The Psychometric writing task

The facts

What the two dimensions mean

Content

Whether you took a position and defended it: a clear thesis, reasons that actually support it, examples that are relevant, and an argument that develops rather than restates itself. Acknowledging the other side and answering it is worth more than never mentioning it.

Language

Wording, style and register — sentence construction, vocabulary, punctuation, and whether the writing suits an argumentative essay. It is not a spelling test, but errors dense enough to interrupt a reader cost marks.

How to spend the time

1. Two or three minutes deciding. Pick a side, even if you can see both. A committed argument scores better than a balanced non-answer.
2. Two minutes planning. Three reasons in order, one example for each. Most low content scores are unplanned essays that drift.
3. The bulk of it writing. One idea per paragraph, and make the first sentence of each paragraph the claim.
4. Three minutes reading it back. Not rewriting — catching the sentence that lost its verb.

The most common ways to lose marks

• Not reaching the minimum length. Under 25 lines there is not enough evidence to score well, whatever the quality.
• Describing the topic instead of arguing about it. The task asks for a position.
• Examples that do not support the claim they follow.
• Running out of time in the last paragraph. A finished shorter essay beats an unfinished longer one.

How Vizo coaches it

Vizo’s writing coach marks on those two dimensions and no others, because inventing a third would be marking you on something no real rater scores. You write against the same clock and the same minimum length, in Hebrew or Arabic, and get back what a rater would notice — with the specific sentences that made the difference.

The writing task is one part of the Verbal domain; see Verbal Reasoning for the multiple-choice half, and the format overview for how the whole sitting fits together.