hiset essay video

How To Write A HiSET Essay

Last Updated on May 16, 2024.

The HiSET English Writing subtest includes 50 multiple-choice questions, and you’ll have to write an essay.

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After you have completed the first multiple-choice section, you’ll have 50 minutes to produce your essay.

In this post, we look at how to write a HiSET essay and how you can achieve an optimal score on this part of the HiSET English Writing subtest.

So when you’ve finished the first part of the HiSET Writing test, it’s time for writing your essay.

You’ll be given two passages but before you can give your opinion, you should understand these texts through and through.

When writing your response, please take note of specific criteria on which your work is evaluated. The most important criteria that are taken into account are the following:

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• You must produce a well-written introduction
• Your conclusion must be effective and strong
• Your sequence of ideas must be logical
• You must demonstrate an understanding of English grammar (spelling, punctuation, etc.)
• Your essay must be clear and properly organized
• The central thesis and supporting ideas must be clear
• You must demonstrate an understanding of alternative/opposing points of view
• Your tone and style must be formal

Your essay will be graded by two readers who each will award maximally three points so your essay score can be 6 points max. To pass the HiSET exam, however, the result of your essay needs to be at least 2.

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Table of Contents

• 1 Thesis Statement
• 2 5 Steps to Produce a Great Essay
• 3 Essay Structure
• 4 Revising and Editing
• 5 Make Your Essay Successful

Thesis Statement

Don’t get intimidates by words like “thesis.” The thesis of your essay is just a central position. The thesis informs about your essay’s main idea; it’s about what you want your readers to understand. It gives your readers an idea about your opinion on a given subject.

Your thesis could, for example, be something like “Every student should get funding for a college education” or “All governments in the world should do more to protect the environment for generations to come.”

Your thesis relates to the general topic that is discussed in the two passages that you receive.

You should ask yourself, “What’s my opinion on this topic?” It’s not about taking a position that your essay readers need to agree with.

You must simply make your position clear and explain how some examples are supportive of your position. If you manage that, you will easily reach a score of 4 or even higher. So is the HiSET easier than the GED exam? Check out this post for details.

Let’s take a look at the steps needed to produce a good HiSET essay and attain a great score.

5 Steps to Produce a Great Essay

If you want to complete your within the given time (50 minutes), it’s key to keep an eye on the clock! Let’s see how you can organize your time to not run into problems:

• 1 – Spend max 5 minutes on reading passage 1
• 2 – Spend max 5 minutes on reading passage 2
• 3 – Spend no more than 5 minutes on planning your 5-paragraph essay, pre-writing your thesis, and supporting ideas
• 4 – Write your HiSET essay in 30 minutes max
• 5 – That leaves you 5 minutes for revising and editing your essay

Now, this may not seem like a lot of time for writing your essay, but keep in mind that there’s no need to write a long essay! The thirty minutes in the planning steps above should be plenty of time to write a 5–6 paragraph essay.

Your introduction and conclusion can be relatively short paragraphs, and mistake #1 that students usually make is that they don’t spend enough time planning their essays.

When you’ve got a good plan in place for each paragraph, you’ll see that the actual writing won’t take up so much time. It’s all about setting up a good plan, right?

If you are well-prepared, you’ll see that you have plenty of time to produce a well-written essay! Check here -> for an overview of which states use the HiSET exam and the cost in each state.

Essay Structure

Let’s see how you can break down your 5 paragraph essay, and if you want, you can add a 6th paragraph right before your conclusion. You’re free to do that. Keep in mind that the following is merely a suggestion. Here is how your 5-paragraph essay should be structured:

1st paragraph: Introduction. Here, you will introduce both of the given passages, and you need to summarize them. Here, you state your thesis and indicate in what two major ways you’ll support or strengthen your point of view.

2nd paragraph: First Idea. Here, you state the first supporting idea. You need to provide evidence from the given passage. You could as well provide an example from your personal life for additional support.

3rd paragraph: Second Idea. Here, you will state the second supporting idea. You should give evidence from the given passage. Also here, you can use an example from your personal life for further support.

4th paragraph: The Opposing Side. In this section, you can acknowledge that there are people who believe contrary to your thesis. Explain something about their position, and then refute their position through logic or, even better, with additional information from the given passages.

5th paragraph: Conclusion. In this paragraph, you should re-state and explain your thesis and make clear, again, why your point of view is correct. This 5th paragraph doesn’t need to be so long; usually, two sentences are sufficient!

Please note that this scheduling idea is only a suggestion. In case you can write no more than four paragraphs, you have the option to combine Paragraphs 4 and 5. In your HiSET essay, you can discuss any opposing sides or arguments in your conclusion.

If you aim to write a 5 or 6-paragraph essay, writing not even 4 paragraphs is not wise. In itself, the length of your essay doesn’t matter so much, but, in general, 2 or 3 paragraphs will not be enough, both in length and time, to develop and defend your thesis appropriately. If you want to learn more about taking the HiSET at home, go to this page .

Revising and Editing

Bear in mind that spelling mistakes, grammar irregularities, and punctuation errors will distract the reader’s attention from your thesis and main ideas. So it is critical to re-read and revise your essay at least once and, if possible, even twice to correct inaccuracies.

So it is imperative to stick to your schedule and make sure you’ll have enough time to make your essay great! So before your time is up, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is there enough “logical flow” in my essay? Does the sequence of ideas make any logical sense?
• Is my thesis convincing enough? Did I make my point clear?
• Are the examples that I used presented in a logical way?
• Did I use transition words in the correct way?
• Aren’t there too many grammar and/or punctuation errors?

So stick to your schedule and be sure to make all necessary changes before you run out of time!

Make Your Essay Successful

• In order to make your essay successful, be sure to include your thesis statement in the first paragraph of your essay. Your thesis statement is just a 1-sentence statement in which you clearly state your position. Here, it must become clear how you think about the issue discussed in the given passages.
• Be sure to use evidence and supporting details from the given passages. You must make it clear that you understand the information provided in the passages, and you should refer to that information. For each idea you bring up, you should refer to or cite at least one supporting statement or fact from the provided passages.
• It’s always good to provide examples from your personal life. If you can, provide one example from your experiences or personal life for each of your presented ideas. It won’t hurt to stretch reality a little as long as you make sure what you describe is something you really (perhaps partially) have been through and that it feels real and organic.
• Include an acknowledgment of the opposing argument(s). Sometimes, it is good to do this in an additional paragraph, but you can also do this, for example, at the beginning of the last paragraph. You can choose a strong opposing argument that has some merit or that some people believe. Then, explain, or prove why this still is not convincing to you or why you think it is logically flawed.

In the final paragraph of your essay, restate your thesis. In your final paragraph, you should not only restate your thesis but also summarize your argument. If you stick to these guidelines, you can be sure to reach a great score on your HiSET essay!

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To make preparation for the HiSET ® Test as mobile as the students who take it, Aztec offers free cloud-based HiSET instruction and practice tests allowing students to test their readiness on a computer or on-the-go using a mobile device.

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Consistent with HiSET, Aztec’s  HiSET ® Test Preparation Series  practice tests and unit-level pre/post tests are comprised of multiple choice items. An essay test is included for Language Arts Writing.

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HiSET Essay Practice Question

In the two passages below, the authors put forth different perspectives on an important topic. As you read the passages, be sure to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each perspective. Then, you will be asked to write an essay taking a stance on the same topic.

Job Hopping is the New Reality

As the corporate certainties of the post-World War II economy have faded away—employer-provided training, long-term job security, and a guaranteed retirement pensions—the question workers have to ask is: what has my employer done to earn my long-term loyalty?

Job-hopping is a fact of the modern workplace. The impact of technology, outsourcing, and offshoring on the expectations of both employees and employers has been profound. Performance on the next quarterly report has become the driver of corporate decision makers. Workers have to realize that loyalty to the workforce is far down the priority list in corporate boardrooms.

This is a new reality that human resource managers have come to accept. It’s simply the reality on the ground of the modern American workplace. Resumes showing a wide variety of jobs—but more importantly the wide variety of job skills that an applicant brings to the table—are not dismissed the way they were a generation ago.

It should be noted that there is a limit to the acceptance of job-hopping. Switching jobs three or four times a year will still raise eyebrows. But migrating every couple of years to new opportunities—which builds not only technical skills, but also workplace culture skills—is becoming ever more the norm.

Waiting around for a position to open up at a current employer might be a fool’s errand. The position may be up for outsourcing anyway. And by sampling a variety of company cultures and job tasks, it is more likely a person will find their true niche and a path to long-term job satisfaction.

Loyal Workers are Successful Workers

According to recent news reports, workers are no longer showing loyalty to their employers. I believe that changing jobs frequently is a big mistake. The reasons for not job-hopping and, instead, committing to a company long-term are both practical and philosophical.

Building a resume that shows steady progress up the ladder at one company makes for a far more marketable resume long-term. It shows a willingness to learn, integrate into a corporate culture, and be part of a successful team.

The fact is it takes time to make a mark in a workplace. Like with a fine wine, the maturation process may be slower, but deeper. The longer the workplace experience, the more likely an employee will be part of building lasting and valuable assets within a company. And that is the kind of thing that will catch the eye of job recruiters down the line. To some extent, this is about building trust within a shared enterprise, and trust takes time.

Human resource managers still value job longevity in previous positions. It shows an ability to be a stable force in a company. Recruiting is an expensive proposition for companies, and employees who stay on in their positions and don’t make the company incur the cost of replacement are valuable for that reason alone.

There’s also more to life than a job. Staying put in a job also probably means staying put in a house or apartment and, ultimately, a community. Job-hopping means regularly moving—or at a minimum changing commuting routines—and often results in losing touch with friends and coworkers. This is even more of a factor if children are involved, since they too might be uprooted from their community and school.

As you write your essay, make sure you support your position using evidence from the two passages along with reasons and examples from your own experiences. Your essay should also acknowledge opposing ideas and arguments. After you finish your essay, make sure you take a few minutes to check your writing for proper punctuation, spelling, and grammar.

  Use this prompt to write a HiSET practice essay. After you complete your essay, you should try to get feedback from a friend, mentor, or teacher. You can also review our sample response: HiSET Essay Sample Response .

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Guest Essay

Bring Back the Tear-Jerker!

By Heather Havrilesky

Ms. Havrilesky writes the “ Ask Polly ” advice column and is the author of “Foreverland: On the Divine Tedium of Marriage.”

Tears are sacred. They express sadness, communicate joy, signal need and expunge stress. The very act of crying offers us more than just release; it can offer us clarity.

Yet we live in an era when public crying is not just undervalued but actively mocked. Collective displays of sadness are dismissed as empty posturing, and emotional breakdowns are turned instantly into memes . The alienation and isolation of online life has made expressing shared sadness nearly impossible.

Which is why we need to bring back the tear-jerker.

Remember tear-jerkers? An entire category of movie dedicated to enlisting Hollywood’s best talent in an effort to make you bawl unashamedly? You might know them instead as weepers or weepies — and as a genre they offered a beloved and widely embraced means for communal emotional catharsis, at the theater, in the dark.

Tear-jerkers have existed throughout Hollywood’s history — movies were making audiences cry even before they could make a sound — but as a prestige genre they hit their peak in the 1970s and 1980s, climaxing with 1983’s “Terms of Endearment,” which won an Oscar for best picture. (“Anyone who goes to this film expecting a light comic diversion had better bring along at least four hankies for the hospital scenes,” wrote Janet Maslin in The Times.) The film featured several emotionally devastating moments, including the one mentioned by Ms. Maslin, in which a mother dying of cancer, played by Debra Winger, has her last conversation with her school-age sons.

The heyday of the prestige weepie brought such cryfests as “Kramer vs. Kramer,” a wrenching tale of divorcing parents wrestling over their son; “Ordinary People,” about a family’s emotional collapse in the wake of a tragedy; “Field of Dreams,” the ultimate dad-cry about baseball and middle-aged reckoning; and of course “Beaches,” a heartbreaker about the death of a lifelong friend, complete with a chart-topping anthem. Even blockbuster films from this era, such as “E.T.” and “Top Gun,” dutifully included a mandatory gut-punch moment — hooking up a pale E.T. to a heart monitor; killing off Goose — designed to make audiences sob on cue. And we did.

After a decade-long decline as summer blockbusters and franchise sequels squeezed out adult-oriented weepies, the golden age of the prestige tear-jerker ended in 1997 with the genre’s biggest hit: “Titanic.” That film was a three-plus-hour, Oscar-winning thrill ride with lavish production value and groundbreaking special effects. Yet it’s still best remembered for a single scene in which Rose, played by Kate Winslet, says goodbye to Jack, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, as she floats away in the wreckage of the ill-fated ship. The sobs elicited sent a generation of moviegoers blubbering into their shirtsleeves (or into the shoulders of the people sitting next to them in the theater). It also helped propel “Titanic” to become the biggest box-office hit ever at the time.

Tear-jerkers can look a little manipulative, or even cartoonish, in retrospect. Here is a dying woman saying goodbye to her young sons! Here is a father running through the streets of New York carrying his injured child to the hospital! Here is Bette Midler singing “Did you ever know that you’re my hero?” to her terminally ill best friend! But prestige tear-jerkers served an essential cultural purpose: They were a valuable ritual of catharsis that audiences could participate in together. If you’ve seen any one of these movies, you might feel emotional just recalling it, which is proof of their enduring power.

Sobbing together is something we’ve forgotten how to do — and something we badly need to rediscover. We need more chances to show our humanity to one another in public. We need to learn how to reassure one another that we are all sensitive beings who are at risk of feeling much more than we can tolerate. We could all use a good cry right now, together, in real life, in real time.

As a genre, the prestige tear-jerker seems to be the victim of both changing tastes and changing technologies. Hollywood became much more attuned to the blockbuster experience — in a way, we can also blame this on “Titanic.” Producers focused on films that would appeal to the “ four quadrants ”: viewers male and female, young and old. Too often tear-jerkers were dismissed as female-focused — they don’t appeal to the coveted 12-year-old-boy demographic — despite many of the most famous examples of the genre being award winners and significant hits.

Now tear-jerkers flourish mostly on the margins, in Hallmark holiday specials, streaming teen films and maudlin movies of the week. When contemporary prestige films explore personal tragedy, they tend toward understated melancholy, not melodrama. Films like last year’s “The Holdovers” and “Past Lives,” or “Manchester by the Sea” and “Call Me by Your Name,” might elicit sniffles, but they are restrained tales of quiet heartbreak, not outsized operatic tragedies. The contemporary version of the tear-jerker is one in which the heroine decides prudently not to reunite with a past love, not one in which she watches her one true love sink lifeless into an icy sea.

It’s easy to see why audiences may be hesitant to go to a communal space to watch slow, tragic stories about human suffering. Real sadness is everywhere, and we digest it on our own now, alone, with our phones, in silence.

Maybe that’s the real reason prestige tear-jerkers have gone extinct: We confront despair so rapidly and constantly now that we’ve learned to dismiss sadness and push it out of sight and to deride it in others, no matter how sincere it might be. We’ve forgotten how to feel anything collectively besides outrage. Look no further than the Covid-19 pandemic: Over a million Americans died in an experience that touched us all, and yet there is still no permanent national Covid memorial. There’s little acknowledgment of a need for closure, let alone a move to provide it.

Tear-jerkers used to provide a shared space where we had permission to feel those emotions together. Since the era of ancient Greece, dramatic tragedies have offered us a necessary means of emotional purgation, and Aristotle argued that this catharsis served to turn audience members into more attuned, grateful and ethical citizens. Sigmund Freud viewed unexpressed emotion as a threat to mental health, and modern research supports his view, indicating that repressing emotions increases stress while crying releases oxytocin and endorphins. In her book “Seeing Through Tears,” Judith Kay Nelson asserts that just as babies’ tears are a crucial means of communicating with their caregivers, adults’ tears invite support and strengthen connection. “Human beings need behaviors that move us toward each other and keep us there,” Dr. Nelson writes. “Crying is one of the most powerful and essential of those behaviors.”

Seeing others cry reminds us that we deserve compassion ourselves. When Dustin Hoffman’s character in “Kramer vs. Kramer” rediscovers his own humanity while waiting anxiously in the emergency ward for word on stitches for his injured son, we rediscover our humanity, too. Tear-jerkers used to offer us that kind of space.

There’s a scene in “Terms of Endearment” where the character played by Shirley MacLaine berates the nurses in the cancer ward, screaming that her daughter is in pain and someone needs to do something about it immediately. If this were a clip shared today on social media, she’d be mocked as an entitled nightmare. Yet in a tear-jerker, that’s what works so well: We’re watching someone who’s normally the picture of perfectionism and self-restraint get pushed so far past her limits that she can barely contain herself. It’s not just an inducement to cry but also a testament to how we’re never in complete control of ourselves. Not only is that kind of control not possible, it’s not even desirable.

Revive the tear-jerker. Give us a reason to cry on one another’s shoulders in public again. Feeling the full force of our sadness is a prerequisite for feeling the full force of our humanity: our compassion, our joy, our delight.

This is how it feels to be fully alive. We need to remind ourselves of that. We need to remind one another.

Heather Havrilesky writes the “ Ask Polly ” advice column and is the author of “Foreverland: On the Divine Tedium of Marriage.”

Illustration by Brendan Conroy.

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