I will be retaking the GMAT this Saturday and would like to know if I need to re-write my essays if I am happy with the score that I received the first time I took the test. I will be applying to the usual top-tier MBA programs. Does the adcom typically take your highest essay score from all attempts, and if so, is it acceptable to leave the essay section blank and move directly to the questions or would they look unfavorably on that? Thank you in advance for your time.

As far as I know, adcom will only consider the latest retake. So, you need to re-write your essays as well.

Sorry I didn't get to this before your test. I'll still answer your question, though, for the benefit of others who might be in a similar situation.

Generally speaking, it is not a good idea to skip the essays. If you did well the first time, just go for a lower but still acceptable score (say a 4.5 or a 5.0) to save yourself some mental energy.

There are two reasons why I tell my students not to skip the essays.
1) While the school will see that you got a good score on your previous test, the school might "discount" your GMAT score on the later test if it sees that you did not do the essays on that test - you had an advantage that other people didn't have on that test.
2) Though I think this is unlikely to happen for skipping the essays, GMAC does reserve the right to cancel any test score if it thinks there was anything "improper" about the test. One of the stated reasons that they may review a test to see whether it was "improper": if we skip the essays. (I specifically asked them about this situation.) Not a risk anyone wants to take.

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT