Doing AWA when taking the tests?

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isisalaska: Community Manager; Posts: 363; Joined: Sun Dec 10, 2006 12:24 pm; Location: St. Louis; Thanked: 7 times; Followed by:3 members

Doing AWA when taking the tests?

by isisalaska » Mon Feb 26, 2007 12:52 pm

Hi
In my case it does not really matter the AWA, they just care about the score for Quantitaive and Verbal. So, I was wondering is it a good idea to do the whole test anyway to simulate an exam situation? will this help me "train" for the real test?

Isis Alaska

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Source: Beat The GMAT — GMAT Strategy | Mon Feb 26, 2007 12:52 pm

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beatthegmat: Site Admin; Posts: 6778; Joined: Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:30 am; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 1249 times; Followed by:994 members

by beatthegmat » Mon Feb 26, 2007 1:01 pm

Yes, definitely practice with AWAs. It's draining to sit in a test for 3-hours, so having some practice doing so beforehand helps!

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by Stacey Koprince » Mon Feb 26, 2007 8:55 pm

Seconding Eric. You will do better if you skip the essays, because you won't be so tired later in the test. And since you have to do the essays on the real thing, you should do them in practice.

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fsar45: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 80; Joined: Sun Feb 25, 2007 4:51 pm

by fsar45 » Mon Feb 26, 2007 9:36 pm

I agree. For me, the AWA part of the GMAT woke up my brain. I do a lot of writing for work, though, so it was my easiest section, but it got me thinking.

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flo821: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 8; Joined: Wed Dec 20, 2006 12:11 pm; Location: Philly, PA

by flo821 » Tue Feb 27, 2007 7:00 am

well, i for one did not really prepare much at all for the awa section.. i got a 5.0 the first time and was ok with that since i know they don't take the awa into that much consideration as the real score.. i just took the gmat again last wknd.. again, didn't practice the awa and got a 6.0... when taking the practice tests..i just skipped over the awa..didn't even read the questions.. so just like the real test, it depends on your skill level.. if u are already a good writer, you just need to read the prep books that help you understand what they are looking for.

does anyone know how the schools see your score? i assume they see your 2 raw scores and your combined final score and then also the # for the awa. how much do they really care about the awa? like, if you are below their average gmat, but you got a high awa score..does that help at all or not?

i do know schools have the capability of actually reading the essays u wrote..

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Stacey Koprince: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2228; Joined: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:28 pm; Location: Montreal, Canada; Thanked: 639 times; Followed by:694 members; GMAT Score:780

by Stacey Koprince » Tue Feb 27, 2007 10:23 am

Most schools just want you to beat the average on AWA - which means, score above a 4. They don't care whether you get a 5 or a 6 (or a 4.5) - they just want to know you're better than average.

And I've never heard of a school using an AWA score to offset a poor GMAT score. They just don't really place much emphasis on AWA UNLESS you write amazing essays for the application and get like a 2 on the AWA. Then, they wonder if you really wrote your essay applications and are concerned that you might not communicate well enough to attend the school.

Also, I agree that not everyone needs to do a ton of preparation for the essays, but the vast majority of people who take practice tests without doing the essays and then suddenly have to write for an hour first on the real thing will find that the hour of writing will negatively affect performance on the multiple choice portion of the test.