Scoring a 5.0+ on the GRE AWA: A 2-Minute Guide

I hear you! You likely don't want to spend hours on your Analytical Writing Assessment prep because you have enough to worry about with Quant and Verbal, and the AWA score doesn't hold too much weight at your target graduate school's evaluation of you application.

However, the manner in which you start your GRE exam (with the issue essay) will dictate your mood, confidence, and performance for the remainder of the test.

It's important to ace this otherwise relatively unimportant aspect of the test to give yourself a mental boost at the very beginning of the exam.

Here's how you can put your best foot forward with minimum prep.

Simply Follow this process:

In bullet points, write down the following after reading the prompt:

1. Introduction
2. First point
3. Second point
4. Third point
5. Counter point and a concession to the counter point
6. Conclusion

Flesh out each of these into its own paragraph.

Get an even bigger advantage

It should be easy to hit a high word count (500 to 600 words) with this structure. You should aim for about 50 words for the intro, 100 words for the first, second, third, and counter point paragraphs each, and about another 50 words for the conclusion.

Add quotes, point to surveys, etc. to add more depth to your points.

Using advanced vocabulary and displaying out-of-the-box reasoning skills in even one or two points will give you a huge leg up.

An advanced technique is to aim for your points to be Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive (MECE) - which is to say that the points should have minimal overlap and be comprehensive when put together.

If you found this approach to be useful, you'll likely find immense value in the other resources shared on this website. If you'd benefit from a one-on-one personalised mentorship program, please do schedule a free consultation with me to get started.