Should I go for a rescoring?

[ari]

hi all,

got my official report today, quant and verbal score are confirmed but awm.....i couldnt believe it, its a 4.0
i was expecting a 5.0, but there it was....

is rescoring in order?
would it be too risky - suppose instead of increasing the score, they reduce it to 3.0 or 3.5 after rescoring, i would be in deeper trouble.

how much weightage is given to awm scores for admission in science subjects? does this absolutely jeopardize my chances at a good university?

please advise,
ari.

[roborob]

From what I've heard EVERYWHERE, people say as long as you receive a 4.0, that your score won't hurt you. BUT I don't know if I quite believe it. Erin???

[ari]

thanks, i hope u r right.
Erin, Shri ????

[Sri]

Hmm..4.0 is not a bad score at all....Besides, if u r interested in Engineering courses (By science do u mean bio?? Or tech??) AWA is not all that important. I guess for most of the Education majors its THE ONE but not for us....The safest thing to do however, is to contact the schools that u wanna apply and find out what their average AWA score is..Since its a new section, I dont have a clear idea as to how Univs are treating this section.....Also, if u have to take TOEFL as well for the admission process, try to crack the TWE part in it and u can substantiate ur case that u r good at writing as well....

HTH
Sri.

[ari]

Thanks Sri.

4.0 doesnt sound bad as such but it has a pathetic 27 percentile associated with it and i have 99 percentile in verbal. it just spoils my otherwise decent gre report.
u r right, i should focus on TOEFL to make amends.
i am an indian student with a four year college degree in agriculture and animal husbandry from a good agricultural university in india.. i had a gpa of 4.75 on a scale of 5.00. i want to pursue a masters in food process engineering.

i'll appreciate ur views on this,

thanks again,
ari.

[Erin]

From what I've heard, 4.0 is considered the minimum, although some top schools might prefer 5.0. But as Sri said, the essay is still fairly new, and we don't know yet how important it is in the admissions decision process.

And it seems like a waste of time to retake the whole GRE with such high scores just to raise your AWA score. Just my two cents.

[ari]

Thanks Erin.
i'd better get in touch with the schools to get the real picture.
will update u guys,
ari.

[ari]

hullo guys,
i'm back. i've decided to apply for fall 2004 after all.
i contacted some schools regarding my gre scores but most of them werent clear about their policy on awa, as its a new section. in fact while providing the previous gre scores of the admitted students, they avoided the awa section as most of their students hadnt taken the gre in new format.
so....
i'll work on the toefl essays i think. dont have much time for it either......
boy ! has this shaken my confidence!
u can count me as a regular on toefl essays forum from now on ;-)
any advice on writing improvement is welcome.

ari