The GRE Issue Essay

The Issue Essay of the GRE requires you to present your opinion on the provided topic.

Issue Topic
You will be given a brief quotation that states or implies an issue of general interest and
specific instructions on how to respond to that issue. You will have 30 minutes to plan and
compose a response in which you develop a position on the issue according the specific
instructions. A response to any other issue will receive a score of zero.

"True beauty is found not in the exceptional but in the commonplace."

Write an essay in which you take a position on the statement above. In developing and supporting your essay

instances in which the statement does and does not hold true.

‘True Beauty’

4:06

-what is true?

Can one really determine what is true and ultimate? Then can one really vouch for the truest
of beauty while others are deemed false? Yes, the search for true beauty has existed in many
different times, places and has transcended all forms of discipline and thought. Greek
Philosophers have argued that true beauty lies in platonic forms, different periods and
movements of art and architecture have rejected ideas of beauty proposed by their
predecessors. Some have even rejected beauty itself. Similarly, from religion that sees beauty
as commonplace (as everything is made by god) to science that attempts to quantify and
propose the ‘scientifically proven’ beautiful person; each and every of these positions believe
in a fixed and true beauty that only they have been able to identify, to find, to conceive.

‘True beauty’ and ‘beauty’ are both concepts that have historically evolved. Both concepts
have never been static. Often conceptions of beauty have been hegemonic, sometimes with
underlying racial and gendered biases. One could argue that in mainstream and normative
thought, beauty has either been equated to a grand object that one is able to possess or to
those closely associated with power. In South Asia, decades after the British left, this means
white is still considered more beautiful than dark skin. In most societies, the beauty of women
is fetishized and desired because of systemic objectification of women in a patriarchal
system. Arguing against hegemonic forms of beauty, I believe is an important site where one
can imagine ‘True beauty’. Afterall, prejudiced and fetishist conceptions of beauty in many
ways are connected to marginalization of people who do not fit in the standard or considered
inferior to those in power. If we were to deem all these forms of beauty as false, and the
debate of aesthetic that talks about beauty apolitically as an irrelevant method of looking at
beauty one might be able to consider and determine what is, or should be true.

This brings us to the last half of this statement. If hegemonic forms of beauty are false and
unjust, is finding beauty (true or just) in the marginal true beauty? Instead of castles, gated
communities, mansions in expensive suburbs, metropolitan city centers and estates in the
Global North, does beauty lie in informal settlements? Does it exist in the everyday
happenings of the bustling city with weakened infrastructures of overly populated cities in the
Global South? On instagram, one will often find Karachi users photographing low income
workers that make tea or sell something on the street and call it beauty. Similarly, if one is to
see Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Gully Boy’ about a rapper in India’s largest slum Dharavi; there is a scene in
which white people photograph and gawk in the homes of the slum residents, entering inside
in awe. This behavior the privileged often mocked as ‘poverty porn fetish’ construes beauty as
the commonplace. But is it true? The commonplace is as easily susceptible to similar
dangerous conceptions of beauty which fetishize and commodify that which is seen as
marginal and ‘Other’.

In the world we live in, where power relations are so unjust and unequal, I believe that there is
no such thing as true beauty between both of these binary definitions. True Beauty does not
exist in the real but in the imagined. In a world where there is no oppression. Where finding
beauty in something does not mean that you want to possess it, turn it into an object or see in
it power and hence beauty. In this world only beauty exists and that is in the struggles of
people who try and resist against the hegemony of beauty and the beauty of hegemony. Once
that struggle actualizes is perhaps when we will find true beauty.

30 minutes

628

3-4 big mistakes

The GRE Argument Essay

The Argument Essay of the GRE asks you to examine and critique the logic of an argument.

Argument Topic
You will be given a short passage that presents an argument, or an argument to be completed,
and specific instructions on how to respond to that passage. You will have 30 minutes to plan
and compose a response in which you analyze the passage according to specific instructions.
A response to any other issue will receive a score of zero.

The director of the International Health Foundation recently released this announcement:

"A new medical test that allows the early detection of a particular disease will prevent the deaths of people
world who
would otherwise die from the disease. The test has been extremely effective in allowing doctors to diagnose
six months
to a year before it would have been spotted by conventional means. As soon as we can institute this test as
procedure in
hospitals around the world, the death rate from this disease will plummet."
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to e
the argument
depends on the assumptions and what the implications are if the assumptions prove unwarranted.

4:44 5:14

Early detection- prevent death

6 months to a year before u get diagnosis

Assumption Death rate will plummet

-What disease? Does the disease even get affected by time/

- Any date on reduction of death, or its mitigation after test was used?
Conventional means? Elaborate how this is unconventional

Accessibility of test? Can testing kits be cheap, processs of instituting test as routine is it possible

The director of the International Health Foundation claims that when this new medical test is instituted
as a routine procedure for this unnamed disease, the death rate for it will surely plummet. Several
factors must be considered before this claim. Assessments of existing data and application of its
practical use must be explored before coming to this conclusion.

To make such a claim the director must have quantitative data of the impact of this test on patients with
said disease. Firstly the disease itself must be identified. The number of deaths and the likelihood of
deaths by this disease must be compared to the death rates of other diseases to determine if this test is
needed. If the death rate is incredibly low or non-existent, making this new test a routine procedure
would be unjustified. Comparing this information with diseases with higher fatality and also cost of
application is required to conclude if this test should be made routine or if research and production for
any other disease that is more fatal should be focused on by the Health Foundation.

If the previous is addressed an assessment of the conventional treatment method of the disease is
needed to conclude if one even requires this new test. If the death rate is determined to be high and the
new medical test is assessed to be necessary then other factors of the disease must be looked at.
Research is required on what inefficiencies of medical care and other factors contribute to the death
rate of the disease. If Research is to determine that a shorter time period has no impact on the
reduction of the death rate than making this test routine will be incredibly costly and wasteful.

In order to see if there is a reduction in the death rate, trial periods are needed to quantify and establish
a correlation between application of medical test and the death rate of the disease. Furthermore, if it is
indeed determined that a faster diagnosis will result in lesser deaths than trail experiments are required
to determine if this test does not have any side effects that worsens the life quality of patients.
Determining whether this test will improve life quality will help determine whether the death rate
should be reduced just for the statistics while patients suffer.

It is also necessary to look at variances regarding research and application for example the role of
demographics and socio-economic status must be considered. It must be determined whether this test
works efficiently for every person regarding differences in age, gender and race. A diverse and
comparative sample study is required for the trial period. Furthermore regarding the application of the
medical test it is important to look at how expensive and accessible this new medical test will be for
people and marginalized communities who cannot afford it. If this disease affects people of low
economic status disproportionately, than this research will be very important in determining how the
the Health Foundation pushes for making these tests routine and cheap for everyone. If the test is
expensive, a cheaper alternative could be developed. If it only affects a small population than this tests
could be made in a limited capacity.
All these reasons must be looked at to make sure this testing kit is effective, affordable and actually
reduces the death rate without marginalizing the life quality of patients.

Finished at 5:16

2 minutes.

560 words

4 mistakes