GRE Analytical Writing: The Analyze an Issue Essay

The big picture

• Analyze an Issue (30 min, 0–6)
  • Take a position — Respond to the specific instructions
  • Reasons + examples — Each body paragraph: one reason, real support
  • Address the other side — Acknowledge a counter-view, then rebut
  • Clear structure — Intro → 2–3 bodies → conclusion

One essay, and it's about reasoning

The current GRE has one 30-minute Analytical Writing task: 'Analyze an Issue' (the old Argument essay is gone). You take a position on a claim and support it. The score (0–6, half points) rewards the quality of your reasoning and clarity, not your opinion.

Follow the specific instruction

Each Issue prompt comes with a specific task line ('Discuss the extent to which you agree… and explain your reasoning', or 'address the most compelling reasons someone could disagree'). Answer that exact instruction — ignoring it caps your score however good the prose.

Structure: reason + real example per paragraph

Use a clear shape: intro (position), 2–3 body paragraphs each with one reason and a specific example, a paragraph that concedes and rebuts a counter-view, and a short conclusion. Specific, concrete examples beat vague generalities.

Spend 5 minutes planning

Plan for about 5 of the 30 minutes: pick your position, jot 2–3 reasons with an example each, and note the counter-argument. A planned essay reads as coherent; an unplanned one drifts. Leave 2–3 minutes to proofread.

Test yourself before you move on

Re-reading a note feels like learning and produces almost none. The retrieval below is what actually builds the memory, so cover the map above and answer these from memory — out loud or written down, not in your head, because "I know this" is the feeling that fails under exam pressure.

1. Without looking: what is Take a position, and how does it connect to Analyze an Issue (30 min, 0–6)?
2. Without looking: what is Reasons + examples, and how does it connect to Analyze an Issue (30 min, 0–6)?
3. Without looking: what is Address the other side, and how does it connect to Analyze an Issue (30 min, 0–6)?
4. Without looking: what is Clear structure, and how does it connect to Analyze an Issue (30 min, 0–6)?

Anything you could not produce is the part of this note you have not learned yet — regardless of how familiar it felt while reading. Re-read only that node, then re-test the whole set. Testing the whole set matters: recalling one idea in isolation is easier than recalling it among 4 competing ones, which is the situation the exam actually puts you in.

When to come back to this note

Spacing is not a scheduling detail, it is the mechanism. Meeting this material again just as it starts to fade forces the effortful retrieval that consolidates it, which is why a note reviewed four times across three weeks outlasts the same note read four times in one evening. The built-in scheduler resurfaces these questions at widening intervals for exactly that reason — the prompt arriving when you feel you have half-forgotten is the system working, not failing.

A practical rhythm for Analyze an Issue (30 min, 0–6): today, again tomorrow, then after three days, then after a week. If you fail a review, shorten the next interval rather than re-reading the note end to end — the failure identifies the gap precisely, and re-reading everything wastes the diagnosis.

Then apply it under pressure. Knowing a concept in isolation and using it in a timed paper are different skills, and only the second is examined. There are 90 free GRE practice tests here covering 1,650 questions — counted from the test files, not estimated. Take a full timed GRE mock →