GRE Analytical Writing Retake Guide: The Issue Task, Scoring and Preparation

Since September 22, 2023, the Analytical Writing section has consisted of a single 30-minute Analyze an Issue task, according to ETS. Tests taken before that date included a second task, Analyze an Argument, which no longer appears. The section always comes first, before the Verbal and Quant sections.

The Issue task presents a claim on a topic of general interest along with instructions for responding. Your job, in ETS's framing, is to take and support your own position with reasons and examples. There is no correct side; ETS says raters evaluate how skillfully you address the specific instructions and develop your argument.

You write in a basic word processor that supports inserting and deleting text, cut and paste, and undo. ETS notes that no spellchecker or grammar checker is available.

ETS lists six instruction sets that can accompany an Issue claim. Some ask how far you agree or disagree and how the statement might or might not hold true. Others ask you to weigh a recommendation or a policy by its circumstances or consequences, to address the strongest challenges to your position, to choose between two stated views, or to evaluate both a claim and the reason offered for it.

These differences matter for your score. A well-written essay that ignores the specific instruction, for example by never discussing consequences when the prompt asks about a policy's consequences, is not addressing the task. Before a retake, practice identifying the instruction type in the first minute and planning a paragraph that responds to it directly.

The reported Analytical Writing score runs from 0 to 6 in half-point increments. ETS describes the scoring as holistic, meaning the score reflects the overall quality of the response to the assigned task, and states that essays also receive a score from e-rater, an ETS program that identifies essay features related to writing proficiency. A single score is reported for the measure.

ETS publishes a scoring guide for the Issue task. A 6 presents a cogent, well-articulated analysis; a 5 is generally thoughtful and well developed; a 4 is competent, with a clear position supported by relevant reasons or examples; a 3 is limited, often vague or weakly supported. Reading these levels side by side with your own practice essays is the most direct way to see what separates your score from the next one up.

On mechanics, ETS says an occasional spelling or grammar error will not affect your score, but serious and persistent errors lower it. In discussing test takers whose native language is not English, ETS's guide for institutions adds that scorers are trained to focus on the analytical logic of an essay more than on spelling, grammar or syntax. ETS also reviews essay responses with similarity detection software, so avoid leaning on memorized or shared essay text.

In its guide for score users, ETS encourages programs to treat Verbal, Quant and Analytical Writing as three separate and independent measures, since programs differ in which skills they need most. The same guide describes a GRE essay as best considered a rough first draft, given the time limit and the absence of editing tools. Institutions with access to the ETS Data Manager can read an applicant's actual essay response, not only the number.

For context, ETS's 2026 to 2027 interpretive data list a mean Analytical Writing score of 3.46 for test takers from July 2022 through June 2025. Whether a retake is worthwhile depends on the programs you are applying to; if a program states a writing expectation, that is the benchmark to use. When you have more than one score, ETS notes that programs may look at the most recent, the highest or an average, and it recommends that each program apply one approach consistently.

ETS has published the full pool of Issue topics from which your task will be drawn, along with a sample task, scored sample responses and rater commentary. Those materials are the core of a sensible plan.

ETS suggests that some people practice without a time limit at first and others start with timed attempts; either works, as long as you finish with several full 30-minute essays.

ETS advises budgeting time to consider the issue and its instructions, plan, write, and still leave a few minutes at the end to check for obvious errors. One workable split is roughly five minutes to plan, twenty to write and five to review, adjusted to how quickly you draft.

The planning minutes are the ones retakers most often skip. ETS's own planning questions are a good checklist: what exactly is the central issue, what do the instructions ask you to do, under what conditions would the claim hold, and what would someone who disagrees say? Jotting answers to two or three of those before writing usually produces a more focused essay than starting to type immediately.

From the scoring guide itself, the difference between a 4 and a 5 lies mostly in development and precision: logically sound reasons, well-chosen examples and ideas connected clearly. Moving from a 3 to a 4 is often about following the specific instructions and replacing unsupported assertions with relevant reasons or examples.

ETS notes that raters know high scores can come from several shorter examples or one extended example, and that clarity matters more than the number of paragraphs. So rather than lengthening your essays, make each paragraph advance the argument, and address a serious counterpoint where the instructions call for it.

RetakePrep covers Verbal and Quant only and does not include Analytical Writing practice, so for this section rely on the official ETS topic pool, scoring guide and sample essays.