GRE Analytical Writing, one essay that shows how you think.
The GRE asks for a single Analyze an Issue essay. Practise on a library of original prompts and get an instant expert estimate against the official rubric, with notes on exactly what to fix.
A clear position, well defended.
One Issue essay, 30 minutes
The current GRE has a single Analyze an Issue task. You take a clear position on a general-interest claim and defend it with reasons and examples.
Scored 0 to 6, reported separately
A trained human reader and the e-rater engine each score the essay; the average is your 0 to 6 score. It is reported on its own, not in the 260 to 340 total.
It is a threshold, not a maximize
Most programs want you to clear about a 4.0 to 4.5. A 4.5 is the 85th percentile and a 5.0 the 93rd, so the gap from 4.5 to 5.0 is smaller than it feels.
For the full 0 to 6 band descriptors and the AWA percentile table, see the AWA grader guide.
Write a response, get an instant estimate.
Give yourself 30 minutes on the prompt below, or pick another from the library. The grader scores your essay across the five things readers actually look for. A 93rd-percentile essay is a 5.0.
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.
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.
Every Analyze an Issue prompt.
30 original Issue prompts in the official GRE style, grouped by theme. Each opens its own page with the grader, so you can write and score under timing.
Education
Universities should require every student to take a range of course…
PractiseThe primary purpose of education should be to prepare students for…
PractiseStudents learn more from teachers who challenge their assumptions t…
PractiseSchools should place greater emphasis on teaching students how to m…
PractiseSchools should require students to demonstrate mastery of a subject…
PractiseGovernment & policy
Governments should focus their funding on basic scientific research…
PractiseA nation's leaders should prioritize long-term environmental protec…
PractisePublic officials should base important policy decisions on the judg…
PractiseGovernments should provide financial support to the arts only when…
PractiseTechnology
As societies rely more heavily on technology, people inevitably los…
PractiseThe spread of digital communication has weakened, rather than stren…
PractiseGovernments should regulate emerging technologies before they are w…
PractiseSociety should prioritize the development of automation technologie…
PractiseSociety & culture
To understand a society, we should study the works of its most cele…
PractiseA society's progress is best measured by how it treats its least po…
PractisePeople are shaped more by the communities they belong to than by th…
PractiseA society's traditions should be preserved even when they conflict…
PractiseScience & research
Work & leadership
People accomplish more when they pursue work they are passionate ab…
PractiseThe most effective leaders are those who are willing to admit their…
PractiseOrganizations function best when they encourage cooperation rather…
PractiseAn organization's success depends more on the character of its lead…
PractiseSome people believe that effective leaders should make difficult de…
PractiseEthics & the individual
It is sometimes necessary for individuals to break established rule…
PractisePeople should value the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, even…
PractiseSome people believe we learn the most from our failures; others bel…
PractiseIndividuals should prioritize their own conscience over the expecta…
PractiseAn individual's moral character is better revealed by how they act…
PractiseA high-scoring GRE essay, annotated.
Below is an original, illustrative excerpt from an Issue response, not an ETS sample, written the way a 5.5 to 6.0 essay reads. The prompt claims that governments should always prioritise economic growth over environmental protection. The notes in the margin show why each move works, so you can copy the structure rather than the argument.
Illustrative excerpt
The claim that growth must always outrank the environment mistakes a short-term ledger for a long-term one. Where a factory poisons the river a city drinks from, the “growth” it produces is borrowed against a bill that comes due later, and with interest. I contend that sustainable protection is not the enemy of growth but its precondition.
Consider a fishery. A government that lets a fleet strip a coastline bare posts an impressive catch for one season and a collapsed industry for the next decade. The prosperous choice and the protective choice are, on any horizon longer than a quarter, the same choice. The dichotomy the prompt insists on simply does not hold once time is added to the equation.
A defender of the claim might answer that developing economies cannot afford such patience, and the point has force. Yet even here the cost of unchecked growth, contaminated water, unbreathable air, arrives as a tax on the very workers the growth was meant to lift. Protection, rightly designed, is how that growth is made to last.
The first paragraph names the essay’s thesis outright. Readers reward an arguable position taken in the opening, not saved for the end.
The fishery is a specific, developed example, not a vague gesture at “the environment.” One concrete case, fully worked, outscores a list of unexamined ones.
Instead of ignoring the other side, it raises the best counterargument (developing economies) and answers it. Engaging the opposing view is a hallmark of the top band.
Precise transitions and varied sentence length keep the logic easy to follow. The rubric scores the clarity of the writing alongside the reasoning.
Want to see where your own essay lands against the 0 to 6 rubric? Write a response above and the grader returns an instant estimate with the same kind of notes. For the full band descriptors, see the AWA grader guide.
GRE Analytical Writing, answered.
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