130 Sample GRE Essay Topics for Practicing

The GRE Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) evaluates critical thinking and writing skills through two tasks: Analyze an Issue and Analyze an Argument.  So, to improve the GRE scores, practice writing on sample GRE essay topics. For instance, topics that are related to happiness, city development, art museums, leadership, and education can be considered for practice in GRE essay writing.

The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) is a popular graduate admission test conducted by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) for candidates who wish to pursue their graduate studies or MS studies abroad. It is one of the largest assessment programs for admissions that is accepted by many universities and colleges across the world. This test is composed of different sections. Out of them all, Analytical Writing is a major section that is designed to assess the candidates’ analytical writing and critical thinking skills. In this blog post, let us have a detailed look at the GRE Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) and some GRE samples or analytical essay topics that would help the test takers.

GRE Essay Topics: What to Expect and How to Prepare

The GRE has two essay tasks. They are called the Analytical Writing section. You get 30 minutes to complete each one. Together, they test how well you can think critically and write clearly under time pressure.

Many students do not prepare properly for this section because they think it is just “writing.” But knowing the types of topics that come up — and understanding what graders want to see — can make a significant difference to your score.

The Two GRE Essay Tasks

 Task 1 — Analyze an Issue

You are given a statement or claim about a general topic — something like education, technology, leadership, or society. You must take a position on it and support your view with reasons and examples.

The key word here is your view. ETS does not care which side you pick. They want to see that you can argue a position clearly and back it up with specific, logical support.
Time allowed: 30 minutes
Word count aim: 450–600 words

Task 2 — Analyze an Argument

You are given a short paragraph that makes a claim and provides some reasoning or evidence. Your job is NOT to say whether you agree. Your job is to identify the flaws in the argument — the logical gaps, the unsupported assumptions, the weak evidence.

This is a very different skill. Many students lose marks by sharing their own opinion instead of critiquing the argument given to them.

Time allowed: 30 minutes

Word count aim: 400–550 words

GRE Issue Task — Sample Topics From the Official Pool

ETS publishes the full list of possible topics on their website. Here are 30 representative examples with brief notes on what each is really asking:

Society and Values
1. “Governments should place few, if any, restrictions on scientific research and development.”
— This asks whether freedom in science outweighs risks. Consider both innovation and ethical limits.

2. “The best way to understand the character of a society is to examine the character of the men and women that the society chooses as its heroes or role models.”

— Think about what heroes reveal about collective values, and whether this is the best lens.

3. “Claim: Knowing about the past cannot help people to make important decisions today. Reason: The world today is significantly more complex than it was even in the recent past.”

— A two-part prompt. You must address both the claim and the reason separately.

4. “Educational institutions have a responsibility to dissuade students from pursuing fields of study in which they are unlikely to succeed.”

— Raises questions about autonomy, the role of schools, and how we measure success.

5. “Some people believe that government funding of the arts is necessary to ensure that the arts can flourish and be available to all people. Others believe that government funding of the arts threatens the integrity of the arts.”

— A classic two-sided prompt. Make sure to qualify your position rather than arguing one side absolutely.

Leadership and Power

6. “Leaders are created by the demands that are placed on them.”

— Are leaders born or made? Use real or hypothetical examples to support your view.

7. “The best leaders are those who listen to the people they lead.”

— Consider exceptions. A strong GRE essay usually acknowledges the limits of its own argument.

8. “In any field of endeavour, it is impossible to make a significant contribution without first being strongly influenced by past achievements within that field.”

— Think about innovation vs tradition. Name specific fields or figures where this holds true or does not.
Education
9. “College students should be required to take courses in subjects outside their major fields of study.”

— A favourite topic. Consider breadth vs depth of education.

10. “The most effective way to ensure student success in school is to place students in small classes.”

— Use evidence — or the lack of it — to argue your position clearly.

11. “Teachers’ salaries should be based on the academic performance of their students.”

— Think about what this incentivises and what it ignores.

12. “Universities should require all students to take a course on ethics, regardless of their major.”

— An ethics education question. Consider practical and philosophical arguments.

Technology and Progress

13. “The primary goal of technological advancement should be to increase people’s efficiency so that everyone has more leisure time.”

— Think about what we actually do with efficiency gains historically.

14. “As we acquire more knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible, but more complex and mysterious.”

— A philosophical prompt. Good place to use science, history, or philosophy as examples.

15. “Technology, while apparently aimed at solving problems, more often than not creates new ones.”

— Give specific examples of technologies that caused unintended consequences.

Creativity and Innovation

16. “Society should identify those children who have special talents and provide them with a focused and accelerated education.”

— Think about elitism, opportunity costs, and what happens to children who are not selected.

17. “The surest indicator of a great nation is represented not by the achievements of its rulers, artists, or scientists, but by the general welfare of its people.”

— A clear values question. Define “great” and argue from that definition.

18. “Claim: In any field — business, politics, education, government — those in power should step down after five years. Reason: The surest path to success for any organisation is revitalization through new leadership.”

— Another two-part prompt. Challenge the assumption behind the reason.

GRE Argument Task — Sample Topics

For the Argument task, you will be given a flawed paragraph like these:

Example 1:

“The following appeared in a letter to the editor of a local newspaper: ‘In Worktown, the majority of the residents who received the Healthways fitness newsletter began exercising regularly. Since Worktown was also the city with the lowest rates of heart disease last year, we can conclude that reading fitness newsletters prevents heart disease. Therefore, our city should also subscribe all residents to a fitness newsletter.'”

What to find:

– Correlation is not causation — maybe Worktown is healthier for other reasons

– “Majority” is vague — we don’t know the sample size

– The link between the newsletter and exercise is assumed, not proven

– Other cities may have different demographics

Example 2:

“The following is a recommendation from the manager of a grocery store: ‘Last year, Sunnyside Grocery installed self-checkout machines and saw a 15% increase in revenue. We should install self-checkout machines in our store to achieve similar revenue gains.'”
What to find:
– What caused the revenue increase? Was it the machines or something else?

– The two stores may be very different (location, size, customer base)

– 15% revenue increase does not account for the cost of machines

– The recommendation assumes the same cause will produce the same effect

Example 3:

“The following appeared in a memo from the director of a city’s parks department: ‘Five years ago, the city of Greenfield began requiring all citizens to sort recyclables from other trash. Since then, the overall amount of trash sent to landfills has decreased by 30%. All cities should therefore adopt similar recycling requirements.'”

What to find:

– Correlation is not causation — many things changed in five years

– “All cities” is too broad — cities differ in infrastructure and resources

– The 30% decrease might have other causes (population decline, economic changes)

– No data on the cost of the programme vs the benefit

Sample Issue Essay — Score 5 out of 6

Prompt: “Educational institutions have a responsibility to dissuade students from pursuing fields of study in which they are unlikely to succeed.”

The relationship between educational institutions and their students is built, at its core, on guidance — not control. While it seems reasonable for schools and universities to steer students away from certain paths, the idea that they have a *responsibility* to dissuade students goes too far. Educational institutions should inform, advise, and support — but the decision to pursue a field must remain with the individual.

The most obvious problem with this view is the question of who determines “likelihood of success.” Academic performance at age eighteen is a notoriously poor predictor of long-term achievement. Many of the world’s most successful scientists, writers, and entrepreneurs were told they were not suited for their chosen fields. Charles Darwin was considered mediocre at school. J.K. Rowling was advised by multiple publishers to abandon writing. If their institutions had taken the view that discouragement was a responsibility, the consequences would have been significant.

There is also a practical problem. “Success” is not a fixed measurement. A student who studies fine art and never becomes a professional artist may nevertheless build a creative career in design, branding, or education. An undergraduate who studies philosophy may struggle to find conventional employment but may develop the analytical skills that make them exceptional in law, journalism, or public policy. Dissuading students from “unlikely” fields often assumes a narrow definition of what a degree is for.

That said, institutions do have a role to play. Providing honest data — about employment rates, typical earnings, the skills a programme builds — is entirely appropriate and helpful. Academic advisors should be equipped to have frank conversations with students who show little aptitude for a field they have chosen. But a conversation is different from a policy of discouragement.

The most effective educational institutions are those that help students understand their options fully and then trust them to make their own decisions. Dissuasion, when institutionalised, becomes gatekeeping. And gatekeeping in education has historically excluded those who needed opportunity the most.

What makes this essay score well:

– Takes a clear, qualified position (not an absolute yes or no)

– Uses specific examples (Darwin, Rowling)

– Acknowledges the other side before pushing back

– Uses precise language without being showy

– Ends with a broader point that elevates the argument

GRE Essay Scoring — How It Works

Your essays are scored on a scale of 0 to 6, in half-point increments. The score reflects the quality of your thinking and writing, not whether your position is “correct.”

The average GRE Analytical Writing score is approximately 4.0. Top programmes (law, business, social sciences) typically want a 4.5 or above. Hard science programmes tend to weight this section less.

7 Tips for a Higher GRE Essay Score

1. Take a clear position immediately : Do not spend your first paragraph sitting on the fence. State your view in the first few sentences. You can qualify it, but make sure graders know where you stand.
2. 2. Use specific examples : Vague references (“in many societies…”) score lower than specific ones (“in post-war Japan…” or “according to a Stanford study…”). You do not need to be precisely accurate — the GRE does not fact-check — but specificity signals intelligent thinking.
3. 3. Acknowledge the other side : The best Issue essays address the strongest objection to the writer’s position before dismissing it. This shows analytical maturity.
4. 4. For the Argument task — only critique, never agree or disagree : The biggest mistake students make is writing an Issue-style essay for the Argument task. You are not asked your opinion. You are asked to find the holes in someone else’s reasoning.
5. Write a real conclusion : Do not just restate your intro. Use the conclusion to extend your argument or add a broader implication.
6. Aim for clear, precise sentences : Long, tangled sentences do not impress GRE graders. Clarity is more valuable than complexity.
7. Practise timed writing : Writing under time pressure is a skill. Practise with the official ETS pool at least five times before your test.

Wrapping Up

If you want to obtain a high GRE score, then regularly attend the online GRE mock tests or try to find answers for as many GRE AWA practice test questions as possible. Especially by dealing with the sample GRE essay topics suggested in this blog post, you will be better prepared to tackle the analytical writing section with confidence. When you are attempting to answer sample GRE essay questions, make sure to stick to the 30-minute time limit for each analytical essay prompt. Also, while practicing, use a simple word processor to type your essays so that you will get the best practice for the computer-based GRE. Most importantly, to strengthen your weak spots, after writing your practice essays, review and grade what you have written.

FAQs

1: Are GRE essay topics published in advance?

Yes. ETS publishes the full pool of Issue and Argument topics on their website. You can study them before the test.

2: Do I have to write about topics I personally agree with?

A: No. GRE graders do not evaluate your opinion. They evaluate the quality of your reasoning and writing. Pick the position you can argue most clearly.

3: How important is the GRE essay score?

It varies by programme. Many business and science programmes focus more on the Quantitative score. Law and humanities programmes tend to weigh the Analytical Writing score more heavily.

4: Can I get a 6 without using fancy vocabulary?

Yes. Clarity and logical development matter more than vocabulary. A well-argued essay in simple, precise language will outscore a confusing essay with impressive-sounding words.

5: How long should my GRE essay be?

Aim for 450–600 words for the Issue task and 400–550 for the Argument task. Essays that are too short often lack development. There is no strict word limit, but very long essays rarely score higher than well-developed shorter ones.