Analyze an IssueEducation

Universities should require every student to take a range of courses outside their major field of study.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the recommendation and explain your reasoning. In developing and supporting your position, describe specific circumstances in which adopting the recommendation would or would not be advantageous, and explain how those examples shape your view.

Write your response

Give yourself 30 minutes, then get an instant estimate against the official rubric.

Issue prompt

Your essay0 words

An expert estimate against the official rubric, not an official ETS score. ETS scores with a human reader plus the e-rater engine.

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How to approach it

A reliable structure for any Issue prompt.

1Take a clear position in the first paragraph. The reader should know exactly where you stand on the issue before the body begins.
2Develop two or three reasons, each with a specific example. Depth beats a long list of thin points.
3Answer the strongest counter-argument. Engaging the other side is what separates a 5 from a 4.
4Leave two minutes to proofread. A few clean sentences at the end lift the language score.

For the full 0–6 band descriptors and what each score means, see the AWA grader guide.

This prompt

How to approach this prompt.

The word doing the heavy lifting here is "require." You can strongly value breadth without agreeing that a university should compel it for every student, so distinguish the goal (broadly educated graduates) from the mechanism (a mandate) and argue that the mechanism is the weaker claim.

Both sides

Points for and against.

A strong essay does not just pick a side. Weigh the best case each way, then explain which considerations shape your own view.

In support

Problems in the real world rarely respect departmental boundaries: a public-health crisis needs biology, statistics, economics, and ethics at once, so a graduate trained only in one lane is less equipped.
Exposure often reveals interests students did not know they had; a required elective is sometimes the only reason a student encounters a field that becomes their career.

Against, or complicating

A blanket requirement crowds out depth: an engineering student already carrying a heavy accredited sequence may have no room for a distribution requirement without extending time to degree and cost.
"Every student" ignores adult learners, transfer students, and those in intensive professional tracks for whom the opportunity cost of a mandated course is highest.

Evidence

Examples you could use.

Specific, relevant examples are what readers reward most. Here are concrete cases you could adapt for this exact statement. Use them as reasoning, not as facts to recite.

1The traditional US liberal-arts distribution requirement, contrasted with the narrower single-subject structure of many UK undergraduate degrees.
2A computer-science graduate whose one required ethics course later shapes how they handle a data-privacy decision at work.
3A pre-med student forced to drop a research opportunity because a general-education requirement filled the term.

Watch out

A common trap on this prompt.

Arguing only about whether breadth is good. The prompt is about a universal requirement, so an essay that praises the value of a broad education without ever addressing the cost of compelling it for every student has not actually engaged the claim.

Questions

GRE essay questions, answered.

There is no required word count. High-scoring Analyze an Issue essays are typically well-developed across four to six paragraphs, roughly 400 to 600 words, but a reader rewards depth of reasoning and specific support, not raw length. A tight, fully developed 450-word essay outscores a padded 700-word one.

The GRE Analytical Writing task is scored holistically from 0 to 6 in half-point steps against the official ETS descriptors. The reported score averages one trained human reader and the e-rater engine; if they disagree by more than a point, a second human reader adjudicates. It is reported separately from the 260 to 340 Verbal and Quant total.

No. This is an original prompt written in the official Analyze an Issue style so you can practise freely. The real ETS pool is published on the ETS website. Practising on same-style prompts builds the exact skills the scored task rewards, since every Issue prompt uses the same task instructions and the same rubric.

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