In the special series of CRACK WAT by MBAUniverse.

com, we are presenting to you the expert advice on preparing for Written Ability Test or WAT. MBAUniverse.com expert Tanveer Ahmed will discuss about the preparation and execution of WAT. Tanveer Ahmed is a well known expert of Verbal Ability. He has consistently scored 99+ percentile in CAT and XAT exams over the years. In the first article of the series, Ahmed had talked in detail about preparation strategy for WAT. In todays article he will discuss in detail about the execution of what you have prepared for the D Day. Let us see what the expert has to say about execution of the essay after the preparation. All the things that you need to do to be able to actually write a great essay As we discussed in the previous article, being able to write good essays can be broken down into two stages. 1) Preparation: All the things that you need to do to be able to prepare yourself for writing the WAT. a) Expanding knowledge base b) Grammar and writing style c) Writing the essay under simulated examination conditions d) Getting Feedback You can read more about it here. The next aspect of the process is what we will discuss in today's article 2) Execution: This will include how you should actually write the WAT. There is a need for planning your thoughts while at the same time sticking to the word limits or time limits prescribed. Being flexible enough to be able to write essays from a single line topic as well as being able to write summaries from material provided. Managing the flow of ideas and providing examples to illustrate your points and finally drawing a logical conclusion to your arguments in the essay. a) Planning: Typically you will be given one topic which you will have to compulsorily write on and there may be no other option available. You have to start planning your essay in your mind immediately. In certain IIMs you might not be given any rough paper - so the planning has to take place mentally. Or you can keep a pencil and eraser to jot down points and erase them. The most important aspect for this stage is to be able to think in terms of KEY POINTS about the topic. Then you should be able to mentally tag each key point with a KEY WORD. This will give you a rough idea of how to rearrange the different key words to be able to form a

coherent essay. But all this has to be done at a super quick speed because you do not have the luxury of time. At the maximum - you might have two minutes to carry out this planning exercise. This brings us to our next point. b) Sticking to the Time Limit: While IIM Ahmadabad gives you 10 minutes, IIM Bangalores Essay duration is 30 minutes. IIM Lucknow gives you 15 minutes for writing the essay. The challenge is to be able to write a good essay in such a short span of time. As we said in the first point the first couple of minutes must be spent in structuring your thoughts about the topic. Whether you want to argue for the point or against the point? What examples can you cite to support your points? How you want to conclude your passage? Keep an eye on the clock all the time. c) Expansion and Contraction: You should be flexible enough to think both in terms of expansion and contraction. By this I mean that the essay writing process can go both ways. You might be given a single line from which you have to spin out an essay. Or in some IIMs you will be given an essay which you have to summarize as per the word limit restrictions. Both these exercises require you to think from opposite angles. While simple essay writing expects you to expand your thoughts.,the summary writing exercise requires you to pick out the main points from the essay d) Elements of the Essay: The main elements of your essay can be broken down into the following points on which you will be judged. i) Clarity of thought The essay should display your thinking process to the examiner and it should be as clear as possible. There should be a progression of ideas and no repetition/clash of points ii) Subject Matter Knowledge You should be able to display sufficient subject matter knowledge about the topic given. For this you need to follow the advice from the previous article to boost your preparation plans iii) Idea Flow The flow of ideas should be logical and consistent and should move towards a logical progression iv) Supporting Examples and Facts Wherever possible you should illustrate your point with supporting facts and examples from the real world. This will add depth to your essay and make it stand out.

v) Grammatical correctness It goes without saying that the essay has to be grammatically correct as far as possible. Again prior focus on this during prep period will be useful. vi) Analytical skills displayed Make sure that you analyze all aspects of the topic and look at the pros and cons. This will display your analytical abilities to the examiner. vii) Structure of the essay (paragraphs etc.) You should divide your essay in paragraphs. Different paragraphs express different ideas that contribute to the main idea. The first sentence of your paragraph should illustrate the thrust of the paragraph. Supporting sentences should expand the main idea introduced in the first sentence and the final sentence should provide a logical conclusion to the idea. In the next article we will discuss the types of topics you can expect in the WAT.

Tanveer Ahmed is an alumnus of St Xaviers College, Kolkata and currently works with a recruitment firm as a headhunter. He takes CAT regularly. He secured 99+ percentile in VA in CAT and XAT exams. His scores over the year are CAT 08 SCORE : VA 99.11 Percentile ; Overall 98.6 Percentile; 99 + Percentile in CAT 10, CAT 09 and CAT 08 in Verbal Ability and 99 + in Verbal Ability in XAT 08 and XAT 10.