in their assessments, a second human
will act as referee and make the final call. The
final step is to average all four scores (two for each essay and
round the result to the nearest half point. This becomes the AWA
score included on the score report sent to the programs to which you
applied.
That means the admissions office and/or professors can see your
original input before they make their admissions decisions.
Therefore, a good
or bad essay can literally make or break your chances of
being admitted to a graduate school of your choice.What is a good
essay? A good essay is persuasive in content, well
organized in structure, and clear in its use of the English language with,
ideally, no grammar errors.
General Strategy
The e-rater's main impact is to place more value on highly
structured writing and the use of keywords and phrases that it
recognizes. If you do not write your essay in the proper format
for the E-rater, you could receive a lower score. So, be mindful
of the following Do's and Don'ts.
Do:
- Clearly show your essay organization by using
transitional words and phrases, such as “first,” “finally”
and
“therefore” to make your essay highly structured.
- Carefully read our sample responses to Real
Essays to understand how to write an E-rater-friendly essay.
- Respond to at least five essays each within the limit of 30
minutes. This is designed to make sure you are able to cover every necessary
paragraph on the test day.
Don't:
- Write an essay like a prose or story. The E-rater simply
doesn’t like this. Rather, your essay should be logically
clear, and succinct in content, more like a summary of
strategy report from McKinsey.
- Type “threefore” when you mean “therefore.” If you do,
the e-rater will assume there is no such word.
- Prepare very carefully for each of the 280 questions.
Remember that no one
can prepare carefully for everything. Your score on the GRE is only
one of the criteria that the graduate schools consider.
(Other factors such as work experience and application
essays are also very important.)
Features of our Writing Courses:
- A detailed description of how your essays will be
scored;
- Separate chapters on issues and arguments;
- A section on what the e-rater favors and how to fool it;
and
- Sixty sample answers to actual GRE essay questions.
>> Table of Contents >>
Order the Essay
Course
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Analysis of Issue
1. General Strategies
2. Essay Template
3. Timing
Chapter 3: Analysis of Argument
1. What are you expected to do?
2. Three Common Logical Fallacies
3. Essay Template
4. Timing
Chapter 4: About the E-rater
Chapter 5: Sample Responses to Real Questions
1. Analysis of Issue
2. Analysis of Argument
Order the Analytical Writing
Course ($9)
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