Hi StefanVk,
There's a big difference between a School's Representatives stating that they don't care much (or at all) about an Applicant's AWA Score and those Reps telling you to 'skip' that section of the Test. Considering how competitive the application process is to get into many Programs, you have to consider if you want to risk submitting a '0' on that one piece of your application (especially when everyone else is probably attempting the AWA). The AWA is a remarkably straight-forward part of the GMAT (and there are templates that you can follow to make crafting that essay fairly easy) - and choosing to skip it on purpose might put you in a 'bad light' (re: if you can't write a 30-minute essay, how are you going to handle the rigors of a lengthy MBA Program?). This is all meant to say that you don't necessary have to train particularly hard to write the AWA if you don't want to, but you shouldn't skip it on Test Day.
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich