For most GRE test takers the essay section is of secondary concern, but it's still advisable to put in enough work to ensure a score of 4 out of 6 to clear the 50th percentile of all test takers. To that end, one baseline tactic to apply is brainstorming for 3-5 minutes about each topic before beginning to write. These brainstorming efforts should be noted directly in the exam interface so that you can write a basic four to five paragraph essay around your notes to ensure efficiency and narrative coherency in the thirty minutes you have to produce each essay. By brainstorming, you'll also be in a better position to organize your thoughts and guarantee a logical progression of your points as you make them.

Issue Essay Brainstorming
One mistake many GRE test takers make in working through the issue essay is allowing their personal beliefs to dictate which side of an issue they choose. This is not necessarily a good idea. Because of the artificial task of writing an essay in 30 minutes or less presented by the GRE, it is better to try and brainstorm examples both for and against the issue and let the quality of your examples dictate your position. You have no time nor resources to conduct thorough research for this task, so whatever examples you can come up with on the fly should dictate your position. No one will ever hold you to the position you take on the GRE issue essay, and sometimes it's easier to come up with examples against a position you have because you are already familiar with counterarguments based on your own life experience.

The best examples will be broad and largely familiar to anyone with a college degree. You should avoid specific hypotheticals or crafting fictional narratives to perfectly fit your argument, because these function as straw man arguments that can be undone with equally perfect hypotheticals arguing the opposing position. So instead of relying on your personal beliefs, consider four sources of possible supporting examples that could be used to validate your reasoning:

• Current Events
• Historical Events
• Arts & Literature
• Popular Culture

Let's consider the following possible issue essay prompt directly from ETS: A nation should require all of its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college.

From current events, an against position could be that with such a polarized electorate a national curriculum could be difficult to dictate in various states. Of course, it could also be posited that a national curriculum could potentially lead to a decrease in polarization by proliferating a common set of facts. Both sides are always defensible on the GRE issue essay, so it really is incumbent upon you to just follow your own train of thought to which position your examples lead to.

Furthermore, from historical events, you might come up with the example of the Nazi party that nationalized schooling in advance of World War II as an example against such a standardized curriculum. Wars, political upheavals, elections, pandemics, or any large societally impactful event from history can often be applied in some fashion to many of these prompts, so consider prepping a piece of specific history that is interesting to you and think about how that event could be used as possible GRE issue essay support.

Similarly, if there is any sort of artwork or piece of literature that you are particularly familiar with, it too can often be applied to support a GRE issue essay position. Consider books from school that you enjoyed as possible resources. For instance many themes from Dickens can be applied to many of these topics or for this idea of scholarly nationalization you might be able to apply themes from the book 1984 as support against conformity.

Lastly, do not be afraid to use ideas from popular culture. I cannot tell you how many essays I have read that cite Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, or some other fantasy world. As long as the content is something that a grader should be vaguely familiar with, it is fair game. Plus, if it is a story that you're passionate about you'll be readily able to produce information from its narrative in support of your position.

Argument Essay Brainstorming
With the argument essay the brainstorming takes a different form. You will need to first clearly identify the argument essay task and type out the conclusion or recommendation requiring evaluation based on the form of the task. Remember that your task with the argument essay is not to attack the conclusion, but to merely pose issues with the argument requiring additional information based on how the specific task is presented.

Once you have written out the argument conclusion in the text box for the exam interface, then consider each of the pieces of evidence provided trying to identify ambiguities in the language that, pending additional information regarding the ambiguities, could strengthen or weaken the argument. To really improve your argument essay score, always try to show how the new information presented could improve the likelihood of the conclusion as well as weaken it. A good rule of thumb is to note as many issues requiring evaluation as possible in fewer than five minutes and then pare down the list to the top three issues with the biggest possible impacts on the likelihood of the conclusion. In many cases a good third issue involved bias. For instance if the argument for increasing the marketing budget of a company in the prompt comes from the desk of the marketing director a simple final issue to investigate is if any other source agrees with the supposition.

By following these brainstorming tips for each of the essays, you'll guarantee that you have a solid organization for your thoughts and avoid the trap of rushing through a convoluted, stream of consciousness writing exercise that ultimately leaves your grader confused.