Question 1 - Analytical Writing Practice Test for the GRE

The following is a sample opening paragraph based on an essay prompt asking test takers to develop a position on the statement “Governments should offer a free university education to any student who has been admitted to a university but who cannot afford the tuition.”

[1] The concept of a publicly funded high school education was once unthinkable. [2] The first public high school was founded in Massachusetts in 1821, and it would take many more years before attending high school became the norm for people from all walks of life. [3] Throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, only children whose parents could afford tuition received an education past elementary school. [4] Access to education was based on birth rather than merit or intelligence. [5] In our world of today in the twenty-first century, we face a world where getting a college education is the new norm and required for many well-paying careers. [6] Yet access to this important opportunity is limited to those who can pay. [7] America should make college tuition free for all qualified applicants, just as it has already made high school education free.