aeon essays for gmat

GMAT Prep Online Guides and Tips

How to approach every gmat essay topic: analysis and tips.

The essay portion of the GMAT, or the Analytical Writing Assessment, is unlike most of the essays you’ve written for college. You’re given a single, one-paragraph prompt containing some kind of argument, and rather than picking a side and building your own case, you have to critique how that argument is made .

Luckily, we’ve done the hard work of analyzing GMAT essay questions for you. In this post, we’ll tell you where to find the best GMAT essay prompts and give you our in-depth breakdown of the essay task, including an analysis of examples from each type of prompt you’ll encounter. Finally, we’ll give you some tips for how to practice with GMAT essay topics for maximum improvement on your own essays. With this expert analysis, you’ll know how to tackle any GMAT essay prompt that comes your way on test day.

The GMAT Essay Task

As stated above, the GMAT AWA section gives you a brief one-paragraph prompt containing some kind of argument. While the prompt changes from test to test (more on this below), the directions are always the same, so you should memorize them in advance . I’ve pasted them for you below:

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.

Not sure how or what to study? Confused by how to improve your score in the shortest time possible? We've created the only Online GMAT Prep Program that identifies your strengths and weaknesses, customizes a study plan, coaches you through lessons and quizzes, and adapts your study plan as you improve.

We believe PrepScholar GMAT is the best GMAT prep program available , especially if you find it hard to organize your study schedule and don't want to spend a ton of money on the other companies' one-size-fits-all study plans.

What It’s Really Asking You to Do

In other words, you have only one task for the GMAT essay: to write a critique of the given argument. Invariably, every single GMAT argument will have flaws . Here are the most common types of flaws embedded within the arguments:

• Faulty assumptions: The most common type of argumentative flaw in GMAT prompts.
• Inadequate evidence: If an argument gives you a piece of evidence, it almost certainly has some kind of issue with it—perhaps simply that it doesn’t necessarily support the ultimate conclusion.
• Sampling or statistical issues : For instance, an argument might state that a certain population is representative of a larger whole when that can’t be claimed for certain.
• Vague words , such as “many” or “few.”
• Unsuitable comparisons : Stating that just because something applies in one situation, that it will apply in another situation by default.
• Presumed causation over correlation : Concluding that one thing caused another, without proof that they’re not merely correlated.
• Information or considerations that have been overlooked: other considerations that haven’t been discussed.

Many GMAT essay prompts will contain more than one of these flaws. Your critique should consist of an in-depth analysis that exposes them, and suggests ways to improve.

The best approach is to pick apart the prompt bit-by-bit : point out each flaw the author makes, challenge it using your own reasoning and specific counterexamples that support your claims, and suggest ways the author could fix the flaw and thereby improve the validity of their conclusion.

Do not present your own views on the argument at hand. Regardless of the prompt, you should always make the case that the given argument is flawed—not whether or not you “agree.”

You don’t need to know any formal logic to write a top-scoring essay, but it helps to be familiar with a few terms related to the construction of an argument:

• Claim:  The claim is the assertion or conclusion of the argument. In GMAT essay prompts, the main claim is often spelled out for you, preceded by a term like “thus” or “therefore.” There can also be sub-claims that support the broader, overall claim.
• Evidence:  Claims are often supported in turn by  evidence —facts, statistics, and other data that the author brings up to support their perspective.
• Warrant : The warrant is the reasoning that connects the evidence to the claim. This term can be used as a verb as well, EG: “The evidence doesn’t  warrant the claim” (if the evidence provided doesn’t logically support the author’s argument).
• Counterargument : A counterargument is an argument that the “opposing side” might make in a debate. It can have its own sub-claims, warrants, and evidence, just like the original argument.
• Rebuttal : A rebuttal goes a bit further—it engages directly with the first argument, arguing against or deconstructing it.

You don’t have to use these exact terms in every essay, but being familiar with the concepts they represent is crucial for both understanding the GMAT prompts and formulating your critique.

How Your GMAT Essay Is Graded

You’re graded on a scale of 0-6 in half-point increments , once by a human reader (usually an English or Communications professor) and once by a computerized grading program called E-Rater. If the two different scores differ by less than one point, the two scores will be averaged to get your final scaled score. If they differ by greater than one point, a second human reader will step in and grade the essay.

Both the human reader and E-Rater grade holistically, giving one final score under these guidelines:

6 = outstanding 5 = very good 4 = good 3 = adequate 2 = less than adequate 1 = poor 0 = no substantive response

Four general skill areas are taken into account: content (relevant, persuasive ideas, reasoning, and examples); organization (using an organized and cohesive structure to present your argument); language use (diction and syntax), and grammar .

It’s hard to assess the six-point scale in abstraction, so be sure to check out this official sample AWA prompt and top-scoring essay to see what kind of an essay gets a 6. You’ll see that the essay loosely follows a five-paragraph essay structure, with each body paragraph focusing on one logical flaw of the prompt. This is a perfectly good structure to replicate in your own essays. We recommend that you spend a 20 minutes or so studying what else this essay did well, so that you can replicate it in your own writing.

The GMAT Essay Topics Pool: How It Works

Fortunately, the GMAC releases a list of most of the official GMAT essay topics you’ll encounter on the Analytical Writing section. These prompts often center on debates from the business or political worlds and are sourced from the editorial and op-ed sections of magazines and newspapers, annual company reports, memorandums, proposals and the like.

You should use this list of official GMAT AWA topics in your prep, as they’re far better than any imitation prompts for a few reasons. Firstly, official practice prompts are by definition more realistic than any imitations. Second, there’s a (small) chance that you’ll encounter a prompt you’ve practiced on already on the real test. It’s a less than 1% chance, as there’s over 140 prompts on this list, and you still could get one that doesn’t appear here—but that’s better than no chance at all! Plus, with so many to choose from, it’s unlikely that you’ll run out of prompts to practice with.

Types of GMAT AWA Topics: Analysis of Examples

Now that we’ve gone over what the essay task is asking of you, let’s go over a few example GMAT Essay topics from the official list.

There aren’t any clear “categories” of prompts that would affect your analysis, but for a representative sample, I’ve picked one prompt from the business world (which is the most common) and one prompt from the political world (which is the second most common). Note that the way in which each argument is constructed doesn’t fall within such boundaries—”political” prompts can use the same flawed argumentative strategies as “business” prompts or “health and science” prompts, and so on.

Example 1: Megamart’s Business Plan

The following is part of a business plan created by the management of the Megamart grocery store:

“Our total sales have increased this year by 20 percent since we added a pharmacy section to our grocery store. Clearly, the customer’s main concern is the convenience afforded by one-stop shopping. The surest way to increase our profits over the next couple of years, therefore, is to add a clothing department along with an automotive supplies and repair shop. We should also plan to continue adding new departments and services, such as a restaurant and a garden shop, in subsequent years. Being the only store in the area that offers such a range of services will give us a competitive advantage over other local stores.”

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

The first step is to identify the conclusion or main claim  of the argument: in this case, the conclusion is that Megamart should add a clothing department, automotive department, and more one-stop shopping conveniences in order to increase profits.

Want to improve your GMAT score by 60 points?

We have the industry's leading GMAT prep program. Built by Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and Wharton alumni and GMAT 99th percentile scorers, the program learns your strengths and weaknesses and customizes a curriculum so you get the most effective prep possible.

Next, identify the supporting evidence and reasoning for this conclusion. One piece of evidence is “that total sales have increased this year by 20 percent since we added a pharmacy section to our grocery store.” An adjacent piece of reasoning is that “the customer’s main concern is the convenience afforded by one-stop shopping.” The author also states that “Being the only store in the area that offers such a range of services will give us a competitive advantage over other local stores.”

Finally, identify the logical flaws buried within the conclusion and the supporting evidence/reasoning.

For starters, correlation doesn’t necessarily mean causation : the author takes it for granted that the addition of the pharmacy caused the increase in sales, which may or may not be true.

Next, the author presumes that, because of this increase, the customer’s main concern is the convenience of one-stop shopping. This conclusion doesn’t logically follow —even if we do assume that the pharmacy caused the increase in sales, there could be many other reasons for this other than convenience: perhaps their pharmacy is less expensive than other competitors in the area, for example.

Moreover, even if customers do enjoy the convenience of a pharmacy in their grocery store, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they also want to get their car fixed there, to buy clothing there, to eat at a restaurant there, etc—they may have loyalty to other businesses for these services, or they may doubt the level of quality, and so on.

Plus, the expense is high for any business to install such new and varied arms: the cost of renovating their space, hiring and training new employees, ensuring that each sub-business is up to code, etc. How would they be able to keep costs low enough to entice shoppers to try out a new service and still cover the cost of the expenditure, let alone increase profits?

Overall, being the only store in the area that offers such a range of services may not give them a competitive advantage over other local stores at all, and certainly might not lead to increased profits. There are other flaws you could point out

You should also employ some counterexamples to back up your argument: for example, how even Target and Walmart stores—the epitomes of one-stop shopping—don’t have automotive repair shops within them, as this has no overlap with their core business (whereas groceries, for example, have a lot of overlap, so it made sense for them to start selling those). And while they do sometimes have restaurants within them, those are separate chain restaurants like Pizza Hut, with their own brand identity, operated independently and sharing the space by contractual agreement. This offers customers the opportunity to eat before or after shopping, and the potential for increased profits for both companies—while minimizing risk and expenditure for each.

Finally, you should suggest ways the author could fix the flaws in their argument : in this case, the management of Megamart could discuss why factors other than convenience are not at play in the 20% increase of sales since adding the pharmacy, to make a better case for causation over correlation.

Example 2: Waymarsh State College Protestors

The following appeared in the editorial section of a local newspaper:

“This past winter, 200 students from Waymarsh State College traveled to the state capitol building to protest against proposed cuts in funding for various state college programs. The other 12,000 Waymarsh students evidently weren’t so concerned about their education: they either stayed on campus or left for winter break. Since the group who did not protest is far more numerous, it is more representative of the state’s college students than are the protesters. Therefore the state legislature need not heed the appeals of the protesting students.”

Like many GMAT prompts, the conclusion is more or less spelled out for us , identified by the use of the word “therefore.” In this case, the conclusion is that the state legislature doesn’t need to heed the 200 protesting students.

Want to Identify YOUR GMAT Strengths and Weaknesses?

Our proprietary GMAT Diagnostic Assessment creates a customized study plan for you that takes you from registration all the way to test day! It is included with every account and proven to significantly maximize your score .

Get your personalized assessment as part of your 5 day risk-free trial now:

There are three main faulty assumptions in the reasoning : first, the author assumes that just because the other 12,000 students did not protest, this means they don’t share the same concerns. Next, the author uses this tenuous conclusion to claim that the group of non-protestors is more representative of the college student body as a whole—even though it’s still unproven that they have different beliefs that the protestors. Finally, the conclusion itself is a jump in reasoning: even granting that the protesting students are alone in their beliefs, that’s not sufficient grounds for the state legislature to ignore their appeals.

The issue with the first assumption is that just because the 12,000 students didn’t show up to protest does not necessarily mean that they “don’t care about their education” or that they agree with the funding cuts. Many of them could have been unaware of the cuts, or of the planned protests. Some might have been unable to attend the protests for a variety of reasons—difficulty of traveling to the state capital, the expenses associated with such travel or of getting out of any previously planned winter break trips, not being able to take time off from an on-campus job, and so on. It’s difficult to imagine that such a large percentage of the student body is truly uncaring when there are so many potential extenuating circumstances barring them from attending the protests.

It’s far more likely that there’s a diversity of opinion among the non-protesting group: for all the reasons stated above, they can’t be taken as a single, homogenous collective that shares one viewpoint just based on the fact that they didn’t (or couldn’t) attend the protest. So, even though only 1 in 60 students protested, that doesn’t mean that the other 59 are “representative” of the opinion that the budget cuts don’t matter. 

Lastly, even if we grant that the protestors are a non-representative minority, that certainly doesn’t mean that the legislature should simply ignore their concerns. A better basis for judgment is not how representative of the student body they are, but how justified their concerns are about the funding cuts to their school and how much of an impact these cuts will have. Will it make a significant impact on the quality of the education they receive? On the students’ preparedness for the world beyond? On their job prospects? Even if the rest of the students truly don’t care (which is already an outlandish presumption), that doesn’t justify the state legislature undercutting their education.

In fact, there are many forms of expressing one’s opinion other than in-person protesting, none of which are discussed here. The state legislature should take a poll of the student body for a truly “representative” sample of viewpoints. An online poll emailed out to all students is neither financially nor time-commitment prohibitive, like a protest at the state capitol is, and would thus be a much fairer way of measuring student opinion.

GMAT Essay Topics: 3 Excellent Tips

No matter which of the GMAT essay questions you encounter on test day, the following tips will help you prepare.

#1: Time Your GMAT Practice Essays

When you’re working on practice GMAT essay topics, make sure you stick to a strict 30-minute time limit for your essay.

If you need to build up to writing within this time limit, you can start out by giving yourself extra time and then working your way down to 30 minutes. However, try not to only practice with extra time, or you’ll be unprepared for the real GMAT Analytical Writing Assessment.

#2: Type Your GMAT Practice Essays

To simulate the conditions of the computer-based GMAT, you should write all of your practice essays on a computer.

If possible, use the simple word processor in the free official GMATPrep Software to do every practice essay, or a very simple word processor like NotePad that doesn’t give you very much functionality. Though you will be able to use the normal copy, paste, undo, and redo shortcuts, you’ll still need to get used to the lack of other features that you may be accustomed to from Microsoft Word, Pages, or Google Docs, such as bolding and italics.

#3: Grade Your GMAT Practice Essays

Once you’ve written your practice GMAT essays, try to score them with the 6-point grading rubric and by comparing your writing to the sample essay provided by the GMAC. The point of grading your essays is not to feel bad that you didn’t live up to the ideals of a perfect essay score but instead to hone in on your weaknesses so you can improve. Whether it’s disorganized writing, not varying your sentence structure enough, running out of time, insufficient analysis, or some other issue entirely, you should identify the main issues with your essay, then focus your practice on improving those areas.

If you find yourself struggling to reach the same level of writing and analysis as the sample top-scoring essay, one additional option available to you is the official GMATWrite subscription. Each subscription includes two real GMAT essay prompts and the opportunity to write four essays. Your practice essays will be scored using E-Rater, the same automated essay-scoring engine used by the official GMAT exam. Once you submit an essay, you will receive a score, suggestions for improvement, and other relevant feedback.

Keep in mind that the AWA is the least important part of your GMAT score, and most people do well on the essay anyway, so budget your time (and money) accordingly.

What’s Next?

Check out our more in-depth guide to the format, scoring, and other tips for the GMAT Analytical Writing Assessment . Once you feel comfortable with the basics, head to our guide on GMAT essay templates that can help you get a top score on the AWA (coming soon). If you’re just getting started with your overall GMAT prep, you may want to go over what to expect on the all the other sections of the GMAT  as well.

Happy studying!

Was this helpful? Sign up for FREE GMAT and MBA guides!

Share this:.

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)

Author: Jess Hendel

Jess Hendel is a Brooklyn-based academic advisor, test prep tutor, and content writer for PrepScholar. A graduate of Amherst College, she has several years of experience writing content and designing curricula for the top e-learning organizations. She is passionate about leveraging new media and technology to help students around the world achieve their potential. View all posts by Jess Hendel

• GMAT Exam Info
• What's Tested on the GMAT
• What's a Good GMAT Score?
• How to Register for the GMAT
• GMAT Study Plans
• Creating Your Study Schedule
• Applying to Business School
• GMAT Question of the Day
• GMAT Pop Quiz
• GMAT 20-Minute Workout
• Free GMAT Practice Test
• GMAT Math Sheet
• GMAT Prep Courses

7 Essay Tips for GMAT Analytical Writing

The GMAT Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) provides clear instructions on how you should plan and write your essay. Kaplan students learn these instructions long before Test Day and do not waste precious testing time reading them while the clock ticks.

Analytical writing demands objectivity

The AWA instructions are divided into segments, and the segment many test-takers overlook is that of the “directions”—which on the official GMAT read as follows: “I n this section, you will be asked to write a critique of the argument presented. You are NOT being asked to present your own views on the subject.”

A critique is an  objective  criticism of the argument in the prompt. Including your opinion would be providing a  subjective  analysis, which is not the point of analytical writing.

So how should your objective critique be constructed? Because one of the hallmarks of a standardized test is the repetition of patterns across test administrations, you can rest assured that your  Test Day  AWA prompt will follow the pattern described here. The instructions will be the same, the argument presented in the prompt will contain familiar flaws, and as a result, you will be able to plan how you will fit the necessary pieces together in your essay.

Analyze the argument’s assumptions & supporting evidence

Every GMAT AWA argument comprises a conclusion and pieces of evidence, just like  GMAT Critical Reasoning  (CR) questions. For both AWA and CR, the gaps between those pieces of evidence and the conclusion must be bridged by an assumption; in CR you look for the central assumption upon which the argument relies, and in AWA you will identify multiple assumptions.

Your critique of the argument will discuss the flaws you identify in its reasoning. A common mistake is to equate assumptions with flaws. However, it is fine for an argument to rest on an assumption, provided that assumption is logical and/or supported by evidence. For GMAT AWA arguments, the flaw is always the same:  the conclusion rests on assumptions that the provided evidence does not support .

That consistent pattern provides you with your thesis statement; “The author’s argument is flawed because it is based on assumptions for which she does not provide sufficient supporting evidence.” Boom—done.

Draw a conclusion from your thesis statement

But the fun doesn’t stop there. This thesis statement also serves as an appropriate conclusion. By definition, a thesis statement provides a  summary of the main point of the essay.  Remember that the conclusion of any passage, argument, claim, or essay can be found by asking, “What’s the point?” So once you’ve crafted that thesis statement, shuffle the language a bit and you have a conclusion.

Here’s an example intro paragraph from a sample analytical writing essay: “The author concludes that the current problem of poorly trained teachers will soon be remedied. As evidence he describes a state proposal that will require teachers to take courses in education and psychology prior to being certified. However, this argument is flawed because its conclusion relies on assumptions for which the author does not supply supporting evidence.”

Notice that thesis statement at the end of the first paragraph. Now, take a look at the concluding statement of the same sample essay: “In its current state, the argument relies too heavily on unsupported assumptions to be convincing.”

If you prefer to have a two-sentence conclusion, you can add, “Without additional supporting evidence, the conclusion cannot be accepted.” And there you have one solid point—your thesis—that serves two purposes.

So remember your analytical writing directions: objective critique, no opinion. The “point” of your essay must be objective, critical, and correct, and once you’ve identified this thesis statement, you also have a conclusion ready to go.

The AWA is about confidence—avoid hesitation

Your AWA essay should have a formal, confident tone. You have dissected the argument and are now presenting your objective findings.

So,  say what you mean using strong language . Consider the following sentences:

I believe this argument is flawed because it is overly dependent on spurious assumptions that lack evidence. This argument is overly dependent on unsupported assumptions and is therefore flawed.

Third-person pronouns ( he ,  she ,  one ) are appropriate in a GMAT essay. First- ( I ,  we ,  us ) and second-person ( you ) are inappropriate; in fact, unnecessary self-reference ( I believe ) is part of what makes the first example above less effective than the second. This is a form of qualification  that diminishes the strength of your point.

Qualifying language includes descriptors (adjectives and adverbs) and verbs that “soften” the edge of a statement.

The phrases “ somewhat vague ” and “ rather wordy ” have a softer impact than simply saying “ vague ” or “ wordy .” Avoid these qualifiers in your GMAT essay:

• pretty (as in  pretty much )  
• might be (as opposed to  is/are )
• may be (as opposed to  is/are )

This is not an absolute list, and these words are not totally off-limits. But be sure to use purposeful words and avoid unnecessary qualification.

Be concise, not wordy

Using active verbs and avoiding qualifiers automatically makes your writing concise.  Say what you mean in as few words as possible . Consider the following sentences:

The manager seems to be assuming that the fact that there is a hamburger restaurant next to his particular video store is somehow causing that store to have higher sales volume and revenue than other outlets in the video store chain.

The manager assumes the proximity of a hamburger restaurant to his video store positively impacts that store’s sales.

Remember that graders read hundreds and hundreds of essays, and they spend just a minute or so reading each one. You want the grader to see your points right away, so  don’t crowd your essay with unnecessary descriptors . Remember how the correct Sentence Correction answer is usually the shortest one (and the one that avoids  -ing  verbs)? Concision is underrated in daily life, but it is prized in writing a GMAT essay.

Be polished, not perfect

Graders can tell whether you had a plan before you started typing, so  spend time planning before you write . If you break down the argument, decide on your points, and arrange your ideas into paragraphs when the clock starts, then you will have written a polished AWA essay before 30 minutes elapse.

Remember that formal writing is much more structured than texts and speech. We use sentence fragments for emphasis when speaking, but they are not OK on the GMAT (ikr?)—so,  be sure to use complete sentences with proper punctuation and no abbreviations .

Consider the following sentence:

The auther assumes that teachers math skills are not up to par when the the problem might be with their teaching style. Or their training.

Save at least 2 minutes to proofread your essay. Had I actually typed the above sentence in an essay, I’d have spotted and corrected the errors upon proofreading: The  author  assumes that  teachers’  math skills are not up to par ;  she does not consider whether the [ deleted extra  the ] problem is with their teaching style  or training .

The essay should read like a solid first draft; it does not need to be absolutely perfect. Remember that  an imperfect essay can earn a perfect score . Perfection is not required here.

Be yourself, use language you’re comfortable with

Now that I’ve given you a checklist of style tips to use on the Analytical Writing Assessment, my final point is that you must remember to be yourself. Use  language you are comfortable with  and  trust your own voice . Do not try to write as if you were someone else. You know what you’re doing, so just do it—say what you mean with strong, correct, concise language and move on to the more important parts of the GMAT.

Jennifer Mathews Land has taught for Kaplan since 2009. She prepares students to take the GMAT, GRE, ACT, and SAT and was named Kaplan’s Alabama-Mississippi Teacher of the Year in 2010. Prior to joining Kaplan, she worked as a grad assistant in a university archives, a copy editor for medical web sites, and a dancing dinosaur at children’s parties. Jennifer holds a PhD and a master’s in library and information studies (MLIS) from the University of Alabama, and an AB in English from Wellesley College. When she isn’t teaching, she enjoys watching Alabama football and herding cats.

You might also like

Call 1-800-KAP-TEST or email [email protected]

Prep for an Exam

MCAT Test Prep

LSAT Test Prep

GRE Test Prep

GMAT Test Prep

SAT Test Prep

ACT Test Prep

DAT Test Prep

NCLEX Test Prep

USMLE Test Prep

Courses by Location

NCLEX Locations

GRE Locations

SAT Locations

LSAT Locations

MCAT Locations

GMAT Locations

Useful Links

Kaplan Test Prep Contact Us Partner Solutions Work for Kaplan Terms and Conditions Privacy Policy CA Privacy Policy Trademark Directory

Frequently Asked Questions about VARC in CAT 2024 : Part 1 

By Team InsideIIM

CAT Champions 2024

Join InsideIIM GOLD

Webinars & Workshops

• Compare B-Schools

• Free CAT Course

Take Free Mock Tests

Upskill With AltUni

CAT Study Planner

• Aim to learn 50-60 new words daily by reviewing them regularly. Tools like Merriam-Webster can be helpful.

Critical Reasoning

• The GMAT Official Guide is the recommended source for practice questions.

VARC Practice

• Focus on high-quality practice passages rather than a large number of low-quality ones.
• Consider enrolling in mock tests offered by coaching institutes.
• The instructor recommends solving 2-3 passages daily, aiming for a completion time of 30 minutes (including analysis).
• Focus on analyzing your mistakes after completing mocks. Pay attention to "second-best answer" choices and identify areas needing improvement (comprehension, differentiation of answer choices, etc.)
• Analyze your confidence level in your answers. If you're often wrong about answers you felt sure about, it indicates comprehension issues.

Additional Tips

• Make reading a habit. Squeeze in short reading sessions throughout the day instead of large, dedicated blocks.
• Develop a target reading speed. The 99th percentile target is 275-300 words per minute.
• Subject familiarity is important. Aim to read from a variety of subjects to be prepared for passages on any topic.
• Focus on reading comprehension over solving a large number of questions.
• Aeon Essays : 
• The New York Times : 
• The Guardian :
• Smithsonian Magazine :
• Scientific American : 
• National Geographic : 
• GMAT Official Guide :

As you can see, with a strategic approach and consistent effort, you can develop the skills and knowledge needed to excel in the VARC section. Remember, these are just some of the many valuable insights shared by Krishna Sripoda on his YouTube channel . For a deeper dive into these strategies and more, be sure to explore his channel and stay tuned for upcoming parts in this FAQ series!

Good luck with your preparation!

Related Tags

Why More Students Are Taking CAT 2024?

XAT 2025: XLRI Changes Exam Paper Pattern

CAT 2023 Slot 1 DILR Breakdown ft.Dr.Shashank Prabhu || DILR Dangal Ep.5 || CAT DILR Preparation

CAT 2023 vs 2022: Score vs Percentile Analysis & Sectional Cutoffs

Arsh's Winning Strategy: From 40 Percentile in CAT 2022 to 96.67 in CAT 2023

Mini Mock Test

Quants 2-CAT Champions 2

LRDI 2- CAT Champions 2

VARC-1 CAT Champions 2

Quants 1-CAT Champions 2

VARC-2 CAT Champions 2

Quants 4-CAT Champions 2

LRDI 1- CAT Champion 2

Lesson 7 | Pre-Session Test | RC Application - 2

Lesson 6 | Pre-Session Test | RC Application - 1

Lesson 4 | Pre-Session Test | Option Elimination Skill

Lesson 3 | Pre-Session Test | Effective Reading Skill

CAT 2023 DILR SLOT 3

CAT 2022 DILR SLOT 1

CAT 2023 DILR SLOT 2

CAT 2023 DILR SLOT 1

CAT 2020 VARC SLOT - 3

CAT 2020 VARC SLOT 2

CAT 2020 VARC SLOT 1

CAT 2021 VARC Slot 3

CAT 2021 VARC Slot 2

CAT 2021 VARC Slot 1

CAT 2017 VARC SLOT- 2

CAT 2017 VARC SLOT- 1

CAT 2018 VARC SLOT- 2

CAT 2018 VARC SLOT- 1

CAT 2019 VARC SLOT- 2

CAT 2019 VARC SLOT- 1

CAT 2022 VARC SLOT- 3

CAT 2022 VARC SLOT- 2

CAT 2022 VARC SLOT- 1

Take Free Test Here

How a non-engineer went from 17%ile to 99+%ile in cat, i made it to fms delhi with gap years ft.shayari || 99.21%iler cat 2023, best 4 months strategy to score 99+%ile in cat 2024 ft.pallav goyal (iim a), essential resources for cat 2024 & how much practice you need for 99%ile, cat 2023 slot 1 reading comprehension breakdown by 99.9%iler ft. karan agrawal (fms delhi), how to eliminate options in rc | cat varc tricks to score 99+ percentile ft. gejo sir, career launcher, quant based puzzle set 2 - cryptarithmetic ft.dr.shashank prabhu || dilr dangal ep.4 || cat dilr.

By Debayan Purkayastha

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

For a daily dose of the hottest, most insightful content created just for you! And don't worry - we won't spam you.

Who Are You?

Top B-Schools

InsideIIM Gold

InsideIIM.com is India's largest community of India's top talent that pursues or aspires to pursue a career in Management.

[email protected]

Follow Us Here

Konversations By InsideIIM

TestPrep By InsideIIM

• NMAT by GMAC
• Exam Syllabus
• Score Vs Percentile
• Exam Preparation
• Explainer Concepts
• Free Mock Tests
• RTI Data Analysis
• Selection Criteria
• CAT Toppers Interview
• Study Planner
• Admission Statistics
• Interview Experiences
• Explore B-Schools
• B-School Rankings
• Life In A B-School
• B-School Placements
• Certificate Programs
• Katalyst Programs

Placement Preparation

• Summer Placements Guide
• Final Placements Guide

Career Guide

• Career Explorer
• The Top 0.5% League
• Konversations Cafe
• The AltUni Career Show
• Employer Rankings
• Alumni Reports
• Salary Reports

Copyright 2024 - Kira9 Edumedia Pvt Ltd. All rights reserved.

Daily Reads for VARC: Aeon Essays - 100 RCs for Practice - CAT - Formulas, Tricks, Videos & Tests

Part of the course

Daily Reads for VARC: Aeon Essays Study Material

Notes for Daily Reads for VARC: Aeon Essays - 100 RCs for Practice for CAT

Other chapters in 100 rcs for practice for cat.

How to prepare for CAT?

Frequently asked questions about cat examination.

• How many attempts does a CAT have? There is no limit for the CAT exam candidates to the number of attempts of giving the exam. A candidate can appear unlimited time throughout his / her entire lifespan. But the candidates should have some criteria for the candidate to hold a minimum of 50 % marks or equal to no CGPA or grade in Graduation.
• Is calculator allowed in CAT? Yes – a calculator is allowed in the CAT exam. But this does not mean that you can carry your own calculator in the exam. You will be allowed to use an on-screen calculator on your computer.
• Is GK asked in CAT? While GK or Business GK has not been part of the CAT testing, it is very important for an aspirant to be comfortable with these. Other examinations – like the XAT – have a section on GK. Barring that, the preparation for CAT does not end with giving the CAT examination.

Top Courses for CAT

Related CAT Content

Importance of Daily Reads for VARC: Aeon Essays CAT

Daily reads for varc: aeon essays notes free pdf download, important questions for daily reads for varc: aeon essays, daily reads for varc: aeon essays practice questions.

Welcome Back

Create your account for free.

Forgot Password

Unattempted tests, change country, practice & revise.

• CATKing Dashboard
• CATKing Portal

• Meet the Directors
• Top Colleges
• Rocket Batch Bootcamp
• HUL Foundation School 2024
• Announcement
• Sprint Workshop
• Login/ Signup
• CATKing Profile Portal

Pointers to remember

• Read and understand the headline of the essay then understand the briefing given under the headline.
• Now read about the author to get an overview of what are you going to encounter in the entire essay.
• As you come across each different word or new word in any passage of the essay, then immediately stop and read about its meaning carefully. Our main motive is to learn as many new words as possible and remember their usage too.
• Once done hunting for new words you need to understand their meaning too so you know how to use those words. So relate those words as per your own understanding, and re-iterate the meaning of the passage to know if you are going along with what the author is saying.
• Write each vocab word with its meanings in your notebook to remember those words.

  Also Read:

CAT preparation

Get mentored by experts

How to increase accuracy in mocks

Anisha has done MBA in Marketing from NMIMS And Executive Management(PMNO) from Harvard Business School. She has been instrumental in growing CATKing Digital with her experience with Marico and Henkel in the past.

Comments are disabled for now

Get the Reddit app

4 months to CAT

The Common Admission Test (CAT) is a computer based test (CBT) for admission in a graduate management program. The test consists of three sections: Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR) and Quantitative Ability (QA). Overall, it’s a two hour online test divided into forty minutes for each section. This community is mainly for discussions about the CAT Paper, sharing useful resources, tips & tricks etc.

How do you analyze Aeon essays for CAT preparation?

I find them quite challenging to analyze effectively. I would appreciate your insights and tips on how to analyze Aeon essays for CAT preparation.

With only 25 days left, should I prioritize practicing more RC passages over analyzing Aeon essays? Your suggestions are welcome. Thank you.

By continuing, you agree to our User Agreement and acknowledge that you understand the Privacy Policy .

Enter the 6-digit code from your authenticator app

You’ve set up two-factor authentication for this account.

Enter a 6-digit backup code

Create your username and password.

Reddit is anonymous, so your username is what you’ll go by here. Choose wisely—because once you get a name, you can’t change it.

Reset your password

Enter your email address or username and we’ll send you a link to reset your password

Check your inbox

An email with a link to reset your password was sent to the email address associated with your account

Choose a Reddit account to continue

Write for Aeon

How to pitch an Essay to Aeon

Since 2012, Aeon has established itself as a unique digital magazine, publishing some of the most profound and provocative thinking on the web. We ask the big questions and find the freshest, most original answers, provided by leading thinkers on science, philosophy, society and the arts.

Our signature format at Aeon is the Essay, a longform, deep dive into a topic, generally 2,500-5,000 words, presented from a unique angle, drawing together various strands of knowledge and experience, and written with clarity and verve to make ideas accessible to a curious and intelligent general reader.

Who writes for Aeon? Most of our Essays are written by academic experts, but certainly not all. If you are not an academic, but have significant professional or practical expertise in your field, don’t hesitate to bring us a great idea for an Essay. We also strongly encourage younger and emerging scholars, especially outside the US and the UK, to pitch Essay ideas to us, even if you don’t have much experience in writing outside of the academy. We love working with enthusiastic and dedicated writers with exciting, new ideas, and we’re good mentors.

The editing process:

• We’re known for our exacting, intensive editing process. If you write for us, you can expect to write 3-5 drafts of your essay, which will also be professionally factchecked and copyedited.
• If you don’t feel comfortable with being edited and responding to factchecking queries, then it’s probably better not to pitch to us.
• The whole process generally takes about 3 months from submitting a good first draft until publication.
• Your pitch will be assigned to one of our commissioning editors who will be your principal point of contact throughout the process.

A successful Essay:

• explores a subject of perennial interest, meaning that it can be read at any time, rather than being linked to a topical news story;
• is cosmopolitan in scope, so that it can be read anywhere in the world; and
• aligns with our values of pluralism and inclusivity.

A successful pitch:

• clearly, boldly and briefly outlines the Essay’s argument;
• makes the case for why the Essay is worth reading; and
• demonstrates your expertise in the subject and a real passion for what you’re going to write about.

To get a better sense of what we’re looking for, we encourage you to familiarise yourself with Aeon’s archives, where you will find examples of the Aeon Essay format and the range of topics we cover.

Please note that we are interested in receiving pitches, not completed drafts. We are not looking for rebuttals to previous pieces, news commentary or book reviews. As we receive a high volume of pitches, we cannot respond to every enquiry. We’ll be in touch if we’d like to pursue your Essay idea.

Terms and conditions for authors

See our Author Terms .

• For writers whose principal income is from their writing, we pay a freelance fee.
• For all others, we pay an honorarium.
• If your pitch is successful, we will let you know details of the relevant fee for your country of residence before you sign a contract.

If you have a pitch for a completed short documentary, or have any additional video inquiries, please email [email protected]

Pitch Submitted

Thank you for your interest in writing for aeon . You have now submitted your pitch for review: every pitch is seen by one of our commissioning editors. Our editorial review process can take 4-6 weeks.

Please bear in mind that we receive a high volume of pitches, so cannot respond to every enquiry individually, however you will hear from us whether we reject or accept your pitch. In the meantime, you are free to submit this pitch elsewhere too.