Customer Reviews

Taking the GRE Writing Assessment

5 star:		(64)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

The essays and the punctuation were just exactly what I needed. The author says don't be fooled by publishers that spend hours on model essays. Now I understand what he means. The other books' essays seem contrived, but this just shows methods of writing, ways to punctuate, and model essays for both the Issue and the Argument sections of the GRE. For the price, it's unbeatable.

I paid [$$] for one book from another publisher (Don't make that mistake!), and it was a waste of money.The other publisher had wrong math and the writing was like high school type fluff with no real substance. I couldn't even see any develoment patterns. What kind of university program wants that? Who writes the term "veg out" in an academic essay?!!That's hype--but that fluff is not in this GRE writing book.

This book is academically oriented.I got an excellent score on my writing section.

I'd spend the money again.

This book specifically was right to the heart of the matter.It shows how to answer the Issue and Argument Writing sections of the GRE Writing Test, which took the place of the old Logic test. Plus it shows all the other stuff about writing like where to put commas, and it is extremely easy to understand.

I wasted some money on other books that really didn't show anything at all about writing. I can tell that this guy is a professional writer because he does the writing and explains it at the same time.And I saved a whole lot of money with this book.

Suspicious pattern - Whenever a bad review occurs, a few days later there is a cluster of five-star reviews all on the same day.

This book seems to be targeted at the GRE test taker who would normally score a 3.0 and is trying to get their score up to a 4.0 or maybe a 5.0. For those potential GRE takers out there who went to Ivies or equivalent schools, I would suggest ignoring this book. The sample essays are simplistic and overly clichéd, noticeably worse than the 6.0 graded sample essays from ETS. For writers who are already fairly skilled, I would suggest downloading the GRE sample essays off the ETS site, looking at the sample essays on the ETS prep CD, and buying the Barron's guide which includes very good techniques for organization and planning.

Most of the essays in this book contain only one (!) long body paragraph with extremely meager intro and conclusion paragraphs. In some of the issue essays, Mr. Avants does branch into two body paragraphs, but almost never writes a three- or four- body paragraph essay that is the hallmark of a fully formed essay with multiple separate developed points. Mr. Avants also relies on extremely obvious stock crutch phrases like "I would like to share some final observations" or "The subject needs some closing comments" for transitions which stick out like stylistic sore thumbs. So buy the Barron's guide, get all the ETS materials avaible, write a bunch of timed practice essays, and do not bother buying this book if you want to have a good chance at a top score for the Writing Assessment section.

Cheers,
Trevor de Clercq
790 verbal, 800 math, 6.0 writing

For those who have written an essay before (think AP tests or SAT 2 writing or even a serious English/History paper), this book is a waste of time and money. I bought this book mainly so I could get free shipping on another book, and I wish I had just paid shipping. The essays presented here are terrible, and a similar essay would score in the 3-4 range on the GRE (out of a possible 6, and only 32% of test takers score below 4). Don't fool yourself into thinking that the essays are real or teach you anything. Save your effort and see the free downloadable files on the GRE website (gre.org) with REAL responses and criticism for each score level. Some people have said that the punctuation/grammar review is helpful, but unless you've been living in a box involving no reading of articles online or in other media, or perhaps have been speaking and writing in a language besides English, this is a waste of time.

I used the book and it helped me figure out ways to write patterns on the Issue section, and YES I did get a 6, YES I did contact Dr. Avants, and he even wrote back with different methods, corrected my drafts a couple of times and went way beyond the call of duty. and for $12? Hey, it was worth immensely more than that...My hat is off to you, sir. Thanks for the extra help.
A. Rego

If you want to see what confusing and lousy essays look like, buy this book. Otherwise, I highly recommend the readers to seek other GRE reference materials, such as books and related websites, for the real and successful ways the issue and argument essays are constructed. I don't consider my time and money spend reading this book a complete waste, since now I can confidently discern the difference between 'good' and 'bad' essays.

The text was a good review for punctuation, logical fallacies, and the like. It particularly helped me in noticing issues and tying those into ways to respond with constructed arguments.

This has been highly beneficial for me because it shows how to write in different patterns about the issue and the argument sections. I think it is toned down a bit on purpose to show methods more than anything. That way, I learned how to fit my own style in a developed format, without having to try and sound all pedantic.

This truly teaches rather than trying to show a lot of flash that does not help one iota.

The book worked well for me in teaching me to construct paragraphs around issues and especially recognizing logical flaws, which is a HUGE part of the writing test.

I have had three English courses and never learned even half of the techniques given here.