Easy Ways to ImproveThe analytical writing section is important and different from most of the GRE test because it is *marked by a human rather than a computer*!
These human markers will be under a lot of pressure. They may have to mark 20-plus essays in an hour. So your essay doesn't have a lot of time to impress.
Two of the most vital things you MUST remember for the essay question are:
1. WRITE LEGIBLY! The marker will NOT waste time trying to decipher impossible handwriting
2. Read the essay prompt carefully, then KEEP ON-TOPIC! Markers are told to give off-topic essays a ZERO mark!
It is essential that you remember these two rules to avoid a disaster on your GRE essay section.
The Really Boring Essay Question
Imagine this. You've studied your vocabulary video lessons really well. You've practiced writing lots of great essays - you feel good to go!
Then you sit down in the exam and find yourself confronted with the most BORING essay prompt you could imagine. Whatever topic it is that bores you stiff, you suddenly find yourself having to write an essay on it for the next 25 minutes!
This is a real pain in the neck, but it happens often, so you must be prepared for the eventuality. To prevent this causing you a disaster on the day of your test, you should regularly practice finding and expanding a "pretend opinion" on things that you don't care a fig about. You could pretend to be someone else, and say, "People who like xxx would give the following reasons why this is a bad/good idea: .... " And so on.
The nub of the matter is that you have to be able to come up with an essay on pretty much anything, so practice writing essays as a skill, regardless of the content.
In the next lesson, we'll talk about essay templates, which will be a big help for you in these kind of situations, as well as for the essay section generally.
Essay Templates
Creating your own essay templates is a simple task and an extremely effective use of your time during GRE exam preparation. It will put you ahead of a *huge* chunk of the crowd!
Lots of students waste a bunch of time in the GRE exam essay section by trying to work out the flow of their essay. The reality is that a GRE exam essay can take a standard structure and be quickly adapted to the topic you find yourself having to write about.
An example of an essay structure might be:
1. Introductory paragraph
2. Supporting information #1 ...linked to...
3. Supporting information #2 ... linked to...
4. Supporting information #3
5. Conclusion
Get one or more essay templates of your own together and learn them by heart. It will save you a lot of time and stress in your test!
Reading for GRE Essay Success
Reading widely and often is a key success factor for the essay portion of the GRE. As you read more and more - editorial material is particularly good for this - you will subconsciously absorb the structure of a good essay and of properly constructed English.
A good idea is to set your internet homepage to a quality news site. This will make you more likely to read quality articles and editorials on a regular basis. Do this now, not the week before your exam!
How Long Should My Essays Be?
Lots of people will tell you that your essays should be "as long as possible" and even that you should use "as many long words as possible". This isn't necessarily the best approach.
The examiners are looking for your ability to express yourself clearly and present your ideas sensibly, not for how much you can write in a short space of time.
Hopefully by now you have moved lots of the important words that we covered in the GRE Vocabulary Videos from your passive to your active vocabulary, so that you will be able to draw on them in your essay. Use them APPROPRIATELY, and write as much as you need to write to get a clearly cohesive essay down, NOT the longest essay you can produce with the most words!
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