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How to Write a Great GRE Argument Essay

When you take the GRE , you’ll have to write two essays : an Issue essay and an Argument essay. In your GRE Argument essay, you’ll get to demonstrate how well you can understand, analyze, and evaluate an argument. Here are ten GRE Argument essay tips you should know.

Fact #1: It doesn’t matter who is right

Fact #2: you'll have just 30 minutes for the gre argument essay, fact #3: graders will not pore over your essay, fact #4: quality matters, but so does quantity, fact #5: the prompt will tell you everything you need to know.

Make sure you read the prompt two or three times. You’ll want to make sure you truly understand it. Pay attention to what evidence is provided, what is stated in the prompt, and what is claimed by the author. A great way to identify fallacies is to determine what the author has assumed, and then try to explain why that assumption may be wrong. Here are four things to look for:

• Lack of evidence to support an assumption : You’ll want to mention this dearth in your essay—and note the type of information that would strengthen the argument.
• Non-specific language : Does the author make generalizations without providing specifics? You will want to point that out!
• Jumping to conclusions : Most Argument prompts will jump to conclusions at least once. As you read each sentence in the prompt, look for the author’s reasoning. If you can’t find a clear line of argument, you should note that the author has jumped to conclusions.
• Data values : Just because the author provides numbers doesn’t mean they’re necessarily objective or even true. Consider—and discuss within your essay—the reliability of any data, or data collection methods, that are presented in the prompt.

Fact #6: Structure will save you

After you read the prompt, brainstorm the logical fallacies you want to address. Then, choose your top three or four, and formulate a brief outline before you start your essay. There is nothing worse than having to stop writing your essay to come up with new ideas, so you’re going to want to follow a strict organizational format. Here’s a good general template to keep in mind:

• Intro : This should consist of three or four sentences in which you provide an overview of all the fallacies you plan to address.
• Fallacies : Each should get its own indented paragraph. You’ll want to discuss it in detail, and you may even opt to quote from the prompt in making your case.
• Suggestions for improving the prompt argument : Time-permitting, you’ll ideally want to include a paragraph in which you detail how the author could make a stronger case.
• Conclusion : As short as the introduction, this should summarize your body paragraphs (the fallacies and suggestions) and tie up any loose ends. Don’t skip this part! Even if you only have time for a single sentence, write one. An essay without a conclusion will almost certainly receive a lower score than one that is finished.

Fact #7: Clear writing is key

Fact #8: you’ll get one combined score for both essays, fact #9: you don’t have to be perfect to earn a perfect score, fact #10: you can plan ahead.

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GRE Writing Prompts: Your Guide

Many students preparing for test day are apprehensive about the GRE Analytical Writing essay. After all, there is no way to know exactly which GRE Writing prompts test-takers will see. So, understandably, students worry that there is no way to be fully prepared for all of the possible GRE essay topics that could pop up.

In that respect, however, GRE essay questions are no different from any other type of GRE question you may encounter. After all, you can’t predict exactly which Quant or Verbal concepts will be tested on any given GRE, or what the exact topics discussed in Reading Comprehension passages will be.

Nevertheless, there is still much we can learn about what we’ll face in GRE Quant and Verbal . And, we can still adequately prepare ourselves for whatever may come our way in those sections on test day. The same goes for GRE Writing topics. In fact, in some ways, we have even more information about what we’ll face in GRE essay prompts.

So, breathe a sigh of relief! There is plenty you can learn about the GRE essay topics, so that you go into your exam well-prepared. To help with that preparation, this article will discuss key aspects of the GRE essay prompts and Analytical Writing topics. We’ll also look at some real examples of AWA prompts.

Here is what we’ll cover:

What is gre analytical writing, how many writing prompts are on the gre, the basics of gre essay topics, gre issue topics, using the ets issue topics pool, gre issue tasks: example 1, gre issue tasks: example 2, gre writing prompts: key takeaways, what essays are on the gre, are you only given one prompt per gre essay, how long should gre essays be, can i skip writing on gre test day, is it hard to get a 4 on gre writing, is a 5.0 on gre writing good, what’s next.

To start, let’s review what the GRE Analytical Writing section consists of and what it asks you to do.

The first section you’ll see on the GRE is Analytical Writing. The GRE Analytical Assessment (AWA) prompts you to write an essay, which you have 30 minutes to complete. So, you’ll spend the first half-hour of your exam on Analytical Writing.

Your basic job in GRE Analytical Writing is to write a logically organized essay that demonstrates the following:

• critical thinking and logical reasoning skills
• an ability to communicate your ideas clearly and effectively
• basic English grammar and spelling skills.

You’ll write your essay using the basic word processing program within the GRE test platform. The program features common functions such as delete , undo , cut , and paste .

However, since your own grammar and spelling skills will factor somewhat into the GRE essay scoring, the program does not feature automated spelling or grammar check.

There is no automated spelling or grammar check in GRE Analytical Writing.

Now that we know what the Analytical Writing section is, let’s discuss the basics of GRE Analytical Writing prompts. We’ll start with how many essay prompts you’ll see.

One of the first questions I hear from students who are just learning about GRE Writing prompts is, “How many essay prompts are you given on the GRE?”

Some of this confusion comes from the fact that there used to be 2 essay tasks on the GRE: Analyze an Argument and Analyze an Issue. However, as of September 22, 2023, when the new GRE test (aka the shorter GRE) was released, there is no longer an Argument task in AWA.

So, the Analytical Writing section includes only 1 essay task: the Analyze an Issue task. Let’s discuss what that task requires you to do.

In GRE Analytical Writing, there is only 1 essay task, Analyze an Issue.

The GRE Issue Essay

The Analyze an Issue task, commonly known as the GRE Issue essay, presents a statement of opinion. Your job is to write a response to that opinion.

The opinion may be presented in a single statement that is 1 or 2 sentences long. Alternatively, it may be presented as a 1-sentence “claim” followed by a 1-sentence “reason,” in which the “claim” is the opinion and the “reason” is the reasoning underlying the opinion.

In either case, following the presented opinion, there will be instructions on how to respond to it — that is, what your essay should discuss or accomplish. (We’ll look at some examples of GRE Issue essay prompts shortly.)

Importantly, whether you agree or disagree with the opinion presented in the prompt does not affect your essay score. In other words, there is no “right answer.”

Rather, you should choose whatever position allows you to craft the most logical, coherent, and convincing essay possible. Your position should demonstrate sound reasoning and analysis, and you should be able to support your position with examples.

The GRE Issue essay presents an opinion that you must respond to in your essay.

Now that we understand what the GRE Issue essay is, let’s discuss the topics GRE writing prompts involve.

Let’s start with the good news: GRE Writing topics do not require you to have particular subject matter knowledge. So, there won’t be any GRE Issue topics for which you’re at a disadvantage because you don’t have experience in a certain field of study.

All the information you need to write an effective response to a GRE Issue prompt will appear in the prompt, be common knowledge, or be things you happen to know and can use in your essay.

All the information you need to write an effective response to a GRE Issue prompt will appear in the prompt or be common or incidental knowledge you can draw upon.

That said, there are a few GRE essay themes or broad categories that GRE AWA topics tend to fall into. Let’s take a look.

Broadly speaking, topics for GRE Analytical Writing fall into a few general categories:

• government and politics
• society and culture
• education and research
• human nature

Remember, you will not need specialized knowledge of any of these GRE Issue categories. But how might GRE Issue essay prompts cover these topics? Well, a GRE Issue prompt might present an opinion about one of the following, for example:

• a type of program that governments should or shouldn’t fund
• a way that scientists should conduct their research
• a procedure that colleges should follow to benefit their students
• the effect of certain technologies on some aspect of society.

Of course, those are just a few examples. You’ll be happy to know that, regardless of the topic covered or how it’s covered, the opinions presented in GRE Writing prompts will not be expressed in highly technical terms or using obscure references.

Rather, they will be much like opinions you might hear during routine conversations with friends or colleagues, hear on a podcast or opinion segment on the news, or read in a newspaper editorial.

GRE essay themes include government and politics, society and culture, education and research, technology, and human nature.

Now, let’s explore an often-discussed subject among students investigating the GRE essay topics: the ETS Pool of Issue Topics.

The GRE Published Pool of Topics

You may be surprised to learn that the ETS writing prompts that can appear on the GRE are publicly available. In other words, there is a list of possible essay questions for GRE General Tests. This list is called the Pool of Issue Topics, and it features actual GRE Analytical Writing prompts that have in the past and could in the future appear on the test. You can view the GRE Issue essay topic pool PDF online here .

Now, when some people hear that a list of GRE essay topics is readily available online, they make it their mission to pore over every inch of that list. Here’s the thing: there are dozens of sample GRE essay questions in the Pool of Issue Topics. (In total, the GRE essay topics pool is nearly 40 pages long.) So, it is neither practical nor necessary to read through all of the GRE AWA writing prompts in order to be prepared for test day.

Furthermore, it is certainly a waste of your time to attempt to memorize the AWA sample prompts. For one, the wording you see in prompts in the GRE Writing Issue Pool may vary slightly in prompts on your actual exam.

Secondly, you’ll need to carefully read the prompt you see on test day regardless of how many GRE sample prompts you’ve read before. So, please don’t make the mistake of spending your valuable study time trying to commit the GRE list of essay topics to memory.

Let’s discuss how you should use the GRE Issue Pool.

You may be wondering how to most effectively make use of having so many sample GRE Issue topics at your fingertips. First, it is worthwhile to read through some of the prompts in ETS’s GRE Pool of Issue Topics to get a feel for how GRE essay prompts are worded and the ways they cover topics.

Then, as your GRE essay practice in preparation for test day, you should randomly select a few sample GRE essay questions to write responses to. Before you write those practice essays, you may want to check out these GRE writing examples , which feature sample essay responses with scores and reader commentary. You also may want to have a look at the GRE scoring rubric for Analytical Writing , to see the essay characteristics that are associated with different scores.

Now, let me make one important point clear: it is not a wise use of your time to attempt to write responses to every prompt in the GRE Analytical Writing pool, for the following 3 reasons:

• You do not need anywhere near such a large amount of practice to be able to write a high-scoring GRE essay. So, in writing so many practice essays, you will waste valuable study time you need for other sections of the test.
• You will burn yourself out on essay-writing by the time test day rolls around.
• After writing so many essays, even if you recognize the prompt you see on test day, you almost certainly will not remember how you responded to it in your practice essay.

Practice writing responses to a few GRE Writing sample prompts from the ETS Issue Pool online, but don’t go overboard.

Now, let’s look at a couple of GRE Writing prompt samples from the ETS Issue Pool.

Example GRE Essay Questions

To get a feel for what to expect in the Analytical Writing section, let’s review a couple of example essay questions from the GRE Writing Issue Pool. You can find these GRE essay examples in the PDF linked above.

Some people believe that the purpose of education is to free the mind and the spirit. Others believe that formal education tends to restrain our minds and spirits rather than set them free.

Write a response in which you discuss which view more closely aligns with your own position and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should address both of the views presented.

Notice the format of the question: first, an opinion is presented. Below that opinion, we see a few italicized lines of instructions on how to respond to the presented opinion. This format is standard for GRE Issue essay prompts.

Notice also that, while we can say that the topic of the prompt is “education,” a test-taker would not need any particular knowledge of education practices or policies in order to write an effective response.

In other words, a person of any background can form an opinion about the “purpose of education.” Forming that opinion does not require having specialized knowledge or training.

Let’s look at another example from the GRE list of essay topics.

Leaders are created by the demands that are placed on them.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.

Notice that the language in the instructions in the prompt above is similar in some ways to that in the first prompt, though not exactly the same. If you scan the GRE Writing examples in the ETS Issue pool, you’ll notice some common language among many of the prompts.

However, there are several variations of instructions that could appear in GRE Issue prompts. So, it’s imperative that you always read the instructions in a prompt very carefully. It would be a mistake to skim or read only part way through a prompt because you recognize the wording, and thus assume you know what the instructions are asking you to do.

Always read through the entirety of the instructions in a GRE essay prompt, even if the instructions look similar to ones you’ve seen before!

Now that we’ve done some GRE practice writing prompts, let’s wrap up with the key takeaways from this article and answer some common questions about GRE Analytical Writing.

• GRE Analytical Writing is the first section you’ll see on your test.
• The Analytical Writing section features 1 essay prompt, Analyze an Issue, which you have 30 minutes to complete.
• Your essay should demonstrate critical thinking and logical reasoning skills, clear and effective communication of your ideas, and basic English grammar and spelling skills.
• The GRE Issue essay presents a 1-2 sentence opinion that you must respond to. Whether your response agrees or disagrees with the presented opinion does not affect your essay score.
• You do not need specialized subject knowledge to effectively respond to GRE essay prompts.
• The pool of Issue topics GRE tests can feature is available online. That list features actual ETS GRE Writing prompts.
• Review and practice some of the example GRE essay questions in the ETS Issue Pool to get accustomed to GRE essay challenges and refine your GRE writing strategies.
• Do not attempt to memorize all of the GRE Issue essay prompts or determine how to address each GRE Writing question in the topic pool.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Let’s answer a few common questions about GRE Analytical Writing.

As of September 22, 2023, there is 1 essay task on the GRE, the Analyze an Issue task.

There is only 1 prompt per GRE essay. So, you will see only 1 prompt on any given GRE test.

There is no minimum or maximum word count required for the GRE essay. So, conceivably, you could write a high-scoring essay that is 350 words or one that is 600 words. There is no magic number.

That said, in order to effectively develop and support your ideas in a well-organized essay, you’ll need an intro and a conclusion paragraph, plus 2 or 3 paragraphs in between to present and elaborate on your main points. So, we’re looking at a 4-5 paragraph essay.

Now, each paragraph does not have to be overly long; good GRE essays should certainly prioritize quality over quantity. But, in many cases, you may find that 400 words is not quite enough to properly respond to a GRE essay prompt.

Think about it: a 4-paragraph essay (the minimum you’ll need) that is 500 words is only 125 words per paragraph. Those aren’t very long paragraphs!

So, shoot for quality over quantity, but realize that in general, you may need more like 500-600 words to write a cohesive and complete GRE essay.

For the vast majority of GRE test-takers, the answer to this question will be NO. Most graduate schools want applicants submitting GRE scores to have taken the entire GRE, not just parts of it.

So, unless you’ve confirmed that your desired programs don’t consider Writing scores, you should absolutely complete the Analytical Writing section.

For more on this topic, check out our article on the importance of the Analytical Writing score .

A 4.0 is currently a 56th percentile score in GRE Analytical Writing. Note that the mean GRE writing score is currently just under 3.6. So, a 4.0 is slightly better than average. And, generally speaking, schools consider 4.0 a “good” score, though of course each program will have its own standards.

In any case, considering that nearly half of all people who take the GRE are able to score 4.0 or higher on Analytical Writing, I’d say that it isn’t particularly hard to earn that score.

Of course, if you don’t do any Analytical Writing preparation, or you go into your exam without writing strategies in place, scoring 4.0 could be quite hard. So, the answer to whether any particular score on the GRE is “hard” to earn will always be somewhat relative.

A 5.0 is currently a 91st percentile score in GRE Analytical Writing and is generally considered an excellent score. After all, that score would put you in the top 10% of all GRE test-takers.

To read more about how graduate schools view different Writing scores (and other GRE section scores), check out our article on what a good GRE score is .

Looking for GRE essay templates and expert AWA preparation tips and rhetorical strategies? The Target Test Prep GRE Course fully prepares you to dominate any GRE essay question you see on test day. Check out the course for 5 days for just $1 !

You also may be interested in these strategies for combating boredom in Reading Comprehension and these myths about the GRE Verbal section .

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About The Author

Scott Woodbury-Stewart is the founder & CEO of Target Test Prep. A passionate teacher who is deeply invested in the success of his students, Scott began his career teaching physics, chemistry, math, and biology. Since then, he has spent more than a decade helping students gain entry into the world’s top business schools, logging 10,000+ hours of GMAT, EA, GRE and SAT instruction. Scott also served as lead content developer and curriculum architect for the revolutionary courses Target Test Prep GMAT, Target Test Prep EA, Target Test Prep GRE and Target Test Prep SAT Quant.

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Gre prep online guides and tips, the 15 best gre essay tips to improve your score.

The GRE’s Analytical Writing section can be pretty intimidating. It’s the very first thing you’ll face when you sit down to take the exam, and you have to write two essays in one hour. No wonder a lot of students find it the most stressful part of the GRE!

But fear not: to help make the Analytical Writing section more approachable, I’ll teach you 15 great GRE essay tips to aid both the newbie and the experienced test taker.

feature image credit: Essays!! /used under CC BY-SA 2.0 /Resized from original.

10 Awesome Overall GRE Writing Tips

We’ll start out with our best general GRE Analytical Writing tips to help you prepare for both essays.

#1: Use POWERPREP Online to Type Your Essays

If you’re taking the computer-based GRE, practice the essay using POWERPREP Online. PowerPrep Tests 1 and 2 have built-in essay answering capabilities, as does the Preview Tool; after writing on the prompts in the program, you can continue to use those capabilities to write additional essays. Read more about how to get the most out of PowerPrep with this article .

If for some reason you can’t get PowerPrep to work, it’s okay to practice the essay with another word processor (like Word, OpenOffice, or GoogleDocs). However, to make your experience more realistic, make sure to avoid using any of the following when writing your essay: shortcuts (including ones for cut, paste, select all, and undo), spellcheck and grammar check , and the redo and copy functions.

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You don't NEED a prep program to get a great GRE score. But we believe PrepScholar is the best GRE prep program available right now , especially if you find it hard to organize your study schedule and don't know what to study .

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You may be surprised to find how much lacking these extras affects the speed of your essay writing. For example, while there is an “undo” feature in the GRE word processor, you can’t access it by CTL+Z or CMD+Z, a shortcut that’s drilled into muscle memory for most people familiar with word processors; instead, you must click the “Undo” button.

#2: Keep Within Strict Time Limits

Time pressure is part of what makes the GRE essays difficult. If you’re not taking the test under realistic conditions, including with time limits , then you’re not practicing in a way that’s going to help you on test day.

If you’re really struggling with the timed part of the GRE essays, you could try writing as much as you can in 30 minutes, marking where you are when the timer runs out, continuing to write until you’re finished, and then marking how long that took. This technique is not as useful for GRE Writing practice as it might be for Verbal or Quantitative practice because there is no set amount you have to write or set points you have to cover. However, marking when you hit the time limit and continuing to write until you’re finished with the essay could be helpful to help you readjust your expectations for what you can accomplish on the essay in 30 minutes vs. what you might think an ideal essay should look like, given enough time.

In general, though, do stick to the 30-minute time limit for reading the task and writing your answer for each practice essay.

#3: Grade Your Essays With the Official Rubrics

Be ruthless in identifying your essay weaknesses by comparing your GRE essays to the standards set forth in the rubrics for the Issues and Arguments essays and grading your practice essays accordingly. Don’t give yourself the benefit of the doubt, because the GRE essay grader and computer program grader won’t.

Sample GRE essays at each score point are helpful in giving you concrete examples of the points made in the rubric for each score level (as we’ll discuss in the next GRE essay tip). If you’re still concerned you can’t be objective enough about your own writing, find a GRE essay buddy to help you grade your work according to the rubrics.

Learn more about this topic with our guide to how the GRE essay is scored .

#4: Write Practice Essays With Pre-Existing Samples You Can Compare

When choosing essay prompts to practice on, you should start out by choosing topics that ETS has sample essays on , so you can compare your responses to the anchor ones that have already been scored by ETS.

Understanding the GRE writing rubric is important for doing well on the test, since that’s what the real GRE essay graders will be using to score your responses, but it can sometimes be difficult to take the abstract ideals of a rubric and see how your own writing measures up. It’s easier to see how you’ve done when you compare your writing to how others have written on the same topic.

Currently, the ETS website has one Issues task and one Argument task with sample scored essay responses free and publicly available. There are two additional instances each for the Issues and Argument tasks in the answer keys of Chapters 8 and 9 of The Official Guide to the GRE revised General Test (2nd edition) . To get access to these four prompts with sample essays, you can either purchase the guide or take it out of your local library, if they have it.

#5: Only Use Official Prompts

There are 328 official GRE writing prompts available (152 Issue and 176 Argument), so there’s very little point in practicing for the essay with non-official prompts.

The only reason to use non-official GRE essay prompts is if they’re the six bonus prompts on ScoreItNow! which will get your essay scored by the e-scorer software that the real GRE uses (more on that below). Otherwise, writing practice essays on non-official prompts is just not worth it.

#6: Do Mock Analyses of Official Prompts

As mentioned in the previous tip, there are so many GRE essay prompts that you won’t run out of topics to practice with (unless you’re planning on spending 164 hours doing practice Analytical Writing essays). Because of this, you can supplement your GRE Writing practice by practicing outlining essays without having to write out a full essay.

For practice Issue essay outlines, you should come up with at least three examples and a few bullet points to explain how each one supports your point. Work on not just explaining the content of each example, but on showing how the example is relevant to the issue and why the example is evidence to back up your position.

For practice Argument essay outlines, come up with at least three points of analysis and a few bullet points to explain the importance of each. These points of analysis could be the assumptions made in the argument, what evidence is needed to evaluate the argument, alternative explanations, and so on.

#7: Try ScoreItNow! or POWERPREP PLUS Online

For $20, ScoreItNow! lets you get two essays on real GRE prompts (plus six essays on bonus non-official prompts) scored by the e-rater used for the real GRE. You won’t receive human grading on your essays, but you will at least receive a grade and insights into how the e-rater might score your writing on the real test. If you write fewer than 50 or more than 1,000 words you’ll get an “advisory” notice and won’t get a grade on ScoreItNow! (although if the reason you got an advisory notice is because your essay was too long, you can get a refund).

ScoreItNow! is pretty pricey ($10 per real GRE essay scored) so it’s not a good choice for everyone, but if you are concerned about how your writing will fare on the GRE, particularly with a computer grader, it’s good to know this is an option.

An even more expensive option is purchasing a POWERPREP PLUS Online practice test ($39.95 per test per purchase; you may only take the test once per purchase, and it expires after 90 days). With each of the two adaptive practice tests, you’ll be able to submit one Issue and one Argument essay to be scored by the e-rater. You should only go with this option if you plan on taking advantage of the full computer-based practice test as well as getting your essays scored; otherwise, ScoreItNow! is the more cost-effective option for official GRE essay grading.

#8: Leave Time to Review and Edit Your Work

As I mentioned in the first tip, the GRE Writing word processor has no spell check, no grammar check, and no auto-correct. Because of this, it’s likely you’ll make some mistakes when you’re writing your essay, especially if you’re typing fast. It’s okay to make a few small mistakes , but if your essay is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, that will make it difficult to understand, which will have a negative effect on your score. Take a look at the two examples below:

Example with too many errors : Genetics is not density. The argument that naure is paramount over nurture failes, to ake into acount, the eyr reel affects that environment can ahve on behavior.

Example with minor errors : Genetics is not destiny. The argument that naure is paramount over nurture fails to take into account the very reel effects that environment can have on behavior.

In the second example, there are still some errors (“naure” instead of “nature,” “reel” instead of “real”), but the meaning is much clearer. Leaving yourself time to read over and edit your work will make sure you don’t end up with an essay that looks like the first example.

In other cases, it’s necessary to edit for clarity not only for mechanical things like spelling and punctuation, but also to make sure your ideas are organized in a way that makes sense. This illustrated in the two contrasting examples below:

Out of order : Because Dr. Field visited only Tertia, while Dr. Karp visited “the group of islands that includes Tertia,” it’s possible that the children Dr. Karp interviewed were primarily from islands other than Tertia, reflecting a bias towards those other islands’ cultures. Similarly, without knowing more about the sample sizes of Dr. Field and Dr. Karp’s studies and of the populations they were studying, it’s hard to know if the two studies are at all comparable. Another important question that would need to be answered in order to make this recommendation would be whether or not the group of islands including Tertia that Dr. Karp visited had similar cultures.

Better ordered : Another important question that would need to be answered in order to make this recommendation would be whether or not the group of islands including Tertia that Dr. Karp visited had similar cultures. Because Dr. Field visited only Tertia, while Dr. Karp visited “the group of islands that includes Tertia,” it’s possible that the children Dr. Karp interviewed were primarily from islands other than Tertia, reflecting a bias towards those other islands’ cultures. Similarly, without knowing more about the sample sizes of Dr. Field and Dr. Karp’s studies and of the populations they were studying, it’s hard to know if the two studies are at all comparable.

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#9: You Don’t Need a Perfect GRE Essay Score

Your GRE Writing score is a very, very small part of most grad school apps. A 4.5 or above is good enough for most programs , and there’s certainly no need to sweat over not getting a perfect 6.0. The reason for this is that even if the rest of your application is mediocre, a high Writing score won’t have a huge positive effect on your chances.

Once you manage to get a 4.5 (or higher, if programs you’re applying to have a higher score cut-off), it’s far better to spend your time on your Verbal and Quantitative scores, GRE subject test scores, or other parts of your grad school applications.

#10: Write Essays as Part of Full-Length Practice Tests

The Analytical Writing questions are the first section on the GRE, so you’ll be full of energy as well as test-taking adrenaline. However, this first hour of writing is then followed by 4-5 more sections (depending on whether or not you get an experimental section), so you can’t expend all your energy in the essays.

As part of your preparation for the GRE, you need to learn how to conserve your concentration and stamina, and the best way to do this is by taking realistic practice tests. This ties in with the advice in Tips 1, 2, and 5, which all aim to get you the most realistic testing experience possible. Only by doing a practice GRE in realistic conditions can you know what will be a problem for you on test day and address the issue.

In addition to our top ten general GRE Analytical Writing tips, we have five strategies specific to the two different types of essay questions.

GRE Essay Tips: Analyze an Issue Advice

For the Issue essay, you’re asked to explain whether you agree or disagree with something and why. The general structure of the task means that there are a couple of things you can do to write a good essay on every Issues prompt, no matter the topic. Our GRE Writing tips below will help you craft a clear and compelling response.

Issues Tip 1: Always Include a Thesis Statement

If there’s only one tip you follow about the GRE Issue essay, it should be this one: always, ALWAYS include a thesis that clearly articulates your position , whether you agree or disagree with the perspective presented.

If you don’t state a position, you are neglecting a fundamental aspect of the Issue essay task. There are six different variations on the issue task wording, but every single one of them requires you to either discuss your views explicitly or explain whether you agree or disagree with a given statement, recommendation, or claim. Failing to state your point of view in your essay makes it impossible for the graders to judge how well you’ve supported your position, and will result in a low essay score.

Issue Tip 2: Preplan Essay Opinions and Examples

You can’t memorize 152 different essays for each possible Issues prompt, but there are enough similarities between the different prompts that you can research some examples ahead of time to use as support.

Start by formulating your own opinions about common issues topics like the role of government and public officials, activities in everyday life, and teaching. Next, pick evidence you can use to support each of those opinions. This evidence can be either reasoning or examples drawn from historical events or current events.

When it comes time for the Issue essay, you’ll be able to draw from this pool of examples and reasoning to support your position; at the very least, even if the exact examples or reasoning isn’t applicable to the specific topic, you’ll be in the habit of thinking of ways examples and reasoning could support your point of view.

Find out more about how to get a perfect score on the GRE Issue essay here .

GRE Essay Tips: Analyze an Argument Advice

For all “Analyze an Argument” Analytical Writing questions, you’re asked to judge the soundness of an argument. Below, we have three GRE writing tips to help with writing analyze an argument essays successfully.

Argument Tip 1: Focus on the Task

Don’t get caught up in analyzing whether the author’s claims are true or false, or whether or not you agree with them or what your own views are – that’s not the task. Instead, analyze the logic behind the argument being made and the flaws (or lack of flaws) in the argument’s construction.

Staying focused on the task may take practice, as you might find it difficult to be objective about some of the arguments made due to personal experience or outrage at some of the logical jumps being made. To do well on the argument essay, harness that rage into analysis and explanation of how the argument is flawed.

Learn more about how to do this in our discussion of how to get a perfect 6 on the GRE Argument essay .

Argument Tip 2: Only Write About Major Points

Because you only have 30 minutes for the GRE argument essay, you don’t have to analyze every single facet of the argument. It’s more important to analyze major features that contribute to the argument’s efficacy (or lack thereof).

Imagine yourself like a lawyer in a courtroom, trying to get across the story of the case to the jurors. You can’t dwell on every single detail that proves your opponent is incorrect or your case will be a shapeless mess of information, even if all of it is true. Instead, you need to hit the main points first and then, if you have time, you can circle back to minutiae.

Argument Tip 3: Only Use Information Included in the Argument

The GRE is pretty good about using made-up names and places for the prompts, so you won’t be tempted to use outside knowledge to make assumptions. Still, you should make sure you confine your analysis to what’s written in the prompt only and don’t assume beyond what’s there.

Sticking to the information included in the prompt is an important part of completing many of the argument tasks, since the arguments are often flawed due to unstated assumptions. As a test taker, it’s your job to point out those flaws, not make more assumptions of your own.

What’s Next?

When you’re studying, it’s important to have an end goal. Find out what’s a good GRE writing score here !

Looking for the source of all GRE Writing prompts? Look no further – we have over 60 official prompts and links to the others in this complete list of GRE essay topics .

Unsure of what a good GRE essay looks like? Then be sure to read through our analyses of perfect scoring GRE essay samples .

Want to improve your GRE score by 7+ points?

Check out our best-in-class online GRE prep program . We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your GRE score by 7 points or more.

PrepScholar GRE is entirely online, and it customizes your prep program to your strengths and weaknesses . We also feature 2,000 practice questions , official practice tests, 150 hours of interactive lessons, and 1-on-1 scoring and feedback on your AWA essays.

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Author: Laura Staffaroni

Laura graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a BA in Music and Psychology, and earned a Master's degree in Composition from the Longy School of Music of Bard College. She scored 99 percentile scores on the SAT and GRE and loves advising students on how to excel and fulfill their college and grad school dreams. View all posts by Laura Staffaroni

How to Use the GRE Essay Pool for Effective Practice

The GRE includes a unique component called the Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA), where test-takers are currently required to write two essays: the Issue Essay and the Argument Essay. With the upcoming changes to the GRE in September 2023, students will no longer be required to write the Argument Essay.

To prepare effectively for this section, it’s essential to practice with various essay topics. ETS, the organization that administers the GRE, provides an extensive pool of essay topics for both the Issue Essay and the Argument Essay . In this article, we will explore how to use the GRE essay pool for effective practice and enhance your essay-writing skills.

How to Train with the GRE Essay Pool:

• Track Your Journey : Keep records of your practice essays and the improvements you make over time. Seeing your progress can be a great motivator!

The GRE essay pool is like your personal training ground. Use it to hone your writing skills, get comfortable with different essay prompts, and build confidence. Remember to pay attention to structure, organization, and effective use of evidence, and develop your own unique writing style. With enough practice using the GRE essay pool, you’ll be ready to ace the AWA section of the GRE.

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The GRE ® General Test

One test for graduate, business and law school

Select a step to learn more about your GRE ® General Test journey.

Analyze an Issue Task

The "Analyze an Issue" task assesses your ability to think critically about a topic of general interest and to clearly express your thoughts about it in writing. Each Issue topic makes a claim that can be discussed from various perspectives and applied to many different situations or conditions. Your task is to present a compelling case for your own position on the issue.

• Before beginning your written response, read the issue and the instructions that follow the Issue statement.
• Think about the issue from several points of view, considering the complexity of ideas associated with those views.
• Make notes about the position you want to develop and list the main reasons and examples you could use to support that position.

Task instruction sets

It’s important that you address the central issue according to the specific instructions. Each task is accompanied by one of the following sets of instructions:

• Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.
• Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the recommendation and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, describe specific circumstances in which adopting the recommendation would or would not be advantageous and explain how these examples shape your position.
• Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In developing and supporting your position, be sure to address the most compelling reasons and/or examples that could be used to challenge your position.
• Write a response in which you discuss which view more closely aligns with your own position and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should address both of the views presented.
• Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim and the reason on which that claim is based.
• Write a response in which you discuss your views on the policy and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider the possible consequences of implementing the policy and explain how these consequences shape your position.

The GRE raters scoring your response are not looking for a "right" answer — in fact, as far as they are concerned, there is no correct position to take. Instead, the raters are evaluating the skill with which you address the specific instructions and articulate and develop an argument to support your evaluation of the issue.

Understanding the context for writing: Purpose and audience of the Issue task

The Issue task is an exercise in critical thinking and persuasive writing. The purpose of this task is to determine how well you can develop a compelling argument supporting your own evaluation of an issue and effectively communicate that argument in writing to an academic audience. Your audience consists of GRE raters who are carefully trained to apply the scoring criteria identified in the  scoring guide for the "Analyze an Issue" task .

Raters apply the Issue scoring criteria to actual responses, so you should review scored sample Issue essay responses and rater commentary. The sample responses, particularly those at the 5 and 6 score levels, will show you a variety of successful strategies for organizing, developing and communicating a persuasive argument. The rater commentary discusses specific aspects of evaluation and writing, such as the use of examples, development and support, organization, language fluency and word choice. For each response, the commentary points out aspects that are particularly persuasive as well as any that detract from the overall effectiveness of the essay.

Preparing for the Issue task

Since the Issue task is meant to assess the persuasive writing skills you’ve developed throughout your education, it has been designed neither to require any particular course of study nor to advantage students with a particular type of training.

Many college textbooks on composition offer advice on persuasive writing and argumentation that you might find useful, but even this advice might be more technical and specialized than you need for the Issue task. You will not be expected to know specific critical thinking or writing terms or strategies; instead, you should be able to respond to the specific instructions and use reasons, evidence and examples to support your position on an issue.

Published topic pool

An excellent way to prepare for the Issue task is to practice writing on some of the  published topics (PDF) . Even if you don't write a full response, it’s helpful to practice with a few of the Issue topics and sketch out your possible responses. Some people prefer to start practicing without regard to the 30-minute time limit. Others prefer to take a "timed test" first and practice within the time limit.

Plan your response

Regardless of which approach you take, review the task directions and then follow these steps:

• Carefully read the claim and the specific instructions and make sure you understand them. If they seem unclear, discuss them with a friend or teacher.
• Think about the claim and instructions in relation to your own ideas and experiences, to events you have read about or observed and to people you have known. This is the knowledge base from which you will develop compelling reasons and examples in your argument that reinforce, negate or qualify the claim in some way.
• Decide what position you want to take and defend.
• Decide what compelling evidence (reasons and examples) you can use to support your position.

Remember that this is a task in critical thinking and persuasive writing. The most successful responses explore the complexity of the claim and follow the specific task instructions. As you prepare, ask yourself the following questions:

• What, precisely, is the central issue?
• What precisely are the instructions asking me to do?
• Do I agree with all or any part of the claim? Why or why not?
• Does the claim make certain assumptions? If so, are they reasonable?
• Is the claim valid only under certain conditions? If so, what are they?
• Do I need to explain how I interpret certain terms or concepts used in the claim?
• If I take a certain position on the issue, what reasons support my position?
• What examples — either real or hypothetical — could I use to illustrate those reasons and advance my point of view? Which examples are most compelling?

Once you’ve decided on a position to defend, consider the perspectives of others who might not agree with your position. Ask yourself:

• What reasons might someone use to refute or undermine my position?
• How should I acknowledge or defend against those views in my essay?

As you plan your response, you may find it helpful to:

• summarize your position and make notes about how you’ll support it
• look over your notes and decide how you’ll organize your response

After you’ve practiced with some of the topics, try writing responses to some of them within the 30-minute time limit so that you have a good idea of how to use your time in the actual test.

Evaluate your response

When you’re finished writing your practice response, it would be helpful to get some feedback on your response.

• You might want to get feedback on your response from an instructor who teaches critical thinking or writing
• You could trade essays on the same topic with other students and discuss one another's responses in relation to the scoring guide.

Look at the  scoring guide for the Issue topic  and try to determine how your essay meets or misses the criteria for each score point in the guide. Comparing your own response to the scoring guide will help you see how and where to improve.

Tips for the Issue task

Keep the following tips in mind:

• You’re free to organize and develop your response in any way that will enable you to effectively communicate your position.
• You can incorporate writing strategies you learned in English composition or writing-intensive college courses.
• GRE raters will not be looking for a particular developmental strategy or mode of writing. In fact, when GRE raters are trained, they review hundreds of Issue responses that, although highly diverse in content and form, display similar levels of critical thinking and persuasive writing.
• Raters will see some Issue responses at the 6 score level that begin by briefly summarizing the writer's position on the issue and then explicitly announcing the main points to be argued. They’ll see others that lead into the writer's position by making a prediction, asking a series of questions, describing a scenario or defining critical terms in the quotation. Raters know that a writer can earn a high score by giving multiple examples or by presenting a single, extended example.
• Use as many or as few paragraphs as needed to support your argument. You’ll probably need to create a new paragraph whenever you shift to a new cluster of ideas.
• The clarity of your ideas and the skill with which you convey them are more important than the number of examples and paragraphs or the form of your argument.

Sample Issue task with strategies, responses and rater commentary

For more information, review a sample Issue task, including strategies for the topic and essay responses with rater commentary at each score level.

The sample responses, particularly those at the 5 and 6 score levels, will show you a variety of successful strategies for organizing, developing and communicating a persuasive argument. The rater commentary discusses:

• specific aspects of evaluation and writing, such as the use of examples, development and support, organization, language fluency and word choice
• aspects that are particularly persuasive
• aspects that detract from the overall effectiveness of the essay

Pool of Issue topics

When you take the GRE General Test, you’ll be presented with one Issue topic from the pool. To help you prepare, we’ve published the entire pool of tasks from which your Issue topic will be selected.

Writing Center: Tips for GRE Essay Writing

• How to Set Up an Appointment Online
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• Chapter 9: A(n)/The/Ø Article About Articles
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Tips for Writing GRE Essays

General 

• Just like you would during the exam, follow the 30-minute guideline, avoid pausing your timer, and write in an area similar to the area you will take the exam
• Try to only use official practice prompts as these prompts are the most similar to the exam prompts you will receive on test day
• Write your essay prompts as part of full-length practice tests to ensure that you’re preparing for the full test
• Statements such as “I believe” and “In my opinion” lessen the strength of the writing
• These instructions include questions that you need to answer in your essay 
• Although most instructions will start out in a similar manner, different questions will be asked further on in the instructions
• 2 minutes to read through the instructions and prompt
• 3 minutes to select a thesis statement and brainstorm an outline for the essay 
• 20 minutes to write the essay, beginning with the body paragraphs and ending with an introduction or conclusion with the remaining time
• 2 minutes to fix small mistakes, such as spelling and grammatical errors
• 3 minutes to make any last-minute changes as necessary  
• Essays can lose points when not enough information is included 
• Write an introduction and conclusion after you have developed your body paragraphs
• Your body paragraphs factor more into your scoring than the introduction and conclusion 
• If you run out of time, cut out your conclusion paragraph or include a 1-3 sentence conclusion. The conclusion does not include new information and, as such, is the least important part of the essay
• Your analytical thinking and logical reasoning is being assessed, not your knowledge base
• Ensure that your essay is structured well and follows a clear logical progression
• Adhere to traditional essay writing conventions, such as a strong thesis statement, clear evidence, and transition sentences
• The clarity in which you convey your argument will be evaluated 
• Final adjustments to tone and clarity will ensure that your essay is well-written 

Analyze an Issue essay 

• Your thesis statement will be the backbone of your essay. The rest of your paragraphs, arguments, and evidence will be used to support your thesis
• Graders will not be able to evaluate how well you defended your position if they cannot identify your thesis statement 
• Review effective responses to GRE prompts from other applicants to learn the type of writing that receives high scores
• The strength in which you defend your argument is the main purpose of the essay
• Ensure that you effectively choose a position, instead of taking the middle-of-the-road approach
• The manner in which you defend your position matters
• Consider the multiple perspectives that can be taken on the issue
• You can use one of the arguments from the side you didn’t select as a counterargument that you refute in your essay
• By developing ideas on these common essay topics, you’ll be able to develop your opinion on the issue more quickly  
• All of your examples should be related back to your thesis statement
• This will reinforce your argument and strengthen your position
• Hypothetical situations can easily be refuted by stating that those situations would never happen

Analyze an Argument essay 

• Read the argument multiple times and take notes about areas of the argument you want to address in your writing 
• The evidence, support, and reasoning used to support the position 
• The claims and conclusions that are explicitly stated 
• The claims or conclusions that are assumed without any justification
• The claims that are implied
• The structure of the argument 
• The manner in which the argument forms a line of reasoning
• Look for transition words, such as “however,” “thus,” and “hence”
• The purpose of this essay task is to evaluate the argument and you can best evaluate the argument by refuting the logic in the argument
• Focus on analyzing the logic of the argument, not discussing your opinions about the argument
• No flaw is too “obvious” to point out and the more obvious flaws are often easier to analyze within the time limit
• Weak evidence
• Lack of evidence to support an assumption or argument
• A weak analogy between ideas
• Assuming the characteristics of one group applies to other people or groups
• Vague language
• Using biased or limited statistics and data 
• Assuming that a certain condition is necessary for a certain outcome
• Anticipate counterarguments to your position and address these counterarguments in your essay
• Since you only have 30 minutes to complete the task, you don’t need to evaluate every part of the argument 
• Avoid making assumptions about the argument that are not stated or implied
• Ensure that each of these examples is relevant to the topic
• These examples can be from the prompt and real-life examples
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