Analyze an IssueGovernment & policy

Public officials should base important policy decisions on the judgment of experts rather than on the preferences of the general public.

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

Your estimated score and rubric breakdown will appear here.

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.

Separate two distinct questions experts and the public answer. Experts are authorities on what is true and what will work; the public is the authority on what a society values and will accept. A strong essay assigns each its proper role rather than crowning one winner.

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

Technical questions, such as how a virus spreads or whether a bridge design is safe, have factual answers that popularity cannot change, and expertise is the best guide to them.
Public opinion is vulnerable to short-term panic and misinformation, so decisions made purely to satisfy it can be self-defeating.

Against, or complicating

Policy involves value trade-offs, not just facts, and in a democracy the public, not experts, has the legitimate authority to make those value calls.
Experts can be wrong, captured by industry, or blind to on-the-ground realities, so excluding public input removes a vital check.

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.

1Central banks, which are deliberately insulated from public pressure precisely because monetary policy is technical.
2Public-health guidance during a pandemic, where expert modeling and public willingness to comply both mattered.
3A community that rejects an expert-designed infrastructure plan because it ignored local knowledge and priorities.

Watch out

A common trap on this prompt.

Treating "experts" and "the public" as competing for the same job. They usually answer different questions, and an essay that misses this ends up defending a straw man on either side.

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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