| Article Index |
|---|
| Analytical Writing Assessment |
| Managing Your Time |
| The Essays |
| All Pages |
The AWA's Two Components
The GMAT Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) consists of two, 30 minute components. One asks you to analyze an argument, and the other asks you to analyze an issue. These 2 essays can appear in either order when you take the GMAT.
A Warning About Studying the Downloadable GMAT Essay Questions
The test writers at the GMAC have published two complete lists of current Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) questions. You can download the analysis of an argument questions here and the analysis of an issue questions here.
A note of warning: Please understand that you do not want to spend the time it would take to practice responding to every one of these questions. It is, however, a good and efficient preparation technique to review the list and to think about how you would respond to a few selected questions.
How the Essays are Graded
Your essays will most likely be graded by a teaching assistant or graduate student from a university English department. This evaluator will assign your essay a grade from 0 to 6. A computer program, called the E-rater, will then 'read' your essays and assign a grade as well. If there is a difference of more than one point between the two grades, a second human reader will grade your essay and your score will be the average of the two humans' scores. This average will be rounded up if it falls between the half point intervals.
The graders (both human and computer) look for overall evidence of the following four qualities in your essays:
- Critique of the argument or analysis of the issue
- Ideas developed in a rational, persuasive manner, with relevant examples supporting them
- Organization
- Proper grammar and syntax
Due to the economics involved in grading this test, graders are not given much time to spend on each essay. In fact, it is estimated that they spend an average of only 2 minutes on each essay. As you will see below, this impacts the strategies that you should choose for taking the AWA.
The Overall Importance of the Writing Assessment
Admissions committees simply do not give AWA scores the same importance that they do to GMAT verbal and quantitative scores. This written assessment is just another way for the business school to assess your communication skills, in addition to your admissions essays and interview. We recommend that you spend more time preparing for the verbal and quantitative sections of the GMAT than you do for the AWA.
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