AWA importance

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AWA importance

by rajshas » Mon Jul 30, 2012 4:38 am
What is the AWA importance . Can someone break it into following realms?

1. Overall College selection criteria.
2. Effect on overall score.
3. Is there are min standard bracket to benchmark score that has to be score for good review from admission.

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by essaysnark » Mon Jul 30, 2012 8:18 am
rajshas - great questions - people are often dismissive of the AWA but that's a mistake! The fact that they ditched one of the two AWA essays in order to add the I/R portion does indicate that the AWA isn't that important compared to other components of the GMAT, but that does not mean it's UN-important!

We actually wrote a post on the EssaySnark blahg about this quite recently: https://www.essaysnark.com/2012/07/the-a ... e-matters/

To also address the issues you raised:

- your AWA doesn't matter at all in terms of which bschools you should select. None of the schools even report their average student AWA.
- the AWA doesn't factor into your total score; it works like the I/R, it's calculated and reported separately
- if you're a non-native English speaker, then the adcom will cut you some slack on the AWA, but a score below 5.0 is a tiny bit troublesome for anyone (see that post we just referenced).

When picking schools, focus on your career goals as the primary criteria for what school will help you, and also take into account your personal preferences like region, urban/rural school etc. Then examine their 80% ranges on total GMAT score to see if your stats fit their student profile.

Hope this helps!!
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by rajshas » Fri Aug 10, 2012 11:14 am
Thanx , thats really insight full ...

regards
Raj

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by KapTeacherEli » Fri Aug 10, 2012 11:30 am
rajshas wrote:Thanx , thats really insight full ...

regards
Raj
Hi Raj,

essaysnark's post was really great, and spot on. Although you can't and shouldn't ignore the essays, they don't carry nearly as much weight as your 200-800 score. The Quant and Verbal scores should play a much bigger role in your application (though even low score there aren't an absolute barrier to admission!)

However, Kaplan differs from essaysnark in one respect: we view 4.0, not 5.0, as the threshold for an acceptable essay. The GMAT's grading standards appear to bear this out: grade 3 and below are described in negative language, "does not," "insufficient," "poor," while 4 is at a minimum "adequate," if not "good"! You can use this as a rough guideline for how application committees will view your score, as well.

Good luck on your prep!
Eli Meyer
Kaplan GMAT Teacher
Cambridge, MA
www.kaptest.com/gmat

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