GRE · Guides · November 6, 2026 · 7 min read
The GRE Issue essay: the six instruction types, the scoring guide and a 30-minute plan
Analytical Writing is the first section of the GRE, and since September 2023 it has had a single task: Analyze an Issue. You get 30 minutes to take a position on a claim and support it in an essay. The score runs from 0 to 6 in half-point steps. ETS’s percentile tables show how much one level matters: a 4.0 beats about 63% of test takers, a 4.5 about 85%, and a 5.0 about 93%. This guide covers the six kinds of instructions you can get, what raters reward, a minute-by-minute plan, and a full outline with a sample paragraph on an original prompt.
What the task looks like
Every prompt has two parts:
- A short claim, recommendation, policy or pair of opposing views. For example, a sentence saying that governments should fund something, or that one kind of education matters more than another.
- A specific instruction that tells you how to respond. This is the part most people read too quickly.
ETS publishes the full pool of Issue topics, and your prompt comes from that pool. Memorizing essays does not work: the pool is large, and ETS checks every essay with similarity-detection software.
You type in a basic word processor with cut, paste and undo, but no spell-check and no grammar check. If you rely on autocorrect, practice without it.
The six instruction types
There is no right position. Raters judge how well you follow the specific instruction and how well you develop your reasoning. Paraphrased, the six instruction types ask you to:
| # | Instruction (paraphrased) | What it really requires |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Say how far you agree or disagree with the statement, and consider when it might or might not hold true | Show the limits of the claim, not just your side |
| 2 | Agree or disagree with a recommendation, using situations where adopting it would or would not be beneficial | Concrete scenarios where the policy works and fails |
| 3 | Agree or disagree with a claim and address the most compelling objections to your view | A paragraph that takes a counterargument seriously and answers it |
| 4 | Decide which of two views is closer to your own, addressing both | Fair treatment of the view you reject |
| 5 | Agree or disagree with a claim and the reason given for it | Evaluate the reason separately from the claim |
| 6 | Discuss a policy, considering the likely consequences of putting it into practice | Predict effects, intended and unintended |
An essay can be fluent and well organized and still lose a level for ignoring the instruction. A type-3 essay with no counterargument, or a type-5 essay that never touches the reason, reads as “largely ignores the task”, which is language from the lower levels of the scoring guide.
What the scores mean
ETS’s scoring guide describes six levels. In short:
| Score | Level | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Outstanding | Insightful position, compelling reasons and examples, tight organization, precise language, only minor errors |
| 5 | Strong | Thoughtful position, logically sound support, well organized, clear language, minor errors |
| 4 | Adequate | Clear position, relevant support, adequately organized, generally correct language with some errors |
| 3 | Limited | Vague or thin development, weak reasoning or organization, errors that sometimes blur meaning |
| 2 | Seriously flawed | Largely ignores the task, few relevant reasons, frequent serious errors |
| 1 | Fundamentally deficient | Little sign of understanding the issue; often very short and incoherent |
| 0 | — | Off topic, in another language, copies the prompt, or is unreadable |
The difference between a 4 and a 5 is usually depth, not vocabulary. A 4 essay gives relevant reasons. A 5 or 6 explains why each reason holds, shows where the claim stops being true, and uses examples that are specific enough to carry the argument.
A 30-minute plan
| Minutes | Step |
|---|---|
| 0–2 | Read the prompt twice. Underline the instruction type. Decide your position: usually a qualified one (“largely agree, except when…”). |
| 2–6 | Plan on the noteboard: thesis in one line, two or three reasons, one specific example for each, the counterargument or limiting case the instruction asks for. |
| 6–9 | Write the introduction: restate the issue in your own words, give your position and the condition that limits it. |
| 9–24 | Write three body paragraphs, about five minutes each. Each one makes a single point, develops it with an example and links it back to the thesis. |
| 24–27 | Write a short conclusion that restates the position and its limit. Do not add new arguments. |
| 27–30 | Proofread: missing words, wrong word forms, sentences that changed direction halfway. |
If you are running out of time, write a two-sentence conclusion rather than none. An essay that ends mid-argument looks less organized than a slightly shorter but complete one.
Worked example: outline and sample paragraph
Here is an original prompt in the GRE style (it is not from the ETS pool):
Claim: Cities should ban private cars from their central districts.
Discuss how far you agree or disagree with this recommendation. Support your view with specific situations in which adopting it would help and situations in which it would not.
This is instruction type 2, so the essay must show both kinds of circumstances.
Outline
- Thesis: A ban works well where strong public transit already exists and the center is compact, but it would hurt cities where transit is weak or where residents depend on cars for work and care.
- Body 1 (advantageous): In a dense historic center with frequent metro and tram service, a ban cuts congestion and pollution and frees street space for walking and delivery. Example: a hypothetical old town where most visitors already arrive by train.
- Body 2 (not advantageous): In a sprawling city with infrequent buses, a ban cuts off workers who commute from outer districts and small businesses that rely on customers who drive. The burden falls on those with the fewest alternatives.
- Body 3 (what decides it): The deciding condition is the alternative, not the car. A city should phase in a ban only as transit capacity grows, with exemptions for disabled residents and deliveries.
- Conclusion: Agree in principle, but only as the last step of a transit policy, not the first.
Sample body paragraph (Body 2)
The recommendation looks far less attractive in a city where the center is reachable only by car. Imagine a regional city whose bus routes run every forty minutes and stop before late shifts end. If such a city closed its center to private vehicles overnight, a hospital cleaner commuting from an outer district would face a two-hour journey instead of a twenty-minute drive, while a downtown hardware store would lose customers who cannot carry heavy goods on a bus. The people who gain most from the ban, residents who already walk to work, are typically the ones who need help least. In this setting the policy does not remove traffic so much as shift its costs onto people with no alternative. A ban, then, is advantageous only when it replaces one good option with another, not when it removes the only option.
Notice what makes this paragraph work. It opens with a clear point tied to the instruction (a situation in which the ban would not help). It builds a specific, believable scenario with concrete details instead of naming a real city and inventing statistics. It draws a consequence (who bears the cost), and the last sentence returns to the thesis. Invented numbers about real places are a risk: raters reward reasoning, and a fabricated fact can undermine an otherwise sound paragraph. Hypothetical but concrete examples, or examples from your own field, are safer.
Common mistakes
- Answering the claim, not the instruction. Read the instruction twice and name its type in your plan.
- An unqualified position. “Absolutely agree” leaves you nothing to say about limits, and most of the six instruction types reward discussing them.
- A generic template. Opening lines that would fit any prompt waste minutes and signal a weak essay.
- Listing examples without explaining them. One example analyzed in four sentences beats three examples mentioned in one sentence each.
- A strawman counterargument. If the instruction asks for objections, pick the strongest one and answer it honestly.
How to practice
Write at least eight timed essays before test day, covering all six instruction types, and compare each with ETS’s scoring guide and the scored sample essays that come with POWERPREP Online.
Nomto’s Issue essay practice gives you original prompts with the same instruction types and a 30-minute timer, in a plain editor without spell-check. An AI model reads each essay against the six-level guide. It gives two independent ratings, averages them to the nearest half point, and explains its score on position, development, organization and language, with suggested rewrites. The result is an estimate, not an ETS score: Nomto is independent and not affiliated with ETS, and GRE is a registered trademark of ETS. To see how the essay fits into the whole test day, read the GRE format guide. To see what your AW score means for admissions, read GRE scores explained.
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