In this section, you will be assigned two topics, the Analysis of Issue and the Analysis of Argument. You will have 30 minutes for each of them. There is no break between them. Writing the two essays in a short span of 30 minutes each can be a daunting exercise. The good news is that AWA can be fully prepared. Our essay prep course is created to help you score at least 4.5 on the real test. Features of the GRE Essay Prep Course include:
- Detailed description of how your essays will be scored.
- Separate chapters on analyzing Issues and Arguments
- Includes a special section for E-rater–what e-rater favors and how to fool it.
- 60 sample GRE essays (one model essay per topic)
Get the Real GRE essay questions NOW
To beat the competition, you need to do some brainstorming for all 280 essay questions so that you are ready for any of them.
- Download the 280 questions from ETS site: Issue topics and Argument topics.2. After you have downloaded the file, print out the 140 Issue questions and the 140 Argument questions.
Free Chapter: GRE Essay Prep Course
The following is an extract from the fourth chapter of the GRE Essay Prep Course. There are five chapters in the course.
Chapter 4: About the E-rater
How does E-rater work?
In early 2000 when the test-maker began to introduce e-rater, there was a great controversy on this computer program. People simply don’t believe it. Some students even type “I don’t want to be graded by a robot” in their responses on test day. Several years later, however, the e-rater proved to a reliable substitute for high-cost human grader.
The e-rater works like a search engine, such as the world-wide used Google. It is comprised of a computer program and a database. The database stores hundreds of sample responses to each essay topic. The computer program scans your essay and then determines its relevancy to the pre-written essays in database. If your essay is similar to the 6.0 essay, then your essay receives 6 point. If similar to 5.0 essays, then it receives 5.0 point and so on. In other word, if you write an essay that is very similar to a high-score essay in test-maker’s database, then you will get a high score.
Fooling the e-rater is easy if you are able to identify what it favors and what it does not. In the following passage, we will introduce the most commonly used structures and words/phrases in 6.0 essays.
The E-rater favors transitional words
- Ordinal numbers that introduce examples or reasons: first, second, third, first of all, etc.
- Transitional words that relate each sentence to other: since, because, therefore, thus, etc.
- Mood words that indicate the author’s position: fail, ignore, overestimate, underestimate, exaggerate, misrepresent, overlook, etc.
- Counter-evidence indicators: actually, despite, admittedly, except, even though, nonetheless, nevertheless, although, however, in spite of, do, does, may, might, etc.
The E-rater doesn’t recognize innovation
The computer program doesn’t recognize creative writing style, such as “SHIFT_the future”. This phrase can not be recognized since it doesn’t accord to the standard expression. Rather, you should put it in “shift the future”.
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