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Analysis (from Greek analusis, “a breaking up”) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts to gain a better understanding of it. – wikipedia

GMAT features a section called Analytical Writing Assessment (more commonly known as AWA). This is the first section in the GMAT exam after you have signed in. And this is the part of exam, test-takers seem to give the least importance during preparation.

Many test-takers make the mistake of under-preparing for this section. Though this section is not considered for the 200-800 scale marking, this may be used by certain universities to gauge your analytical writing/thinking skills.

There are two sub-sections in this part of GMAT

• Analysis of an Argument
• Analysis of an issue

For each essay, you get 30 minutes to read the question, frame your points, type in, and review. There will be a built-in word processor for entering the essays. The word-processor will only have basic functions of Cut, Copy and Paste. You cannot format(bold, italics etc.) your text.

Analysis of Argument :

As the name implies, we are supposed to analyze a given argument. Here the argument is not the verbal duel between people, but it is a claim made by a person, board or management of a company, government official etc. The claim presented will be in such a way that there will always be a few logical holes. The task of the test-taker is to analyze the given argument and point out the flaws in the argument.Apart from pointing out flaws, one also has to suggest how the argument could have been stronger.

Unlike the Analysis of issue question, the argument will always be followed by the same question.
Analysis of Issue :

Here, the test-taker is given a statement or an opinion. The test-taker is supposed to provide his/her own point of view on the given issue. The issue will generally not be a Black/White issue and most occasionally be a controversial one. In other words, the issue will be such that one cannot completely agree or completely disagree with it. You are supposed to take a side (but cleverly, more on that in a later post), but make sure you leave your emotions out of the essay when you write. Do not get passionate and make extreme statements.

The statement will be followed by a question. Make sure you read the question carefully. If your essay does not answer the question, your essay will not be graded.
How is AWA evaluated ?

Each of the two essays in the Analytical Writing part of the test is graded on a scale of 0 (the minimum) to 6 (the maximum):

• 0 – An essay that is totally illegible or obviously not written on the assigned topic.
• 1 – An essay that is fundamentally deficient.
• 2 – An essay that is seriously flawed.
• 3 – An essay that is seriously limited.
• 4 – An essay that is merely adequate.
• 5 – An essay that is strong.
• 6 – An essay that is outstanding.

The AWA section was included in GMAT to assess the test-taker’s analytical thinking capability. Each essay undergoes at least two rounds of evaluations. First, the essay will be graded by a computer program ( called e-Rater) and then followed by a human evaluation. For each essay, the final score is the average of the scores awarded by the human-rater and the e-rater. If the e-Rater and the human-rater agree on a score, then that will be the final score. If  the two scores differ by more than one point, a second human-rater will read and score the essay.

The final AWA score is the average of the two final scores of the two individual essays. The scores are rounded up to the nearest half-point.

Remember : The e-Rater will concentrate mainly on the structure of your essay. The human-raters are also trained to concentrate on the structure of the essay. So you don’t have to be a beautiful prose writer to score a 6 on AWA. All you need is clear thinking, simple English, cohesive and structural writing.