Among the four scaled scores awarded each GMAT test taker an Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) score on a 0-6 scale (in half-point intervals). Here you'll learn how GMAT essays are evaluated and how the AWA scoring system works.

Evaluation by Two GMAT Readers and by E-Rater

Immediately after you test, your GMAT essays will be sent electronically to a central processing location. Within one week, your two GMAT essays will be read and graded by human readers. One reader will read and score your Issue essay, and a different reader will read and score your Argument essay. Each reader will evaluate your writing independently, and neither reader will be informed of the other's score.

Each reader will employ a "holistic" grading method by which he or she assigns a single score from 0 to 6 (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6) based on the overall quality of your writing. All readers employ the same specific evaluation criteria.

NOTE: All GMAT essay readers are college or university faculty members; most are either English or Communications professors.

A computer program called E-Rater will also evaluate and rate each of your two essays separately for grammar, syntax, word usage, diction, idiom, spelling and punctuation — but not for content. (Computer programs cannot adequately evaluate the ideas that an essay seeks to convey — at least not yet.)

Criteria for Evaluating GMAT Essays

In evaluating the overall quality of your writing, the GMAT readers will take into account four general skill areas:

• Content: your ability to present cogent, persuasive, and relevant ideas and arguments through sound reasoning and supporting examples

• Organization: your ability to present your ideas in an organized and cohesive fashion

• Language: your control of the English language—specifically, your diction (word choice and usage) and syntax (sentence structure)

• Grammar: your facility with the conventions of standard written English (grammar and punctuation)

Which of these areas is most important? Unofficial statements by GMAC representatives suggest that the first two areas are more important than the last two. However, writing style, grammar and diction — i.e., your ability to communicate ideas effectively in writing — may influence readers as well. So the bottom line is that you should strive to demonstrate competency in all four areas. Of course, if you're weak in one area, you can still achieve a high overall score by demonstrating great strength in other areas.

How an AWA Scaled Score is Calculated

You'll receive a single Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) score for both of your GMAT essays. In 4 steps, here's how your AWA score is determined:

1. For each of your two essays, E-Rater's score (on the 0-6 scale) is averaged with the human reader's score (also on the 0-6 scale).

2. For each essay, if E-Rater's score is within 1 point of the human reader's score, then the average of those two scores is your final score for that essay.

3. For each essay, if E-Rater's score differs from the human reader's score by more than 1 point, then a second human reader will read and grade the essay, and your final score for that essay will be the average of the two human readers' scores.

4. Your final AWA score is the average of the final score for each of your two essays, rounded up to the nearest half-point.

During each of the two essay sections, if you fail to key in (type) at least one character using the CAT word processor, you will automatically receive a score of 0 (on a scale of 0 to 6) for that section; this score will appear on your report.

Determining Your AWA Percentile Rank

In addition to your AWA scaled score of 0–6, you'll receive an AWA percentile rank (0% to 99%) for your writing. This rank indicates how you performed relative to all other test takers. For example, a percentile rank of 60% indicates that you scored higher than 60% of all other test takers and lower than 40% of all other test takers. Percentile rankings are also provided for Quantitative, Verbal and Total (combined Quantitative and Verbal) scores.

NOTE: Percentile rankings indicate how you performed relative to the entire GMAT test-taking population during the most recent 3-year period.