General

What are the benefits of the ScoreItNow! Online Writing Practice?

ScoreItNow! Online Writing Practice allows you to practice your critical thinking and analytical writing skills on the essay task in the Analytical Writing tasks used in the GRE General Test administered beginning on September 22, 2023. The responses you write in the service are scored by e-rater, the automated essay scoring system developed by ETS.

What is the price of the service?

The service costs US$20, which entitles you to write and submit up to two essay responses for scoring.

You will receive a score for each essay response you submit and you will also be able to view scored sample essay responses with rater commentary for those essay topics.

After you have submitted two essay responses for scoring, you will have the option to write and submit essay responses on six FREE bonus topics for more practice. You will receive a score on each essay response that you submit on these bonus topics.

How can ScoreItNow! help me prepare for the GRE General Test?

You can write two responses on authentic Analytical Writing topics for the GRE General Test and get immediate scores. Your essay responses are scored by e-rater, the automated essay scoring technology developed at ETS. The e-rater scoring engine has been trained on actual responses that GRE essay readers evaluated. The scores you receive using ScoreItNow! will provide an indication of how you might do on the Analytical Writing section of the actual GRE General Test.

IMPORTANT: Please note that there is no guarantee that the score you receive on the Analytical Writing section of the GRE General Test will be the same as the scores you receive from ScoreItNow!.

How does ScoreItNow! Online Writing Practice differ from the Analytical Writing section of the actual GRE General Test?

There are several differences between the ScoreItNow! service and the Analytical Writing section of the GRE General Test. See the chart below:

What are the technical requirements to use the ScoreItNow! service?

ScoreItNow! Online Writing Practice will work in any of the following browsers as long as you are using an up-to-date stable version of the browser.

• Chrome^®
• FireFox^®
• Edge^®
• Safari^®

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Using ScoreItNow! Online Writing Practice

How do I access ScoreItNow! service?

Visit www.ets.org/gre/scoreitnow then either log in or select the Buy Now button to purchase the service.

How do I purchase the ScoreItNow! service?

The ScoreItNow! service can be purchased with the following credit cards: American Express, JCB, Discover, MasterCard, and Visa.

Why doesn't my voucher code work?

Please make sure you copied and pasted the voucher code correctly from the source. Be especially careful that you do not leave an extra blank space before or after the voucher code. Voucher codes begin with "EA", "DR", or "FW".

Contact Customer Support if you continue to experience difficulty with your voucher code.

What is the difference between the Practice Option and the Test Experience Option?

The Practice Option enables you to:

• Choose the topic on which you would like to write.
• Write your essay response offline in untimed mode.
• Receive a score and additional feedback after you submit your essay response.

The Test Experience Option enables you to:

• Write your essay response online in timed mode. The service will select the topic on which you will write.
• Write your essay responses online using the same word processing features as are available in the GRE General Test.
• Receive a score and additional feedback after you submit your essay response.

What are Bonus Analytical Writing topics?

Bonus Analytical Writing topics are free topics that ETS has made available to you to provide you with more practice writing Analytical Writing essay responses. After you have submitted two essay responses for scoring, you will have the additional option to write and submit essay responses to topics. You will receive a score on each essay response that you submit on the bonus topics.

Essay responses to the bonus topics may be used in ETS materials to train scorers, in analysis samples and in research studies. In each instance, all identifying information will be removed.

How many essay submissions can I purchase?

You may purchase essay credits in multiples of two. With two credits you may complete two essay responses and submit for scoring.

NOTE: There are currently 4 topics in the ScoreItNow! system. In addition, there are 6 free bonus topics.

If I purchase multiple Test Experience sessions, will I receive different topics at each session?

Yes. ScoreItNow! will keep a log of essays you purchase to avoid duplication. It is possible, however, that the number of sessions you purchase may exhaust the number of essay topics in the ScoreItNow! pool. Currently, ScoreItNow! has 4 essay topics and 6 free bonus topics. Note that if you choose to submit multiple essay responses on the same topic, your scores on this topic may well improve; however, these improved scores will be a less reliable indicator of your performance on the actual test than your performance on a new topic.

How do I submit an essay response for scoring?

Once you are signed into your ScoreItNow! account, choose either the Practice or Test Experience mode.

In the Practice Option, select a topic on which you wish to submit an essay. Read the directions provided on the screen. After you have written your essay response offline, you can copy and paste the response into the text box and select Submit for e-rater scoring.

In the Test Experience Option, compose your essay response online and select Submit for scoring. If time expires before you finish your essay response, your response will automatically be submitted to e-rater for scoring.

How do I write my essay responses using a word processor?

Select the topic you wish to write on and type it using a word processing program. Save your response. Then, enter ScoreItNow! Online Writing Practice. Leave the word processor and response open, then use the following instructions for cutting and pasting your response from the word processing program into the ScoreItNow! response window.

Windows

• Highlight the response text in the word processor program.
• Click Edit in the top menu bar.
• Select Copy.
• Switch to the ScoreItNow! window.
• Proceed to the Write Response Off-line section.
• Click inside the ScoreItNow! text box.
• Press Control-V on your keyboard to paste the text into the text box.

Mac

• Highlight the response text in the word processor program.
• Click Edit in the top menu bar.
• Select Copy.
• Switch to the ScoreItNow! window.
• Proceed to the Write Response Off-line section.
• Click in the response window.
• Click inside the ScoreItNow! text box.
• Press Command-V on your keyboard to paste the text into the text box.

Can I write my essay responses in untimed mode?

You are able to write your essay responses in untimed mode in the Practice Option only. Remember that your essay responses will be scored based on standards associated with a response written in the recommended time. To simulate the GRE test environment, we suggest you write your essay response within the recommended 30 minutes allowed for the task.

Can I use a spell-checker?

Because a spell-checker will not be available during the actual GRE General Test administration, ScoreItNow! Online Writing Practice does not provide a spell-checker. If you use a word processing program to draft your practice essay response, we recommend against using the spell-checker in order to more accurately reflect the conditions under which you will test.

When will my ScoreItNow! user name and password expire?

Your user name and password will expire 6 months from date of the most recent purchase. Your essay responses and related scores will be saved in the ScoreItNow! system for six months after the date you submitted the response so that duplicate topics will not be presented to you at a future session.

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Essay Responses and Topics

Does ScoreItNow! contain authentic General Test Analytical Writing topics?

Yes. The ScoreItNow! topics are GRE topics that have been field tested in actual GRE General Test administrations. The bonus topics have been developed for the GRE General Test, but have not yet been field tested.

On how many topics may I write responses?

The US$20 fee allows you to write two essay responses.

In addition, after you have submitted two essay responses for scoring, you will have the option to write and submit essay responses for up to 6 FREE Bonus topics and receive immediate scores.

For additional essay submissions that also provide scored sample essays and reader commentary, you will need to purchase the service again. Please note that the ScoreItNow! service has 4 topics for the Analytical Writing task.

Can I see the topics before I decide to buy ScoreItNow!?

No. You can preview the list of topics after you have purchased and signed on to ScoreItNow!.

Can I pick the topics on which I want to write?

You can in the Practice Option only. Read all available topics and select the two on which you wish to write.

Can I write my two essay responses on different days?

Yes. You can choose to write the essays on two different days or you can choose to write both essays on the same day.

Can I retake an essay on a particular topic to see if my score improves?

You can choose to write an essay response on a particular topic, submit it for scoring, and then review your score and feedback. After doing so, you are able to choose to write another essay on the same topic to see if your score improves. However, we would recommend writing on a different essay topic. Note that while your score on a particular ScoreItNow! topic may well improve after multiple submissions, these improved scores may be a less reliable indicator of your performance on the actual test than your performance on a new topic.

Remember, if you choose to write another essay on the same topic, it will count as your second essay.

Does anyone see my essay responses and scores?

No one sees your essay responses or scores in the Practice Option and Test Experience Option except you. Your essay responses will be scored by the e-rater automated scoring system and your responses and scores are accessible to you for six months from the date you submitted your responses for scoring. Access to your ScoreItNow! account information is user name and password protected.

Your essay responses on the bonus essays may be used in research studies. In each instance, all identifying information will be removed.

How can I show my essay responses to others?

Access to your essay responses and scores is entirely under your control. We strongly recommend that you print your responses and scores rather than giving your user name and password to others so they can access your reports online. It should be noted, however, that responses and scores cannot be submitted to anyone in lieu of official GRE General Test scores.

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Scoring and Feedback

How are my essay responses scored?

Your essay responses are scored using e-rater automated scoring technology. Note that trained GRE readers do not score your responses in the ScoreItNow! service. If you want additional feedback, you can print your responses and give them to a teacher or instructor for evaluation.

What is the e-rater automated scoring engine?

The e-rater engine is an automated essay scoring system developed by ETS. The e-rater engine is trained on many different essay topics through an analysis of thousands of essay responses that trained GRE readers have scored according to GRE scoring standards. These e-rater models are used to score essays submitted through ScoreItNow! Online Writing Practice.

When will I see the score on my essay response?

You will receive your score within approximately 30 seconds after clicking on the Submit button after writing your essay response.

What are the standards for scoring my essay response?

ScoreItNow! Online Writing Practice uses e-rater models that emulate the performance of trained ETS essay readers. GRE essay responses are scored on a 6-point holistic scale. The response is rated for its overall quality and receives a score from 1 (lowest) to 6 (highest). If your essay response is too brief to evaluate (fewer than 50 words) or too long (more than 1,000 words), you will receive an Advisory notice indicating that no score will be assigned.

Please note that long essays (more than 1,000 words) are rarely submitted on the operational test and thus the e-rater models which are built on operational essays scored by trained ETS essay readers may not provide as accurate a score for very long essays as they would for an essay that falls within the regular range. That is why the ScoreItNow! software will produce an Advisory Notice of a score for those essays. On the operational test, of course, essays are scored by human readers and can be any length.

NOTE: If your essay response does not receive a score because it is too brief, you are not entitled to a refund.

What is an Advisory notice?

In some cases, an essay response may result in an Advisory notice from the e-rater scoring engine. This means there is something unusual about the response that prevents e-rater from providing an accurate score. It may:

• be fewer than 50 words or more than 1,000 words
• be too repetitive
• be lacking in key concepts
• be a restatement of the essay topic
• not be relevant to the topic
• not resemble other responses written on that topic

How do I interpret an Advisory notice?

Read the Advisory notice to determine why it was provided. You may wish to make the necessary revisions to your essay response and resubmit it for scoring. Remember that ScoreItNow! Online Writing Practice allows you to write and submit two essay responses for scoring. If you revise and resubmit your first essay response, the resubmitted response will count as the second of the two essay submissions you purchased.

NOTE: If you receive an Advisory notice other than for a very long essay, you will not be entitled to a refund.

Why didn't my essay response receive a score?

The e-rater engine does not score essay responses that are too brief or too long to evaluate with confidence. If you submit a response for scoring that is too brief to evaluate (fewer than 50 words) or too long (more than 1,000 words), you will receive an Advisory notice indicating that no score will be provided.

NOTE: If you receive an Advisory notice because your essay response is too brief to evaluate, you are not entitled to a refund.

What if I disagree with my score?

The scores assigned by the e-rater scoring engine have been shown to have a high correlation with those assigned by readers who are trained to use the same scoring standards. You may print your essay response and show it to a teacher or instructor for additional feedback.

Can I get an individualized evaluation of my essay response?

ScoreItNow! Online Writing Practice only provides an e-rater score for essay responses you have submitted. ScoreItNow! does not offer individualized comments about or evaluation of your responses by staff from ETS. You may choose to show your essay responses to a teacher or instructor for evaluation.

Will I get the same score when I take the Analytical Writing section of the GRE General Test?

There is no guarantee that the score assigned to your essay response by the e-rater scoring engine using ScoreItNow! Online Writing Practice is the same score you would receive for the response you write during the Analytical Writing section of the GRE General Test.

What information do I get with my score?

In addition to receiving a holistic score for your essay response, you will receive descriptive information about the score point assigned and scored sample essay responses with rater commentary so you can see other essays at different score points. You may also view general advice on how to improve your writing.

If I try again, will my essay response score go up?

Whether your score goes up when you write another response depends on whether the quality of your essay response has improved.

Can I come back and see my essay responses and scores at a later date?

Yes. Your essay responses and associated scores will be stored in the ScoreItNow! Online Writing Practice system for six months from the date that you submitted your essay responses for scoring.

How do I print out my essay responses and scores?

Select the Print button on your browser.

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Refund Policy

What is your refund policy?

ETS has a no refund, no returns policy for test preparation purchases. This policy was communicated to you in your shopping cart prior to your purchase.

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Information About the GRE General Test

Where can I get information about the GRE General Test or my official GRE scores?

Information about the GRE General Test can be accessed at www.ets.org/gre. You can access your official scores in your ETS Account.

What other test preparation materials and services for the GRE General Test are available from ETS?

Descriptions of all available GRE General Test preparation materials and services can be viewed on the GRE website.

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Additional Help

How can I get additional help?

Access the ScoreItNow! Online Writing Practice Contact Us form. Complete all requested information and select the Submit button. You will promptly receive an automated response to your question.