In this second article on the Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA), a new component in the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), we analyze the AWA's contribution as a performance assessment and critique its potential usefulness as a diagnostic tool for management education. The AWA assesses writing as a high-level ability and thereby challenges its marginalization as a low-level skill in MBA programs. Holistic evaluation, which makes performance assessment of writing possible, however, cannot provide diagnostic information. Therefore, the AWA does not meet the expectations of GMAT-user schools who endorsed the test as a diagnostic instrument for identifying individual deficiencies. If business schools wish to determine students' needs for further work in writing, they must evaluate the essays locally. Ironically, this task may prove too costly for those schools enrolling students most in need of the diagnostic information.
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