MBA Admission 2019: 10 steps guide to crack WAT round
Written Ability Test or WAT, as it is popularly known as, is a round that top MBA colleges in India like IIMs and XLRI conduct to test the personality, maturity and emotional quotient of the MBA aspirants. However, writing MBA essays for WAT round is a tough challenge, especially for candidates who are from technical or engineering background. In case of CAT MBA entrance test, majority of the candidates are from engineering background. So, if you are one among these aspirants and have cleared the CAT exam or any other MBA entrance test then it is important for you to prepare for the WAT round, strategically. This 10-step guide will help you understand the key to write great MBA essays that can impress your reviewer. So, let’s get started:
Understand whom are you writing for
As far as WAT round is concerned, the first thing that you must understand is your audience. As an MBA aspirant writing an MBA essay, your target audience is going to be the review panel that is going to assess the essay. Therefore, the way you present your thoughts and use data and information to back it up also needs to be very specific to your audiences’ needs. In case of IIM admission, it means the examiner or the panel that would assess your MBA essay.
Gather your thoughts
MBA essay topics are often known to be very tricky and out-of-the-box; therefore it is advisable that you organize your thoughts well before you put pen to paper. Once you decide upon the topic, assess the different ideas and thoughts you would like to present under it. Then decide the best chronological order in which they will take form a shape. This will help you save a lot of time during the actual writing process.
Be precise and relevant
MBA essays are known to be long and boring, but that need not be the case. In order to impress the examiner your essay needs to be precise and relevant. Therefore, instead of rambling about a single topic or idea, build a strong structure of idea around which you would be crafting the essay. This would help you cut-down on the unnecessarily focusing upon any one topic while ignoring others in your essay.
Breakdown the essay into Paragraphs
Flowing from the earlier point, it is always better if you use paragraphs to put-forth your ideas before the examiner in an MBA essay. This would help you to better organize your thoughts and present them in a clear and orderly fashion in the essay. If you populate any one paragraph with several thoughts, you will confuse the examiner and never be able to convey the exact idea that you wanted to express in that paragraph. Therefore, always breakdown your essay into paragraphs and only focus on one idea in a particular paragraph.
Transitions
Writing an essay, especially for an MBA admission test, is quite tricky, where one has to include different type of data and information in the same essay along with complicated ideas. This often leads to a chaotic essay that is littered with information and ideas that do not flow, one after another. To solve this, you will have to train yourself to build the right transitions for the essay. Transitioning from one idea to another will make for a better reading experience and also earn your high marks in the WAT round.
Keep it simple - avoid floral language
With verbal ability being one of the important sections in the CAT 2017 MBA entrance test, candidates often believe that using floral language or big words will help their cause in the WAT rounds. But the case is quite contrary to this. During a WAT round, the examiner merely wants to test your ability to express your ideas and arguments in the written format as well. Therefore, the marks weightage or the focus of the examiner will be split between the language component and the thought process of the candidate.
Tips to write impressive essays in WAT Round of top B-Schools
Exude Positivity
Just like everything in an MBA entrance test, the WAT round is also aimed at testing your ability to solve a problem that is given to you. The only difference being the medium through which you present the solution. In case of WAT round, the medium is written language. Therefore, irrespective of how challenging or depressing the topic of your MBA essay is, your jobs is not only to present the facts but to also offer solutions. And solutions are always positive and therefore your essay must also exude the same.
Grammar and Syntax
This one is pretty obvious and goes without saying; Grammar and Syntax are the two pillars on which any written piece is based on. And therefore the MBA essay that you draft as part of your WAT answer also needs to be perfect when it comes to these two factors. This means that no minor grammatical errors or out of context syntax that may hamper the reading experience for the examiner. Examiners are known to be ruthless when it comes to grammatical errors in WAT rounds. Therefore, always cross-check your MBA essay before submission.
MBA Essay Writing: Tips and Strategies to prepare for WAT
Punctuations
Since our school days, we have been taught the importance of punctuations in an essay. MBA essay that you pen for your WAT round also needs to be perfect when it comes to punctuations. There might be a few different punctuation usages that you might not be familiar with, but this doesn’t give you the right to make mistakes. Therefore, go through your elementary English textbook to brush upon the different types of punctuations and make sure that you know their correct usage.
Strong Conclusion
In order to leave a lasting impression upon the examiner, your MBA essay would need a strong conclusion and ending. The conclusion to your essay should summarize all the ideas and points that you have covered in the essay while providing a viable solution to the problem that they are all intended to solve. Such optimistic conclusion will not only help you build a positive self-image before the examiner but also give a more affirmative tone to the overall MBA essay. So, give your MBA essay a strong conclusion that reflects positivity and constructive solutions.
Why Essay Writing (WAT) is important in the MBA Entrance Exams?
To sum up…
So, there you have it! 10 simple but very effective steps to write an MBA essay to crack the WAT round for the MBA admission. Always remember, MBA essays are all about solving a problem and finding the right solution that adopts a balanced approach for all the sides or ideas involved in the topic. Irrespective of your personal affiliations, never be biased towards any one side or write an essay is only favours or presents a one dimensional picture. Instead, present variety of ideas (even if they contradict each other) and justify why one should be preferred over the other based upon your arguments. Doing so will exhibit your inclusive nature.
If you feel, there are any other creative or unique ways in which WAT round for MBA admission can be handled; please let us know through your comments below. Also, please share this article with your friends and fellow MBA aspirants to help them understand the nitty-gritties of cracking WAT rounds in MBA entrance test. For more interesting tips and strategies to ace MBA entrance tests like CAT, XAT and MAT, please visit mba.jagranjosh.com.