GRE General Test · Analytical Writing

GRE Issue Essay Practice — 30 Topics with Timer and Rubric

The GRE General Test opens with one Analytical Writing task: the Issue essay. You get a short statement and a set of directions, and 30 minutes to take a position and support it with reasons and examples. It is scored from 0 to 6 in half-points.

A 30-minute plan

• Plan — about 5 minutes: your position (it can be qualified), two or three reasons, a specific example for each, and the strongest objection.
• Write — about 20 minutes: an introduction with your position, a body paragraph for each reason, a paragraph on the other side, and a short conclusion.
• Check — about 5 minutes: there is no spell check, so read it again for typos and unclear sentences.

Follow the directions. Every topic comes with one of six kinds of directions — for example, to say when a statement would not hold, or to answer the strongest objection. Readers check that you did what the directions asked.

30 GRE Issue essay topics

Original practice topics grouped by the kind of directions that go with them. Write on any of them on NET Prep with the 30-minute timer, the automatic check, AI scoring and the rubric.

Statements — when does it hold?

Directions: Explain how far you agree or disagree with the statement, giving reasons for your view. Consider when the statement would hold true and when it would not, and show how those cases shape your position.

1. People learn more from their failures than from their successes.
2. Mastery of a craft matters more in the arts than originality.
3. Competition brings out the best in people more reliably than cooperation does.
4. Success in a career depends more on the people you know than on what you know.
5. Great works of art are those that challenge the values of their time.
6. The most important discoveries are usually made by accident rather than by careful planning.
7. Personal ambition does more to improve society than a sense of duty does.

Statements — answer the challenges

Directions: Explain how far you agree or disagree with the statement, giving reasons for your view. Deal with the strongest reasons or examples someone could use to challenge your position.

1. Technology that makes life more convenient almost always makes people less capable.
2. A nation's greatness is best measured by how it treats its weakest members.
3. The more information people have, the harder it becomes for them to make good decisions.
4. In most organizations, strict rules do more harm than good.
5. A society that values speed above all else will eventually lose its capacity for deep thought.

Recommendations

Directions: Explain how far you agree or disagree with the recommendation, giving reasons for your view. Describe particular situations in which following it would or would not be a good idea, and show how they shape your position.

1. Governments should spend more on preserving historic buildings than on putting up new ones.
2. Schools should replace grades with written comments on each student's progress.
3. Every adult should spend one year in national or community service.
4. Companies should be required to publish what they pay each of their employees.
5. Teachers should spend less time on memorization and more on teaching students to question what they read.
6. Young people should be encouraged to take a year off between school and university.

Claims

Directions: Explain how far you agree or disagree with the claim, giving reasons for your view. Address the strongest arguments that could be made against it.

1. Leaders who never change their minds earn more trust than leaders who do.
2. Studying history is of little use for solving today's problems.
3. Experts are wrong far more often than the public believes.
4. People who live in small communities are happier than people who live in large cities.

Two views

Directions: Discuss which of the two views is closer to your own, and explain your reasoning. Deal with both views as you develop your position.

1. Some people believe that students learn best when they choose what they study. Others believe that a set curriculum chosen by experts serves students better.
2. Some people think that scientific research should focus on problems with practical uses. Others think that the most valuable research is driven by curiosity alone.
3. Some people believe that the private lives of public figures should stay private. Others believe that anyone who seeks public office gives up the right to privacy.
4. Some people believe that cities should grow upward with tall buildings. Others believe that cities should spread outward to give residents more space.

Claim and reason

Directions: Explain how far you agree or disagree with the claim and with the reason given for it, and support your position with reasons and examples.

1. Claim: Cities should make public transport free.
   Reason: Fewer cars on the road benefit everyone, including people who never use the bus.
2. Claim: Museums should be free for everyone.
   Reason: Art and history belong to the public, not only to those who can pay.
3. Claim: Governments should fund space exploration even when there are urgent needs on Earth.
   Reason: Exploration produces knowledge and technologies that end up solving problems at home.
4. Claim: Every student should learn a second language.
   Reason: Learning another language changes the way people think, not only how they speak.