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GRE Essay LiveGrader

You've probably heard about the Analytical Writing Assessment (AWA) essays on the GRE. They're nothing to fear, but you should know that the way they are graded is different from what you're used to.

The best way to prepare for the GRE essay is to write one and have it graded by an expert, using the same guidelines that are used for the real GRE. GRE Essay LiveGrader sm  helps you to do just that.

LiveGrader   sm  is a tool that we've developed to help you prepare for the GRE. All Princeton Review classroom, online, and tutoring students can submit their GRE essays which will then be graded by one of our GRE experts. Not only will our expert grader score your GRE essays, but he or she will also provide personalized feedback that will help you maximize your score on the AWA portion of the GRE.

Frequently Asked Questions about GRE Essay  LiveGrader sm

How is my gre essay graded.

After you submit your GRE essay, one of our expert graders will score it using the same guidelines that are used for the GRE. Essays will be scored holistically, which means that your GRE essay will be judged as a whole, not just on the basis of particular traits.

Who will grade my GRE essay?

A trained and certified Princeton Review expert grader will grade your GRE essay. Our experienced graders know what makes a strong GRE essay; many have graded thousands of essays.

Do I have to write about a specific topic for my GRE essay?

Yes. The essay "prompts" ask you to write on specific topics; one will ask you to analyze an argument, the other will ask you to analyze an issue. Your GRE essay must address the issues presented in the prompts. GRE essays written on any other topic will receive a score of zero.

How are the GRE essays different from the essays I wrote in school?

Unlike many essays you write in school, you'll only have 30 minutes, and you won't be able to use reference materials. Graders won't be expecting perfection; they will be judging your GRE essay for what it is: a first draft. Furthermore, the person grading your GRE essay will only spend 2–3 minutes evaluating your writing.

When I use  LiveGrader sm , will I receive just a score, or will I get comments too?

Your GRE essay will be given a score ranging from 0–6. LiveGrader will also provide you with personalized feedback. Your report will tell you what worked well on your GRE essay and how you can improve it to earn a higher score on the real GRE AWA.

How do I get my score?

We will e–mail your score and personalized feedback within 3–5 days after you submit your GRE essay. You can also access your score on the website, once it has been posted.

What would you score on the MCAT today?

Thank you! Look for the MCAT Review Guide in your inbox.

I already know my score.

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Home > Grad School Admissions > GRE > GRE Practice Test

GRE Practice Test

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Congrats on taking our GRE Sample Quiz. Take one of our full-length GRE exams or practice sets. Everything is 100% free!

1 . Question

A square PQRS is enclosed in another square ABCD. Find the ratio of the area of PQRS to the area of ABCD.

gre essay practice online

2 . Question

What would be the circumference of a circle that has been inscribed in a square of area 5.

3 . Question

A house is built by 20 workers in 30 days. How many workers will be needed to complete the work in 15 days?

4 . Question

Triangle ABC is an isosceles triangle.

gre essay practice online

  • a. Quantity A is greater
  • b. Quantity B is greater
  • c. Both Quantities are equal
  • d. The relationship cannot be determined

5 . Question

Consider the following equation and choose the correct answer.

14- 5x > 7

6 . Question

What is the number of degrees moved by the hour hand of a clock in going from 11 am to 3:30 pm?

7 . Question

There are ‘n’ number of sweets in a box. The total weight of the box is 2 pounds. After some time, you note that Alice ate ¾ of the total sweets. Now the box weighs 0.8 pounds. What is the weight of empty box if Alice eats the remaining ¼ sweets as well?

Answer as a decimal rounded to nearest tenth (e.g., 0.8 or 1.2)

8 . Question

Bale, Rio and John are playing a game in which each one of them have to choose a chit from a total of 20 chits. Each of these 20 chits has a number written on it from 1 to 20 and no number is repeated twice. The one who picks up a chit which is either multiple of 5 or 6 will have to serve others a smoked chicken pizza. Bale tries his luck first. What is the probability that he will be the one who will have to serve other pizza?

Answer as a fraction in simplest form (e.g., 1/4 or 3/5)

9 . Question

For all values of x and y if x < y < (x+y) which of the following must be negative. Indicate all possible options:

10 . Question

If 6!/3 m  is an integer, which of the following options are greater than the largest possible value of m? Indicate all possible values.

More GRE Practice Tests

If you want some more in-depth prep, use a free GRE practice test listed below.

  • Practice Exams = Timed and Full-Length
  • Practice Sets = Not Timed and Smaller Sets of Questions

GRE Practice Exam #1

GRE Practice Exam #2

GRE Quant Practice Set

GRE Verbal Practice Set

Find Your Prep Course

If you are serious about getting a top score on the GRE, consider a top-rated GRE course.

Overview of the GRE

The GRE is used by graduate schools during the application process. The exam was recently updated and made significantly shorter.

Fast Facts:

  • 5 Total Sections
  • 1 Hour 58 Minutes Long
  • 54 Questions

The 5 sections on the exam are:

  • Analytical Writing: 1 Essay, 30 Minutes
  • Verbal Reasoning (Section 1): 12 Questions, 18 Minutes
  • Verbal Reasoning (Section 2): 15 Questions, 23 Minutes
  • Quantitative Reasoning (Section 1): 12 Questions, 21 Minutes
  • Quantitative Reasoning (Section 2): 15 Questions, 26 Minutes

An image showing an overview of the GRE exam and the different sections

For more information on the exam, like question types, read our GRE overview article.

Scoring of the GRE

You will receive the following three scores:

  • Analytical Writing: 0-6
  • Verbal Reasoning: 130-170
  • Quantitative Reasoning: 130-170

Your verbal score will come from the two verbal sections and your quantitative score will come from the two quantitative sections.

For more detailed information, read our guide to GRE scores .

Registering for the GRE and Test Day

The GRE is very easy to register for and can be done online. You will need to create an ETS account to register. Here is a link to  create an ETS account .

You are given two options when it comes to taking the GRE:

  • Online at Home: Take the exam online from your home.
  • Online at Testing Center: Take the exam at a testing center. The exam is still given on a computer.

You will need to pay a fee to take the exam. The fee varies depending on your country, but you can expect to pay around $220.

Studying for the GRE

When studying for the GRE, we recommend following these steps:

  • Take a Practice Exam: Take a full-length exam to get a baseline and see where you stand.
  • Review Your Results: After completing your exam, review your answer explanations and see which section you struggled with the most.
  • Focus Your Studies: Focus your studies on the specific areas that gave you the most trouble. This could include a specific section or a type of question. You can use study guides, flashcards, more GRE practice tests, or a GRE prep course  in this step.
  • Take Another Practice Exam: After spending time focusing your studies, take another practice exam and see if your score improved.
  • Re-evaluate Where You Stand: After taking another full-length exam, see where you stand. Did your score improve or not?
  • Repeat Steps 3 Through 5: Repeat these steps until you are completely comfortable with all sections of the exam.

Benefits of Taking a Free GRE Practice Test

You will find that using GRE practice questions has many benefits. Some of the major benefits include:

  • Familiarity of the Exam: You will be exposed to the format and types of questions that are asked on the actual GRE exam. This will help you eliminate any surprises when taking the real exam.
  • Timing: One of the things that makes the GRE challenging is the timing aspect of the exam. You will be able to practice your timing when using a GRE mock test. Don’t worry if you run out of time when practicing. This will allow you to be realistic with yourself and help you figure it out before taking the real exam.
  • Find Weak Areas: Practicing for the GRE will help you find which areas you struggle with. You can use this to narrow down your studies, which will help you study more efficiently.
  • Better Problem Solving: Taking practice exams will help you learn new ways to solve problems. You may review one of our answer explanations and discover a more efficient way to solve a problem. This will help you save time when taking the exam.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many sections are on the gre.

There are 5 different sections on the GRE:

  • Analytical Writing
  • Verbal Reasoning (Section 1)
  • Verbal Reasoning (Section 2)
  • Quantitative Reasoning (Section 1)
  • Quantitative Reasoning (Section 2)

Is the GRE timed?

Yes, the exam is timed. The exam will take a total of 1 hour and 58 minutes.

The time limits for each section are:

  • Analytical Writing: 30 Minutes
  • Verbal Reasoning (Section 1): 18 Minutes
  • Verbal Reasoning (Section 2): 23 Minutes
  • Quantitative Reasoning (Section 1): 21 Minutes
  • Quantitative Reasoning (Section 2): 26 Minutes

How much does the GRE cost?

The price varies depending on where you are located and what GRE test you are taking.

For most of the world, the GRE general test currently costs $220.

GRE subject tests are standardized for the whole world and currently costs $150.

Do you get a formula sheet on the GRE?

The GRE does not provide formulas for students. Students will be expected to memorize various formulas to do well on the exam. Some common formulas students should have memorized for the GRE test include:

  • Area of a circle
  • Circumference of a circle
  • Area of a square
  • Perimeter of a square
  • Area of a rectangle
  • Perimeter of a rectangle
  • Area of a triangle
  • Distance, rate and time
  • Interest rate
  • Compound interest

How long do GRE scores last?

GRE scores last for a total of 5 years. The five year timeline starts from the day you took your exam.

Can you retake the GRE?

You can retake the GRE once every 21 days. You can take the exam a maximum of 5 times in a 12-month period.

gre essay practice online

  • Authored By: Trevor Klee
  • Last Updated: January 25, 2024

Free Online GRE AWA Essay Grader

Automatic essay rating software for practice.

  The GRE analytical writing is a small but important component of the test that troubles many international test takers. We’ve had several candidates asking us:

  • “How can I rate my GRE AWA essay for practice?”
  • “Can I download a free GRE essay e-rater?”

Well, there are a few paid options offered by some test prep companies. But not much out there that’s free and a close approximation of the real deal. So we created this free essay grader for GRE essays.

Conceptualized and developed by Sameer Kamat , the software uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) principles and our understanding of how AWA essays are evaluated. We know it’s far from perfect, since no automated essay grader can accurately do (yet) what the trained human brain can. And it’s definitely not the equivalent of a free ScoreItNow report, if that’s what you wanted.

But we hope it’s better than having no feedback at all on your practice AWA essays during the GRE preparation journey.  

Grade my GRE Essay

There is no software to download. You can use our free online GRE essay immediately. All you need to do is:

  • Type or paste your GRE essay in the box below. [Wait for the text box to load. If it’s taking too long, refresh the page.]
  • Click on the ‘Check’ button
  • Your essay grade along with the breakup across 3 dimensions (Structure, Readability and Coherence) will be displayed.

Here’s a brief introduction to the various sub-topics that our online essay evaluator covers:

Organization: This checks the attributes related to the building blocks of GRE essays i.e. attributes related to the words, sentences and paragraphs in the AWA essay.

Readability: This tests (using industry standard metrics) how easy it is for the reader to grasp what you have written. Try to maintain a balance between the over-simplistic and the hard-to-comprehend approach.

Coherence: This goes into the nuances of natural language processing and evaluates how you have connected the building blocks using the appropriate English language constructs.

ETS Logo

ScoreItNow! ™ Online Writing Practice Service for the GRE ® General Test

ScoreItNow! ™ Online Writing Practice is designed to help you practice for the Analytical Writing section of the GRE ® General Test administered beginning on September 22, 2023. Using ETS's e-rater ® technology, the automated scoring system provides immediate essay scoring in a confidential, risk-free environment.

This service lets you:

  • Respond to GRE Analytical Writing topics created and tested by ETS test authors.
  • Submit your responses online and get immediate scores on your responses from ETS's e-rater automated scoring system.
  • Review scored sample essay responses on the topics you select.
  • Review general suggestions for improving your writing skills.
  • Receive diagnostic feedback on your responses.

The fee for the ScoreItNow! Online Writing Practice service is US$20, which entitles you to write essay responses on two GRE Analytical Writing topics and receive an e-rater score for each.

In addition, after you have submitted the two essay responses for scoring, you will have the option to write and submit essay responses on six FREE bonus Analytical Writing topics for more practice. You will receive a score on each essay response that you submit on these bonus topics.

NOTE: Although performance on ScoreItNow! essay topics is not an exact predictor of how you might perform on the GRE Analytical Writing measure during an actual GRE General Test administration, you are encouraged to write the ScoreItNow! essay responses under timed conditions to get a better sense of how you might perform on the actual test.

Using ScoreItNow! Online Writing Practice is easy

  • Sign-up to use the service.
  • Preview the GRE Analytical Writing task and topics.
  • Review the GRE Analytical Writing scoring guides, sample topics and score level descriptions.
  • Choose the Practice Option to compose your essay responses offline under untimed conditions, or the Test Experience Option to compose your responses online under timed conditions.
  • Submit your essay responses for immediate scoring.

Returning User

Forgot User Name? Forgot password?

Purchase the ScoreItNow! Online Writing Practice service for US$20. The service allows you to write and receive scores for two essay responses.

Note: If you have a Voucher Code, create an account to activate.

Learn more about ScoreItNow!

The Magoosh logo is the word Magoosh spelled with each letter o replaced with a check mark in a circle.

Score Your GRE Essay

How do i score my gre essay.

Plenty of students want to improve their GRE analytical writing skills, and the only real way to do so is writing, and writing a lot.

But there is a catch-22 here: how do you improve your writing if you aren’t a good writer? How can you identify places to improve if you don’t know what needs improvement? How can you identify an error if you commit the error? These are all valid concerns, but trust me, you just need to start writing.

But we won’t send you out to sea without a life vest. We now have an essay rubric that breaks down the four aspects of writing that count towards your score—Quality of Ideas, Organization, Writing Style, and Grammar & Usage.

If you don’t know what those are now, you will soon. Each column represents one aspect of writing and each row represents a level from 0 to 6. Each cell of the rubric describes a specific aspect of writing at a specific level.

MagooshEssayRubricfortheGREGMAT

How to Use the GRE Essay Grading Rubric

Improve your GRE score with Magoosh.

After completing the essay, you’ll need to check the four aspects of your writing. Even better, ask a friend to look over the essay and provide you a score. Give each aspect of your essay a score ranging from zero to six.

Total all four scores and find the average. Now you have a sense of your writing score. Round scores up as follows: Round a score of 4.25 to 4.5 and a score of 3.75 to 4.

Of course evaluating your own writing will be hard if you don’t know what to look for, but this is a perfect time to improve and practice. Taking a break between writing your essay and evaluating it will help to give you a more objective eye. Also, reading the essay aloud will help you to hear errors.

If you are unsure about your style, grammar, and usage, plug your essay into the Hemingway App . This is not a perfect piece of software, but it’s better than nothing and will catch a lot of grammar and usage errors.

Quality of Ideas:

  • Are the ideas creative, compelling, and relevant?
  • Did you use an expected, typical example?
  • Did you talk about two sides of the issue or just one?
  • Were you attacking the major components of the argument or just the minor ones?
  • Were the reasons feasible, believable, and relevant to the topic?

Organization:

  • Is there an introduction and conclusion?
  • Does the response flow from paragraph to paragraph?
  • Are there a lot of structure words to guide the reader, such as “for example,” “first,” or “further”?
  • Is it easy to find the main idea of a paragraph and determine what the specific details supporting that idea are?
  • Is it easy to understand the development of an idea and how it relates to the passage as a whole?

Writing Style:

  • Are there a mix of short sentences and long sentences?
  • Are there a variety of sentence structures—simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex?
  • Are the same words often repeated or are there a lot of synonyms and rephrasing?
  • Are the sentences easy to read?
  • Can the reader understand the ideas in a sentence?
  • Do readers have to re-read a sentence multiple times to understand it?

Grammar and Usage:

  • Are there misspelled words?
  • Are the lists and comparisons parallel in structure?
  • Are there any subject-verb agreement errors or pronoun-antecedent errors?
  • Are there any run-on sentences or sentence fragments?
  • Are commas, dashes, and semi-colons used correctly?
  • Are there any modification problems—dangling modifiers or ambiguous ones?

Go to the Source

All the information that you see in our rubric is based on information published by ETS. If you need sample essays at different score levels or want to read more about the AWA and how it is graded, I highly recommend reading through An Introduction to the Analytical Writing Section of the GRE .

This is a long document and contains a lot of detail. If you want to see the different scoring level descriptions used to create our rubric, here they are:

  • Score Level Descriptions
  • GRE Scoring Guide – Analyze an Issue
  • GRE Scoring Guide – Analyze an Argument

I recommend taking the time to become familiar with the difference between a “3” essay and a “4” essay. To truly become a better self-grader, or to even become a better grader for someone else, you need to become more familiar with the particular grading requirements of ETS.

If you don’t know a lot of the phrases and questions above, you’ll have a lot of practice and learning to do. But better to do it now, then wait until you have to write a paper in your grad school class.

Most people fired from a job aren’t surprised. They know where they have slacked and why they lost their job. I am sure that you can read your writing and know that there are problems (or that everything is great). I hope the rubric gives you a little more traction for evaluating your writing so that you know what you need to work on to improve.

Note: Some students might wonder why the rubric is for the GRE and GMAT. Both test evaluate essays in the same way, so the rubric will work for either test. 🙂

Kevin Rocci

At UC Santa Cruz, Kevin Rocci began a decade of teaching and tutoring with the Stevenson College Junior Fellow and Writing Assistance programs . He has worked with adults and kids, tutoring the GRE, GMAT, and SAT at Kaplan and teaching English as a Second Language in the JET Programme and at the Intercultural Institute of California . At Magoosh, he expanded beyond teaching, building and managing teams, like Student Help and Content. When he’s not Magooshing, you can find him spinning his toddler in circles. Connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter .

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Top GRE Scores - image by Magoosh

27 responses to “Score Your GRE Essay”

Sisir Avatar

Thanks for the rubric, Kevin! I think at my current level, I can manage a 5 on the GRE. Trying to push it further to maybe hit that 5.5 (hopefully 6) mark!

Magoosh Expert

Good luck, and keep up the hard work!

Anna Avatar

Tiny typo, where “their” should be “there:”

“Writing Style:

Are there a mix of short sentences and long sentences? Are their a variety of sentence structures—simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex?”

AHHH! Thanks for letting me know. I’ve fixed it. 🙂

Ishani Avatar

Can you please share a website or link where I could find a pool of AWA topics to practice?

Thanks, Ishani

You don’t need to look anywhere except at the official website! 🙂 https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/analytical_writing/argument/pool and https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/analytical_writing/issue/pool are your resources.

praveen Avatar

I need to know Is there any website where it can evaluate my essays on issue and argument tasks?

Hi Praveen,

Yes, I would check out this blog post that will help you with this!

mrinmoy Avatar

i want to know that from where i can get lots of samples of Issue and Argument essay. And another thing that i’d like to ask that after finishing Magoosh GRE vocabulary flashcards apps from where i should continue to learn words. However, is reading Manhattan GRE books good for both verbal and quantitative section?

Ksu Avatar

Hello! Thank you for a very thorough explanation on GRE AWA scoring and tips!

Just wanted to point out that the link to “An Introduction to the Analytical Writing Section of the GRE” doesn’t work properly; although can be found easily on ETS website 🙂

Kevin Rocci

Glad to hear that the post helps! 😀

And thank you for letting us know about that link not working. I changed the URL, so it should work now! 😀

Shashi Yadav Avatar

Dear Chris, Please could you tell me as to how can we get our essays graded.

Hi Shashi! 😀

If you’d like to get your essays graded (but not by us), this post will help with that:

How to Get Your AWA Practice Essays Graded

Hope that helps! 😀

Cornelia Avatar

I’d love to download the pdf, but the links don’t seem to be working…?

Hi Cornelia, Can you give it a try again? I just tried it and it worked for me. I am using a Chrome browser on a Mac. Let me know if you are still having trouble. 😀

Puskar Joshi Avatar

I have consistently scored 4.0 in the AW section in the past three tests. I want to improve my score and would like to score between 4.5 to 5.0. To let you know haven’t got help from anyone beside Princeton’s GRE practice material or/and GRE AW instructions.

Do you have any special program to assist me?

Congrats on your score of 4.0! That’s admirable and something to be proud of! 😀

If you are looking to push your score to the 5.0 level, you’ll most likely need to work on creating more sophisticated responses and eliminating errors from your writing. You’ll need to do this with lots and lots of practice! 😀 I recommend that you work through the AWA prompts listed on the ETS website. Here are the links:

https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/analytical_writing/issue/pool https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/analytical_writing/argument/pool

You should spend time learning these prompts and writing essays for these prompts since they might appear on the test. Outline your ideas, work on examples, and practice writing balanced responses to each prompt. From there, you can use this post to evaluate your writing and look for ways to improve. 😀

I hope this helps!

Happy Studying!

Viet Avatar

Hi Kevin! Thanks for the great tips. Above, you mentioned the Hemmingway App. Do you recommend purchasing this product to help improve my writing for the AWA? The product is $6.99.

I am glad you liked the post! 😀 You probably don’t need to purchase the app. You can use the web version to help you evaluate the writing. But if you think it is a great app and you really like it, you could purchase the desktop version to support the people who built it. 😀

clare Avatar

Thanks in advance for your help.

Question: do we have to worry about the difference between the Issue Task questions that ask about “field of inquiry” vs “field of endeavor”? I’m unclear as to what the difference between these are, but I’m wondering whether I should even worry about what the differences are. I appreciate your input.

Hi Clare! Happy to help! 🙂 The difference between those terms are very small. I would not worry too much about the language. Both refer to similar activities—either asking questions or trying to reach a goal. Usually, though, asking the questions, inquiring, is meant to reach some goal. So the difference is slight, and ultimately, won’t affect the essay you write. 😀 I hope that helps.

Jane Avatar

I took the GRE and met the requirements for the program at my school for verbal and quantitative, but I needed 4 on the writing and I only got a 3.5. I figured the writing part would be the easiest, so I barely prepared for it! The second time I took it I just focused on studying for the writing part. I went through and read the entire pool of questions on the ETS website and timed myself and practiced writing different essays. I was so upset when I got my score back and it was even worse than the first time, I got a 3! Now I’m freaking out. Any advice?

Hi Jane! Thanks for reading! 😀

I am sorry to hear that you are still struggling with the writing section. That’s frustrating, especially if you went through the whole pool of essays! That’s a lot of work you put in. Without seeing your essay, I have to make some assumptions about why you are falling in the 3 range. Either you are not writing enough and not coming up with enough detail, or you are committing a lot stylistic and grammatical errors, or you are not organizing and completing your essay. Does any of this sound like your essays that you wrote on the test?

I think the best thing to do would be to look at the sample essays that ETS provides and study the difference between a 3 essay and a 4, 5, and 6, essay. This will give you a sense of what you need to do in your own writing to boost your scores. Here are links to the sample essays from ETS:

List of AWA Issue Sample Responses LIst of AWA Argument Sample Responses

I hope that this helps! 😀 Happy studying!

Abhinav Avatar

Thank you for this wonderful post. I have a question: Does a major difference in the Issue grading and the Argument grading affect the overall score in any way? I find the Argument essay easier and easy to score a 4/5, the issue is not always easy and expecting a 2/3 on average. Is the overall score always the average of the two, irrespective of the score difference?

Happy to help! I am glad to hear that you enjoyed this post. 🙂

According to ETS, your writing score is the average of the scores for your two essays. This is what they say: “The scores given for the two tasks are then averaged for a final reported score.” So two readers graders will read and grade each essay, and then the scores are averaged to give you a Writing Score. 🙂

Does that make sense? Let me know if I can be more clear. 🙂

Dan Avatar

Thank you. I’d like to incorporate more writing into my daily GRE schedule. Any thoughts on how to do that constructively?

Hi Dan, happy to help! 🙂

First, I definitely recommend working through the Issue and Argument Essay prompts on the ETS website. These are all the possible prompts that you will see on the test, so the more familiar you are with them, the more prepared you will be for the essay part of the test.

–https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/analytical_writing/issue/pool –https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/prepare/analytical_writing/argument/pool

With those in hand, the best way to practice is just start writing. The more timed writing you do, the better your essay will be and the more that you’ll be able to write on test day.

I know that writing an entire essay everyday might be too much to take on, so I recommend simplifying it. I would suggest two times a week writing a complete argument and issue essay, but the rest of the time, shorten your time limit and only write part of the essay. For example, set a timer for 10 minutes and try to brainstorm and then write 2 strong body paragraphs of an issue essay. Or set a timer for 5 minutes and try to outline an essay and write the introduction. In this way, you become familiar with the different prompts and practice timed writing without committing to a full essay.

Lastly, I recommend looking at some of our other articles on the AWA section. There are sample essays and other great tips and strategies that I am sure you will find useful. 🙂

–https://magoosh.com/gre/category/writing/

I hope that his helps! Let me know how it goes. 🙂

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Of all the different kinds of questions on the GRE, the GRE Issue essay question can seem like the most daunting to answer completely correctly. Instead of choosing from a selection of already-made answers or filling in a numerical solution, you must write hundreds of words in an attempt to fulfill rubric criteria, knowing that there is no one right answer to the question.

To help make this Herculean task more manageable, we’ll go over the Issue essay GRE rubric in depth and offer our top GRE Issue essay tips to help you score highly every time.

Feature image credit: Bruce Berrien /Flickr

Do You Need a 6 GRE Writing Score?

In general, your GRE Writing score is the least important of your GRE scores. No grad school will require you to get a 6.0 on the essay. A 4.5 is a good GRE writing score for most schools and programs, regardless of the discipline. Even programs that have cutoff scores for writing-heavy programs, like UNC’s Media & Journalism graduate degrees , don’t require anything above a 4.5.

If you’re looking to emphasize your writing skills (for example, if you’re an international student whose first language is not English and you want to show that you can write well in English), a higher score (5.0+) can help. However, even in those instances, a perfect 6.0 score isn’t going to be necessary.

Some doctoral programs, like Harvard’s Education Ph.D. , might have higher average scores, but that’s a function of the students applying being strong writers (which you have to be to make it to the doctoral level), rather than the program itself requiring certain scores. For Ph.D. programs, you’ll have the opportunity to demonstrate your analytical thinking skills in other ways that are weighted more heavily than your GRE Analytical Writing score.

Learn more about what you’ll need to get into grad school with our article on grad school requirements !

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What Goes Into a 6-Scoring GRE Issue Essay?

The best way to determine what is needed for a perfect Issue essay score is to take a look at the official rubric and go over how the human essay grader is rating your essay.

To show the differences between a passable Issue essay and a perfect Issue essay, I’ve created a side-by-side comparison of the criteria for a 4-scoring and 6-scoring Issue essay on the GRE.

To summarize the information above, a perfect 6 Issue essay:

  • Must make sense logically
  • Must be precise in its discussion of the issue and the author’s stance on the issue
  • Must include support for the author’s position that persuades the reader to the author’s point of view
  • Must be organized and flow smoothly from idea to idea
  • Must be well-written

In order to achieve a perfect score on the Issue essay, you must excel in every one of these areas.

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Official GRE Issue Essay Example, Analyzed

Now we’ll take a look at a sample GRE Issue essay that’s already been assigned a score of 6 and find all the ways in which it fulfills the rubric. Doing this analysis will help show how the rubric is applied by taking the abstract criteria and showing concrete examples.

For the purposes of this analysis, we’ll be using excerpts from this officially-scored essay . Here’s the prompt the essay is addressing:

As people rely more and more on technology to solve problems, the ability of humans to think for themselves will surely deteriorate.

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.

The sample essay we’ll be discussing argues against this statement, taking the position that rather than fearing technology will make human thinking obsolete, we should embrace the possibilities and human potential unlocked by technology.

I’ll next go over how each of the rubric criteria applies to this particular sample essay. The first item in the rubric is a holistic description of a perfect-scoring GRE Issue essay:

Rubric description : In addressing the specific task directions, a 6 response presents a cogent, well-articulated analysis of the issue and conveys meaning skillfully

This item is meant to be an umbrella under which the next four criteria can fall; if an essay meets each of the four non-general criteria listed in the rubric, then it will exemplify this holistic description. The above description is also useful as a catchall reminder of what a perfect-scoring essay should look like, since essay graders aren’t necessarily going through the rubric item-by-item for each essay.

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The first of the non-general rubric items has to do with how well an author makes her point of view clear throughout the essay.

Rubric description : A 6 essay articulates a clear and insightful position on the issue in accordance with the assigned task

The sample essay successfully meets this requirement in a couple of different ways. In the essay, the author’s position on the issue (a counterargument to the prompt) is articulated in a series of logical steps over the course of the entire essay as well as in a final thesis statement.

Starting with the acknowledgement that “technology has revolutionized the world” in the first paragraph, the author goes on to make the argument that “reliance on technology does not necessarily preclude the creativity that marks the human species” (paragraph three), demonstrating a firm grasp of the issue through a nuanced, rather than absolute, position.

With each succeeding paragraph, the author continues to develop her position on the issue with clarity and insight. The author expands the initial argument to claim that “technology frees the human imagination” (paragraph four) and “By increasing our reliance on technology, impossible goals can now be achieved” (paragraph five).

The author’s final statement on the issue condenses the author’s point of view into a single sentence: “There is no need to retreat to a Luddite attitude to new things, but rather embrace a hopeful posture to the possibilities that technology provides for new avenues of human imagination.” This last sentence is not only the logical conclusion to the author’s clearly stated position, but is in itself a clear statement of the author’s position.

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The next rubric item is concerned with how well an author develops and supports her points.

Rubric description : A 6 essay develops the position fully with compelling reasons and/or persuasive examples

As I noted in the discussion of the first rubric description, the author’s basic position in this essay is that we should not fear technology because it is new and unknown, but instead embrace it because of the possibilities it offers for our future. In addition to developing her position through an insightful position articulated through the essay, however, the author also does an excellent job of supporting her points with examples and reasoning. Here’s an excerpt from the essay that illustrates this development and support:

“The car, computer and phone all release additional time for people to live more efficiently. This efficiency does not preclude the need for humans to think for themselves. In fact, technology frees humanity to not only tackle new problems, but may itself create new issues that did not exist without technology. For example, the proliferation of automobiles has introduced a need for fuel conservation on a global scale. With increasing energy demands from emerging markets, global warming becomes a concern inconceivable to the horse-and-buggy generation.”

In the above excerpt, the author develops her point with three actions:

#1: She presents examples to support her point that efficiency is enabled by technology (car, computer, and phone).

#2: She explains what the existence of these examples implies (efficiency doesn’t mean lack of thinking).

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#3: She follows up with further reasoning about new issues created by technology (technology means humans can tackle new problems, including new issues created by technology). This reasoning is then backed up by more examples (cars and increasing energy demand), starting the cycle over again.

The examples and reasoning the author employs in her essay are compelling not just because they are logically consistent with the author’s argument, but because they are explained in a way that makes this link clear. If the author has said “In fact, technology frees humanity to not only tackle new problems, but may itself create new issues that did not exist without technology. An example of this is the automobile and increasing energy demands because of it,” the examples would have still been present, but not explained in a compelling or persuasive way.

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The third non-general rubric item drills down even deeper into the logic of the author’s writing and analysis.

Rubric description : A 6 essay sustains a well-focused, well-organized analysis, connecting ideas logically

While with the previous rubric item I discussed the necessity of having a logical connection between the author’s position and the support for that position, this item refers to the author’s skill in connecting different ideas throughout the essay.

In addition to having a logical progression of the analysis (which is captured under the first rubric item to some extent as well), a perfect-scoring Issue essay must also have logical transitions between ideas . A good example of this occurs in this essay in the transition between the end of paragraph two and the beginning of paragraph three:

“Technology short circuits this thinking by making the problems obsolete.

However, this reliance on technology does not necessarily preclude the creativity that marks the human species.”

The first sentence of paragraph three (“However…species”) connects the ideas of paragraphs two and three. The author forges a link between the two ideas by restating the last-discussed idea from paragraph two (technology does take away some problems) in a way that sets up the idea to be discussed in the next paragraph (reliance on technology doesn’t mean humans won’t think for themselves). Specifically, the author does this by using a transition word (“However”) to link a reference to previously discussed ideas (“this reliance on technology”) with a reference to what’s coming next (“technology does not necessarily preclude creativity”).

The tightness of the logical connection between the two paragraphs and ideas also means that the essay stays organized and focused on the task at hand (presenting the author’s position on and analysis of the issue).

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The last rubric item assesses the writer’s overall skill in use of language and standard, error-free English.

Rubric description : A 6 essay conveys ideas fluently and precisely, using effective vocabulary and sentence variety. Demonstrates superior facility with the conventions of standard written English (i.e., grammar, usage and mechanics), but may have minor errors.

This final set of criteria has less to do with the topic being discussed and more on the writer’s ability to indicate precise meaning through appropriate use of language. The final sentence of the essay provides a good example of this:

“There is no need to retreat to a Luddite attitude to new things, but rather embrace a hopeful posture to the possibilities that technology provides for new avenues of human imagination.”

This sentence uses effective language (Luddite, avenues of human imagination) that precisely conveys meaning. For instance, “Luddite” is a term that is generally used to mean resistance to technology, but more specifically has its origins in a group of people who were worried about what advances in technology meant for human workers, so it is particularly appropriate for this essay about the effects of technology on human abilities.

Another reason I chose to use this excerpt is because while the author uses effective language, there are still some minor errors (as the rubric description allows for). In this sentence, “but rather” is used incorrectly because it refers back to the subject “There,” which makes no sense with the “but rather” phrase. One correct way to say this would be, “ We should not retreat into a Luddite attitude toward new things, but rather embrace a hopeful posture to the possibilities that technology provides for new avenues of human imagination.”

In a way, this rubric area is the “icing on a cake” domain—you can have a reasonably clear and insightful essay without a high level of skill in this domain, but if you don’t use language skillfully your cake of an essay is not going to taste as good and won’t score a perfect score. And if you try to load your essay with advanced vocabulary words without care for whether or not they make sense in context, you’ll end up with lumpy frosting that makes the cake worse than it would’ve been without the icing.

Don't let your words be the uneven frosting on the delicious banana cake of your essay! Tim Pierce/Flickr

4 Steps to a Perfect GRE Issue Essay

As a summing-up of all the information in this article, I’ll go over the four essential GRE Issue essay tips to reliably achieve a high score.

#1: Include a Clear Thesis

To fulfill the basic requirements of any GRE Issue essay task, you need to make your position on the issue clear . The easiest way to do this is with an introduction paragraph , or at the very least an introductory sentence at the beginning of your first paragraph, that outlines the issue and where you stand on it.

There is no explicit requirement on the rubric that you include an introduction and conclusion in your essay, and in fact ETS encourages students to be as freeform as fits the topic and task at hand. However, if you don’t start your essay with some kind of introduction and wrap up your points at the end with some kind of conclusion, you run the risk of being unclear about your position. Not only can this be a problem for the reader, but without a clear thesis statement at the beginning of your essay to keep you focused, you may find yourself meandering off topic, resulting in a disorganized and inconsistent essay.

Thus, we strongly recommend beginning your essay with at least an introductory sentence and wrapping it up with a conclusion statement. You don’t have to have entire paragraphs devoted to each, but it is useful to bracket your essay between an introduction and conclusion to keep your thesis front and center.

Keep your position as clear as possible in your essay. bazzadarambler/Flickr

#2: Preplan Opinions and Examples

ETS has published all prompts it will ever use for GRE Analytical Writing, which in the case of the Issue essay comes out to 152 unique topic/task combinations. Now, obviously it’s not feasible to write a practice essay for every one of the 152 possible Issue essays and memorize it in preparation for the test. On the other hand, it is very possible to prepare some examples and evidence ahead of time , as long as these examples and pieces of evidence are flexible enough to be useful for multiple different prompts.

Start by reading through the complete list of Issue essay prompts and noting any common themes. Some examples of topics that seem to come up again and again in GRE Issue prompts are the roles of government and public officials, the role of technology in our lives, and the role of education and teachers.

Practice forming opinions about subsets of these topics and thinking of evidence that can be used to support those opinions. You very likely already have opinions about some of these things already, like the role of technology in education, or the importance of government support for research. To prepare for the Issue essay on the GRE, however, it’s not enough to just have opinions – you need to be able to back up your claims and point of view with evidence or reasoning.

For instance, let’s say my pre-planned opinion is that humans relying on technology to solve problems has resulted in humans being able to think for themselves even better than before. In order for this position to be worth anything in a GRE essay, though, it needs to be backed up by reasoning or evidence.

For this particular case, then, I might preplan the evidence that the expansion in size and complexity of the human brain’s cerebral cortex occurred around the same time as humans began to use tools, which could suggest that as humans relied more on tools (technology), their brains actually had to become bigger and better at thinking than before. I could also choose to preplan reasoning to back up my point, like the fact that relying on technology to solve smaller problems pushes us to use our thinking to attack larger scale issues, whether philosophical or practical.

Even if prompts on the role of technology, or on other topics you’ve practice explaining support for, don’t show up when you take the test, you’ll be better equipped to tackle the GRE Issue essay because of your experience explaining how evidence supports your point . You’ll also likely be able to use at least one or two of the examples you’ve been writing about, even if you have to explain their support of your point of view in a different way than you’ve practiced.

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#3: Analyze Sample Essays

Scour the sample essays ETS has publicly released to understand at a deep level what is required for a 6-scoring GRE Issue essay. In addition to the essay briefly discussed in this article, perfect-scoring sample Issue essays can also be found in chapters 8 and 9 of The Official Guide to the GRE revised General Test (2nd Ed.) .

To get the most out of these exemplars of perfect essay scores, you should analyze these sample essays using the scoring rubric. Use the points we focused on above in the 4-vs.-6 rubric score comparison and the sample Issue essay breakdown as guidance to find specific ways the sample essays fulfill the rubric scoring guidelines. The essays in the Official GRE Guide also include reader commentary on the essays, which are good sources of further insight into the thought processes of essay raters.

The goal of performing these analyses of sample high-scoring GRE essays is for you to understand what makes the essays high-scoring and then be able to replicate this high level of essay writing in your own Issue essay on the GRE. This doesn’t mean that you should copy the exact words or phrases from the essays (that’s plagiarism, which is both wrong and against the GRE’s code of conduct), but it does mean you should observe the ways other students have successfully met the rubric requirements.

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#4: Leave Time to Revise Your Work

Sadly, the word processor you’ll use on the GRE has no autocorrect, no spellcheck, and no grammar check. Since you’re trying to type as much as possible in a timed situation, it’s very likely you’ll make some errors.

It’s fine to make a few small mistakes on your essay as long as the typos or other mistakes don’t make your essay difficult to understand. If there are systematic typos or grammatical errors, however, that will have a negative effect on your score , because it will obscure your logic and make it more difficult for the graders (human and computer) to understand your thinking.

Example 1: No editing, systematic errors

Choosing a college major based on the avilablility of jobs in the field is a foolish endaevor at best. There’s no guarantee that Just because there are a lot of positions open in the field when you choose your undergraduate major, it doesn’t necessarily follow: this will continue ot be the case after you graduate from college, or even when you’re looking for a job.

Example 2: Edited, minor errors remaining

Choosing a college based on the availability of jobs in the field is a foolish endaevor at best. Just because there are a lot of positions open in the field when you choose your undergraduate major, it doesn’t necessarily follow that this will continue ot be the case after you graduate from college, or even when you’re looking for a job.

OER Africa/Flickr

What’s Next?

After reading this article, you’ve gained some clarity on what kind of GRE Writing score you need to succeed, but how well do you need to do on the other sections of the test? Learn what makes a good (or a bad) GRE score with this article .

Looking to get more clarity into the whole essay-scoring process? We have a guide to how the GRE essay is scored that explains it from start to finish, including how computerized grading plays into your essay score.

Want even more in-depth analyses of high-scoring GRE essays? Then be sure to check out our article analyzing perfect- and high-scoring Issue and Argument essays .

Ready to improve your GRE score by 7 points?

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Author: Laura Staffaroni

Laura graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a BA in Music and Psychology, and earned a Master's degree in Composition from the Longy School of Music of Bard College. She scored 99 percentile scores on the SAT and GRE and loves advising students on how to excel and fulfill their college and grad school dreams. View all posts by Laura Staffaroni

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This Arctic Circle Town Expected a Green Energy Boom. Then Came Bidenomics.

Generous subsidies are helping the United States steal green industries from Europe, as countries race to secure the energy supplies of the future.

Freyr, an electric battery company, built a modern factory in an industrial park near Mo i Rana, Norway. Credit...

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By Jeanna Smialek and Ana Swanson

Photographs by Thomas Ekström

Jeanna Smialek reported from Mo i Rana, Norway, and Washington. Ana Swanson reported from Washington.

  • Feb. 13, 2024

In Mo i Rana, a small Norwegian industrial town on the cusp of the Arctic Circle, a cavernous gray factory sits empty and unfinished in the snowy twilight — a monument to unfulfilled economic hope.

The electric battery company Freyr was partway through constructing this hulking facility when the Biden administration’s sweeping climate bill passed in 2022. Perhaps the most significant climate legislation in history, the Inflation Reduction Act promised an estimated $369 billion in tax breaks and grants for clean energy technology over the next decade. Its incentives for battery production within the United States were so generous that they eventually helped prod Freyr to pause its Norway facility and focus on setting up shop in Georgia.

The start-up is still raising funds to build the factory as it tries to prove the viability of its key technology, but it has already changed its business registration to the United States.

Its pivot was symbolic of a larger global tug of war as countries vie for the firms and technologies that will shape the future of energy. The world has shifted away from decades of emphasizing private competition and has plunged into a new era of competitive industrial policy — one in which nations are offering a mosaic of favorable regulations and public subsidies to try to attract green industries like electric vehicles and storage, solar and hydrogen.

Mo i Rana offers a stark example of the competition underway. The industrial town is trying to establish itself as the green energy capital of Norway, so Freyr’s decision to invest elsewhere came as a blow. Local authorities had originally hoped that the factory could attract thousands of employees and new residents to their town of about 20,000 — an enticing promise for a region struggling with an aging population. Instead, Freyr is employing only about 110 people locally at its testing plant focused on technological development.

“The Inflation Reduction Act changed everything,” said Ingvild Skogvold, the managing director of Ranaregionen Naeringsforening, a chamber of commerce group in Mo i Rana. She faulted the national government’s response.

“When the world changes, you have to adapt,” she said, “and we haven’t been efficient enough in our response to the I.R.A.”

A Clean Energy Race

The implications extend beyond Mo i Rana. There is a growing sense that both the European Union and Norway, which is not an official member but follows many of the European Union’s policies, could fall behind in the sprint for clean energy.

The batteries that are essential for green energy grids and electric cars offer an important case study. China has 80 percent of the world’s capacity to produce batteries. That has left nations with “an increasing sense of vulnerability over concentration of supply,” said Antoine Vagneur-Jones, the head of trade and supply chains at Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Timing is critical. The nations and companies that build up capacity first could snap up critical minerals and talent, pulling so far ahead that it is hard to catch up.

Companies were steadily adding battery capacity to the pipeline in Europe before the announcement of the Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022, tracking of company announcements by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence shows. But after the law was announced, European capacity largely plateaued, and expected U.S. capacity shot up and eventually overtook it.

“This is extremely fast that you’re starting to see these effects,” said Fredrik Persson, the president of BusinessEurope, the continent’s largest business group.

He said businesses were being driven by a variety of factors, including higher energy prices and more red tape in Europe, and greater certainty in the United States about the future of the clean energy market.

For countries like Norway, falling behind could mean remaining economically dependent on an oil and gas sector that appears headed for decline as the world pivots toward clean power.

“We see on the horizon that oil and gas will be going down,” said Ole Kolstad, the administrative director at Rana Utvikling, a business development office in Mo i Rana. “We have to be part of that transition.”

An Industrial Town

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Mo i Rana is no stranger to shifts in global industrial development — swings between state help and free-market principles have been central to its own story.

The town’s industrial legacy started in earnest in the early 1900s when a company with ties to the American inventor Thomas Edison built up infrastructure and constructed a railroad to what was then a small mining settlement.

After World War II, the Norwegian government — looking to secure a homegrown supply of steel — built a large state-run ironworks in Mo i Rana, bringing jobs and a population explosion with it.

But the era of state-subsidized industry came crashing down in the 1970s, when a production glut lead to crashing steel prices. By the late 1980s , the Norwegian government had decided to privatize production in the Arctic Circle town.

Norway carefully managed the transition. A national library was set up, creating public sector jobs (it uses the mountains bordering the local fjord for naturally climate-controlled book storage). The government helped to re-educate steelworkers for new roles.

Still, the local population never grew far beyond its 1970s peak. As local development authorities try to attract and retain young people and secure future growth, they see sustainable energy as crucial.

People walking between buildings on a snowy plaza. In the background are mountains and water.

“We want to be Norway’s green energy capital,” Geir Waage, the mayor, said during an interview in his office.

He pointed to a slide show he uses to promote the town and its green energy ambitions and ticked through the town’s attributes. In addition to its proximity to key minerals and an industrial work force, Mo i Rana offers cheap and green electricity thanks to hydropower fueled by snow melt, glacial runoff and the waterfalls that cascade through its craggy mountains.

Mr. Waage has had practice at the pitch. Officials in Mo i Rana are talking with national authorities to come up with a competing framework to America’s policies — part of a larger push happening across Europe and the world as local authorities and companies scramble to respond to the Inflation Reduction Act.

But unlike the 1950s or even the 1980s, when state policies swooped in to help usher the Mo i Rana economy into a new era, some fear that this time, Norway’s national government may not come through.

A Global Subsidy Push

Most capitalist countries have spent recent decades trying to even out competitive playing fields and tearing down, not erecting, barriers to trade. But then the Trump administration imposed steep tariffs — including some directed at allies in Europe and elsewhere. And the Biden administration upped the ante with its climate bill, giving preference to some American-made products and trying to spur domestic production.

The recent turn toward more protectionist policies aimed at building up national industries has presented a particular conundrum for the European Union, which sees the principles of fair and open trade as critical to its project of European integration.

European officials have long tried to discourage their individual member countries from competing with one another for company investments and provoking an expensive subsidy war. They are also enthusiastic supporters of similar principles at the World Trade Organization, which requires its members to treat all foreign and local goods equally to try to eliminate hidden barriers to trade.

But the resurgence of targeted subsidies in the United States and elsewhere is testing commitments to those rules.

America’s generous new production tax credit is predictable, is ongoing and applies across the board, offering companies attractive stability. Other nations have offered their own generous incentives, including tax credits in Canada and proposed battery subsidies in India .

Within Europe, such measures have set off a debate about whether countries need to move beyond traditional earlier-stage research and development subsidies. And increasingly, that debate is ceding to action.

In response to the Inflation Reduction Act, Europe loosened its tight restrictions on state aid last year, allowing national governments to offer more subsidies to the clean energy industry. Nations are now offering packages on a case-by-case basis: Germany is giving the battery producer Northvolt about $980 million in state aid.

Not Competitive

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But even a package like the one Northvolt received from Germany would struggle to compete with the American tax credit, said Freyr’s chief executive, Birger Steen.

“It wouldn’t be a match, but it would be a very good start,” he said. Freyr has kept its half-built factory ready to come online — heated to 12 degrees Celsius, or about 54 degrees Fahrenheit — to ensure that it can put production in Norway should policy swing its way.

European subsidies still total only perhaps 20 to 40 percent of a firm’s investment cost, compared with more than 200 percent in the United States, said Jonas Erraia, a partner at Menon Economics who studies the battery industry. The Norwegian government specifically has pushed back on requests for more, he added.

“The Norwegian government basically said they were not in the business of subsidizing industries,” Mr. Erraia said.

There is reason for the hesitance. Countries do not want to touch off a wasteful subsidy war, one where they end up propping up companies that cannot stand on their own two feet.

“The market decides which of the projects that will make it, our ambition as a government is to mobilize as much private capital as possible,” Anne Marit Bjornflaten, the Norwegian state secretary to the minister of trade and industry, said in an email.

Freyr itself is not a sure bet. The company is still working to prove that its key energy storage technology is scalable, and its stock price slumped in 2023 amid development delays. (It ticked up slightly last week after an operations update suggesting progress .)

While it will receive U.S. production tax credits only if it successfully produces batteries, any favorable loans it wins to enable factory construction in Georgia could fail to yield much if the firm ultimately proves unsuccessful. Already, it had received $17.5 million in public help to construct the Norway factory.

Collateral Damage

Freyr is not alone in shopping around for the best subsidy on offer. The Swiss manufacturer Meyer Burger Technology recently announced tentative plans to shut down a large solar module factory in Germany, though it hinted that it could change its mind if there were “sufficient measures to create a level playing field in Europe.”

In Mo i Rana, business groups remain fearful of falling behind.

Ms. Skogvold, the managing director at the chamber of commerce group, hosted an onstage interview with Jan Christian Vestre, Norway’s minister of trade and industry, at an event focused on green energy in the town on Jan. 26. It came a year and a half after Mr. Vestre visited the town to announce Norway’s battery strategy during a celebration held at Freyr’s research plant .

The tone was different this time.

Ms. Skogvold asked the minister, in Norwegian, why the government had not been more aggressive with green incentives.

“We will not reintroduce subsidies on production,” he said. But he later added that the world would have lots of demand for battery factories, and that he hoped that “if we can make it profitable in Norway, and if private capital leads the way, that we can succeed with this in Norway.”

Brent Murray contributed reporting.

Jeanna Smialek covers the Federal Reserve and the economy for The Times from Washington. More about Jeanna Smialek

Ana Swanson covers trade and international economics for The Times and is based in Washington. She has been a journalist for more than a decade. More about Ana Swanson

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