GRE Analytical Writing Structure 2024

GRE analytical writing structure: Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) is a standardised test that is an admission requirement for numerous graduate schools in Canada, the United States, and various other countries. Admission offices and fellowship panels use GRE scores to supplement your undergraduate score, recommendation letters, and other qualifications to enrol in a master’s program. GRE serves as a standard measure for comparison for schools. 

The GRE Analytical Writing Assessment (GRE AWA) is the first of the three sections in the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE). It is a one-hour test administered at the beginning of the exam.

The GRE analytical writing section tests your analytical and critical thinking skills. It evaluates your ability to clearly and effectively express complex ideas while participating in a coherent discussion. It consists of two tasks: analysing an issue and analysing an argument.

Candidates are given 30 minutes to complete each essay, in which they are required to write and defend a thesis statement. Let’s learn more about GRE analytical writing structure. 

GRE analytical writing structure (beginning September 22, 2023)

The GRE analytical writing structure of the GRE General Test, administered starting September 22, 2023, assesses your critical thinking and analytical writing skills by determining your ability to:

• articulate and support complex ideas
• construct arguments
• sustain a focused and coherent discussion
• It doesn’t assess specific content knowledge.

The GRE analytical writing structure consists of a 30-minute “Analyze an Issue”  task. This task presents an opinion on an issue and instructions on responding. You must evaluate the problem, consider its complexities and develop an argument with reasons and examples to support your views.

You’ll use a primary word processor developed by ETS to type your essay responses. The word processor contains the following functionalities: insert text, delete text, cut and paste, and undo the previous action. Tools such as spellchecker and grammar checker are not available.

Know more about: Study Guide to the GRE General Test

GRE analytical writing structure before September 22, 2023

The Analytical Writing measure of the GRE General Test administered before September 22, 2023, assesses your critical thinking and analytical writing skills by determining your ability to:

• articulate and support complex ideas
• construct and evaluate arguments
• sustain a focused and coherent discussion
• It doesn’t assess specific content knowledge.

The Analytical Writing measure consists of two separately timed analytical writing tasks:

• The "Analyze an Issue" task presents an opinion on an issue and instructions on responding. You must evaluate the problem, consider its complexities and develop an argument with reasons and examples to support your views.
• The "Analyze an Argument" task requires evaluating an argument according to specific instructions. You’ll need to consider the argument's logical soundness rather than agree or disagree with the position it presents.

The two 30-minute tasks are complementary. The Issue task requires you to construct your argument, while the Argument task requires you to evaluate someone else's argument.

You’ll use a primary word processor developed by ETS to type your essay responses. The word processor contains the following functionalities: insert text, delete text, cut and paste, and undo the previous action. Tools such as spellchecker and grammar checker are not available.

Know more about: Everything You Should Know about GRE Structure 2024

Preparing for the GRE analytical writing structure

Everyone — even the most practised and confident writers — should spend time preparing for the Analytical Writing measure to understand the skills measured and how the tasks are scored. Reviewing the scoring guides, sample topics, scored sample essay responses and rater commentary for each task may also be helpful.

The tasks in the Analytical Writing measure relate to a broad range of subjects — from the fine arts and humanities to the social and physical sciences — but don’t require specific content knowledge. Actual GRE test takers have tested each task to ensure that it possesses several important characteristics, including the following:

• Regardless of their field of study or special interests, GRE test takers understood the task and could quickly respond.
• The task elicited the complex thinking and persuasive writing that university faculty consider important for graduate school success.
• The responses varied in content and how the writers developed their ideas.

Published topic pools for the Analytical Writing measure

To help you prepare for the Analytical Writing measure, the GRE Program has published the entire pool of tasks from which your test tasks will be selected. You might find it helpful to review the Issue and Argument pools:

• Issue Topic Pool (PDF)
• Argument Topic Pool (PDF) (the Argument task was removed from the General Test beginning September 22, 2023)

Test-taking strategies for the Analytical Writing measure (in the General Test beginning September 22, 2023)

• Before taking the GRE General Test, review the strategies, sample topics, sample essay responses with rater commentary, and scoring guide for the task. This will give you a deeper understanding of how raters evaluate essays and the elements they're looking for in an essay.
• It is essential to budget your time. Within the 30-minute time limit, allow sufficient time to consider the issue and the specific instructions, plan a response, and compose your essay. You want your essay response to be the best possible example of your writing that you can produce under the testing conditions.
• Save a few minutes at the end of the timed task to check for obvious errors. An occasional spelling or grammatical error won’t affect your score, but severe and persistent errors detract from the overall effectiveness of your writing and lower your score accordingly.

What is considered a good GRE analytical writing score?

Your performance can be determined by your score as follows:

Conclusion 

Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) is a standardised test that is an admission requirement for numerous graduate schools in Canada, the United States, and various other countries. Admission offices and fellowship panels use GRE scores to supplement your undergraduate score, recommendation letters, and other qualifications to enrol in a master’s program. GRE serves as a standard measure for comparison for schools. In this blog, we have mentioned the GRE analytical writing structure for 2024.