GRE Issue Essay: Official Topics, Scoring and a Sample Essay

Aswathy Mohandas

03/11/2026

13 min read

The GRE Issue essay is now the whole of GRE Analytical Writing. Since 22 September 2023, ETS’s test structure page lists Analytical Writing as one section with one “Analyze an Issue” task, timed at 30 minutes (checked 31 Oct 2026). The “Analyze an Argument” task is gone from the current test, so every point of your writing score rides on a single essay.

This guide covers where to find the official Issue topics, how ETS scores the essay from 0 to 6, a structure that fits 30 minutes, and one original sample essay with notes on what makes it strong against ETS’s top-score description.

For the wider picture of the writing section, including how it fits into your total score, read our GRE Analytical Writing guide.

What does the GRE Issue task ask you to do?

ETS’s Analyze an Issue page says each topic makes a claim that can be discussed from several perspectives, and your job is to present a compelling case for your own position. There is no right answer: ETS says raters are judging how well you follow the specific instructions and develop an argument, not which side you take.

Every topic comes with one of six instruction sets. They look similar, but each asks for something slightly different:

Missing the second half of the instruction is one of the easiest ways to lose marks. An essay on a recommendation topic that never names specific circumstances has not done the task, however well it is written.

You type the essay in a basic ETS word processor. ETS’s Analytical Writing overview says it lets you insert, delete, cut and paste, and undo, but has no spellchecker or grammar checker.

Where can you find the official GRE Issue essay topics?

ETS publishes the entire pool your test topic is drawn from. The official Issue Topic Pool (PDF) says you will be given one topic from the pool on test day, and warns that the wording on the test may vary slightly and that some topics appear more than once with different instructions. Read the instructions on your actual screen, not the version you remember.

The topics range across education, government, science, technology, the arts and society. A sensible way to use the pool:

• Don’t try to memorise essays. The pool is long, and ETS says all Analytical Writing responses are reviewed with essay similarity detection software (understanding your scores). Templated or copied text is a risk, not a shortcut.
• Group topics by theme. Many education topics, for example, can draw on the same stock of examples. Build a short list of examples you know well for each theme.
• Outline more than you write. Spend five minutes outlining a position and two examples for several topics a day, then write one full timed essay.
• Read ETS’s scored samples. The Issue page links official sample responses with rater commentary, and ETS points to the 5 and 6 samples as the best guide to what works.

How is the GRE Issue essay scored?

ETS’s Analytical Writing scoring page says the reported score runs from 0 to 6 in half-point increments. On the understanding scores page, ETS says essays are scored holistically, on overall quality, and that the score includes one from e-rater, an ETS computer program that identifies features of writing related to proficiency.

The scoring guide for the Issue task describes each level. In short:

ETS also reports NS (no score) when a test taker writes nothing at all.

Two things follow from the guide. First, the jump from 4 to 6 is mostly about the quality of reasoning, not length or vocabulary: “relevant” examples earn a 4, “compelling” ones a 6. Second, small slips are allowed. ETS’s overview says an occasional spelling or grammar error won’t affect your score, but serious, persistent errors will.

How should you structure a GRE Issue essay in 30 minutes?

ETS’s only fixed advice on time is to leave room to think, plan and write, and to save a few minutes at the end to check for obvious errors. The split below is a common way to do that; adjust it to your typing speed.

A five-paragraph shape works well:

1. Introduction. Restate the issue in your own words and give your position in one sentence, including any limits (“largely right, except where…”).
2. First reason. One idea, explained, then one specific example that proves it.
3. Second reason. A different kind of reason (economic after practical, or social after personal) so the essay doesn’t repeat itself.
4. The other side. Take the best objection seriously, then show where it holds and where it doesn’t. This is where most essays answer the second half of the instruction.
5. Conclusion. Two or three sentences that restate the refined position. No new examples.

Use structure as a scaffold, not a script. ETS’s top-level description rewards an “insightful” position, and identical stock openings across every topic work against that.

What does a strong GRE Issue essay look like?

The prompt below is original, written for this guide; it is not from the ETS pool. It uses the format of ETS’s recommendation instruction.

Prompt: Manufacturers should be required to design consumer products so that their owners can repair them, even if this makes those products more expensive.

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

Sample essay

When a phone battery fades after two years, its owner faces an odd choice: pay nearly the price of a new phone for an authorised repair, or simply buy the new phone. The recommendation that manufacturers be required to make products repairable, even at a higher price, responds to this choice. I largely agree with it for durable goods that people rely on for years, because repairability lowers the true cost of ownership and gives owners real control over what they have bought. However, a blanket rule would be a mistake for products where repairability conflicts with safety, and for cheap goods where a higher price would fall hardest on the people least able to pay.

The strongest case for the recommendation is that the purchase price is not the real price. A washing machine that costs somewhat more but can be fixed with a standard part and a screwdriver may serve a family for fifteen years; a cheaper machine with its motor sealed inside a moulded drum may be scrapped after five when one component fails. Over a decade, the family that paid more at the start pays less overall. In circumstances like these, where a product is expensive, used daily and made of parts that wear at different rates, a repairability requirement protects buyers from a cost they cannot see on the price tag.

Repairability also matters beyond the individual buyer. Consider a farmer whose tractor breaks down in the middle of the harvest. If the machine can only be diagnosed with software the manufacturer controls, the farmer must wait for an authorised technician while the crop is at risk. If the design allows a local mechanic to diagnose and replace the faulty part, the farm keeps working. Here the benefit is not only cheaper repair but independence: an owner who can fix a tool, or hire anyone to fix it, actually controls it. The same reasoning applies to the small repair shops that a repairable economy supports, and to the reduction in waste when products are mended rather than thrown away.

Yet there are circumstances in which the recommendation would do more harm than good. Some products are deliberately sealed for safety. A pacemaker, or the high-voltage battery pack of an electric car, should not be easy for an untrained owner to open, and a design that invites amateur repair could injure people. A sensible rule would distinguish between making parts available to qualified technicians and making every product open to anyone. The second concern is price. A cheap kettle or a basic pair of earphones is often bought by people for whom a small price increase matters most. If repairability adds a large share to the cost of such goods, the rule taxes the very buyers it aims to protect, while the saving from repairing a low-cost item may be minimal.

These cases do not defeat the recommendation, but they shape it. The argument for requiring repairability is strongest where products are costly, long-lived and safe to service, and weakest where they are cheap, disposable by nature or dangerous to open. A good policy would therefore apply the requirement to categories such as appliances, phones, laptops and farm machinery, while allowing exceptions for safety-critical devices and low-cost goods. Required in that form, repairability would cost buyers a little more at the counter and save them considerably more over the life of what they own.

Why this sample is strong against ETS’s level-6 description

This essay has not been scored by ETS or by any GRE rater, so it carries no official score. What can be said is how it lines up with each point in ETS’s description of a typical 6 response:

Just as important, it follows the recommendation instruction to the letter. It names specific circumstances where the recommendation helps (expensive, long-lived goods; machinery needed at critical times) and where it doesn’t (safety-critical devices; cheap goods), and the last paragraph explains how those examples shape the final position. That is the second half of the instruction, and it is the part many essays skip.

At just under 600 words it is also a realistic length for 30 minutes at a steady typing pace. ETS does not set a word count; a shorter essay that reasons as well can score as highly.

What are the most common mistakes on the Issue essay?

• Answering the topic but not the instruction. Agreeing or disagreeing is only half the task; check what the instruction adds.
• Taking an extreme position you can’t defend. “Always” and “never” positions are hard to support in 30 minutes. A position with clear limits is easier to argue and often reads as more thoughtful.
• Vague examples. “Many people in history” persuades no one. One specific, well-explained case beats three name-drops.
• A memorised template. Recycled paragraphs read as generic and run into ETS’s similarity checks.
• No time to proofread. There is no spellchecker, so the last two or three minutes matter.

How should you practise for the Issue essay?

1. Read ETS’s scoring guide and scored samples first, so you know what raters look for.
2. Outline topics from the official pool in five minutes each, several a week.
3. Write one full essay under timed conditions each week, typed, with no spellchecker.
4. Review against the level descriptors. For each essay, ask: is the position clear and qualified, are the examples specific, does the essay answer the whole instruction?
5. Practise the full test, because the Issue essay comes first and sets the tone for the Verbal and Quant sections after it.

To see the full test structure, read our guide to the GRE exam pattern, and for how the writing score is reported alongside Verbal and Quant, see GRE total marks.

Ready to try it under real timing? Take the free GRE mock test to practise the Issue essay alongside the Verbal and Quant sections and see where you stand.