Sample awa question see what an awa question looks like on the gmat exam, complete with directions, a question, and an actual answer. Awa topics most analytical writing assessment awa analysis of an argument topics are available as a downloadable pdf. Give your writing ability a boost with the analytical writing assessment section of the gmat exam with the gmat write tool. Analytical writing assessment rescoring service independent readers will rescore your essays for a fee of us$45.

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gmat essay strategies mdash what makes for a high scoring essay?

in this tutorial you'll first learn what skills the awa section is designed to measure. Then you'll learn how gmat essays are evaluated by the readers and rated by e rater. Later you'll review some useful gmat essay strategies specifically, you'll learn how best to prepare for the awa section and how to organize and write an essay that will earn you a high score by making a distinctly positive impression. Q: how does the awa, in which your task is to analyze and argument, differ substantively from the critical reasoning questions you'll find on the exam's verbal section? a: the official term for the awa writing task is analysis of an argument. And as the term suggests, your task during the 30 minute awa section is to critique a stated argument, pointing out problems with the evidence and line of reasoning used to draw a conclusion. So the gmat writing task is essentially an exercise in critical thinking mdash very much like analyzing arguments on which gmat critical reasoning questions are based.

One key difference, of course, is that the awa also gauges your writing skills mdash specifically, how effectively you organize and your present your ideas. Another key difference is that for the writing task you need to provide your own analysis rather than simply pick from among five choices. As for which is more difficult mdash critical reasoning or argument analysis mdash most test takers find the latter more challenging because essay writing is inherently open ended. Just deciding what to say and how to organize your thoughts can be very challenging if you haven't adequately prepared for the task.

Most test takers are more comfortable with the critical reasoning format because there is a correct answer right in front of you, among five choices your job is simply to recognize it as such. Nevertheless, some gmat test takers are actually quite comfortable writing critical essays so it's a very individual matter. How does the testing service minimize subjectivity in the scoring process mdash to ensure fairness? a: gmat readers, who are college and university faculty hired by the testing service for this purpose, evaluate gmat essays on a 0 6 scale. The testing service instructs the readers to evaluate gmat essays holistically mdash to look at an essay as a complete package, without undue emphasis on any single criterion. So an essay that demonstrates competency in all four areas will probably earn a higher score than an essay that contains brilliant ideas but rambles incoherently from one awkward sentence to the next.

It might be useful here to draw an analogy to the scoring system for the quantitative and verbal sections of the gmat. The scoring system for those two sections accounts for the range of cognitive abilities covered among your correct responses mdash so all else being equal between two test takers, the one who demonstrates a broader set of skills will score higher. The same goes for the gmat essay, even though it's a human who is evaluating the essay, and no mathematical formulas are employed in the essay scoring process. Q: aren't gmat essays also graded by a computer program? how is this possible, and does this suggest any test taking strategies for composing a gmat essay? a: yes, every gmat essay is evaluated not only by a human reader but also by a computer program, which the testing service refers to as e rater. This program evaluates each essay for grammar and spelling errors, syntax, repetitiveness, as well as sentence and paragraph length mdash much like the grammar checkers and spell checkers built into word processing programs, except a bit more refined. E rater obviously can't evaluate your ideas or how well you've organized those ideas.

But test takers must not assume that content should be of secondary concern to mechanics in composing gmat essays. The best way to think of e rater's role is as a way for the testing service to flag an errant score awarded by a human reader. If e rater's score for an essay differs from the human reader's score by more than one point on the 6 point scale , a second human reader will read and grade that essay, and the final awa score will be the average of the two human readers' scores. Thus the testing service's use of e rater should simply not enter into a test taker's strategy when it comes to composing his or her gmat essay. Q: given that e rater checks spelling, doesn't the test discriminate against poor typists, especially considering the time pressure involved during the test? for that matter, aren't slow typists, as well as people who are not proficient at using word processors, at an inherent disadvantage when it comes to the gmat essays? a: yes, and that's one of the chief criticisms of the gmat essay section. E rater's computerized spell checker is also programmed to make this sort of distinction, at least for commonly used words. Your gmat reader s will pay far more attention to how you use words your diction than to how you've spelled those words.

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Q: speaking of word usage, what about vocabulary level? is it to a test taker's advantage to impress the reader with a strong vocabulary? a: only to a point. There's nothing wrong with demonstrating a strong vocabulary in your gmat essay by using the sorts of words that only well read, highly educated people are likely to use. But don't overdo it using too many such words can wave a red flag to the reader that you're attempting to use high brow words as a smokescreen mdash to divert attention from what is otherwise a poor essay. Also, if you use high brow words you'd better be sure you know what the words mean and that you're using them properly in the context of your essay. Otherwise, in your attempt to impress the reader you'll shoot yourself in the foot instead. Q: you indicated that one of the basic criteria for scoring gmat essays is organization. In preparing for the test, should test takers devise some sort of organizational template for their essay? a: organizational templates are useful only up to a certain point.