Hi, I've read some of the previous threads on the GRE, but I don't think my query has been answered yet. If it has, sorry to waste your time and a link to the relevant thread would be nice.

I'm a UK student, as you may have guessed from the thread title, with an application in progress at a US university. The only thing missing is my GRE score, and I'll be taking the general test on Friday.

I'm a bit nervous, especially since it's a long time since I've done this sort of test (the closest was probably the Cognitive Battery Test that was briefly wheeled out when I was about twelve), and in the UK we aren't really schooled to this sort of test. I'm preparing to brush up on what looks like A* grade GCSE maths (judging by the sample questions and provided preparation booklet), having a read of the vocabulary lists (no worries; my English is reasonably strong) and have a read of the sample essays.

And that's what worries me.

The grade 4 and 5 sample essays seem generally okay, maybe a bit off target sometimes, maybe a bit waffly.

The grade 6 essays are uniformly awful.

They are florid to the point of unreadability, they utilise complicated sentence structure and irrelevant examples to obfuscate the points they are trying to put across, or the fact that they do not, in fact, have a point. They generally violate all six of Orwell's five rules of writing. They almost all name-drop Socrates or Benjamin Franklin when more popularly familiar examples would do.

Is this really what I'm trying to aim for? The idea depresses me. Am I aiming to write a 4 or a 5 because I think clarity and precision count? Or am I aiming higher than 6 standard? If anyone knows how these things are marked, any information would be helpful.