peeweeherman wrote:
This is obviously a great template judging from all of the high scores received. I take my test for the first time in less than one week and was wondering how closely the template was followed by those who did well. My concern is that I might be penalized if a human grader recognizes that I have copied numerous phrases from this template verbatim. It may seem like a silly concern, but I just want to have all of my bases covered.
Thanks,
PWH
Well, what he outlined isn't some proprietary formula for cracking some system. It's just a thoroughly outlined structure for a sound argument/analysis. I briefly read the bullet points and loosely followed it. The pointers in this thread won't help you with grammatical errors or proper sentence structure, however it does tell you to be lengthy and support every claim you make. I was sure to restate everything and then go on to analyze/support/critique it while using relevant examples of my own. I think that thought organization counts as well as giving support for everything you say. If not this, then why. If you agree, why do you agree. If you do not agree, why not? Baseless claims are weak even if they are factual.
I would venture to guess that a lot of the critical analyses that are asked of test takers are generally blanket statements that are easy to attack and tear down. My question I had for the first one went something very similar to this:
A business manager observed that over the months of july through september inclusive, the home goods and furnishings department had higher profits than the clothing department. As a result, the business manager recommends that the store expand the home goods dept while shrinking the clothing dept.
Then it asked you to critique. Well, this is just about support-less a statement can get.
I restated, then went into specific things that are not unaddressed in this short passage that would be necessary to look into to ensure that it would be a sound move. The passage does not address the fact that both these departments have specific business cycles that could have attributed to the difference in profits. We'd need to look at longer operating cycles to ensure that this is not normal cyclical behavior. How about incentives that may have helped spur home goods sales? What about inventory costs? maybe the dept for furnishings is much more streamlined, affecting profits. How about the fact that consumer discretionary sales such as retail clothing will almost certainly spike coming into holiday season? Shrinking that dept now could likly be costly, not to mention time consuming. Perhaps a strong domestic currency allowed the store to purchase furniture at lower prices for sales in our market. On the contrary, maybe a lot of the retail is purchased in euros, which might have been very strong against the domestic currency...enough to actually hurt profits.
What I'm getting at is that it seems that in the short amount of words the GMAT will post a statement, it will not be able to sufficiently state something that you can agree with in whole. There should be many weaknesses that you can pick at. Just make sure your thoughts are organized and pay attention to grammar and redundancies and other common mistakes and you should be good.
As for the second AWA task, it said something like this:
Companies and organizations tend to overemphasize the training and importance of teamwork, when in fact, it is the drive and commitment of individuals that enable things to get done. Should companies and organizations shift to emphasize training individuals.
Agree, or disagree.
Well, this one is anyone's game, but taking both sides of the argument here will probably give you more material to work with.
Again, I restated the claim, and then immediately afterwards, put down my stance on it and went on to explain why I felt that way. On this one, I brought in work examples, both of my own industry, and that of other ones I had familiarity with. Again, just refer to the OP's structure guidelines because they work. Good luck.