The GMAT Essay is an integral part of your application and its importance has to be considered duly. For applicants who are non-Americans, this essay is a crucial signifier of their verbal abilities in English language and therefore, must be written with care. Most of the business schools regard well-developed verbal skills as a valued trait and the essay section is included to evaluate the applicants' writing abilities especially those for whom English is a second language. Your command over the English language would strengthen your application and give you an edge over other applicants.

Keeping in mind the purpose of the essay section, one should write a grammatically accurate and a coherent piece, which addresses the question or the issue appropriately and is within the word-limit. The essay should be perceptible and precise and the language style – lucid. It is unnecessary to write superfluous and flowery language, as it does not help to make an impressive essay and usually, distracts the purpose of your written piece.



Who is reading your essays?

How does it feel to imagine reading 600, 000 essays on a single topic? Well, the colleges and universities undertake this arduous task every year and each essay is graded by the TA s (Teaching Assistants). After the TA reads the essay, a computer program named “ E-rater” screens the essay and grades it. If the results given by the TA and the E-rater are inconsistent, then, a neutral third party settles the difference.



Reality bites – How the essays get graded?

Considering the large number of applications and the attached essays, one can imagine the high-pressure environment, which requires the graders (college staff) to read about 240 essays in a day. That means only two minutes per essay! In two minutes, do you think these people have time for an in-depth reading of your essays? With a huge target to meet, the graders are in no mood to sincerely appreciate your clever analysis and well-formulated argument. They usually skim through the essay and by the time he or she gets to read your precious essay, the grader has most likely read over a hundred already.

And the computer also scores your essay by comparing it to other essays on the same topic. So, you do not gain a lot by being original and inventive, because the computer would rate you favorably only if your essay contains one of the more obvious points it was programmed to find!

Knowing the truth, the safest way is to write error-free English in your essay and present your ideas in a straightforward manner. One should remember that the essay section tests your ability to put forth your opinions and views in a clear and comprehensive way and not your innovative thinking.



Should you even care for the essays section?

Yes, you must, in spite of all the facts you read. The essay section might not be the most important section but nonetheless, it is favorable to score well in this section so that the overall score gets increased. The essay section is actually quite easy and can be conceived in your head before you go to the test center. A great score on the essay section might not ensure your admission to Harvard if you did not do well on the rest of the exam, but at the same time it definitely will not hurt.



How to beat it!

The Essay section comprises two different topics and the time limit is 30 minutes for each topics. The first topic is “analysis of an issue”. In this section, an issue with two opposing sides is proposed and you have to defend one position in a convincing manner and write a compelling essay. The other topic is “analysis of an argument” and it requires you to read the presented argument, analyze its reasoning and then write a critique. Does it sound daunting? It is actually quite manageable and this writing skill can be acquired easily with the aid of RAIAA GMAT course. The essay is quite formulaic and with RAIAA, you would be trained in creating an outline for the GMAT essay that works for any topic!

The essay section should not stress you up, but if it does, check out the various ways you can prepare with RAIAA for the GMAT.











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