Official Score Report : And AWA

Day before yesterday, a full 8 days after my GMAT, I got an email from VUE Pearson. It said, that my score will be available online in 24 hrs. I tried to access the link provided in the email immediately and it said the score is not yet in. Naturally I only wanted to know the AWA score. Yesterday, I forgot about this all together. So went to sleep a little late. Half an hour into the sleep I remembered that I should be able to access the score by then. Got up and checked the score. AWA turned in a good 5.5/6 score. I am very happy about it.

Analysis of the issue

Going into the test I decided that the Issue analysis should start with a personal experience. However the subject did not let me bring in any personal experience. What do I have to do with art and government support!!. So I decided to go with plan B, ie. To start with a joke. This has worked to my advantage many time in the past. So I started it with a joke involving Michael Angelo, The Pope and the Sistine chapel. The first paragraph touched upon two or three important points without any elaboration. I tried to put down few points on the paper before I start typing, but none were coming along. So started typing any way.

Second Paragraph my position I am taking was stated, and two main points were elaborated. I tried to use the correct pronouns, and cite cite examples as I was moving through. Each paragraph I tried to organize with a simple premises leads to conclusion fashion.

Third Paragraph also I continued the same rant in similar style elaborating two more points. I believe I took an example with Alexander and Homer here.

Fourth Paragraph, was devoted for anticipating some criticism from the critics. The assumptions in my previous two paragraphs were opened for attack from Critics, and then I put in some points to counter those criticism. I tried to sit little bit on the fence here, without getting poked too much on the wrong place.

Fifth paragraph was a nice simple conclusion which said, my point is absolutely correct, even though there may be some critics who disagree with it.

I finished with 5 minutes to spare. I spent the remaining time correcting grammar and spelling.

Analysis of the Argument

In the GMAT, I got the argument analysis first. It was about a newspaper article advocating that a local mall construction should be stopped. My strategy for the argument was to look at it like I would look at a CR question. In general there is no fool proof argument in GMAT. There are some underlying assumptions. So concentrate on those assumptions and ferret them out. Questioning the validity of each assumption is the strategy to go for in the argument analysis. When the assumptions become questionable, the conclusion becomes questionable. Never question the validity of premises. Premises are the only pieces of fact. The way they are interpreted is always questionable.

I spent the first 6 to 7 minutes in preparing my essay outline on the scratch paper.

The first paragraph was devoted to paraphrasing the argument structure. Different argument parts were detailed as premises and conclusion. I did that to make E-raters job a little easier.

Second paragraph was for listing down each of the assumptions the author has made in connecting premises to conclusion. At this point also I did not take any stand.

Third paragraph was a critical evaluation of authors argument style. This was the place I chose to hop on the fence once in a while. I will lean in, land a punch on solar plexus, and immediately sooth out the pain by offering a candy. I hope you get the metaphor. Very gentle but prove your point without directly attacking the author. This went on till I dissected and destroyed every single assumption's validity.

Once done with that Fourth paragraph was for conceding points. Citing additional premises if at all available might help the original argument's cause.

Fifth and last paragraph was for conclusion. In the conclusion my stand was that even though there are many good points cited in the original argument, non availability of data to bridge the assumptions gap make it vulnerable to criticism. There fore further research and additional premises are required to make the argument valid.

I completed the section with 5 mnts to spare. I checked the spelling and grammar, and submitted the essay.