3rd time - no essays?

[greg22b]

Would it be OK to skip the essays since the school can see that I scored well on the essays the other times I took the test?

Thanks.

[Osirus@VeritasPrep]

Its probably a bad idea, and everyone is going to tell you its a bad idea. Try to do everything humanly possible to work on your stamina so that it won't be an issue on test day. If you sincerely try everything to increase your stamina, but nothing works (including 5 hour energy, red bull, etc) then I would possibly go that route, if I knew my score would increase significantly. It can't be a minor increase though, we have to be talking at least 30 points for it to even be worth entertaining.

[greg22b]

I hear you.
Now, I'm just trying to get back to my low average of practice tests ~ 550
Just brain storming. I got over 100 points less on the actual so something is blocking me.
I actually didn't feel tired during the verbal, but who knows if not doing the essays will bring me back up from 420 at this point.
I feel like I could have guessed to a better score, well, actually I have in the past.

[Osirus@VeritasPrep]

I hear you.
Now, I'm just trying to get back to my low average of practice tests ~ 550
Just brain storming. I got over 100 points less on the actual so something is blocking me.
I actually didn't feel tired during the verbal, but who knows if not doing the essays will bring me back up from 420.

Odds are your issue isn't the essays then. If you're not noticeably tired, your score was lower because you weren't able to recognize what was being tested. Without even hearing your story, I can probably tell you how you felt during the test. There were probably several questions that you could not figure out what they were testing. You probably felt like you had not seen some of the material before. I think you should focus on recognition more so than stamina.

[DanaJ]

It's a bad idea and here's why: the vast majority of test takers do write the AWA and you not writing it is "cheating" in a sense. You're supposed to be compared on the same scale with everyone! Adcoms will know that you did better than you would have in normal conditions and are going to be more skeptical of your score. So here are the two red flags:
- you can't concentrate for too much, which means that you might not be able to handle the huge workload of b school
- you are willing to do something that might artificially inflate your score (because you're more focused and less tired), which would be slightly unethical - they are trying to combat this nowadays with the financial crisis

[beatvit]

Thanks, DanaJ, for a good rundown on the reasons beyond technicalities of GMAT questios. I think it's a very valid perspective.

As for the MBA workload, if you try to get ahead by skipping on 60 minutes of AWA, think of the work that you will have to do once admitted. It will be overwhelming and excruciating at times. Just read these lamentations: https://parttimembadegree.com/2009/12/16 ... 9-is-over/ and some others on that blog to get the pre-taste You need to toughen up and get ready for it by practicing and building up focus and stamina in advance. GMAT is only a pale proxy of what to expect in MBA.