Scoring
In a word, GRE essays are scored quickly. Essay graders
are instructed to spend no more than three minutes reading an essay before
giving it a score from “0” (awful) to “6” (awesome—the highest possible grade)
in half-point increments. Just three minutes!
Every essay is actually read by at least two graders, who each assign the
essay a score. If these scores differ by more than one point—an essay gets a “3”
and a “5,” for example—the essay will be read by another grader. The final score
for one particular essay is an average of these individual scores. You’ll
receive a single score for the Essay section: an average of the scores you
received on the Issue and Argument essays.
For example, say your Issue essay receives a “4” and a “5” from the two
graders. Your Issue essay score would be a “4.5.” If your Argument essay gets a
“6” and a “6,” you’d receive a “6” for the Argument essay. The graders will then
average your two scores:
. Your final
score, however, would be “5.5”, since the test makers round up to the nearest
half point. That’s the only number reported for the Essay section. Your 0-to-6
Essay score is completely independent from, and has no impact on, either your
Math or Verbal score.
The 0-to-6 Scale
Let’s take a look at the 0-to-6 score in more detail. GRE essay
graders are told to grade holistically. That is, although
the graders are looking for specific elements in your essays, no element is
assigned a particular weight. The score you receive is based on an overall
impression of your essay. That’s great news: It means that you can make a
few mistakes and still get a good score.
The graders must refer to a set-in-stone list of criteria when
evaluating each essay and deciding what grade (“0”–“6”) it deserves. The
following chart is our explanation of the grading criteria that the test
makers give the graders.
By the way, you might recognize these criteria from the SAT—the
criteria used to grade the essays are essentially the same. What’s different
is the level of writing. Later, we’ll analyze a couple of different essays
to show you the difference between essays that receive so-so scores and
essays that receive great scores, in the chapters on the Issue and Argument
essays.
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SCORE
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DESCRIPTION OF ESSAY
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6
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A “6” essay is superior and
demonstrates a strong and consistent
command of the language throughout the entire essay, with at
most a few small errors. A “6” essay:
- shows a firm grasp of critical thinking and takes
a powerful and interesting position on the topic
- supports and develops its position with
appropriate and insightful examples, arguments, and
evidence
- is tightly organized and focused, with a smooth
and coherent progression of ideas
- demonstrates a facility with language through the
use of descriptive and appropriate vocabulary
- uses intelligent variation in sentence structure
- contains, at most, a few errors in grammar,
spelling, and punctuation
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5
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A “5” essay is strong and
demonstrates a generally consistent command
of language throughout the entire essay, with no more than a
few significant flaws and errors. A “5” essay:
- shows well-developed critical-thinking skills by
taking a solid position on the topic
- supports and develops its position on the topic
with appropriate examples, arguments, and evidence
- is organized and focused and features a coherent
progression of ideas
- demonstrates competence with language throughout
by using appropriate vocabulary
- uses varied sentence structure
- contains few errors in grammar, spelling, and
punctuation
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4
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A “4” essay is competent and
demonstrates a basic command of the
language throughout the entire essay. A “4” essay:
- shows adequate critical-thinking skills by taking
a position on the topic and supporting that position
with generally appropriate examples, arguments, and
evidence
- is mostly organized and focused, with a
progression of ideas that is mostly coherent
- demonstrates inconsistent facility with language
and uses mostly appropriate vocabulary
- uses some variation in sentence structure
- contains some errors in grammar, spelling, and
punctuation
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3
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A “3” essay shows developing
competence and contains one or more of the
following:
- some critical-thinking skills, as demonstrated by
its position on the topic
- inadequate support or development of its position
based on deficiencies in examples, arguments, or
evidence presented
- lapses in organization and focus, including ideas
that are not always coherent
- a capacity for competent use of language, with
occasional use of vague or inappropriate vocabulary
- only minor variation in sentence structure
- a variety of errors in grammar, spelling, and
punctuation
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2
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A “2” essay is seriously flawed and
demonstrates a poor command of the language
throughout the entire essay. A “2” essay contains one or
more of the following:
- poor critical-thinking skills as shown by an
inconsistent or unclear position on the topic
- insufficient support for the position on the topic
as a result of faulty or nonexistent examples,
arguments, and evidence
- weak organization and focus, including ideas that
are frequently incoherent
- poor language skills through use of limited or
wrong vocabulary
- errors in sentence structure
- errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and
other rules of writing that make the meaning hard to
understand
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1
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A “1” essay is profoundly flawed and
demonstrates a very poor command of the
language throughout the entire essay. A “1” essay contains
one or more of the following:
- no position on the topic or almost no support or
development of the position
- poor organization and focus that makes the essay
incoherent
- numerous vocabulary errors
- fundamental errors in sentence structure
- errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation that
make parts of the essay unintelligible
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0
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Essays written on a topic other than the one assigned
will receive a score of 0.
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