Analyze an IssueWork & leadership

People accomplish more when they pursue work they are passionate about than when they pursue work that is financially secure.

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.

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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.

Question whether passion and security are really opposed. Financial security can free people to take the risks that great work requires, while passion without stability can collapse under pressure, so argue the two often reinforce rather than trade off against each other.

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

Passion sustains the long, unrewarded effort that hard accomplishments demand, carrying people through setbacks that a paycheck alone would not.
Intrinsically motivated people tend to go beyond the minimum, producing work of a quality that duty rarely matches.

Against, or complicating

Financial insecurity is a heavy cognitive load; someone worried about rent has less attention left for ambitious work, so security can enable achievement.
"Follow your passion" is a privilege many cannot afford, and framing accomplishment as passion-dependent ignores those who excel at stable work they did not choose out of love.

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.

1A founder who leaves a secure job for a passion project, contrasted with one whose savings let them take that risk safely.
2Research on how financial scarcity consumes attention and impairs decision-making.
3A skilled tradesperson who takes deep pride in reliable, well-paid work they did not originally feel passionate about.

Watch out

A common trap on this prompt.

Accepting the passion-versus-security framing at face value. Security often funds the freedom to pursue passion, and the strongest essays show the two are entangled rather than picking a winner.

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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