100 GRE Essays, Issue Essays

Author: Qian Kunqiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: In recent years, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) has discovered that although most Chinese students score very high on the GRE, their writing skills are relatively low, leading to many difficulties in their studies in the United States and causing significant for professors. As a result, they began to believe that GRE scores do not fully represent a student's English proficiency. Given this, starting from October 2002, the Educational Testing Service made the "Analytical Writing" section of the GRE exam mandatory. The GRE's "Analytical Writing" consists of two parts: one is a 45-minute "Issue" section. This part often presents a widely discussed phenomenon or raises a common issue, such as: "Progress in ideas is achieved through debate between people with different viewpoints," and then asks examinees to state their opinions on such an issue. Examinees can express their views from any angle, propose their own perspectives, and provide evidence to support their arguments. The other is a 30-minute "Argument" section. The question types in this section are somewhat similar to the single-question logical reasoning section in the past. The questions often provide an argument, supporting evidence for the argument, and a relatively complete reasoning process. The writing task requires examinees not only to express support or opposition to a certain viewpoint but also to conduct an in-depth analysis of the logical relationships of the issue, which means analyzing the argument, evidence, and reasoning process to propose their own judgments and justifications. These questions will pose greater challenges to examinees. The "Issue" and "Argument" sections are complementary to each other. The first question asks examinees to state their own views; the second question asks examinees to critique others' arguments. Such questions can test how examinees clearly articulate a complex issue, present their views in a standardized and fluent manner, and provide supporting evidence; they can also assess examinees' ability to support their arguments with facts and examples while staying focused on the main issue, effectively evaluating their "argumentation (logic) and reasoning (reasoning)" skills. After the GRE writing section became mandatory, it had a significant impact on Chinese examinees. Although most Chinese examinees can barely score 4.0–4.5 on the TOEFL writing section (with only a few scoring 5.0 or above), it is extremely difficult to achieve a score of 4.0 or above on the GRE writing section unless they receive outstanding and effective guidance and training. It has been proven that the number of GRE examinees sharply declined after October 2002 (with exam registration already full before this date), and overall scores dropped significantly. Many Chinese examinees fell into the "minefield" of the writing section. However, dialectical philosophy tells us that even the worst things have a positive side. Applying the English proverb "On man's meat is another man's poison," we can reverse its meaning and rephrase it as "A majority's poison is the minority's meat." The introduction of the GRE writing section has eliminated countless potential competitors for a portion of the outstanding Chinese students. It can be predicted that a very small number of excellent writers will face a smooth path in the future application process, as long as their application materials are well-prepared. Only those with sharp eyes can seize the opportunity, and only those who seize the opportunity can win the victory. This is all you need to remember.