Is it possible to just take the writing portion of the GRE?

[BiffTheFlashRogers]

Okay so I took the GRE's a week or so ago and just received my official scores today: Q: 156 (65th%), V 159(81st%) AW: 3.5 (35th%)

Honestly, I was extremely surprised I was given such a low writing score. Really disappointed. Thought I was going to be able to just take this godawful exam once and be done with it forever. I'm pretty happy with my verbal, and extremely happy with my quant since I am usually very weak with math. I spent a couple weeks cramming for the math and doubt I can get that high again.

One program that I am planning on applying to (SUNY Upstate) requires a minimum 4.0 on AW so I guess I need to retake. Is there a way to just take the writing portion? Could I take the writing portion and then leave? If I retake the whole GRE and go down in Verbal or Quant, will I be shooting myself in the foot?

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[DSPDPT]

@BiffTheFlashRogers You can't retake a specific portion of the GRE, you can only retake the whole test. If you just took the writing portion and left, you would get zeroes on your other sections, which would be reported to the schools you apply to. So, if you retake it, just make sure you practice verbal and math, just to make you can keep similar scores in both.

 

[rockstudy]

You need to find out how the schools that you are interested in will look at this. Contact them so you can be sure. Some will take the highest score from each section, others will average the scores and some will take the highest set. If you are applying to several schools chances are you will want to retake all three sections. Get a good GRE study guide and focus on the writing. Be sure to brush up on your vocabulary skills as I've heard this is something they weigh heavily.