CAT and MBA Entrance Preparation Module 10 – Admissions: written tests, group discussions and interviews
Writing a WAT essay in 30 minutes
A method for a 30-minute written test: turn the prompt into a position and reasons, give each paragraph one job, use evidence you know, then check the draft.
What you will learn
- Convert a prompt into a position and two or three reasons within five minutes
- Write a structured note that fits your measured word budget and keeps to its plan
- Support each reason with evidence you can stand behind
- Edit a draft for clarity and evidence in the last minutes
Before you start
What you’ll learn · Before you start
What you will learn
- Convert a prompt into a position and two or three reasons within five minutes
- Write a structured note that fits your measured word budget and keeps to its plan
- Support each reason with evidence you can stand behind
- Edit a draft for clarity and evidence in the last minutes
Before you start
On this page
At 22 words a minute, a 30-minute written test holds a note of about 300 words once planning, thinking and checking take their share, and a note that runs out of time has usually run out of plan first. The repair costs five minutes: turn the prompt into a position, two reasons with their evidence and an answer to the strongest objection before you write a single sentence.
This lesson works one original prompt through that plan, gives every paragraph one job and one piece of evidence, and checks a draft in the last minutes with a program, the way IIM Bangalore’s note is judged: on content and style.
Five minutes turn the prompt into a plan
Take an original prompt: “Cities should be designed for people on foot first.” Planning means deciding four things in order: what the key word means, what you will say, why, and what could defeat it. Step through the five minutes:
The drawing shows the whole scene; its 7 steps are listed below.
Every step as text
- Minute 0, the prompt. "Cities should be designed for people on foot first." A general claim about cities with a social side. Read it twice and mark the word that decides the answer, first.
- Minute 1, the key word. First does not mean walking only. It means that when there is not enough space for everyone, the person on foot gets it first: a footpath before a parking lane, a crossing before a turning lane.
- Minute 2, the position. Write the answer as one sentence you will keep to the end: yes, where space is contested, the person on foot should get it first.
- Minutes 2 to 4, the reasons. Two reasons, each with its evidence in a few words. Every trip starts and ends on foot: the walk to the metro. A street safe to walk serves those who cannot drive: children, older people.
- Minute 4, the objection. The strongest objection is that goods, buses and ambulances need roads. The answer: walking first changes crossings and footpaths where people are, and closes no road.
- If the objection wins. When you cannot answer the objection, narrow the position instead of dropping it, for example to walking first around markets and stations. The note stays honest and still answers the prompt.
- Minute 5, the conclusion. The conclusion is the position again with its reasons attached. The plan now has five lines, and the next twenty minutes are for writing them out.
Written down, the plan is five short lines: first, when space is short; yes, where space is contested; every trip starts on foot; safe for those who cannot drive; vehicles still move. It holds every decision the note will need, so the twenty writing minutes are spent writing. When the objection wins, the position gets narrower; it is never dropped, because a note without a position has not answered the prompt.
Checkpoint
Check: The five-minute plan
One paragraph, one job, one piece of evidence
Each paragraph of the note does one thing and says so in its first sentence, which Digital.gov’s plain-language guide calls a topic sentence: The sentence, usually the first of a paragraph, that states what the paragraph says. The rest of the paragraph supports it, so a reader who skims the first sentences still follows the argument. that captures the rest of the paragraph:
| Paragraph | Its job | Its first sentence, from the plan |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Take the position | Cities should be designed for people on foot first. |
| 2 | First reason | First, walking is how every trip starts. |
| 3 | Second reason | Second, a street that is safe to walk is safe for the people who cannot drive. |
| 4 | The strongest objection | Some argue that roads must carry goods, ambulances and buses. |
| 5 | The answer, earned | So where space is contested, the person on foot should get it first. |
A reason needs one piece of evidence, and only three kinds are safe in a test hall: an example you know, such as the walk from a metro gate; a fact from an official source you read before the test, given with its source and its period; or reasoning, a cause and what it leads to. A figure you half-remember is worse than none, because nobody in the room can check it and it puts every other sentence in doubt. Say what you know, “a large share of the people on the street”, or leave the number out.
Key idea
Give every paragraph one job, stated in its first sentence, and every reason one piece of evidence you can stand behind: an example you know, a sourced fact or a line of reasoning, never a figure you are unsure of.
Checkpoint
Check: One job and one piece of evidence per paragraph
The last five minutes catch what a reader would trip on
The program checks the first draft of the walking note paragraph by paragraph, then the edited draft. It flags every sentence over 30 words, every figure, which you must be able to stand behind, and a paragraph that repeats the opening:
"""Checks a draft note the way the last five minutes of a written test should: paragraph by paragraph, the words and
sentences, every sentence over 30 words, every figure (a sentence with a digit or a % sign, which must be one you know),
and a paragraph that repeats the opening (more than half of its main words already used there). It checks the lesson's
first draft on "Cities should be designed for people on foot first", then the edited draft. Press Edit, paste your own
draft into DRAFT as a list of paragraphs, and run it again."""
import re
DRAFT = [
"Cities should be designed for people on foot first, because every journey in a city begins and ends with a walk, "
"and a street that is hard to walk fails every traveller who uses it. Designing for walking first does not mean "
"banning cars; it means deciding who gets the space when there is not enough for everyone.",
"First, walking is how every trip starts. People walk to the bus stop, to the station and from the car park to the "
"office, so a broken footpath or a missing crossing makes every other way of travelling worse as well. A metro "
"line is only as useful as the walk to its gates.",
"Second, a street that is safe to walk is safe for the people who cannot drive, such as children, older people and "
"those who cannot afford a vehicle. In many cities they are about 40 % of residents. When a city builds for them, "
"it builds for everyone, because every driver is also a walker at both ends of the trip.",
"Some argue that roads must carry goods, ambulances and buses, and that putting walkers first would slow them. That "
"is a fair concern, but walking first means safer crossings and wider footpaths where people are, not closed roads. "
"Delivery vans and ambulances also need streets that are not jammed.",
"In conclusion, cities should be designed for people on foot first, because every journey begins and ends with a walk.",
]
EDITED = [
"Cities should be designed for people on foot first. Every journey in a city begins and ends with a walk, so a "
"street that is hard to walk fails every traveller who uses it. Walking first does not mean banning cars; it means "
"deciding who gets the space when there is not enough for everyone.",
"First, walking is how every trip starts. People walk to the bus stop, to the station and from the car park to the "
"office. A broken footpath or a missing crossing makes every other way of travelling worse as well. A metro line "
"is only as useful as the walk to its gates.",
"Second, a street that is safe to walk is safe for the people who cannot drive: children, older people and those who "
"cannot afford a vehicle. They depend on it most and choose it least. When a city builds for them, it builds for "
"everyone, because every driver is also a walker at both ends of the trip.",
DRAFT[3],
"So where space is contested, the person on foot should get it first. Every trip depends on that walk, and the "
"vehicles a city needs can still move on streets that are safe to cross.",
]
SMALL = set("a an and the of to in on for is are be by with that this it its as at or so but from who what".split())
def words(text):
return re.findall(r"[A-Za-z0-9%]+(?:['’-][A-Za-z0-9]+)*", text)
def sentences(paragraph):
return [s for s in re.split(r"(?<=[.?!])\s+", paragraph) if s]
def main_words(text):
return {w.lower() for w in words(text) if w.lower() not in SMALL}
def check(name, note):
print(f"{name}: {sum(len(words(p)) for p in note)} words in {len(note)} paragraphs")
opening = main_words(note[0])
for i, paragraph in enumerate(note, 1):
sents = sentences(paragraph)
flags = [f"a {len(words(s))}-word sentence" for s in sents if len(words(s)) > 30]
flags += ["a figure to check: " + s.strip() for s in sents if re.search(r"\d|%", s)]
mine = main_words(paragraph)
if i > 1 and mine and len(mine & opening) / len(mine) > 0.5:
flags.append("repeats the opening")
count = f"{len(sents)} sentence" + ("s" if len(sents) != 1 else "")
print(f" paragraph {i}: {len(words(paragraph))} words, {count}" + ("; " + "; ".join(flags) if flags else ""))
check("First draft", DRAFT)
print()
check("Edited draft", EDITED)Output
First draft: 242 words in 5 paragraphs paragraph 1: 58 words, 2 sentences; a 35-word sentence paragraph 2: 54 words, 3 sentences; a 34-word sentence paragraph 3: 61 words, 3 sentences; a figure to check: In many cities they are about 40 % of residents. paragraph 4: 49 words, 3 sentences paragraph 5: 20 words, 1 sentence; repeats the opening Edited draft: 250 words in 5 paragraphs paragraph 1: 55 words, 3 sentences paragraph 2: 53 words, 4 sentences paragraph 3: 58 words, 3 sentences paragraph 4: 49 words, 3 sentences paragraph 5: 35 words, 2 sentences
Recorded with Python 3.14.8 on macOS 26 arm64. To run it yourself: mise exec python@3.14.8 -- python3 note_check.py
Runs on this device, in your browser. The first run downloads Python (about 13.5 MB), which is kept for the next runs.
Your run, in this browser
The first draft has two sentences of 35 and 34 words, the 40 % the writer only half-remembers, and a conclusion that
repeats the opening. The edits split both sentences, drop the figure in favour of a sentence the writer can defend,
and give the conclusion its reasons. Every edit takes seconds; none adds an argument. Paste the paragraphs of your
own practice note into DRAFT, run it, and fix what it flags before you look at anything else.
Checkpoint
Check: Checking a draft in the last minutes
Practise: ten questions on the method
Ten questions on the plan, the paragraphs and the check. Your weakest idea comes first, and anything you miss is asked a second time before you finish.
Practice that adapts to you
Practise this lesson
10 questions about 5 ideas of this lesson. Each answer is explained at once, and what you get right is kept in this browser.
Three notes from plan to final draft, with every revision shown Pro: opens with a Pro, Premium or Ultimate pass
Three notes, on an abstract statement, a social question and a short case, each taken from its five-minute plan to a final draft. Every revision is shown with the reason for it, so you can see which edits move a rubric line.
In this part:
- The walking note: every revision, and the final draft
- A social question: “Offices should let staff choose their own working hours”
- A short case: one library budget, two uses
1 runnable example (Python) · about 5 minutes
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Ten original prompts with plans and rubric notes Pro: opens with a Pro, Premium or Ultimate pass
Ten prompts to practise on, of all four kinds, each with a one-line plan and the trap that costs most notes on it. Write one in 30 minutes, then compare your plan with the one here.
In this part:
- Three abstract statements, each planned in a line
- Four social questions, and where notes on them go wrong
- Two business situations, each decided with a condition
- One short case, from the problem to a recommendation
about 5 minutes
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Interview questions
Three questions take the method into harder spots:
-
Fresher to mid
You remember an official figure exactly, a ratio from a national survey, but not which year the survey covered. Do you use it in your written test, and if you do, how do you write the sentence?
-
Fresher to mid
The prompt invites you to take a side, and you agree with both. Is a balanced note a weak note? Take a position that keeps the nuance on "Experience is a better teacher than books", and write its opening sentence.
-
Fresher to mid
You have five minutes to edit a 320-word draft with two 40-word sentences, a conclusion that repeats the opening, and the misspelled name of a person you cite. In what order do you fix them, and why?
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Flashcards · 5 cards
Recall it, then check
Say the answer to yourself before you look: recalling it is what makes it stick.
-
What do the first five minutes of a 30-minute written test settle?
The meaning of the key word, the position, two reasons with their evidence and the strongest objection, written as five short lines, so the twenty writing minutes are spent writing.
-
What happens to your position when the objection wins?
It gets narrower, never dropped: "designed for people on foot first" becomes "first where space is contested". A note without a position has not answered the prompt.
-
How does each paragraph of a WAT note say what it does?
In its first sentence, the topic sentence: one paragraph for the position, one for each reason, one for the strongest objection and one for the answer it earns.
-
Which three kinds of evidence are safe in a test hall?
An example you know, a fact from an official source with its source and period, or a line of reasoning. A figure you half-remember is worse than none: say what you know, or leave the number out.
-
What does the final check of a WAT note look for?
Sentences over 30 words to split, figures you cannot stand behind to remove, and a conclusion that repeats the opening instead of giving its reasons. Every edit takes seconds and adds no argument.
Key takeaways
- Five minutes of planning settle the key word, the position, two reasons with their evidence and the strongest objection, so the twenty writing minutes are spent writing.
- Every paragraph has one job, stated in its first sentence, and every reason one piece of evidence you can stand behind.
- A figure you half-remember is worse than none; say what you know, or leave the number out.
- The last five minutes split overloaded sentences, remove what you cannot defend and give the conclusion its reasons.
Terms in this lesson
- topic sentence
- The sentence, usually the first of a paragraph, that states what the paragraph says. The rest of the paragraph supports it, so a reader who skims the first sentences still follows the argument.
References
- PGP (MBA) 2027–29 admission procedure (Indian Institute of Management Bangalore)
- PGP admission procedure for the 2027–29 batch (Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad)
- Admission policy for the MBA programme, batch 2027–29 (Indian Institute of Management Calcutta)
- Plain language guide series: clear and short (U.S. General Services Administration (Digital.gov))
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