The value of AWA.

[gmatutor]

Stacey,

I have a student who has a publishing background and writes very well. The problem is their overall GMAT score suffers from burnout on the AWA questions. They have taken the GMAT twice and scored 6 in AWA twice. However, they have scored 620 and 630 overall. As this is a little out of my experience (test tutoring), I would appreciate your advice on the following question: can I recommend that my student blow off the AWA section so they have a little more stamina when they get to the Quantitative section, where they need to demonstrate the most improvement?

Thank you in advance.

[career_switcher]

I've read somewhere that bschools don't even look at the AWA essays unless there is something wrong, I guess a score of less than 4. I would recommend to your students to write as much as they can for about 15 minutes for each AWA and save their energy for the real part of the test.

If they are great writers, it will be reflected in their essays which most certainly will be read by adcoms.

[Stacy Blackman]

I would hate to tell someone to blow off the AWA. However, if they have already received 2 6's they can point to those if there were ever a problem. If diping down to a 4 or 5 could mean a significant increase in the rest of the exam I suppose it could be worth it.

[gmatutor]

Thank you for your response.

I am in the same category, very hesitant to suggest blowing off AWA. However, when she takes practice tests without doing AWA she scores 700+ with balanced verbal and quant. She just commits too much energy to her writing. It is a bit of an odd hang up. If any one has any thoughts on this I would be very happy to hear them.

Thanks again.