tom718

Hey Chris, Thanks for the reply and for your advice. I read your blog and you make some very good points. After giving it some more thought, it seems like a methodical approach is best. Your technique of listing three examples along with three matching counter-examples seems logical. I think I need to read more essay samples to get a feel for peoples' various approaches. I tried to write another essay today and was at least able to finish the task, although the essay is certainly far from perfect (and the prompt happened to be much easier than other ones I attempted). I will be sure to keep practicing. Thanks again!

Some background: I'm taking the GRE general test in 3 weeks. I finished undergrad 2 years ago and have decided to pursue grad school since that seems to be the only avenue to getting a real job these days. My degree is in civil engineering. Now, I consider myself a fairly intelligent person. I'm well read, and have a large vocabulary. I've aced pretty much all the practice tests for the math and verbal sections. But every time I sit down and try to practice for the Issue essay, I just completely freeze up. The topics are so banal and vague, I find it absolutely impossible to organize my thoughts. I can think of a million different arguments for both sides. I try to just pick a side and go with it, but when I start to write a paragraph that considers the other side of the argument, I find that I can't do it without completely undermining my original argument. So then I start over writing for the other side of the argument, but the same thing happens again and I'm back to my original position. I've tried to practice under timed conditions 3 or 4 times now, and each time I end up storming away in frustration after 15 minutes of typing, deleting, typing, deleting. I'm kind of like this in real life, too. I can never pick a side in a debate because I can clearly see the pros and cons of each side. This goes for almost all the standard divisive political issues like abortion, death penalty, etc. I tend to be suspicious of people with strong opinions, since to me it usually seems like it has more to do with the person's ego than with the actual issue at hand. But getting back to the main point, the test is approaching fast and I'm really starting to worry that I'm totally screwed on this. I have the Princeton Review book and have tried their strategy of listing out examples and using a basic template with introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion, but I've found that such a rigid system makes it even more difficult. I know I'm totally overthinking this and just need to relax, but any advice would be greatly appreciated...