curious phd gmat question

[ctklcadmin]

i have read that a lot of business phd schools don't look at the awa or i.r. so my question is should i even answer those sections. i have studied for about a year on the quant and verbal. i have not looked at the awa or i.r. i don't want to get a bad score in either. the schools i am looking at say they want a writing sample. i plan on not doing the awa and just submitting a writing sample. then in my application, write a sentence or two about why i didn't do the awa/ir. is this a bad idea. i don't want to score bad, and have them look at it. i plan on getting around a 640-700. lets say i get a 640, awa 1.5, and a worse ir. i would rather just have the 640, and the school realize i didn't attempt the other sections. even if i got a 720, and still did bad on the awa/ir, i would rather just avoid it.

or, should i take both parts, and if i do score bad, explain that in my application that i didn't really focus on it. or is it even that big of a deal to get a 700 and bomb the awa/ir. this is just for phd programs. i am not worried about top 10. i am looking at some big12 and big10 schools.

thanks,

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Hi ctklcadmin,

You ask a good question, but if you want to know exactly how a PhD program's Admission's Team would interpret what you're talking about, you should ask the Admission's Team directly. PhD programs are remarkably competitive, so you don't want to do anything that would "turn off" the Admissions Officers.

At face value, I think that skipping the Essay and IR sections would be a BAD IDEA, since it's akin to telling Business Schools that you don't want to do all of the work. Would you bring that same attitude to the PhD program?

The Essay and IR sections are as standardized and predictable as the Quant and Verbal sections, so you can train to CRUSH them all.

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