From the course: Preparing for the GMAT

Unlock the full course today

Join today to access over 22,600 courses taught by industry experts or purchase this course individually.

Essay basics

Essay basics

From the course: Preparing for the GMAT

Start my 1-month free trial

Essay basics

“

- [Instructor] The analytical writing assessment on the GMAT, better known as the essay, is one of the most predictable parts of the test. Although you won't know the exact essay prompt ahead of time, its format will always be the same, an argument based on premises and assumptions that can be questioned, attacked, and/or improved. So in this video, we'll go over the basics of what the essay is about. It's 30 minutes long. You're going to read a brief argument, which has lots of potential flaws. Then you're going to analyze its reasoning. You're going to write a critique of that argument and it's going to be analysis, not opinion. You're going to be pointing out flaws in the argument that are due to assumptions that may or may not be true. And, then, a nice way to do that is to kind of state what's necessary to improve the argument. It's a test of whether you can analyze a shaky argument, point out its assumptions and the alternate explanations that could take place, and offer what it…

Contents