GRE WRITING

GRE Exam
If you are planning to take the GRE, then the first step to be taken is to acquaint yourself with all aspects of the GRE exam. The GRE is designed to test your verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning and analytical writing skills. Therefore, apart from a good knowledge of the fundamentals of subjects that form a part of the content tested by the GRE, it is essential that you tune your writing skills as well. The GRE writing section will require you to write two essays and you have to be adequately prepared if you want to score high in the GRE writing section.

GRE Writing Section
The GRE exam consists of three scored sections i.e. the Verbal Reasoning section, the Quantitative Reasoning section and the Analytical Writing section. In addition to these scored sections, there may be a section containing trial questions for use in future GRE administrations. Your answers to these questions will not count towards your final GRE scores.

GRE is administered as a computer based test in almost all GRE test centers. However, the paper based version of the GRE is available at test centers where the facility of administering the GRE on computers is not available. The number of questions asked in each section of the GRE and the time allotted for answering them will vary depending on the format of the GRE that you are taking. However, the number of questions asked and the time allotted for the GRE writing section is the same for both the versions of the GRE exam. The GRE writing section is a test of your writing skills and your ability to express your ideas coherently in grammatically correct English. Your abilities to support your ideas with suitable examples will also be put to test by the GRE writing section. These skills are tested by the GRE writing section by assessing two essays that are written by you in this section. You will be given two writing tasks: Issue task and Argument task. 45 minutes will be allotted for writing the essay for the issue task and 30 minutes will be allotted for writing the essay for the argument task. You will be given two topics for the issue task and you have to choose one of them for writing your essay. There is no such choice given for the argument task.

The topics that are presented as the issue tasks in the GRE writing section will state an opinion on an issue of general interest. You can write an essay on any one of the given topics. The essay should address the issue from your point of view with adequate examples in support of your viewpoint. The argument task of the GRE writing section will present you with a statement that has to be critically analyzed by you. Your essay in response to the argument task should not present your views on the subject. You have to analyze the line of reasoning that has been adopted by the writer of the given statement.

As can be seen from the information given above, one cannot expect to do well in the GRE writing section without adequate practice on writing essays similar to the ones that you will have to write for the GRE. The official website of the GRE, www.ets.org is the best link for authentic information on all aspects of the GRE writing section.

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