WHAT IS THE APPROPRIATE ENGLISH TO WRITE THE AWA ESSAY- BRITISH OR AME

Question

I am an intending GMAT test taker and in my research, I found out that one may be penalized for wrong spellings and the likes, which brings me to my question...

I schooled in an Anglophone African country and I was trained to write with British spellings all through...

Now, for the AWA essay, will my  'neighbour'  be acceptable instead of the American  'neighbor'   or   'penalized'  instead of  'penalised' .

This is important to know early considering that GMAT may be monitor spellings in the essay.

Thank you

bb · Answer

The GMAT does look at your spelling. 
The standard recommendation is to use the American English since that's where GMAT is from and will be the safest bet. However, I think British is passable and not considered wrong since that's the "original."

AnirudhaS · Answer

Hi  bb  I had the same question. The worry is if I now want to change to American, there is a high possibility that I might be flip-flopping between the two and end up with both in the essay. And I am sure the spell-checkers these days do one or the other. Do you know if GMAC favours American English and actively discourages from using Traditional English.

Carcass · Answer

As long as the evaluator can understand what the test taker is trying to convey, he/she will make it through

However, use American just for the sake. If you write  colour  instead of color nothing should be happen.

Regards

AnirudhaS · Answer

Thanks  carcass  
I think I'll start practicing my American spellings. Its just that I have intentionally avoided the American variations till now. Thanks for the advice.

ari.banerjee · Answer

I don’t think you get graded on the preference over American or UK English. I think they get graded equally. If the rest of your essay is good then you shouldn’t worry about this as a human will review your essay too and will award you any points that the software may have taken away. 
However if you can practice American English then it’s good too.

Posted from my mobile device

Carcass · Answer

My guess is that someone takes the test in London for a BS in Canada,then he/she will write in his/her native English Language.

I do not think they possibly not score well on the GMAT, AWA included.

Regards

AjiteshArun · Answer

According to the GMAC, you can use American, British, or a mix of American and British. As for the actual GMAT, I can confirm that many test takers who use a mix (and some who use only British) report perfect scores on the essay section. And like many Indians, I use a mix (I blame Microsoft Word

). Just in case it helps: the GMAT is extremely interested in being seen as a global exam. The proportion ( and number ) of US test takers has actually been falling consistently for the last few years (including years in which the total number of test takers went up). It fell to 50% quite some time back. It was 35% around 5 years back, and is currently around 28%.

WHAT IS THE APPROPRIATE ENGLISH TO WRITE THE AWA ESSAY- BRITISH OR AME

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