Our Essay Section & E-Rater Guide is designed to prepare you for the test. We’ve also used experience from years of grading thousands of practice essays through our essay grading service. The guide is based on information from essay graders and developers of computerized essay grading technology. Based on our observations, students who use the Essay Guide score about two points higher (on a scale from 0 to 6) than those who do not. Here’s what the Essay Guide contains:

1. AWA Basics

Analysis of Issue: how to tackle it .

Analysis of Argument: how to identify logical fallacies commonly used in essay questions, such as the unwarranted assumption or the fallacy of equivocation¹.

How international students should prepare for the essay section.

10 Most Common Errors: over the thousands of essays we have graded, 10 errors keep recurring².

2. How the E-Rater Works

How the E-rater program works.

What not to do: 7 common errors writers make with the E-rater.

3. Organizational Tips: How to Structure Your Essays

Pace schedules for each essay type so that you get everything done in time. Templates for each essay type to help structure your essays.

4. How to Write Effectively

Basic rules of grammar that you must know.

How to write effective and concise³ arguments.

Writing drills & exercises to test your writing skills.

5. Answers to the Real Essay Questions

How to see all of the 275 real AWA questions beforehand. You may see every potential essay question before test day.

Read sample answers to the real essay questions (20 sample essay answers). Use these to get an idea about how you should write your essays.