

They look for students who don’t leave any stone unturned. And universities love students who score well in all the sections. This statistic alone shows how hard it is to get a perfect AWA score. Which is around 7000 of 700,000 students every year. only 1 percent of all students writing the GRE, score a perfect 6.0 on the AWA. The added pressure and the worry that you haven’t done well until then, will have a massive effect on your performance thereon.ĭifficult to score a perfect 6.0. But at the same time, if you don’t do well on this section, the momentum won’t be on your side. You will definitely carry the momentum further into the test. If you ace this section, it will be a confidence booster for the rest of the exam. Since the AWA is the first thing you will see on test day, it is what makes or breaks your confidence. This way, you are not only training your brain to withstand the mental pressure, but you are also buying the time off for some valuable practice. This will keep your mind occupied and stressed, just as it would be when tackling the AWA section on test day. Think of it as an exam, and keep doing random problems out of the Official Guide or Barron’s or any other material that you have. Do these questions thoroughly, and don’t relax at all. Exactly an hour prior to the start of the test, start practicing tough quant or RC passage questions. Decide the time when you want to take the practice test. But how can you still train your brain to withstand the mental pressure while not tackling AWA at all? So, if you don’t skip the AWA during practice, you’ll be writing in the exact test conditions as on test day, thereby training your brain for the big encounter.ĭespite what has been told above, if you are still very confident that the AWA is something you can ace with ease on test day, you are probably wasting time practicing it during practice tests.

They simply aren’t ready for the extra time, because their brains feel tired already. This is exactly why thousands of students score very low on their last two to three sections. Do you get the point? It’s that extra one hour of concentration that requires sudden attention from your brain, which it sadly isn’t ready for. But, on test day, you still have two more sections to finish after you complete 2 hours and 45 minutes. So, you get accustomed to sitting for 2 hours 45 minutes for the test, and your brain is hardwired to concentrate for that much time only. This translates into an inflated overall score during practice, because you are just that much more active than you will be on test day. Now, if you skip the AWA section during practice, you’ll be forfeiting 60 minutes of the total test time, which means you are going to have to sit for 2 hours and 45 minutes only. An intense, 3 hour 45 minute ride, which obviously you aren’t accustomed to. The GRE is not a typical test that you encounter at college or elsewhere. Though this might seem like the obvious choice to you, you should consider the aftereffects before jumping into conclusions. Now, students normally tend to skip the AWA section when they take practice tests, so they can directly go to the first section of Math/Verbal. This is the single most important thing to consider when we talk about the importance of the AWA section. We’ve observed what students do when they practice for the GRE, how their approaches have affected their scores on test day, and figured out four reasons as to why the AWA is an extremely important aspect of the GRE exam. But, there are a few vital points that they don’t realize. And these students tend to neglect practicing the AWA section at home, because according to them, it’s not worth investing time on something they are very confident about. But the importance of the first ever section that you are going to face on test day.Īlmost half of the GRE test takers every year are Native English speakers.

We’re not talking about the importance of language or coherence or logic. It holds a lot more importance than you think. And unless you score below 4.0, you won’t be hurting your chances.īut, the AWA is more than just a score. Agreed from the admissions point of view, a difference of 0.5 – 1 point on the AWA doesn’t make or break your chances of getting into your dream school.

But, most students underestimate its importance. If you aren’t new to the GRE format, you’d probably know that the GRE begins with the AWA section. Chapter 6 Introduction to AWA and Writing Strategies
