How to Answer The 64 Toughest Interview Questions: August 2007

Friday, August 3, 2007

GRE® - Graduate Record Examinations®

The following instructions appear on the back cover of the test book.

SECTION 1

THE GRADUATE RECORD
EXAMINATIONS^®

Analytical Writing 1

PRESENT YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON AN ISSUE

45 minutes

You will have a choice between two Issue topics. Each topic will appear as a brief quotation that states or implies an issue of general interest. Read each topic carefully; then decide on which topic you could write a more effective and well-reasoned response.

You will have 45 minutes to plan and compose a response that presents your perspective on the topic you select. A response on any other topic will receive a zero. You are free to accept, reject, or qualify the claim made in the topic you selected, as long as the ideas you present are clearly relevant to the topic. Support your views with reasons and examples drawn from such areas as your reading, experience, observations, or academic studies.

GRE readers, who are college and university faculty, will read your response and evaluate its overall quality, based on how well you do the following:

• consider the complexities and implications of the issue

• organize, develop, and express your ideas on the issue

• support your ideas with relevant reasons and examples

• control the elements of standard written English

You may want to take a few minutes to think about the issue and to plan a response before you begin writing. Because the space for writing your response is limited, use the next page to plan your response. Be sure to develop your ideas fully and organize them coherently, but leave time to reread what you have written and make any revisions that you think are necessary.

Present your perspective on one of the issues below, using relevant reasons and/or examples to support your views.

Topic

No:

C100. “Both the development of technological tools and the uses to which humanity has put them have
created modern civilizations in which loneliness is ever increasing.”

C101. “Our declining environment may bring the people of the world together as no politician, philosopher,
or war ever could. Environmental problems are global in scope and respect no nation’s boundaries.
Therefore, people are faced with the choice of unity and cooperation on the one hand or disunity and
a common tragedy on the other.”

Write the topic number of the issue you choose on the line at the top right corner of the answer booklet labeled “Analytical Writing 1: Issue.”

Plan your response on this page. This page will not be scored. WRITE YOUR RESPONSE IN THE ANSWER BOOKLET LABELED “Analytical Writing 1: Issue.”

S T O P

IF YOU FINISH BEFORE TIME IS CALLED, YOU MAY CHECK YOUR WORK ON THIS SECTION ONLY.
DO NOT TURN TO ANY OTHER SECTION IN THE TEST.

Unauthorized copying or reuse of

any part of this page is illegal. 31

THE GRADUATE RECORD
EXAMINATIONS^®

Analytical Writing 2

ANALYZE AN ARGUMENT

30 minutes

You will have 30 minutes to plan and write a critique of an argument presented in the form of a short passage. A critique of any other argument will receive a score of zero.

Analyze the line of reasoning in the argument. Be sure to consider what, if any, questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and, if evidence is cited, how well it supports the conclusion.

You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what additional information might help you better evaluate its conclusion. Note that you are NOT being asked to present your views on the subject.

GRE readers, who are college and university faculty, will read your critique and evaluate its overall quality, based on how well you

• identify and analyze important features of the argument

• organize, develop, and express your critique of the argument

• support your critique with relevant reasons and examples

• control the elements of standard written English

Before you begin writing, you may want to take a few minutes to evaluate the argument and plan a response. Because the space for writing your response is limited, use the next page to plan your response. Be sure to develop your ideas fully and organize them coherently, but leave time to reread what you have written and make any revisions that you think are necessary.

Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument.

Topic

No:

C103. Six months ago the region of Forestville increased the speed limit for vehicles traveling on the

region’s highways by ten miles per hour. Since that change took effect, the number of automobile accidents in that region has increased by 15 percent. But the speed limit in Elmsford, a region
neighboring Forestville, remained unchanged, and automobile accidents declined slightly during the same six-month period. Therefore, if the citizens of Forestville want to reduce the number of automobile accidents on the region’s highways, they should campaign to reduce Forestville’s speed limit to what it was before the increase.

Write the topic number of the argument on the line at the top right corner of the answer booklet labeled “Analytical Writing 2: Argument.”

Plan your response on this page. This page will not be scored. WRITE YOUR RESPONSE ON THE ANSWER BOOKLET LABELED “Analytical Writing 2: Argument.”