Analytical Writing Assessment
"Let's face it, writing is hell." - William Styron.
It's easy to see why this section presents a problem for many test-takers. The first thing that you have to do on the GMAT is sit down and spend 30 minutes writing an essay on a topic that you may know nothing about!
The first bit of good news is that you don't have to know anything about the essay topic. The essay on the GMAT will ask you to break apart the reasoning of an argument, which is a task you have already mastered by practicing Critical Reasoning questions. The second bit of good news is that you can see the current list of topics the essays might be based on beforehand.
(See www.mba.com/mba/thegmat/teststructureandoverview/analyticalwritingassessmentsection for the complete list.)
Many people wonder why applicants to business school need to be tested on their essay-writing skills since a person's success in business is often dependent on his or her verbal skills, rather than written. Plus, a lot of the people who take the GMAT are from overseas and their language, sentence structure, and grammar are very different from those of English, putting them at a disadvantage on this part of the exam.
We mentioned before that many schools don't pay attention to the analytical portion of your test. However, some do and it is better that you do well on it than poorly. You don't want to be rejected by the school of your choice simply because you slacked on the analytical writing portion of the GMAT. Let's go over the requirements of the essay and what you need to remember.
How is the Essay Graded?
Besides a GMAT essay grader, an "E-rater" or computer "bot" grading program that can scan essays also evaluates your essay. If the score from both the GMAT essay grader and the E-rater are in agreement, then that's the grade your essay will receive. If they disagree, then a second GMAT grader will grade your essay. The people who grade your essay vary, but initially they are part-time employees from the testing company, and are usually from graduate school programs.
One common question is how much time graders spend on your essay. The truth is that they spend about two minutes each on one essay. They have to grade a lot of essays and can't spend too much time on each one. The best that you can hope for here is a quick skim by the graders. The computer grader takes even less time to grade your essay. All it does is compare your essay to other essays on the same topic. This means that if you are original in your methods and points, the computer won't be able to pick this out and you may actually be penalized.
The Best Piece of Advice
What do the graders look at the most when grading your essay? Is it your grammar? Your vocabulary? Your ideas?
Nope. It's the length of your essay!
If you want to do well on the essay portion of the exam, make sure that you write as much as you possibly can. Your essay should contain at least four paragraphs.
There. You just aced the essay portion of the GMAT. :)
Actually, it's not that easy but you would be surprised by how much length-of-essay factors into your grade. If you haven't written a lot, it is unlikely that you have addressed all the points required by the task, and it is unlikely that you have written a convincing essay.
The Principles
Preparing for an essay test when you don't know the topic can be difficult. However, I have a few hints to help you prepare so that when you are given the topic, you can dive right in and begin writing your masterpiece.
The Analysis of an Argument essay must be approached like an argument in the critical reasoning section. As a result, you should follow these steps to ensure that you do well here.
- Read the entire argument.
- Identify assumptions in the essay and think of other assumptions that you can use.
- Identify the premise or premises of the argument and think about how the conclusion might be flawed if it is based off those premises.
- Identify how the assumptions can be used to make a better argument.
- Edit your essay when you have completed it.
When grading this essay, your graders will determine whether you identified and analyzed the important aspects of the argument, and whether you supported your main points and demonstrated a superior grasp of language, including the direction of your argument. Note that the graders aren't interested in your opinion on the issue being discussed. Stick to writing about the way that argument is structured.
When building anything, whether a house, a sculpture, or essay, the person creating should have a plan in mind. This plan is his template and helps create what he envisions. Your template is your key to doing well on the analytical portion of the GMAT, and it should follow a specific format. Your essay should typically conform to a single form, as follows.
• Summarize the conclusion of the argument in the first paragraph. • In the second to fourth paragraphs, attack the argument and the evidence it uses to support itself. • In the last paragraph, simply summarize what you have said and offer ways that the argument could be strengthened.
Tips and Tricks
Now that we have gone over how you should write the essay and attack the argument, what about the meat – the words that make up the essay?
You want to include certain words that will catch the eye of the reader and allow him or her to quickly skim through your essay. Remember, readers only spend two minutes on each essay, so that is all the time you have to impress them.
- If you are making points in your essay, be sure to separate them and identify them using the words "First", "Second", "Third", etc…
- Whenever you support an argument with an example, which is important if you are trying to prove something, then you should use words like "for example", "to illustrate", "for instance", and "because".
- If you are adding onto that example with additional support in the same paragraph, then use words like "in addition", "also", "moreover", and "furthermore".
- If you want to emphasize the importance of something, then use the words like "surely", "truly", "clearly", "certainly", "in fact", and "most importantly".
- When you reach your conclusion, use words such as "therefore", "hence", "in conclusion", and "in summary".