Dear Olivian,

Thanks for your post!

The short answer to your question is that you can pretty much take the GMAT any time before a school's application deadline - as long as you have your overall score to self-report in the application forms.

While the AWA will be graded later, you do not need it in order to submit your applications and be considered for R2. You can always report it to the adcoms as soon as you get it (even though they will likely see it when they get the official score reports anyway).

I've actually seen applicants take the test the day before - or even the day of - the deadline, then upload their score into the application and press submit, so there's really no issue here.

Having said all of that, I encourage you to read the fine print on your target-schools' application forms, just to be sure - since there can always be exceptions.

Best of luck with the GMAT and your R2 apps!

Regards,

Graham