At the end of every course, I ask my students to shoot me an e-mail with their impressions of the actual GMAT.  While I get a lot of feedback, the positive comment I receive most frequently is, “I can’t believe I got a 6 on the essays!”   Does that mean test takers don’t need to worry about the two essays that kick off the test?  Not really.  But it does suggest that being fully prepared for this part of the GMAT need not be a daunting challenge.

Before we talk about preparing for the Analytical Writing section, just what is the function of this part of the test?  Scores on the essays are not as important in the admissions decision as the 200-800 combined score for the Quant and Verbal sections.  However, the essay section does answer a very basic question for the admissions committee – “does this test taker have the communication skills necessary to participate in an academic program and a career path that place high value on these competencies?”

Yes, you will also submit two or three carefully crafted application essays that will be the product of days, weeks or even months of introspection, analysis and artful story-telling; essays that will, at their best, reveal profound insights into your character and motivations. But the GMAT essays require performance under fire.  You have only thirty minutes to craft each essay.  That means not only are your writing skills being challenged, but also your ability to think on your feet, to produce well reasoned, well presented analyses and arguments on the fly. Of course these are skills that are important to your success.

In addition to measuring effective communication under time pressure, the GMAT essay also plays a “quality control” role for the admissions committee.  When you enter the testing center on Test Day, you will present an official ID, be photographed, and a scan of the veins in you palm taken.  You will videotaped during the actual test.  There will be no question about the identity of the individual writing the GMAT essays.  Copies of your essays will be sent along with your scores to each school.  So schools have a baseline from which to compare the word choice, syntax and style in your application essays.

So what skills do you need to do well on the AWA?  Well, in the argument essay you need to analyze the argument in the prompt, identify its assumptions and associated flaws.  You must be able to suggest ways the argument could be strengthened.  These are all skills that come directly from critical reasoning (CR). Master CR and you’ve got a major piece of the Argument Essay covered.

On the Issue Essay, the challenge comes from the other direction. Rather than analyzing someone else’s argument, the test taker must create a persuasive defense on one side or the other of the issue in the prompt.  In addition to applying the CR skills mentioned above, you must consider what information would be sufficient to make the case – exactly the skill set required in Data Sufficiency questions.

Of course, having a well-conceived argument/analysis is not going to do the trick by itself.  The essay must be well written.  Again we can look to another area of the test – Sentence Correction.  By skillfully applying the rules of grammar and usage to the essay, you will insure high marks for the style parameter of the grading rubric.

The organization of the essay is another important consideration.  Once again, another question type helps.  Reading Comprehension questions require test takers to understand the structure of an essay and to track the logical development of the author’s argument.  In addition, test takers who learn to use keywords to interpolate the structure of an argument will also understand just how powerfully these small additions assist the reader.  My Kaplan students have yet another tool to organize their essays, the Kaplan Essay Templates – simple yet highly effective.

The obvious message is that thorough preparation for the 200 – 800 sections of the test provides many of the tools necessary to excel on the AWA.  Keeping those tools in mind as you analyze and  compose will add points to your essay score.

But there is more help available.  The Analytical Writing sections of the Official Guide supply scoring criteria, samples and analyses of essays at various score levels, and essay topics.  At MBA.com, GMAC offers the chance to have essays scored by the e-rater, the computer program that contributes half your score.  Kaplan students get the benefit of the Kaplan methods for both essays and can have a certified essay grader review and score their work.  Of course, as in all areas of test prep, practice is important.  Full-length practice tests offer a great opportunity to pull together all of these skills under timed conditions.

Finally, for really complete preparation you can go to mba.com or to the OG and view all the current essay prompts.  A few years back I counted 623 argument essay prompts.  You could just write an essay for each…