The
zero AWA bug / glitch has existed for years, but the scale at which we are now seeing it reported suggests that it could be related to a user interface (UI) issue: the student's failure to hit "save" or "next" before time expires on the Examity version of the GMAT online.
I haven't taken the Examity version, so I'm not sure exactly what it says, and there was no AWA section when I took the Pearson Vue GMAT online. It's usually just a "Next->" button, in my test-center GMAT experience.
Presumably, GMAC and Examity have a full record of everything on your screen during the exam, so even if your essays were initially lost, they should still be retrievable and thus scoreable, at least in theory.
Remember that LSAC also had an issue last year where hundreds of LSAT Flex scores were lost, but luckily the proctoring video / screen recordings were re-checked, and the test-takers' scores were later recovered.
https://abovethelaw.com/2020/08/oh-snap ... were-lost/ News like this certainly does give one pause about how often GMAT scoring glitches and bugs like this one occur, yet go unnoticed, especially on the newer, online versions of the exams.
Also, we now have yet another reason why GMAC should just drop the AWA section from the GMAT already. Keep in mind that many MBA applicants in this year's applications cycles were able to take the Pearson Vue GMAT Online with no AWA requirement whatsoever, and now we have students with great GMAT scores that are ruined by a 0 on AWA.