GMAT: Answers to the Real Essay Questions

While some business schools show little interest in the AWA (analytical writing assessment) portion of your GMAT, other schools use the results to help distinguish between the hundreds of students competing for placement in their programs. If your schools of choice consider AWA results when selecting students, you'll need to devote time to your essays as well as to your math and verbal skills. When you take your GMAT, the computer randomly selects two essay questions from its question bank. GMAT CAT: Answers to the Real Essay Questions can help you prepare for all of them. No book is allowed to publish the questions (though this book's appendix will tell you how to download the 180 official AWA questions from the EST's web site)-- but this book does provide you with sample answers to all 180 questions. The authors warn you not to try to use their answers on the exam, as the GMAT readers feel pretty strongly about plagiarism--instead, they provide you with tools to help you compose your own high-scoring GMAT essays and a "scorecard" to help you score your practice essays. The book also offers advice on how to answer both the "analysis of an issue" and "analysis of an argument" questions, and truly practical information about the basic structure of the exam and even the word-processing program you'll be using on your test. Filled with such useful advice, GMAT CAT: Answers to the Real Essay Questions would be a great addition to the serious student's GMAT preparation. --C.B. Delaney