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GRE Essay Scores: What Adds up on the GRE Essay?

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Answer: Everything. The GRE essays aren't scored through a set breakdown in which organization, ideas, and good reasoning each count for a certain percentage of your score. Rather, ETS refers to its essay scoring as "holistic," because your score will be based on the overall impression that your essay leaves on 2 trained essay graders.

So, how should this information change your writing strategy?

You can't rely on good organization alone to make up for poor critical thinking, or vice versa. So don't dwell on crafting the perfect, wittiest transition sentences. Rather, think out your essay by first outlining to brainstorm quickly, and come up with a sound flow of reasoning that naturally lends itself to being organized. Then, as you begin to write, consciously strive to guide your reader through your reasoning.

GRE essay graders want to read essays that are easy to follow (i.e. well-organized and well-reasoned), demonstrate strong critical thinking and writing skills, and basically show that you think out issues well. If you can give them that, they'll give you a well-deserved score of 6.

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  7. Intro to GRE Essay Scoring - How it Works and What You Need to Know to Score All 6 Points on Each GRE Essay

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