Everything You Need To Know About the Business Writing Assessment (BWA)
This article was written by Jeff Vollmer.
If you are either considering applying or already in the process of applying to business school, you may have come across something called the Business Writing Assessment or BWA. But not everybody needs to do it—keep reading to find out whether you need to and, if so, how to do a great job!
(If you already know you need to do this and are looking for materials to help you prepare, jump down to the final paragraph for instructions on how to download our completely free guide to the Business Writing Assessment.)
What Is the Business Writing Assessment?
The BWA is a 30-minute essay test created by the makers of the GMAT (GMAC) to test a business school applicant’s writing ability. Harvard Business School and MIT’s Sloan School of Management have announced that they will require the BWA for applicants who make it to the interview stage. It’s possible that some other schools will decide to use the BWA in future; check the websites of the schools to which you’re planning to apply to see whether your target schools are also introducing the BWA. (As of today, we haven’t heard of any other major programs announcing that they’ll use the BWA.)
But can’t programs judge my writing ability from my application essays?
Well, programs can judge someone’s writing ability from those essays, but they don’t necessarily know whether those essays are yours, or your consultant’s, or ChatGPT’s! The BWA is essentially a security check, to make sure that you are the one who wrote your essays. In the past, MBA programs used the GMAT’s essay component (known as the Analytical Writing Assessment, or AWA) for this purpose, but because the GMAT no longer contains this component of the exam, a couple of schools requested that GMAC create a separate writing task. If you take the GRE instead of the GMAT, you will not be asked to take the BWA (the GRE currently has its own writing section; if that changes in future, then you might have to take the BWA).
Is the BWA Required If I Take the GMAT?
Currently, the programs that require the BWA only ask you to take it if you are invited to interview. And even if you are applying to one of the programs that has asked some students to take the BWA, don’t take the BWA unless or until they ask you to do so. No need to burden yourself with yet another task unless you really have to.
As strange as it sounds, getting asked by programs to take the BWA is actually a good thing because it means you’ve been invited to interview! Interviews are held over the course of a few weeks for each application round, and you won’t need to complete the BWA before the interview, so you will have at least several weeks to prepare for the assessment. And your prep won’t take a lot of time.
How much does the BWA cost?
It costs $30 per attempt. You can attempt it as many times as you want, and you can receive a full refund if you cancel your assessment at least 24 hours in advance.
How Do I Prep for the BWA?
Prepping for the BWA is relatively straightforward, and far less stressful than prepping for the GMAT. Plan to allot between 5 and 10 hours to prepare for the BWA, spread out over two to three weeks.
For this assessment, you will have 30 minutes to analyze/criticize/evaluate the reasoning of a faulty argument and to organize your thoughts into a short essay response. You will be scored on the relevance of your ideas and the clarity with which you present them.
Start by breaking down the argument into its conclusion and premises. Evaluate what has been overlooked and what has been assumed. What are the faults with the argument’s logic? How could the argument be strengthened? By the time you get to the BWA, you’ll have already seen many other faulty arguments on the GMAT, so apply the same reasoning skills that you developed when studying for the GMAT.
It is likely that the majority of your prep time will come in the form of practicing how to organize your thoughts into an essay. I recommend planning the general structure of your response ahead of time. If you already have the general framework of your essay, then you can fill in the details based on the specifics of the argument you’re presented with. (See the last paragraph for more in-depth guidance on how to plan the structure of your essay.)
Before you move forward with any prep for the BWA, first determine whether you really need to worry about it. The majority of today’s business school applicants will not be asked to complete this assessment.
And if a program has asked you to take the BWA, or if you have reason to believe that you will be asked to take it, in that case, use our (completely free) BWA study materials in our Free GMAT Starter Kit (find it in our “Try More for Free” section). We’ll get you ready to do a great job on the BWA—and congratulations on being invited to interview!
Jeff Vollmer is a GMAT and EA instructor with Manhattan Prep; he also serves as a lead curriculum developer. He has scored a 775 on the GMAT and a 172 on the EA.