Lacking in Writing Skills!

I got my GRE scores, and was somewhat disappointed, in particular seeing the score for the analytical writing section, which qualifies me as one who "provides competent analysis of complex ideas; develops and supports main points with relevant reasons and/or examples; is adequately organized; conveys meaning with reasonable clarity; demonstrates satisfactory control of sentence structure and language usage but may have some errors that affect clarity."

And I thought lack of clarity was part of my mysterious charm! But seriously, this just has me wonder whether the graders are at all smart enough to read subtle texts like the one mine most certainly was.

This is probably the last time I am going to spend 1h15m non-stop, handwriting text with a pencil. Also it was probably the first time in over ten years I had to do that. And it hurts! By now, our hands are much better adapted to a keyboard. Writing with a pencil, especially for a long duration, takes tremendous effort and coordination. Am I glad at least that we are past the age when texts had to be carved into stone …

Otherwise, last time I wrote a paper in English (for academic purposes) was during my second year in highschool. Something like 20 years ago. As far as I can remember the subject was either “All my sons” by Arthur Miller or “Brave new world” by Aldous Huxley. I was probably not too fervent about these subjects at the time. Nor was I passionate about the subjects of my GRE test, one of which was on an airline company’s measures to educate their staff, the other on the importance of university students taking courses outside their field. Honestly, I have zero insight into the first subject, fair insight into the second but very mixed feelings about it and no affirmative stand.

But that’s no excuse to score just a 4.0 on your GRE test. Damn it! Did I just blow it?

And a more serious question: Am I simply too old by now to measure up to academic standards? Have my golden days passed me?