Free GRE® essay practice vs ScoreItNow!

Two tools, two jobs

If you are preparing for the GRE® Analytical Writing section, you will probably come across ScoreItNow! Online Writing Practice from ETS. You may also be looking for a free way to practice more often.

These are not really competitors. ScoreItNow! gives you ETS-written topics scored by ETS's own engine. Hopper Labs Essay Practice gives you unlimited, private practice at no cost. Many people will get the most out of using both.

What ScoreItNow! includes

ETS lists ScoreItNow! at 20 US dollars. Using topics created by ETS, you write and submit responses to two essay topics and get immediate scores and feedback. ETS says six free bonus Analytical Writing topics are also included.

ETS describes the service as including sample responses and suggestions for improving your essay-writing skills. It also says its e-rater scoring engine is used in low-stakes practice products, including GRE ScoreItNow!. e-rater is the same engine ETS uses alongside human raters when scoring the real test.

If you qualify for the GRE Fee Reduction Program, ETS includes ScoreItNow! free along with two POWERPREP PLUS practice tests.

ScoreItNow! is the way to get feedback from ETS's own scoring engine on ETS-written topics.

What Hopper Labs Essay Practice includes

Hopper Labs Essay Practice is free and needs no sign-up. It runs entirely in your browser, so your essay never leaves your device.

It includes a timed test, example essays across six score levels, and a revision playground for reworking your drafts. After each essay you get a rubric report across five areas: response to the prompt, reasoning, evidence, organization and clarity.

The first session downloads about 64 MB so the model can run on your device, and it works best on a laptop or desktop.

Because nothing is uploaded, you can write about anything without worrying about who reads it, and practice as often as you like without accounts, credits or limits.

How the grading differs

This is the most important difference, so we will be direct. ScoreItNow! uses ETS's e-rater engine. Hopper Labs Essay Practice gives a practice grade from an on-device model that we built. It is not an official GRE score, and it is not a prediction of your GRE score.

Think of our practice grade as a coach's read of a draft: useful for spotting whether your reasoning, evidence or organization is holding the essay back, and for seeing whether a revision helped. For a score from the engine ETS actually uses, use ScoreItNow!.

When you read any feedback, from either tool, focus on patterns rather than single numbers. If reasoning or evidence is flagged essay after essay, that is where your next hour of practice should go.

Neither practice tool replaces the real thing. On test day, ETS evaluates your essay with trained human raters and e-rater together.

Which one to use when

Use Hopper Labs Essay Practice for volume and revision. Because it is free and private, you can write as many timed essays as you like, rework weak paragraphs in the revision playground, and compare your drafts to example essays at different score levels.

Use ScoreItNow! for checkpoints. Once your planning and timing feel steady, use your ScoreItNow! topics to see how e-rater reads your writing on ETS-written prompts.

A simple rhythm works for many people. Write two or three timed practice essays a week, revise the weakest paragraph of each, and read an example essay at the score level just above your current practice grade to see what changes.

Whatever you use, practice the way you will test: 30 minutes, one Issue prompt, spell check off. ETS publishes its full Issue topic pool, so you are never short of prompts.

The bottom line

ScoreItNow! is an official ETS product that costs 20 US dollars and covers a fixed set of ETS topics. Hopper Labs Essay Practice is free and unlimited, keeps your essays on your device, and gives a practice grade with a detailed rubric report. Both can play a part in a sensible plan.

If you want to start writing right now without an account, try it in Essay Practice.

GRE® is a registered trademark of ETS. This article and Hopper Labs Essay Practice are not endorsed or approved by ETS.