GRE essay scoring

[kaushik.visvanathan]

I just took the GRE this past Friday. I did ok on both the Verbal and Quant sections (160 and 165 respectively) but I'm worried about the possibility of a mediocre writing score. A friend of mine, who is an intelligent individual and a fairly good writer, received a 1.5 on writing the first time he took the test despite scoring well in other sections of the test. I feel that since the essays are only scored by one person, there is an inherent possibility that your essays could be considered 'off topic' depending on differences in interpretation of the prompt between you and the essay scorer.
Are these fears unfounded? My scores on the other two sections are fairly average for the programs I'm applying for (Masters of computer science) so I'm hoping I don't receive an abysmal writing score. If my essay scores are lacking however, would I need to retake the entire test and risk scoring lower in the verbal reasoning and quant sections?

[tommywallach]

Your fear is definitely unfounded. There is nothing subjective in how essays are scored. I hate to tell you, but if your friend got a 1.5, he simply didn't answer the essay question correctly at all. It's surprisingly common, actually. Let me give you an example. I once graded hundreds of answers to the question:

"Should the wages of a company's CEO be tied to the wages of the company's lowest worker?"

I would say that about 50% of people answering that question interpreted it to mean: "Should the wages of a company's CEO be the same as the wages of the company's lowest worker?" In other words, a good half of people simply didn't understand the question, so there answer was irrelevant.

If you write reasonably well and respond to the prompt as it's given, you'll definitely get a 4 or above. Low scores are reserved for people with both a problematic grasp of English AND a failure to grasp the actual question.

(Also, for computer science programs, it's unlikely your essay will matter much. Though you could always call the admissions department and ask.)

Good luck!

-t

[romano.eric901]

So are essays are scored on the basis of correct grammar, and context?

[tommywallach]

Grammar certainly, but primarily CONTENT. Are the points made cogently and at reasonable length, with solid examples?

-t