GMAT Strategy

Hi, my name is Sonny and this is my first time posting here. I'm a Marine Officer and a 2009 alumnus from the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign.

After scoring anywhere from 710-770 on the various MGMAT, GMATPrep, and 800score.com CATs over the past 2-3 weeks (I started out scoring in the 610-640 range on Petersons CATs), I've moved on to preparing my AWA skills.

I've historically considered myself a fairly strong writer with a decent depth of vocabulary. I downloaded the GMAtWrite program from MBA.com today and decided to wing it. On both essays, I struggled to finish in time and I scored a two 5's (5/5/5/6, and 5/4/5/5 respectively).

Seeing as how a 5 is a relatively weak score (77th percentile? The "4" in one category is especially embarrassing, especially for a proud Illinois alum), my question is - how much does your AWA score matter to MBA admissions officers? I'm not flipping out yet, as I have two weeks to make improvements, but if I end up scoring 5's again, how much will that damage my prospects of admission to an elite business school, given an otherwise strong GMAT score?

I'd like to believe I'm a pretty strong writer, but 30 minutes is a hell of a time crunch.

Thanks for your help in advance!

Very Respectfully,

Sonny

Hey Sonny,

Rest assured - if you're at 5 or better the AWA is absolutely no problem. It's much more a pass/fail exercise than one in which the final score truly matters. Schools use the essays as a quick check of relative communication ability (a 2, for example, would be pause for concern) and often even more as a way to gauge whether your application essays are really your own work (if your "What are your future goals and how will a ____________ degree help you on that path?" essays are Pulitzer-worthy but your AWA score is a 3, that's something that may concern them).

Now, for non-native English speakers the AWA may carry additional weight because schools may have a bit more cause for concern that such students will be prepared for English-communication burden in school. But in that case a 5 is a fantastic score. So really no one should ever be concerned about a 5.

Honestly, the main reason that a 5 is a 77th percentile is because it's just not that hard, at least for college-educated, native English speakers, to turn in a reasonably well-written essay. Even a perfect score is something like the 92nd percentile or so these days.

If you're consistently hitting 5s I wouldn't worry another second about the AWA - your job now is to get in and out of the AWA without wasting too much energy or having to stress about the clock, so that you're fresh and ready to take on the multiple-choice sections, which carry exponentially more weight.

2 things :

1>awa 5 is 57%.awa 5.5 is 77%.

2>I attended a chat with a to tier school adcom last week. There was a guy asking the weight-age of the AWA's cause he had an AWA-4 to match a 720; and the adcom replied they are interested only in the Q and V !!!

You guys are seriously awesome. Thanks so much. I'm going to cram a little bit the next two weeks to strive for a 6...but I guess a 5 isn't anything to worry about then.

The most important thing about the AWA is that you should not allow it impact your performance on the other two sections. You can try to hard on the AWA and find that your Quant and Verbal scores suffer.

You can only focus for so long and you want to save that intense focus for key moments in the quant and verbal.

The reason to practice AWA and to be comfortable with it has less to do with earning that score and more to do with being able to complete those two sections without undue amounts of stress and without tiring yourself in any way.

I recommend that you avoid any "agonizing" while you do the AWA. If you are agonizing then you are using up the part of your brain that focuses. So just let the AWA flow...and get ready for the Main Event. As Brian said, it sounds like you will score fine anyway.

Good Luck!

How about AWA-4.0, IR -7 and Q+V -700? Can AWA score really degrade my chances to get into good school, considering I have a decent profile (professonal & educational).

Hi,

I got a 730 in GMAT and 7 in IR. But got only 3.5 in AWA. I am not sure how this happened as I was doing good in my practice attempts. I feel this can partially be attributed to the fact that I got really late for my GMAT because there was huge traffic and surprise roadblocks. So I was convinced I won't be able to give my test, hence I believe in all the anxiety and nervousness I might have done something terrible.

I don't want to re-take the exam because I am not sure how the Q+V will pan out and more importantly I don't have the time as well.

Can anyone please help me understand what I should do?

Ankit