Hi NaimaB,

The essay portion of the GMAT asks you to critique an argument (essentially, you're asked to point out the flaws in the logic and then explain how to make the argument stronger), so the template that you read is one way to go about following the instructions. You have some "wiggle room" when it comes to style, so you don't have to follow this template word-for-word to earn a 6.

I don't think that it would be considered plagiarism if you followed the patterns that are laid out in that post, but you're going to have to write other essays over the course of your applications and even in Business School, so you might want to treat this as a skill-honing exercise and not just something you should memorize and reproduce later.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich