I was talking to this guy, who is  a good friend and a class of 2012 aspirant. He has already finished most of the stuff that I had suggested (Kaplan comprehensive, OG etc) and is presently getting scores around 750 in practice tests. When I last talked to him about his preps, he planned to spend his last month before the test working mainly on AWA. 

If your idea of effort is something similar to this guy’s (Before my GMAT, I used to think on somewhat similar lines too, though even at that time, I would have considered 1 month for AWA as too much) , let me assure you: it’s not really worth ths amount of effort. The primarily reason that I say this is that unless you score abysmally low (which is 3.5 or lower), nobody really cares about your score.  In last two years, I have gone through numerous threads and blogs, contacted a number of current and prospective students and attended many B-school events, but till date, I am yet to find an instance, where a candidate was denied admission due to a low AWA score. Why should the schools actually care about how you write on some random topic, when they already have their essays to guage your writing skills?

However, I am not suggesting that you dismiss AWA altogether.  In particular, if you are headed towards a real good GMAT score, you’d surely like it better if it’s accompanied by a stellar AWA score too. ( At times, it pinched when while entering GMAT scores for a school, I had to write AWA percentile as 53 (score 5.0) after mentioneing Quants and Verbal as 99 and 97 respectively. ) Also, I have heard that some schools schools compare your AWA essays (yes, they get your essays too instead of just the score!!) to check whether the app-essays have actually been written by you. (I find this a bit unreasonable as it’s not fair to compare a time-bound performance on a random topic with your output on topics that are about your life and about which you typically have more than 3 months to think about.)

Another reason AWA needs to be practiced is that it’s the first section of the GMAT and if you feel good about what you have written your essays well, you’ll start the real stuff on a confident note. Also do practice a few full-length tests with real AWA essays. That will help you develop the test-taking stamina lasting 3.5 hours. 

Enough of why AWA is important and why it’s not. Here’s how I would suggest handling it:

• Get a template ready for both issue and analysis essays. There are many templates available on the internet.Use that as a base and get one of your own ready. Remember that one of the readers of your essays would be a computer. So make sure that you include proper transition words.  
• Download the list of AWA essays from mba.com.  These are two long lists of 130+ topics each and the topics that you’ll get on the test day would be from these lists. 
• Everytime you get too loaded correcting sentences or testing data sufficiency, take a look at one of the topics and think of 3-4 points for the topic.  You don’t have to write it every time. 
• For Analysis of Argument, normally, it’s suggested to keep a strong stand in your analysis.Your CR preps will help here. The claims made in the question stem are invariably bogus and you can easily find at least 3 flaws in most of these. 
• For Analysis of  Issue, normally, it’s suggested to keep a moderate stand in your analysis. Think of what stand you’d like to take on the issue. Think of at least 2(preferably 3) points favouring your stand and preferably one opposing it. After the opening para, expand each point into a para. Try to include some examples. (See next point). In the penultimate para, acknowledge the other side and then towards conclusion, mention why you still favour your original stand. 
•  If you go through the issue-list, you’d easily locate 6-7 recurring themes. I can recall a few from the list that I had prepared: “business and ethics”, “Successful/powerful women”, “rags to riches” , “technology V/s environment” (Will add more to this list in case I locate my notebook.)  Get ready a few real world well-known examples for each of them. You’d be surprised to see how preparing examples for a small list will help you cover a very good number of essay topics. 
• Find some time may be once a week in your last month to complete a time-bound AWA exercise. Once you complete that post your answers on your blog or some GMAT prep forums.  Not many would care to comment, but some times you can get some real good inputs.  (I got very good feedback as comments on the essays I posted on this blog.)
• Practice atleast 3-4 full length tests with the AWA section as well.  As discussed above, this will help you test your real GMAT stamina. Most of the tests (other  than the official ones:GMAT Prep and Powerprep) will either have no AWA secion or essays on topics different from the ones in the offical list. So it’s better to open the official list and start on any randomly picked topic. 
• FInal, but very important tip: For practising AWA, never use MS word or any other editor that offers features like spell-check or grammar-check. The editor in the real exam will have minimal features. (As far as I remember, just cut, copy, paste and undo/redo upto last one operation.) You can try that from the GMATPrep software. (Even the powerprep editor is different from the one that is currently being used.)

Hope this helps.  If you have any specific Q about AWA section that is not covered here, leave a comment and I’ll try to cover that as well.

The author believes that the owners of Comquat café made a good decision in moving to a new location as the café is about to celebrate its second anniversary there and three different businesses have occupied its former location after the café moved. Though at a first glance, the argument looks sound, but a careful analysis reveals that the argument rests on questionable assumptions and weak premises.

First, the author assumes that just because the café celebrated its second anniversary at the new location, we can conclude that the café is doing well. However, he does not provide any evidence for the same. It’s possible that the sales at café have dropped significantly after moving to the new location, but the owners have to continue there due to personal reasons. If this is not the case, the author must provide evidence that the sales and profits are soaring at the new location.

Second questionable assumption that the author makes is that the role of a business location is the same for all kind of businesses. The tanning salon, antique emporium and the pet-grooming shop may have failed, because the people there may not be interested in these. However this provides us with little reason to conclude that they would not be interested in the café as well. To augment this evidence, the author must additionally provide that when owners of Cumquat decided to move, the café too was not actually doing well.

Finally, it’s unfair to rest the blame for the failure of the mentioned businesses solely on the location. The owners may be poor managers; the market-demand may have changed; there can be several other reasons for the businesses to close. In fact, we’re not even told that the mentioned businesses closed because they were not doing well. They too may have moved for purely non-financial reasons, even if they were making good profits.

To sum, the author’s argument is unconvincing due to the weaknesses discussed above. The author could’ve strengthened his stand by giving evidence of Cumquat doing well at the new location and by showing that the profits for Cumquat and other businesses were falling and location was the only factor responsible for the same. Without this evidence, the argument fails to impress the reader.

“The best way to give advice to other people is to find out what they want and then advise them how to attain it.” 

The author suggests that for giving advice to a person, it’s best to first know what he wants and then advise him to attain that objective. Though the author’s stand may prove to be correct in certain circumstances, I feel that this is not a good approach in most of the cases. 

The major problem with the author’s suggestion is that it completely ignores the role of experience in setting objectives. Very often, a person sets unrealistic goals for himself, only to fail at later stage.  Also it’s possible that he may start chasing something that’s not really worth the effort. A person having experience in a similar field can advise on keeping realistic goals, which are good for him.

Another point that the author misses completely is that often people are not very clear about their objectives. They need to be advised even for knowing what they actually want. For example: a typical high-school student doesn’t often know what streams of career are open to him and which of these is suited best for him. In such cases, career counselors come in picture and they first advise the student on what choice he must make; advice on how to attain that goal comes later.

Also at times, the choice a person is making may not morally be the right thing to do. Imagine a scenario in which a youngster wishes to drop out of college mid-way and start an illegitimate business like smuggling or drug-trafficking. In such a case, will it be sane for his father to advice him on how to achieve what he wants? The father should better reprimand him and advice him to concentrate on his studies.

No doubt, the author’s suggestion may work in some cases. These are the cases where the person seeking advice has a clear understanding of his goals: goals which are good for him and for the society as well. In such cases, we must surely concentrate on advising him how to attain those goals.

To conclude, I’d say that I strongly disagree with author’s suggestion on giving advice. It may be workable in some cases, but in most other, this will prove detrimental to the person seeking advice.

The author suggests that success can be defined only as spending one’s life in his or her own way. I find this definition totally unacceptable. The scope of the definition is too limited and simplistic. Moreover it fails to take into account whatever the person has achieved in his life.  

The major problem with the author’s definition is that it’s too limited. As any successful person will know, no success is possible without its share of setbacks and pitfalls. No achiever can say that he has spent every moment of his life in the way he wanted. For example: In 2001, Microsoft suffered a major setback in the famous anti-trust case; but nobody can negate the reputation the company has created in the world of software.

Furthermore, the author fails to notice that life has different facets. Though a person doesn’t get to do things he wanted on one front, his achievements on the other may still make him a success.  A person, who may be an utter failure on the social front, can be tremendously successful in his profession. So if Einstein did not have a very good family life, does that in any way interfere with his status as the best known Physicist of 20^th century?

Another category of category that the author’s definition misses completely is the physically challenged people, who conquer their limitations, to attain the goals of their life. They surely don’t want to spend their life as disabled, but their goals drive them to ignore the fact that they’re not able to spend their life in the way they wanted. Stephen Hawking and Helen Keller are just two of many such successful people.

Moreover, there surely are people, who’ll fit the author’s definition of success. Perhaps a non-ambitious person, who easily attained whatever he wanted and never tried to aim any higher, can spend his life in his own way. Similar can be the case of a millionaire’s son, who gets everything that he wanted in inheritance and indulges in every pleasure that life can offer. But no sensible society can term any of these to be successful in their life.

To sum, I strongly disagree with the author’s notion of success. It’s the goals one achieves that make him successful, not the way he leads his life.

There’s no doubt about the fact that juvenile crime is a very serious social problem and it needs to be addressed in every possible way. However, whether businesses should take this responsibility is a debatable issue.

The responsibility of creating a responsible, law-abiding citizen lies mainly with the parents. Schools and colleges come next in the queue. On an average, taken together, the time spent with the family and in school constitutes more than half of the life of a juvenile. Surely, it is the parents and the teachers, who must take onus then to instill a sense of right and wrong in him.

On the other hand, a person before entering the real life as an adult has limited interaction with the businesses. This limits the role of business in affecting the juvenile crime rate. Still, corporate world does have an indirect role to play. Since the reason for most of the juvenile crime is aimlessness of the youth, businesses can give them a direction by starting vocational courses. Also setting up rehabilitation centers for the delinquent can be a step towards the solution. The rehabilitation combined with industrial training can help the wandering youth to be a part of the mainstream society.

In addition to the above steps, some businesses have a more direct role to play. The movie industry for example can do without the heroic portrayal of gangsters as we see in movies like “The Godfather”. Similarly, there are video-games and television shows that showcase violence as acts of heroism. All these have a lasting effect on a child’s psyche and can cause him to take up the wrong path. Responsible industries must enforce some curbs on these so that they don’t set a wrong precedent for the children.

To sum, though no one will disagree with the seriousness of the juvenile crime problem, it’d be a bit hard to expect the businesses alone to shoulder the burden. The primary responsibility lies with the parents and the schools; but businesses too can lend a helping hand.

“Financial gain should be the most important factor in choosing a career”

 The author argues that one must choose his career on the basis of prospective financial gains in that career. Although nobody can deny money’s importance in the modern capitalistic world, but I strongly disagree with the author’s suggestion of deciding one’s career path on the sole basis of monetary gains.

 Firstly, one’s career is a function of his ability and his interests. But unfortunately we see numerous cases of children being thrust into a profession against their wish just because the that career seemed to be a better option financially. What good will it do to a person exceptionally good in arts, but admitted in an engineering college. Perhaps he’ll neither be a good engineer, nor will he get a chance to showcase his art to the world.

 Furthermore, the career path one chooses depends on personal priorities. If one’s priority is money, he’d surely go the author’s way. But there are things that matter more to many people than just money. As an example: can any amount of money replace the joy of innovation when a scientist discovers something never ever seen before or the applause and adulation that an amateur pianist gets at the end of his first live performance.

 Some may argue that if you have the money, rest of the things like fame, power etc follow. Quoting the examples of business tycoons like Bill Gates and Richard Branson, they suggest getting rich will ensure that you’ll get everything else that you want. What they completely miss is the fact that in most cases, the successful person followed his interest, which combined with his planning and diligence became a rewarding career for him. In fact it’s mostly the other way round: if you make a mark in the career of your interest, you surely are not far from monetary gains as well. Even the sports-stars and artists, who always chose to follow the career of their interest are one of the richest people in today’s world.

Lastly, but perhaps most importantly there are professions like social service which almost offer nothing in terms of monetary gains, but still there are people who devote their whole life to these and it is because of these people, the world becomes a better place to leave in. For example: Mother Teresa surely wasn’t the richest lady of her times, but two hundred years down the line, we’ll perhaps remember her unconditional service more than ventures of today’s business barons.

 To sum, I’d say that no doubt, money is an important entity in today’s world, but when it comes to choosing one’s career, it is one’s talent and interest that matters. One must not let it come between him and the career of his choice.

The following appeared in the opinion column of a financial magazine:

“On average, middle-aged consumers devote 39 percent of their retail expenditure to department store products and services, while for younger consumers the average is only 25 percent. Since the number of middle-aged people will increase dramatically within the next decade, department stores can expect retail sales to increase significantly during that period. Furthermore, to take advantage of the trend, these stores should begin to replace some of those products intended to attract the younger consumer with products intended to attract the middle-aged consumer.”

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

The author concludes that the departmental stores’ sales will increase with increasing middle-aged population since the middle-aged customers spend a substantial part of their expenditure on purchases from these stores. The argument presented is pretty weak as it is based on questionable assumptions.

Firstly the author assumes that the age of a customer is the only parameter involved in deciding where he would like to make his purchases from. It wrongly assumes that as soon as the customers enter their middle-age, they’ll develop an inclination for purchasing from departmental stores. The conclusion is ridiculous and wrongly maps the behavior of current generation with the future generations.

Actually, the spending pattern may be a matter of habit. Perhaps not many options were available to the common man ten years ago and the customers had to rely on these departmental stores. In the present world, there are numerous options available for the customer: shopping malls, online shops are just a few of these. Just as the current middle-aged customers chose to continue their habit of purchasing from departmental stores, it’s more likely that the presently young customer will continue shopping from his currently preferred sources when he enters his middle-age.

Furthermore, the author’s suggestion of replacing the goods targeted at younger people with those attracting middle-aged people may actually backfire. Not only will this result in a drop in current sales by dissociating the current younger customers of the store, but also result in adverse future effects as the younger customer may never choose to return back even in his middle age when he finds that his choice of goods is not available in the store.

To conclude, the author’s argument is not persuasive at all and in fact, if implemented, his suggestions may prove disastrous to the departmental stores.

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

The author observes that having a competition in the market is always beneficial to the company. The observation, though true in most cases, misses some important exceptions to itself.

Firstly having a competitor of nearly equal strength pressurises the company to strive to produce the goods of the best possible quality. The famous “foot-war” between two footwear giants Adidas and Nike is a classic example. Both the companies invested their resources to ensure that their shoes are better than the others’. This made the footwear market a science laboratory to provide the most comfortable shoe to the customer.In suchscenario, it’s the customer who benefits the most; though none of the companies lose the game either.

Moreover, competition also ensures that the company is under pressure to retain its employees. This precisely is the reason why the employees of a software company are taken care off well. The market is too competitive here.If a company fails to retain its best staff, the doors of the rival company are always open for it. So it’s not only the company and the customer that gains from the competition,the employee too does.

But then it’s good for the company only if the rival is almost equally competent as the company. If it’s too weak, the company may fail to acknowledge it as a serious competitor and as such fail to get the benefits discussed above.More importantly, if the rival is a bit too strong, it may wipe off the original company in the next 10 years. How good the competition could be called in that case!

Also at times instead of investing in the quality of products, company choose to overcome their rival by heavy advertisement. As an example, if we consider the cola-war, the quality of Coca-cola and Pepsi has hardly changed over all these years, but the companies try to win the higher market share by investing heavily in marketing their product.

To sum, in most of the cases, a competitior can improve a company practices, but this holds only as long as the rival is of equal strength and the company is really serious about improving its practices.

“Two years ago, City L was listed 14th in an annual survey that ranks cities according to the quality of life that can be enjoyed by those living in them. This information will enable people who are moving to the state in which City L is located to confidently identify one place, at least, where schools are good, housing is affordable, people are friendly, the environment is safe, and the arts flourish.”

Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.

The author claims that the survey ranking the cities according to their lifestyle will help people in locating a place in the state,where everything will be good. The argument has many serious flaws.

First of all, the quality of life is too broad a term. Though it’s reasonable to assume that the survey must have covered the mentioned parameters, we do not yet know whether the survey tells you the relative rankings of all the cities in each parameter separately. For example: city X may be overall ranked number one due to its good schools,affordable housing and friendly nature of people, but may be the environment isn’t that safe overthere. So the broad ranking may not be able to convey the exact information that the author claims.

Moreover, the survey is two years old; it may already be obsolete. In this dynamically changing world, it’s possible that the prices in an affordable city may have shot up and the environment is not that safe now.

Furthermore, the scope of the survey is not known. We don’t know whether all the cities were covered or only the ones, which chose to participate.Also the author claims to find the best “place” in the state using this survey,but it fails to acknowledge that it’s not the major cities that offer a quality life,it can be small towns too. whether the survey covered the major cities only or the smaller towns too, where life may be good and affordable too.

In sum, I’d agree that the rankings may give a rough idea of the lifestyle and with a more recent and elaborate data, this can really be useful. But the argument as it stands is weak and fails to provide any useful information to the reader.