SchoolofhardNOx

Have any engineering apps here ever skipped the AW section of the GRE? I took the GRE in 10' and got a 4.0 on the AW section. I am getting a Master's in a few months, and I am applying to PhD programs now. I want to take the test again just to improve my Quant score.

I feel like skipping the AW section will save my brain for the parts of the test that matter most to me.

andrew1007

I can't speak from a position of authority, but I don't think that would be a very good idea. Instead of skipping it, why not practice the essay portion until you have it down to an art? When I was studying for the GRE, I was originally very bad at those essays. But as you do more and more essays, you start to figure out that they're all very similar and that you almost never have to change the essay structure/syntax.

I went from spending 40 minutes per essay to 20 minutes per essay INCLUDING revisions- this was accomplished for me after 30 or so mock essays. During the test day, I spent the rest of the 10 minutes just relaxing and mentally preparing myself for the next section.

SchoolofhardNOx

Sorry, I don't think I made myself very clear in my original post. I am happy with my old AW score, and I have no desire to improve in this area.

However, I would really like to do better on the math sections. As a way to facilitate this, I am thinking about skipping the AW section this next time that I take the test. I am hypothesizing that doing this will give me a better chance to perform well on the QR sections (e.g. mitigate mental fatigue).

Again, I am applying to engineering schools so I am assuming writing is not something that they should care too much about. Especially if I am, 1) well published, 2) a native speaker, and 3) have a MS from a top engineering school.

Does anyone(engineers/science folks) here see my point? Do you support this idea?

spectastic

you will have to explain why you fell to the 0th percentile in writing essays, and your excuse is extremely weak. PhD doesn't take weak sauce.

TitoMorito

This seems like a really bad plan. You only have enough mental energy to power through two sections? Not a good sign.

xraymancs

Not sure you can pick and choose which scores to report from a GRE. You can certainly choose which GRE test to report but I think they just send the whole thing and, speaking as a former Associate Dean of Graduate Admissions, a 0 on the AW portion looks pretty bad.