Hi ,
I just took the GMAT last month.
Got a decent overall Score - 750
Verbal - 41
Quant - 51

but very low AWA Score - 4 (18%)

I am planning to apply to HBS, LBS, Wharton.

Do you think i should retake GMAT to improve on AWA
?

You got an amazing overall score! Congrats!

The best person to ask is an admissions consultant, not a GMAT expert, because now we're talking about how schools are going to interpret your scores. I'll tell you what I think below, but I'm NOT an admissions expert. I'd recommend that you post your question in the Ask An Admissions Consultant folder and see what they have to say.

You can also contact the schools directly to ask whether they would recommend that you re-take for this reason; their response may give you an idea of how seriously they will take the score. (You may also get a middle-of-the-road "You'll have to decide for yourself" kind of answer.) There's no risk in asking, because they are going to see the score when you apply, so you won't be disclosing some weakness that they wouldn't otherwise know.

Do you have any idea why your AWA score was lower? Did you not spend much time or not write much? Did you run out of time before you were finished with either essay? Did you struggle to come up with ideas for one of the prompts?

You're applying to top schools, so when they see a 750 and a 4, they're probably going to want to take a look at the essays themselves. (They have access to these through your score record.) If you know you ran out of time or something else that would have caused your score to drop, but someone reading the essays would realize you can actually write pretty well, then it's not as big of a deal.

If, however, you think the essay text itself might be problematic, then you may want to think about this - particulary if an admissions consultant or an admissions officer expresses hesitation or concern about the score.

_________________
Stacey Koprince
Instructor
Director of Online Community
ManhattanGMAT