The GMAT Essay Section

     The Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) is how business schools evaluate your writing skills. The AWA section has two 30-minute essay questions. One essay is the "Analysis of Issue," in which you state your opinion on an issue. The second is the "Analysis of Argument," in which you analyze the reasoning in an argument. The two essays require completely different strategies.


How the E-rater Is Used

     Before February 1999, two human graders would grade your essays. If they disagreed, it went to a third grader. Under the new system, a human and the E-rater will grade your essay. If the human and E-rater agree on a score, that's the grade your essay will receive. If they disagree, a second human will grade the essay to resolve any differences.
     The computerized grading system pressures human graders to follow the E-rater's strict standards. Human graders are aware that there is a computer double-checking their work, and they are more likely to follow the E-rater's strict grading parameters.

         
How to tackle the Analytical Writing Assessment

    Students tend to under-prepare for the AWA section. This is ironic because it is the one GMAT section where a small amount of preparation can make a huge difference on test day. You don't want your embarrassing AWA grade coming up in a business school interview. To beat the AWA, you must learn how to write in a highly disciplined and concise manner.

1. Be particularly concerned with structure. Clearly divide your essay into the introductory paragraph, two to three content paragraphs, and a conclusion. Take time out before you start writing to set up an organizational structure. Our Essay Guide includes sample essay templates for the Issue and Argument essays.
   
   
2. Use transitional phrases such as "first," "therefore," and "because" to help the computer identify concepts between and within the paragraphs. Make sure you spell these transition words correctly so that the computer can identify them. The E-rater does not have a spell-checker built in.
   
   
3. Be a conformist. The E-rater is not programmed to appreciate individuality, humor, or poetic inspiration; it will be comparing the style and structure of your essay to that of other high-scoring essays. If your essay looks like the high-scoring essays in the E-rater's memory banks, you will get a high grade; if not, you will get a low grade. Our Essay Guide has 20 sample high score essays to give you a sense of the proper writing style for the AWA.
   
   
4. Clearly state your critique in the Analysis of Argument essay. The Analysis of Argument question will show you an essay loaded with logical fallacies, such as the unwarranted assumption or fallacy of equivocation. These are buzzwords that the E-rater detects to see if you have correctly identified the argument's logical flaws.
   
   
5. Know the essays and how to answer them. The Essay Guide shows you all of the 275 actual GMAT essay questions and 20 selected sample answers to those essay questions. This will give you a feel for the essay questions and how they should be answered.
   
   
6. Write in effective American style. Both the human and the E-rater will detect poor writing style. The E-rater's memory banks have essays written in American grammar/style, which is slightly distinct from the English used outside of the United States.
   
   
7. Practice, Practice, Practice. Try to do the essays in the 30-minute time frame. That is half the challenge. Always practice under timed conditions on a computer or take our practice essays for grading.
   

      Our Essay Section & E-Rater Guide is designed to prepare you for the test. We've also put years of experience from grading thousands of practice essays into our essay grading service.
      The guide is based on information from essay graders and developers of computerized essay grading technology. Based on our observations, students who use the Essay Guide score about two points higher, on a scale from zero to six, than those who do not. Here's what the Essay Guide contains:

1. AWA Basics

• Analysis of Issue: how to tackle it .
• Analysis of Argument: how to identify logical fallacies commonly used in essay questions, such as the unwarranted assumption or the fallacy of equivocation.
• How international students should prepare for the essay section.
• 10 Most Common Errors: in the thousands of essays we have graded, 10 errors recur.
  

2. How the E-Rater Works

• How the E-rater program works.
• What not to do: Seven common errors writers make with the E-rater.
  

3. Organizational Tips: How to Structure Your Essays

• Pace schedules for both essay types so that you get everything done in time.
• Templates for both essay types to help structure your essays.
  

4. How to Write Effectively

• Basic rules of grammar that you must know.
• How to write effective and concise arguments.
• Writing drills and exercises to test your writing skills.
  

5. Answers to the Real Essay Questions

• See all of the 275 real AWA questions beforehand.
• Read up to 20 sample answers to actual GMAT essay questions. Use these to get an idea of how to write your essays.
  

6. Application Essay Writing Guide (New)

• 50-page guide about writing application essays to MBA programs. Learn how to write an appealing application essay, explain your past failures and highlight your career successes.
  

>> Start your preparation in five minutes... get the Essay Section & E-Rater Guide

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>> Essay Grading Service: take practice essay questions and send them in for grading and review