G.e.d
To pass the GED Tests and earn a GED credential, test takers must score higher than 40 percent of graduating high school seniors nationwide. Some jurisdictions require that students pass additional tests, such as an English proficiency exam or civics test.
The GED is sometimes referred to as a "General Equivalency Diploma" or "General Education(al) Diploma," or "Good Enough Diploma", in slang terms and pop culture although these expansions are not recognized by the American Council on Education, which is the sole developer for the GED test.
The test is always taken in person and never available online. Jurisdictions award a "Certificate of General Educational Development" or similarly titled credential to persons who meet the passing score requirements.
Only individuals who have not earned a high school diploma may take the GED tests. The tests were originally created to help veterans after World War II return to civilian life.
Common reasons for GED recipients not having received a high school diploma include immigration to the United States or Canada, homeschooling, and leaving high school early due to a lack of interest, the inability to pass required courses, mandatory achievement tests, the need to work, personal problems, etc.
There was also a college-level GED test for those persons who had satisfied all the requirements for such testing. One agency that the test was offered through was the DANTES testing program.
The college-level GED was discontinued.
More than 15 million people have received a GED credential since the program began. One in every seven Americans with high school credentials received the GED, as well as one in 20 college students.
70 percent of GED recipients complete at least the 10th grade before leaving school, and the same number are over the age of 19, with the average age being 24.
In addition to English, the GED Tests are available in Spanish, French, large print, audiocassette, and braille. territories may be eligible to take the GED Tests through private testing companies.
History of the GED
In November 1942, the United States Armed Forces Institute asked the American Council on Education (ACE) to develop a battery of tests to measure high school-level academic skills. These Tests of General Educational Development gave military personnel and veterans who had entered World War II service before completing high school a way to demonstrate their knowledge.
Passing these tests gave returning soldiers and sailors the academic credentials they needed to get civilian jobs and gain access to post-secondary education or training.
ACE revised the GED Tests for a third time in 1988. The most noticeable change to the series was the addition of a writing sample, or essay. The new tests placed more emphasis on socially relevant topics and problem-solving skills.
For the first time, surveys of test-takers found that more students (65%) were taking the test to continue their education beyond high school than to get better employment (30%). A person who has been awarded a high-school equivalency diploma or earned scores sufficient to qualify for a high-school equivalency diploma is eligible to re-test under certain conditions.
Enrollment limitation
The GED Tests are not administered to a candidate who is enrolled in an accredited high school, including any of those accredited by regional accrediting bodies and those approved by the jurisdiction's department/ministry of education.
Age limitation
To take the GED tests you must be at least 16 years of age.
There may be additional requirements for minors depending upon the particular state or province. Many states requires takers to be 18+ years of age.
Pretesting and registration
Pretesting and registration requirements vary widely by locality.
Some jurisdictions require GED candidates to take a pre-test or answer other questions.
Registration requirements vary widely by jurisdiction, but they typically include:
Identity verification
Driver's licenses, valid passports, military IDs, or other forms of national or foreign government-issued identification that show name, address, date of birth, signature, and photograph are all acceptable forms of identification. Jurisdictions may impose additional requirements for verifying identity or determining eligibility as deemed necessary for the sound operation of their GED testing program.
Pre-Testing
Some jurisdictions require each potential test taker to complete the Official GED Practice Test.
While a maximum fee is established, a minimum fee is not required.
Test preparation
In the United States, federal and state Adult Education programs have been in operation since the 1960s. These programs are governed by the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, which pledges to help U.S.
In adult-education classes, students review familiar high-school material and get formal instruction in the subjects that they have not covered. Students in these classes often use traditional high-school textbooks, go to class, and complete homework assignments.
Individual tutoring also is available in some areas.
In addition, the GED Testing Service produces the Official GED Practice Tests, distributed through Steck-Vaughn. Persons who do not pass the Practice Tests often must complete remedial courses in the failed areas before re-applying to take the tests.
There are many excellent free websites offering instruction for the GED.
Strong reading and critical thinking skills are much more essential than specific studying specific content to pass the GED.
How the test works
The five tests that comprise the GED test battery are "Language Arts: Writing", "Social Studies", "Science", "Language Arts: Reading", and "Mathematics".
To ensure fairness, all GED Testing Centers must adhere to the uniform testing standards specified by the American Council on Education, including adherence to the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Local policies determine whether students must take all five tests in one day. Test-takers read text from business, informational, and instructional publications and then correct, revise, or improve the text according to Edited American English standards (or equivalent standards in Spanish and French versions).
Test-takers have 75 minutes to complete the 50 items in Part I.
Part II
This part of the "Language Arts: Writing" test requires the student to write an essay on an assigned topic in 45 minutes. A passing essay must have well focused main points, clear organization, and specific development of ideas, and demonstrate the writer's control of sentence structure, punctuation, grammar, word choice, and spelling.
Assigned topics are ones that do not require special knowledge, such as the influence of violent music on teenagers or the advantages and disadvantages of living without children.
Social Studies
This test covers American history, world history, civics and government, economics, and geography; 70 minutes are allotted for the 50 questions.
In the "Social Studies" test, test-takers read short passages and answer multiple-choice questions. Many questions use graphs, charts, and other images, such as editorial cartoons, along with or instead of written passages.
Questions involving civics and government and economics rely heavily on practical documents, such as tax forms, voter-registration forms, and workplace and personal budgets.
Questions address the National Science Education Content Standards and focus on environmental and health topics (recycling, heredity, and pollution, for example) and science's relevance to everyday life. Students should expect to see tables, graphs, charts, and diagrams, as well as complete sentences.
Most questions on the "Science" test involve a graphic, such as a map, graph, chart, or diagram.
The fiction passages include portions of a play, a poem, and three pieces of prose. Each passage is followed by questions that assess reading comprehension, as well as the test-taker's ability to analyze the text, apply the information given to other situations, and synthesize new ideas from those provided.
Questions do not require test-takers to be familiar with the larger piece of literature from which the excerpt is taken, the author's other works, literary history, or discipline-specific terms and conventions.
Mathematics
This 90-minute, 50-question test has two equally weighted parts, the first of which allows candidates to use calculators, while the second forbids their use.
Testing centers are most often in adult-education centers, community colleges, and public schools. Students in metropolitan areas may be able to choose from several nearby testing locations.
Official GED Testing Centers are controlled environments.
For example, in 2008, the test fee at North Carolina's community colleges was $7.50. By contrast, test takers in California may have to pay more than $100 for the test.
Students with disabilities
Disabled persons who want to take the GED Tests may be entitled to receive reasonable testing accommodations. If accommodations are approved, the local GED testing examiner will conduct the testing with the approved accommodations.
Some believe the test is easier than it should be, and some employers look down on it as a form of degree lower than a high-school diploma. For example, a typical mathematics question will not ask what the second leg of a right-angled triangle is when the lengths of the first leg and the hypotenuse are given, but instead will ask for the formula that should be used to find the correct answer; this requires the student not only to know the correct answer, but also to explain how to find it; it also uses both algebra and geometry, as opposed to just one discipline of mathematics.
A number of the questions also contain such options as "Not enough information given", "None of the above", and "No correction is necessary" as possible answers.