Writing sectioning

The General Educational Development test contains a 45-minute writing section in which test takers must develop an expository essay that includes personal observations, knowledge, and experience. The typical GED essay is about 250 words in length, written on your choice of five topics. A list of possible topics, as well as some test-... 

Our appreciation is expressed to F. Kamayev for assistance in writing Section II, i C-NMR Spectroscopy of Quinolizidine Alkaloids, and to B. Ibragimov for assistance in writing Section III, X-Ray Structural Investigation of Quinolizidine Alkaloids. ... 

An undisclosed verbal or quantitative pretest section maybe included and may appear in any order after the analytical writing section. It is not counted as part of your score. 

You are allowed four hours for the CBT/CAT exam, though the timed portion is 3 hours 45 minutes for the paper-based General Test and up to 3 hours 15 minutes for the computer-based General Test. There is a ten-minute break after the Analytical Writing section and a one-minute break between the two subsequent sections. 

The computer-based test is comprised of four sections, one of which is a pretest section that will appear after the Analytical Writing section in no particular order. Questions in the pretest section are tried for possible use in future tests and will not be counted toward your score. A research section may also appear as part of your test and will also not count toward your score. Questions in the research section are included for the purpose of ETS research. 

At the beginning of each section, you will be presented with directions specifying the total number of questions and time allotted for each particular section. Total testing time is up to 3 hours 15 minutes, not counting the research section. The Analytical Writing section will always appear first. The Verbal and Quantitative sections will appear in any random order, including an unidentified pretest section, which may be either Verbal or Quantitative. Because you cannot predict which section is a pretest and which will count toward your score, treat each section with equal significance. 

The Analytical Writing section was added to the GRE General Test in 2002. There are always two tasks, one in which you are required to write about your perspective on a particular topic, and one in which you need to critique a given argument. You will spend 75 minutes on this two-part task, the first section to be presented on the exam. 

The second task asks you to analyze an argument that is presented to you. You must discuss the logical soundness of the argument itself, not whether you agree with the position taken. You have 30 minutes for this task, and it will also be scored from zero to six. Chapter 3, the Analytical Writing section of this book, contains all the information and strategies you need to do well on this part of the exam. 

At the end of your CBT/CAT GRE General Test, you will have the opportunity to block your scores. If you choose to do so, your exam will never be scored, but ETS will report that you took the exam and chose not to have your scores reported. If you decide you want to see your scores for the test, you will be able to immediately see your unofficial scores for the Verbal and Quantitative sections only. However, once you choose to look at your scores, they will become part of your official GRE record. The Analytical Writing section will not be scored by the computer, so it takes longer to receive your scores. Within about two weeks, complete scores are mailed to you and to your chosen recipients. 

The following Analytical Writing assessment pretest contains two tasks The first is to present your perspective on an issue and the second is to analyze an argument. These two tasks provide you with practice for the same kinds of prompts you will see on the actual exam. This pretest will familiarize you with the Analytical Writing section and help you assess your strengths and weaknesses for this portion of the exam. 

No matter how confident you are about your writing, it is essential to seriously prepare for the Analytical Writing section of the GRE. The Analytical Writing section of the exam is always the first part of the General Test. It is 75 minutes long and given in two parts, which may appear in any order. The two parts are as follows ... 

In addition to preparing for the test with the practice prompts on pages 68-71 of this book, you can help yourself prepare for the Analytical Writing section by familiarizing yourself with the collection of writing prompts from which your official prompt will be selected. The GRE program has published a complete list of writing prompts online. 

Unlike the Verbal and Quantitative sections of the General Test, on the Analytical Writing section of the exam, you will not receive your scores immediately because the scorers need time to read and evaluate your writing. It usually takes 10 to 15 days after you take the test to receive your score for this section. 

This 45-minute task in the Analytical Writing section tests your ability to communicate and support your point of view on a particular topic. You will be given two persuasive writing prompts—general claims about topics, which are designed to provide an issue on which you will take a perspective—and you may choose only one of these prompts to address in your essay. Your job will be to clearly express and support your point of view throughout your essay. 

The form of the essay you write for the Issue task of the Analytical Writing section might not be the traditional five-paragraph essay or another standard type of essay you learned how to write in your undergraduate studies. In fact, you have a lot of freedom in how you choose to present your writing. For example, you might do one or more of the following ... 

The issues you will address on this task on the Analytical Writing section are sometimes more complex than the previous example. No matter how complex the issue, when you formulate your thesis statement, you must still clearly and succinctly state your position, and mention any conditions of that position. Then, you will need to break down the claim, analyzing it closely and addressing any questions the claim raises. 

This 30-minute task in the Analytical Writing section requires you to analyze an argument that someone else has constructed. Unlike the Issue task, you will not be taking a position on and writing about an issue in this task. For the Argument task,you will be required to critically examine the reasoning and evidence used in someone else s argument. 

Compare your essay to the following rubric—adapted from the Analyze an Argument rubric used by the official scorers of the Analytical Writing section of the GRE—to assess your work. The rubric lists the criteria for each score that trained readers use to assess your work. 

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