gmat essays

GMAT AWA Writing Tips: 5 Steps for a 6.0 Score

Last Updated on May 12, 2023

GMAT test-takers tend to get a bit nervous about the Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) because preparing for it doesn’t seem quite as straightforward as preparing for GMAT Quant or Verbal. Is it even possible to “study” how to write a high-scoring essay on an unknown topic with 30 minutes on the clock?

In truth, there is a formula to performing well on the GMAT Analytical Writing Assessment, and you don’t have to be Ralph Waldo Emerson to earn an enviable AWA score. In this article, I’ll give you 5 essential GMAT writing tips for scoring well on the Analytical Writing Assessment, including a 5-paragraph structure that will allow you to tackle any GMAT AWA question that gets thrown your way.

First things first, let’s review what exactly the GMAT Analytical Writing Assessment is and how it’s scored.

What Is the GMAT Analytical Writing Assessment?

How is the analytical writing assessment scored, how do i interpret my awa score, paragraph 1: intro, paragraphs 2-4: supporting points, paragraph 5: conclusion, tip #2: include transition words, tip #3: don’t neglect the basics, tip #4: don’t expect time to revise, tip #5: practice formulating supporting points.

The Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) is a 30-minute section of the in-person GMAT that consists of one essay task, an “analysis of an argument.” Depending on what section order you choose for your exam, you’ll complete the AWA section either first or last when you sit for your GMAT. If you choose the default section order, the AWA section will appear first. If you choose to complete either the Quant or Verbal section first, the AWA section will appear last.

In AWA, an argument is presented to you that you must critique in an essay that can be any length. Your job is to analyze the argument’s reasoning, point out flaws and assumptions in the argument, and assess how evidence is used to support the argument’s conclusion, all while logically organizing and clearly communicating your ideas. AWA questions typically focus on business-related topics and are presented in the form of an excerpt from a hypothetical magazine or newspaper article, editorial, company memo or report, corporate or organization newsletter, or business plan, to name a few examples. The given argument in an AWA question is always accompanied by the following instructional statement:

“Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.”

Generally speaking, your AWA essay is evaluated on the basis of the overall strength of your analysis of the given argument, the relevancy of the points you make, how your essay is organized, and the effectiveness with which you communicate your ideas.

So, for example, an AWA question might present a short paragraph from a company memo. The paragraph explains the company’s reasoning behind a recent decision to change some aspect of the company’s operations. Your job is to find any flaws in the company’s reasoning, explain why they are flaws, and point out any further information that would be useful in assessing whether the company’s reasoning was valid. Fortunately, you are not required to give your personal views on the subject matter or have any specific knowledge of the given topic.

AWA questions do not require that you give your personal views on or have any specific knowledge of the given topic.

Now that we’ve reviewed the basics of what the GMAT AWA is, let’s take a look at how the section is scored.

The GMAT Analytical Writing Assessment is scored in half-point increments on a scale of 0 to 6. Your AWA score is not factored into your total GMAT score and is not included in the unofficial score report that you see on test day immediately after you finish your exam. The reason the AWA score is not included in your unofficial report is that, unlike the other sections of the GMAT, which are scored by the computer, the AWA is scored by both a computer and a human scorer. A trained human reader scores your essay using whole points from 0 to 6, and a computer algorithm scores your essay using half-point increments from 0 to 6.

Then, the two scores are averaged to produce your final score. If there is a large disparity between the human score and the computer score, a second human scorer evaluates your essay, and your score may be adjusted. Additionally, if you feel that your AWA score does not accurately reflect your essay, you can submit a request to have your essay rescored by an independent reader, for a fee of $45. Rescoring requests can be made only once per essay and must be submitted within 6 months of your test date.

Since the AWA takes longer to score than the other sections of the GMAT, you and any score recipients you select on test day will receive your AWA score when your Official Score Report is available, about two weeks after your test date. In the case of revised AWA scores, your new score will be sent to you and any designated schools about 20 days after you submit your rescore request.

Now let’s look at how to interpret AWA scores.

As with other GMAT section scores , every possible AWA score is associated with a percentile ranking. Here are the current percentile rankings, as compiled by GMAC:

These percentile rankings tell us, for example, that if you earn a perfect score of 6.0 on the AWA section, then you have scored better than 88% of all GMAT test-takers. According to GMAC, the mean AWA score was 4.45 for all test-takers who sat for the GMAT during the period from January 2017 through December 2019. As you can see in the table above, that mean is just below the 46th percentile. In general, schools consider a score of 4.5, or better than 46% of all test-takers, about average and consider a score of 5.0, or better than 56% of all test-takers, “good.” For most programs, your AWA score is likely to raise some eyebrows if it’s below 4.0.

Most schools generally consider an GMAT AWA score of 4.5 about average and a score of 5.0 “good.”

So, we know what the GMAT AWA section tests, how it’s scored, and what those scores mean. Now let’s take a look at the 5 essential GMAT AWA writing tips for earning a great score.

Tip #1: Use a 5-Paragraph Template

As I’ll discuss in further detail later, there are dozens and dozens of possible essay topics that can appear on the GMAT, and you have no way of knowing which topic will appear on your test. Thus, it is not a realistic or efficient strategy to try to game out answers to all of the possible essay prompts or memorize what the prompts are (a full list of the possible AWA questions is published by GMAC here ).

The great news is that you don’t need to know which argument you’ll be presented with on test day in order to write a well-organized response to it within the 30-minute time limit. Instead, you can apply a simple 5-paragraph structure to any GMAT essay topic in order to write a logically organized response containing the elements necessary to earn a high AWA score.

The standard 5-paragraph essay structure consists of the following:

• An introductory paragraph
• Three supporting points (paragraphs 2, 3, and 4)
• A conclusion (paragraph 5)

Although there is no required word count for a GMAT AWA essay, a wise strategy is to shoot for around 500 words , give or take.

No matter the topic or argument, the basic template above will provide you with a logical framework for organizing your essay.

Apply a simple 5-paragraph structure to any GMAT essay topic to write a logically organized and complete argument analysis.

Let’s take a look at each part of the 5-paragraph structure in greater detail.

The purpose of your introductory paragraph is to restate the argument that has been presented to you and state your intention for critiquing it. In stating your intention, you should mention the flaws in the argument that you plan to address. Essentially, this prepares the reader for the points that they will encounter in paragraphs 2 through 4, without providing the specific details that those later paragraphs will include. In fact, your intro paragraph should accomplish everything it needs to in around 5 or 6 sentences.

The purpose of your introductory paragraph is to restate the argument that has been presented to you and state your intention for critiquing it.

The first sentence of the intro paragraph should always restate the given argument. So, you might start off your essay in one of the following ways, for example:

The argument states that … The argument claims that … The argument makes the claim that …

No need to get creative with the jumping off point for your AWA essay; you simply want to show that you understand what the argument is. When restating the argument, you can repeat much of the same language that is used in the question stem, but you should aim to rephrase the argument in as concise a manner as possible. You want to encapsulate the crux of the argument, not just rewrite the entire essay prompt. In particular, if the argument provides supporting evidence, that evidence is not necessary to repeat in your restatement of the argument. You’ll address the given evidence later, in your supporting points.

To better understand how to restate an argument, let’s look at an example of an actual GMAT AWA example that a test-taker could see on the exam:

The following appeared as part of an annual report sent to stockholders by Olympic Foods, a processor of frozen foods:

“Over time, the costs of processing go down because as organizations learn how to do things better, they become more efficient. In color film processing, for example, the cost of a 3-by-5-inch print fell from 50 cents for five-day service in 1970 to 20 cents for one-day service in 1984. The same principle applies to the processing of food. And since Olympic Foods will soon celebrate its 25th birthday, we can expect that our long experience will enable us to minimize costs and thus maximize profits.”

So, your essay might start off with the following restatement of the given argument:

The argument claims that Olympic Foods’ nearly 25 years of experience in food processing will enable the company to minimize costs and thus maximize profits. This conclusion is based on the premise that the costs of processing go down over time because organizations become more efficient as they learn how to do things better.

As you can see, much of the exact same language used in the essay prompt is repeated in the restatement of the argument above. However, the information is reorganized somewhat; in this case, the premise and conclusion are in the reverse order, with the conclusion of the argument stated first, and the premise on which the conclusion is based stated afterward.

Furthermore, the perspective of how the argument is stated has changed. In the essay prompt, the perspective was that of a statement in an annual report sent to stockholders. Clearly, your essay response would not be written from such a perspective, so some changes to the wording of the prompt are necessary. Notice also that the somewhat conversational tone of the prompt has been eliminated in the restatement and that extraneous words are left out. Lastly, notice that the supporting example given in the prompt is not included in the restatement that begins our response.

Of course, how you restate a given argument will depend largely on what the argument is. In some cases, you may be able to restate an argument in one sentence. In other cases, as above, you may need two sentences. The goal is to clearly and succinctly state what the argument is, distilling it down to its essence using the language used in the prompt, but not including any of the “filler.” The good news is that no matter what AWA question you encounter, the first sentence or two of your response will essentially already be written for you!

Always begin a GMAT AWA with a restatement of the given argument.

Let’s continue with our Olympic Foods example above. Your next task in the intro paragraph, after you restate the argument, is to outline on what grounds you plan to attack the argument. For example, you might say that the argument fails to take several key factors into account in reaching its conclusion, and then list the 3 such factors that you will address in the paragraphs that follow. Or you might say that the argument makes faulty assumptions and bases its claims on insufficient evidence, and then mention what those assumptions are that you plan to critique. Again, your job here is to highlight only those weak points in the argument that you will critique in your supporting points, so you should not include any argument flaws in your intro that you won’t address later on. Quickly jotting down on your scratch pad which flaws you plan to address, before you start writing your essay, can help you organize your thoughts and pinpoint exactly what you want the focus of each supporting paragraph to be.

Remember, you may be able to find a dozen flaws in an argument, but you won’t have time to critique them all. Furthermore, you shouldn’t waste time finding more flaws than you need and trying to decide which are the “best” ones to write about. The flaws that are most obvious to you — in other words, the ones you notice first — are likely the ones that will be easiest for you to expound on. After all, you noticed them right away, so there are probably relatively clear reasons why they represent weak points in the argument.

So, your restatement of the argument should be followed by a brief summary or overview of what your response to the argument will be. Let’s take a look at how we might do that in the case of the Olympic Foods question:

However, the argument lacks relevant and sufficient evidence, making several assumptions that ignore key factors that could affect its conclusion. For example, the argument assumes that an organization becomes more efficient as time passes. Furthermore, the argument assumes that cost savings achieved in tandem with increased efficiency must be the result of increased efficiency. Finally, the argument assumes that the downward trend of costs that was observed in one sector of processing will replicate in another, unrelated sector of processing.

In total, our sample intro paragraph is 6 sentences: 2 sentences restating the argument, and 4 sentences laying out what our critique of the argument will be. Of course, your mileage may vary depending on the essay prompt, but this basic framework can apply to whatever GMAT AWA question you see.

In the intro paragraph, follow your restatement of the argument with a brief summary or overview of what your critique of the argument (supporting points) will be.

After you’ve introduced the points you’ll touch on in your AWA essay, you’ll need to expand on those points in the next 3 paragraphs. Let’s talk about that now.

Paragraphs 2 through 4 represent the “meat” of your essay, with each paragraph elaborating on one of the points of critique you summarized in your intro. At the beginning of each of these paragraphs, you’ll want to state what aspect of the argument you’re critiquing in that paragraph, and then why that aspect is flawed. You may want to use real-world examples to support your critique, particularly if the word count of your essay is a little light. At the end of each supporting paragraph, you may want to mention a way that the aspect of the argument you’re discussing could’ve been strengthened.

Let’s take for example the second flaw that we set out to critique in our Olympic Foods essay, which will be the focus of the essay’s third paragraph: the argument assumes that cost savings achieved in tandem with increased efficiency must be the result of increased efficiency. In this paragraph, you might start off by saying that the argument supports its conclusion with an example of a decrease in cost and coinciding increase in processing speed that was realized after a number of years. You might then go on to say that the argument provides no evidence to demonstrate that this correlation is actually a causal relationship. Then, you might provide the real-world example of increased automation over those years as a factor that could simultaneously cut the labor costs associated with processing (and therefore reduce the total processing cost) and increase processing speed. Of course, automation and other technological advancements may or may not be readily available at any point in time and can be implemented at an organization regardless of how long it has been in existence, and both of those facts undermine the argument’s conclusion that Olympic Foods can expect to minimize costs because of its long experience. Thus, the argument would have been more convincing if it presented evidence that established that the observed cost savings were actually the result of faster processing times as opposed to some other factor, such as increased automation.

Each of the 3 paragraphs between your intro and your conclusion should elaborate on 1 of the supporting points you summarized in your intro.

Before we move on to the conclusion paragraph, I want to address a common question among GMAT students: whether writing 2 supporting paragraphs instead of 3 is a score-killer in AWA. The truth is, you may be able to earn a decent AWA score by including just 2 supporting points in your essay. And if for some reason you are running seriously low on time or absolutely can’t come up with a third supporting point, then I would say that a completed essay with just 2 supporting points is certainly better than an essay with 2 and a half supporting points and no conclusion, or 3 supporting points and no conclusion. However, there is really no way to say for sure what exact score difference 2 vs. 3 supporting paragraphs makes. So, to be on the safe side — unless you are truly stumped for ideas — plan to write 3.

Your conclusion paragraph is similar to your intro paragraph in that it should summarize the ways that the given argument is flawed. However, your conclusion should also summarize how the argument could be strengthened or the argument’s conclusion could be more accurately assessed. So, essentially, your conclusion paragraph pulls from all of the paragraphs that came before it, providing a tight summary of the main points of your critique and “wrapping a bow” around what you have stated about the validity of the argument’s reasoning.

A conclusion paragraph often begins with a phrase such as “In conclusion,” or “In summary,” but depending on how you organize your thoughts, you may choose to begin your conclusion paragraph differently. Additionally, you may decide to include a “concession” as part of your conclusion. A concession is a statement recognizing that some aspect of a given argument may be valid. For example, a concession could be phrased as such:

Although the argument rightly acknowledges that increased efficiency is one way that an organization can achieve cost savings …

Similar to the intro paragraph, the conclusion paragraph should accomplish its aims in around 4 or 5 sentences. This is not the place to reiterate details, give examples, or introduce new information.

In about 4 or 5 sentences, your conclusion paragraph should provide a tight summary of the main points of your critique and “wrap a bow” around what you have stated about the validity of the argument’s reasoning.

Before we move on to tip #2, take a look at the GMAT analytical writing example question, along with an essay response that received the highest possible AWA score, 6.0, at the bottom of this page . Notice that the essay follows the basic structure of introduction, 3 supporting points with real-world examples, and conclusion. In this case, the writer broke the introductory paragraph into two paragraphs, with the first paragraph restating the argument, and the second paragraph summarizing the intended response, but you can see that the component parts of the essay remain the same as those in our standard 5-paragraph structure.

An important part of scoring well on GMAT Analytical Writing is demonstrating logical organization and clear communication of your thoughts from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph. If your essay seems to jump randomly from one idea to the next, then the reader scoring your essay will have a harder time following your train of thought. Thus, your analysis of the given argument may seem confusing and poorly thought out.

The fact is, even if your ideas are laid out in a logical order, in order to make your essay more readable and understandable, you need to create smooth transitions between paragraphs and between different ideas within the same paragraph. One of the main ways to create smooth transitions is to introduce new ideas using transition words and phrases. For example, the phrase “for example” is a transition phrase that we can use any time we want to shift from talking about a concept to talking about an example that illustrates that concept. Such words and phrases form the “connective tissue” that brings together all of the different parts of an essay into a cohesive whole.

Transition words and phrases form the “connective tissue” that brings together all of the different parts of an essay into a cohesive whole.

Transition words are commonly used to introduce new paragraphs, but you should also seek to incorporate them within the paragraphs of your essay in order to introduce examples or opinions, indicate contrast or support, help sum up your thoughts, show a result, or add emphasis to an important idea. Here are some key transition words and phrases that often come in handy in writing GMAT AWA essays:

• For example
• For instance
• Additionally
• In addition
• Furthermore
• In contrast
• On the other hand
• As a result
• Consequently
• In conclusion

The point is not to memorize this list but to be aware of the importance of transition words for clarifying your ideas and showing the logical progression of your analysis. In short, transition words make your essay more readable! Remember, there will eventually be a person reading and scoring your essay, a person who likely has to evaluate many, many GMAT essays. So, you want to make your essay as clear and engaging as possible. Transition words can help you do just that.

Use transition words throughout your essay to introduce new paragraphs, link different ideas within paragraphs, and show the logical progression of your thoughts.

Although the AWA section is primarily scored with an eye toward the overall structure, cohesiveness, and clarity of your essay, technical aspects such as grammar, spelling, and word choice are still factored into your AWA score. In this respect, the knowledge you’ve gathered while training for GMAT Sentence Correction should come in handy. Are your sentences well-structured, clear, and concise, or are they wordy and circular? Does your essay contain any run-on sentences, redundant words, or incorrect idioms? While you shouldn’t expect to have time to make sure that your essay is grammatically perfect, you do want to make sure that you don’t turn in sloppy, rushed writing.

Keep in mind that a few errors here and there are not going to sink your AWA score, but your essay will appear more polished and “finished” if you’re mindful of basic grammar rules and spelling. If a sentence is becoming overly long and winding, break it into two sentences. Demonstrate a broad vocabulary by varying your word choice. Most importantly, be aware that, even if your analysis is sound and your essay is well-organized, if you completely neglect the basics of grammar and spelling, your ideas will be less clear and your essay will be less readable overall.

Vary your word choice, break up overly long sentences, and be mindful of basic grammar and spelling in order to create a more polished essay.

You may be surprised at how quickly the time flies by when you’re writing your essay. So, don’t expect that you’ll have time at the end of the section to do significant revisions of what you wrote. In fact, you’re likely to find that you have no more than a minute or two — if that — to do a quick read-through of your completed essay. So, it’s important to construct your essay carefully and methodically as you’re writing it , because you probably won’t have time to go back later and do a major cleanup of your work or flesh out a bunch of half-formed ideas.

As you’re writing, make each sentence a “finished product” before you move onto the next one. Does that mean writing and rewriting the same sentence four times until you think it’s perfect? No. You will never be able to write a full and complete essay in the allotted time if you’re agonizing over every sentence. You don’t have time to seek perfection, nor do you need to in order to earn a great AWA score. If possible, use the last 2 minutes or so of your time to do a quick check for any spelling errors or glaring grammatical mistakes in your essay. Just don’t expect to have the last 10 or even 5 minutes of the section time to revise your work.

If possible, use the last 2 minutes of your time to do a quick check for spelling and grammar errors, but don’t expect to have 5 or 10 minutes to make significant revisions to your essay.

One of the most challenging and time-consuming aspects of the GMAT Analytical Writing Assessment is coming up with 3 supporting points. Your supporting points make up the bulk of your essay, and also the portion of your essay that requires the most critical thinking, creativity, and original thought. A great way to prepare yourself for this challenge is to practice thinking up supporting points for the actual essay topics published by GMAC. As a side benefit, this method of practice will also give you a chance to get acquainted with what AWA questions look like, the types of arguments they present, and how those arguments may be flawed.

Browse the topics list and choose a few at random for which you can practice coming up with 3 supporting points with real-world examples. You could also do a full practice essay or two, but I don’t recommend preparing for AWA by writing numerous, complete practice essays. The fact is, if you have the 5-paragraph template down, and you’ve reviewed the types of arguments presented in AWA questions, writing many practice essays really isn’t necessary in order to prepare for GMAT AWA. There is plenty to learn and practice for the GMAT , so you don’t want to waste valuable study time doing more than is actually needed to earn a high score. Thus, I also don’t recommend reading through the entire AWA question list (or attempting to memorize the essay prompts) as a productive use of your time.

Choose random essay prompts from the AWA question list published by GMAC, and practice coming up with 3 supporting points and real-world examples for them.

Now that you know these 5 key GMAT writing tips for scoring 6.0 on the Analytical Writing Assessment, check out these 8 tips for conquering GMAT Sentence Correction and these 8 GMAT Reading Comprehension dos and don’ts .

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Scott Woodbury-Stewart is the founder & CEO of Target Test Prep. A passionate teacher who is deeply invested in the success of his students, Scott began his career teaching physics, chemistry, math, and biology. Since then, he has spent more than a decade helping students gain entry into the world’s top business schools, logging 10,000+ hours of GMAT, EA, GRE and SAT instruction. Scott also served as lead content developer and curriculum architect for the revolutionary courses Target Test Prep GMAT, Target Test Prep EA, Target Test Prep GRE and Target Test Prep SAT Quant.

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GMAT Sample Essays

All GMAT students know the Argument essay comes first in the test, before we get to the more important Quantitative and Verbal sections, so it’s important not to exhaust ourselves in this first part of the exam. One way to stay fresh for the rest of the exam is to have a good idea of what a high-scoring essay looks like, so we have provided some GMAT sample essays to review. Below we look at a “6” and discuss why it would have likely received a perfect score, then we examine a “4” and discuss how it could have been strengthened. You can find more example essays in the GMAT Official Guide. Happy writing!

ESSAY QUESTION #1:

The following appeared in the editorial section of a national news magazine:

“The rating system for electronic games is similar to the movie rating system in that it provides consumers with a quick reference so that they can determine if the subject matter and contents are appropriate. This electronic game rating system is not working because it is self-regulated and the fines for violating the rating system are nominal. As a result an independent body should oversee the game industry and companies that knowingly violate the rating system should be prohibited from releasing a game for two years.”

Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. Point out flaws in the argument’s logic and analyze the argument’s underlying assumptions. In addition, evaluate how supporting evidence is used and what evidence might counter the argument’s conclusion. You may also discuss what additional evidence could be used to strengthen the argument or what changes would make the argument more logically sound.

The author concludes that electronic game rating system is not working compared to the movie rating system. He gives reasoning for the argument by stating that electronic companies ability to self manage and regulate the rating system is part of the problem. Author also gives reason for what needs to be done in order for electronic rating system to work, but his reasons are weak. In the next few paragraphs, I will explain why the author’s reasons are weak and what could strengthen the argument.

First, the author mentions that by hiring an independent company to oversee the operation of the electronic rating system would solve the issue. This big assumption that author makes here is that he assumes independent company would do a better job in rating games than electronic game companies themselves. If the electronic gaming companies had a better understanding on how to improve, they might themselves do a better job than independent company to oversee the ratings.

Second, the author mentions that if an electronic company violates the rating system rule, then the penalty would be to prohibit that company from releasing any games for two years. This is another weak point the makes to support his argument because if the electronic company regular product-life cycle is to release each gave every two years, this penalty wouldn’t hurt the company at all. Also, there is not way of assessing how many year of prohibition would be adequate.

Author could have strengthen his argument, if he provided some data point such as from the movie industry to defend this stance that making independent company oversee and prohibition of movie release actually worked in the long-run. Perhaps, some research data that showed making these changes would actually work, would benefit the author’s overall argument stance.

Therefore, the author’s argument that electronic game rating system is not working is weak. Both of the points he made regarding independent company oversee and violation penalty are weak without data showing that it might work.

RECAP: The first thing that stands out in this essay is the organization. The paragraphs as clearly laid out and succinct, and each begin with a great transition word or phrase. The introductory paragraph, while unfortunately uses some unneeded self-reference, clearly demonstrates an understanding of the presented argument, which is mandatory of all “6” essays. Each flaw is then pointed out in a body paragraph, and the author then chooses to include a nice “how to strengthen” paragraph to demonstrate that he/she knows the argument at a more advanced level! The conclusion is clear, and reinforces the claims previously made. While no means perfect, the strong reasoning and clarity of organization definitely give this author a “6”!

ESSAY QUESTION #2:

Political organizations that advocate the use of violence to achieve their goals should be prohibited from operating within our country. Such groups are only interested in achieving short term goals which lead to more serious long term problems.

Political organizations that advocate the use of violence to achieve its goals can sometimes lead to destruction and devastation. However, that claim that such groups are detrimental to society does not follow the same line of reasoning. These groups might be of great help to certain sections of society. Also the claim that short term solutions can only lead to more serious long term problems is stated without any evidence. Hence the above argument is flawed.

Firstly, political organizations might be of great help to certain sections of society. Take for example the Indian National Congress party that helped tons of Indian’s voice their views to the British government during the British rule in india. Although this political organization advocated the use of violence, the organization was critical to India becoming a free of British rule in 1947.

Secondly, the argument assumes that short term solutions lead to more serious long term problems. Short term solutions are often very important in achieving long term goals, irrespective of whether the organizations advocate violence or not. The argument must also state clearly what constitutes violence. In a free country, such as the United States, to prohibit any political organization is to put a hold on their freedom. As long as the violence or aggressive behavior is not illegal, one can not prohibit a political organization from operating.

Thus although the argument seems to convey a valid point, that political organizations that advocate the use of violence should be prohibited from operating, it is worded to strongly and lacks evidence to support its claims that these groups are detrimental to society.

RECAP: The major difference between these two essays is length. More is not always better, but a student who can write 5-6 paragraphs within the given time frame definitely will stand out as a better planner, and as someone who already had a workable template. Furthermore, some minor grammar and spelling mistakes interfere with the essay’s clarity. The thesis, “Hence the above argument is flawed, “ is not as strongly worded as it could be, and doesn’t stand on its own as a powerful statement. The conclusion also seems to weaken the essay by admitting the argument conveys “a valid point.” This concession, without being more specific, weakens the overall thesis. The takeaway: length, specificity, and strength of argument will take this “4” to a “6.”

More AWA Resources: GMAT Essay Writing Guide

Analytical Writing Assessment

You can download for free the list of current Argument essay prompts used on the GMAT. This PDF file is provided by the GMAC. Although it is lengthy, we recommend that you read through the entire list of essay topics in advanced of taking the GMAT. You should also pick at random at least 20 topics and spend five minutes brainstorming and outlining an essay. Furthermore, we suggest that you pick at random at least five more topics and spend 30 minutes writing out a full essay.

GMAT Analytical Writing Approach and Scoring

Your essay is judged on how well-structured and well-supported it is, and to a lesser extent on your usage of standard written English. The essay should be written in a straightforward, somewhat formulaic manner. A creative, nuanced writing style will not be rewarded. You must type your essay into the bare-bones word processor provided. Copy, cut, paste, redo, and undo are the only functions available. We suggest that you spend a few minutes brainstorming and outlining your essay before you begin writing. Also be sure to leave a few minutes at the end to proof-read your essay.

The AWA section does not factor whatsoever into your main 200-800 GMAT score. You get a separate AWA score on a scale from 0 to 6 , in half-point increments. Your essay is graded separately by two readers: a college faculty member and a computer scoring program. If the two scores are within one point of each other, as is typically the case, the two scores are averaged to derive your AWA score. If the two scores are more than one point apart, however, another human reader will evaluate your essay. The AWA section is not particularly difficult . In fact, 13% of test takers score a perfect 6.0 and 82% score 4.0 or above. Because of this, most business schools primarily use the AWA score to ensure that foreign students can write well and to verify that the essays included on your business school applications are consistent with your AWA writing abilities.

Sample GMAT Analytical Writing Essay Topic

Let’s try a sample Argument essay topic. Brainstorm flaws on your own and perhaps even write out a full essay before viewing the explanation and sample essay.

The following appeared as part of an article in the business section of a local newspaper:

“Ronnie’s Auto Body Shop commenced business four months ago at the location formerly occupied by the Mystique Beauty Parlor. Ronnie’s Auto must be doing well at this location, because it intends to open a big body shop in an adjacent town. Mystique, on the other hand, has seen a lower volume of business in its first year at its new location compared to the prior year at its former location. Mystique definitely erred in shifting to its new location; its former location is a better site.”

Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.

Explanation to Problem

As with all Argument essay prompts, this prompt contains several flaws. Let’s briefly outline the problems with this argument before presenting a full essay that encompasses these points. The sample essay that follows would receive a top score of 6.

• Illogical comparison between Ronnie’s Auto Body Shop and Mystique Beauty Parlor. These are very different types of businesses, and a good location for one may be a poor location for the other.
• Assumes that Ronnie’s Auto Body Shop has been successful, but offers insufficient evidence for this. Ronnie’s Auto may be opening a big body shop in an adjacent town because the current location is poor.
• Inappropriately concludes that Mystique erred in shifting locations. Once again, offers insufficient evidence for this. Lower volume of business is vaguely defined, may not be a long-term concern, and perhaps is not even relevant.

Sample Essay

The author offers a flawed argument in claiming that Mystique erred in shifting locations and that its former location is a better site. The author offers insufficient evidence for these claims while providing an illogical comparison. In particular, the author assumes that Ronnie’s Auto Body Shop has been successful in Mystique’s former location. Second, the author overlooks the differences in the two business types. Third, the author inappropriately equates a lower volume of business to a poor decision by Mystique regarding location. Let’s elaborate on each of these issues in turn.

One problem in the argument is that the author assumes that Ronnie’s Auto is doing well at its current location. The only evidence that the author offers in support of this claim is that Ronnie’s Auto intends to open a big body shop in an adjacent town. But there are many possible reasons as to why Ronnie’s Auto plans to open a large shop in another town. Most notably, perhaps the existing location is performing poorly and Ronnie’s Auto plans to close this location after opening up elsewhere.

A second problem in the argument is the apples-to-oranges comparison between an auto body shop and a beauty parlor. The customer base for the two businesses is probably very different. Even if Ronnie’s Auto is doing well at its current location, a totally different type of business with a totally different customer base would not necessarily do well at the same location. Perhaps Ronnie’s Auto is located in a commercial area with similar types of businesses (e.g. other auto repair and parts businesses). Mystique Beauty Parlor is unlikely to thrive in such a location, since its customers would probably not want to receive beauty treatments in such an area.

Finally, a third problem is that the author concludes based solely on “lower volume of business” that Mystique erred in shifting locations. But how much lower is Mystique’s volume of business in the new location? Perhaps the drop in business volume is very small. In fact, we would expect some drop when moving to a new location, as it takes time to reestablish a customer base. The new location may hold much greater long-term promise, and future business volume may be much higher. We also do not know what volume of business really means. By volume, does the author mean customers or revenue? Either way, a lower volume of business does not necessarily mean lower profits. Perhaps Mystique’s lease and other costs are lower at the new location, resulting in higher profits. If so, we cannot claim that Mystique make a mistake in moving. But even if the move did result in lower profits, the move was not a mistake unless Mystique’s owners have this as a primary concern. Perhaps profit is secondary to Mystique’s owners, and they moved the beauty parlor to a location that affords them other benefits such as a better quality of life.

In conclusion, the author’s claims that Mystique erred in shifting locations and that its former location is better are unsupported. As discussed above, there are far too many unknown variables for the author to make such a definite conclusion. Had the author considered the points discussed above, the argument could have been presented more thoughtfully.

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Gmat analytical writing assessment.

The Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) section of the GMAT contains one essay prompt and is 30 minutes long. The AWA tests your ability to analyze a logical argument and then write a coherent and convincing essay, evaluating the argument.

The topic on the argument essay can be extracted from a wide range of topics related to business. However, prior knowledge about the topic would not be required. The AWA only tests your ability to analyze the argument and write a cogent essay.

The AWA score would be published within 20 calendar days from the day of your exam and would be a part of your Official GMAT Score Report. If you feel that the score obtained on the AWA does not reflect your performance, you can choose to request rescoring your essay. Rescoring the essay is possible only once and requires additional payment. For rescoring, you need to make a request within 6 months from the date of your exam. AWA rescoring requests can result in a score increase or decrease.

Topics Tested on the GMAT Analytical Writing Assessment Section

The AWA section tests a candidate’s ability to analyze a given argument, identify the inherent flaws in it, and provide logical and reasonable solutions in the form of an essay. The clarity in reasoning and coherence of thought are major assessment criteria for the AWA. The essay also needs to conform to elements of standard written English.

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GMAT Analytical Writing Assessment Scoring Pattern

The Analytical Writing Assessment section is scored on a range of 0 to 6, in increments of 0.5 points.

The essay is evaluated by a human and also by a machine algorithm. If there is a difference between the way the human and the machine have scored your essay, a second human evaluator is brought in, and your essay score may be adjusted. You will receive only one essay score, which is an average of the evaluations.

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Rudra Mishra Rudra Mishra My journey started with knowing little to nothing about the GMAT but ended with me scoring a 760 in the first attempt. During this time, the staff at Manya – The Princeton Review helped me understand what the GMAT actually was, how it was different from other standardized tests & the approach one needed to take to score well. Like everyone, I too wanted to have an idea of where I stood before I gave the actual test. I used the practice tests from the GMAT website as well as those offered by Manya to get that idea. The study resources, performance analysis and timely motivation and advice provided by Manya – The Princeton Review helped me achieve a good score.

What is the GMAT analytical test?

In the Analytical Writing Assessment section or the essay section, you have to analyze an argument, identify the flaws in the argument and write an essay about it. Prior specific knowledge is not required.

Is analytical writing important in GMAT?

Analytical writing assessment (AWA)is important on the GMAT. Even though the AWA does not contribute to the composite GMAT score ( 200-800), it is used by different universities and departments during the application selection process. The writing skills tested in the AWA would prove beneficial even during your actual course as many programs require students to submit essays as a part of their coursework.

What should I study for GMAT Analytical?

In the Analytical Writing Assessment section or the essay, you have to analyze an argument, identify the flaws in the argument and write an essay about it. Prior specific knowledge is not required. You should practice evaluating arguments, understanding and working using relevant templates for these essays and writing the essays, all within 30 minutes (time available for this section on the GMAT).

What is the syllabus for the GMAT Analytical section?

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