How much Practice for AWA?

Question

I am a US native, lately most of my writing has been e-mails, power point slides, etc. nothing as lengthy as the AWA essays.

I have spent many hours preparing for the Quant section, and less time on the Verbal, with maybe 1 hour spent on AWA.

I am wondering do I need to spend more time on the AWA?

So I came up with this quick survey and I would appreciate any responses.

1. What was your AWA score?

2. Native English or English is second language?

3. Time spend on preparation?

4. Regular life use of written English prior to GMAT preparation?

TallJTinChina · Answer

Just looking for a short response like this...

More explanation is also welcome

jags2899 · Answer

1) 5.5
2)Native
3) Maybe an hour, probably less than that the night before 
4) Nothing more extensive than what you did

shaselai · Answer

1. What was your AWA score? 5.5 both times

2. Native English or English is second language? 2nd language

3. Time spend on preparation? few minutes

4. Regular life use of written English prior to GMAT preparation? non-existent

BM · Answer

1.  I scored a 4.0, which was somewhat surpising. I expected a 5.0, but perhaps my attitude affected my performance. 
 
 2.  Native English. I'm bilingual, but this didn't adversely affect my score.

3.  Two hours spread out over the course of a week.

4.  Nothing special or more than what previous members have posted.

The most helpful resource is probably Chineseburned's  guide . Other than that, make sure to write the AWA essays during your practice CAT's.

agnok · Answer

agnok · Answer

You need some practice. It does not matter if you are a native speaker or not. Can yo think logically and present the argument in the format that is needed.

PadawanOfTheGMAT · Answer

Hi guys can you please provide more detail about how you prepared in only 1 hour?

I took a full MGMAT test today with the AWA, and I don't see myself getting anywhere near 5.5 with only 1hr practice. I thought my essays were junk.

Did you follow chineseburned template? I am planning on learning it by heart and filling the blanks as needed.

shaselai · Answer

well i didnt follow chineseburned template but i did read it. The template is like typical HS essay format. The good old days of intro/3 body/conc. Just the topics are a bit different. As long as you can convey what the argument or whatever it is then it is all good

Dawgie · Answer

So do you recommend it?

shaselai · Answer

yeah i do. it is nice read...

TallJTinChina · Answer

Received my official results it only took about 2 weeks.

1. What was your AWA score?
 6.0

2. Native English or English is second language?
 Native

3. Time spend on preparation?
 Maybe 3 or 4 hours. I wrote one timed practice essay for each, then spent time reviewing the possible prompts. After reading the prompt I would take a minute or 2 to do a quick outline. Honestly, I could not remember exact names of some of my examples, so I made up similar names using multiple capitalized words in a row. I am betting that the human reader and computer program both scan for proper names.

4. Regular life use of written English prior to GMAT preparation?
 I mainly just write e-mails, some blog posts about working in China, also I have done a good bit of correcting English writing by Chinese students.

I took the volume approach, I guess I wrote 700-800 words for each essay.

PadawanOfTheGMAT · Answer

700-800 words per essay! That's huge! I counted approximately the words in the OG12th essays and they are around 400 words max.

PranavChamp · Answer

1. What was your AWA score?  4.5

2. Native English or English is second language?  English as 2nd language

3. Time spend on preparation?  1 hour only(on test day)

4. Regular life use of written English prior to GMAT preparation?  Blogging on football analysis,National winner in Essay writing competition

5 What I did for AWA:   I went through chineseburnt AWA guide and OG12 sample essays.

5 Suggestions:  
 - Try to put as many quality examples as you can.
- Try to write more words(at least 500-600 words)
- Try to write 4-5 essays and evaluate them on forums. This will help.

TallJTinChina · Answer

I type pretty quick and I just kept typing and typing. If you really "proofread" what I wrote, I am sure there are numerous missing prepositions, mix-ups with of, for, from and a variety of other mistakes. I took maybe 1 minute to start, then typed furiously, the last 2 or 3 minutes I adjusted the intro and conclusion to match the things I typed in the other paragraphs.

shaselai · Answer

i didnt try to re-read my essays as i usually end up on the wire. I do try to check the sentence after i write it and edit on the spot if needed though.

How much Practice for AWA?

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