GED
Encyclopedia
General Educational Development (or GED) tests are a group of five subject tests which, when passed, certify that the taker has American
or Canadian
high school
-level academic skills. The GED is also referred to as a General Education Diploma, General Equivalency Diploma, Graduate Equivalency Degree, or Good Enough Degree for slang.
The American Council on Education
is the sole developer for the GED test. The test is in person. 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 veteran
s after World War II
return to civilian life. Common reasons for GED recipients not having received a high school diploma include adult immigration
to the United States or Canada, homeschooling
, leaving high school early, the inability to pass required courses or mandatory achievement test
s, the need to work, personal problems, and wanting to get into college early.
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. Seventy 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
. Tests and test preparation are routinely offered in prison
s and on military base
s in addition to more traditional settings. Individuals living outside the United States, Canada, or U.S. territories may be eligible to take the GED Tests through private testing companies.
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%) reported taking the test with the intention of continuing their education beyond high school, rather than to get better employment (30%).
A fourth revision was made in 2002 to make the test comply with more recent standards for high-school education.
", "Science
", "Language Arts: Reading", and "Mathematics
".
To ensure fairness, all Official 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. Some locations divide the tests among two or more days, and testing days are not always consecutive.
structure, organization, usage
, and mechanics. 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.
on an assigned topic in 45 minutes. Persons who finish Part I early may apply the remaining time to their essays. 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. There is no minimum word count. The essay should be long enough to develop the topic adequately. Assigned topics are always an opinion or perspective that does not require special knowledge, such as the influence of violent music on teenagers or the advantages and disadvantages of living without children.
, 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. Some passages come from such documents as the Declaration of Independence
and U.S. Supreme Court
decisions. Many questions use graphs, charts, and other images, such as editorial cartoons, along with or instead of written passages.
Questions involving economics as well as civics and government rely heavily on practical documents, such as tax forms, voter-registration forms, and workplace and personal budgets. Topics such as global warming
and environmental law
also are covered.
, earth science
, space science
, and physical science
. It measures the candidate's skill in understanding, interpreting, and applying science concepts to visual and written text from academic and workplace contexts. The test focuses on what a scientifically literate person must know, understand, and be able to do. 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. Subjects covered include photosynthesis
, weather
and climate
, geology
, magnetism
, energy
, and cell division
.
and understand texts similar to those encountered in high-school English classrooms. The test has five fiction
and two nonfiction passages, each about 300–400 words long. The fiction passages include portions of a play, a poem, and three pieces of prose. The nonfiction passages may come from letters, biographies, newspaper and magazine articles, or such "practical" texts as manuals and forms. 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.
Forty of the 50 questions are multiple-choice; the other 10 use an alternate format, requiring the test-taker to record answers on either a numerical or coordinate-plane grid. Both portions of the test have questions of both types. The test booklet offers a page of common formulas as well as directions for completing the alternate-format items and using the calculator.
The test focuses on four main mathematical disciplines:
centers, community college
s, and public schools
. Students in metropolitan area
s may be able to choose from several nearby testing locations.
Official GED Testing Centers are controlled environments. All testing sessions take place in person (not online) according to very specific rules, and security measures are enforced. Breaks may be permitted between tests, depending on how many tests are being administered in a session. There may be restrictions on what test-takers may bring into the testing room.
There are approximately 25 different editions of the GED Tests that may be in circulation. This measure helps catch test-takers who may be cheating
. As with any standardized test
, the various editions are calibrated to the same level of difficulty.
In some areas, there is no charge to students who wish to receive the GED. In Arkansas, for example, there is no charge to students who pass a practice test. In Connecticut, veterans and students under age 21 take the test for free; depending on their local GED board, students can also take preparation courses for free and/or receive a free copy of the official preparation textbook.
In other states, the test-taker must pay for the cost of the test. Fees in 2008 ranged from $7.50 at North Carolina's community colleges to more than $100 in California. There may be a fee for registering for the exam, and then a separate fee for rewriting any failed section. The test-taker may retake a section until the expiration date of the exam, generally the last day of that year or the next year.
The candidate should return the completed form to the GED Testing Center. Each request is considered individually. If accommodations are approved, the local GED testing examiner will conduct the testing with the approved accommodations. Accommodations are provided at no extra charge. Accommodations may include, but are not limited to:
, range from a minimum of 200 to a maximum of 800. A score of 800 on an individual test puts the student in the top 1% of graduating high school seniors. ACE issues recommendations for what constitutes a minimum passing score for any given sub-test (currently 410) and for the test as a whole (currently 2250, i.e. an average of 450 per test across all five sub-tests). Although most GED-issuing jurisdictions (for the most part, Boards of Education of U.S. states) adopt these minimum standards as their own, a jurisdiction may establish higher standards for issuance of the certificate if it chooses. Many jurisdictions award honors
-level equivalency diplomas to students meeting certain criteria higher than those for a standard diploma in a given jurisdiction. Some districts hold graduation
ceremonies for GED Tests passers and/or award scholarship
s to the highest scorers.
Colleges that admit based upon high school grades may require a minimum score on the GED for admittance based upon the GED. For example, Arizona State University requires an average sub-test score of 500 in addition to the certificate.
In most jurisdictions, students must earn a minimum score of 410 on each of the five tests, as well as an overall average of 450 or above.
If a student passes one or more but not all five tests within the battery, he or she needs only retake the test(s) s/he did not pass. Most places limit the number of times students may take each individual test within a year. A student may encounter a waiting period before being allowed to retake a failed test. Tests must be completed by the expiration date, which is generally every 2 years on the last day of the year.
The GED credential itself is issued by the state, province, or territory in which the test taker lives.
Many government institutions and universities regard the GED as the same as a high school diploma with respect to program eligibility and as a prerequisite for admissions. The United States military, however, has explicitly higher requirements in admissions for GEDs to compensate for their lack of a traditional high school diploma. Likewise, economic research finds that the GED certification itself (i.e. without further postsecondary education or training) does not create the same labor market opportunities available to traditional high school graduates.
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. Others believe the GED is harder than it should be; according to GED Testing Service statistics from the 2003 GED Statistical Report, the number of candidates who tested, completed, and passed the tests declined in 2002 and 2003. This decline is attributed to the new tests being more difficult.
The most common criticism is of the test battery's mainly multiple-choice format. Others argue that the reading-comprehension test is too simple, and that there are too many basic operations on the mathematics
portion and not enough advanced algebra
and geometry
questions.
In response to this criticism, the test was revised in 2002 to make it more difficult to pass. One of the most important revisions made it more difficult to guess correct answers from the choices provided. This greater degree of difficulty is achieved by requiring students to show the process for finding the correct answer to a question, rather than simply providing a correct result. 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. Instead, It will ask for the formula that should be used to find the correct answer. This requires the student to use algebra and geometry to explain their answer.
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. These are found mostly in the "Mathematics" and "Language Arts: Writing: Part I" tests.
The test is administered to a representative sample of graduating high-school seniors each year, about 30% of whom fail the test. That only 70% of these students pass the test may show that it is harder than commonly believed.
While people who have earned GEDs tend to earn more than dropouts and less than high school graduates, economist James Heckman
has found that this is primarily due to preexisting differences in the characteristics and backgrounds of GED graduates. When controlling for other influences, he finds no evidence that, for the average taker, the GED as a credential improves an individual's economic opportunities above those for other dropouts. However, on-going academic research shows that the minority of takers with high levels of both academic ability and characteristics of persistence and motivation potentially benefit greatly from obtaining a GED.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
or Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
-level academic skills. The GED is also referred to as a General Education Diploma, General Equivalency Diploma, Graduate Equivalency Degree, or Good Enough Degree for slang.
The American Council on Education
American Council on Education
The American Council on Education is a United States organization, established in 1918, comprising over 1,800 accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities and higher education-related associations, organizations, and corporations....
is the sole developer for the GED test. The test is in person. 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
High school diploma
A high school diploma is a diploma awarded for the completion of high school. In the United States and Canada, it is considered the minimum education required for government jobs and higher education. An equivalent is the GED.-Past diploma styles:...
may take the GED tests. The tests were originally created to help veteran
Veteran
A veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...
s after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
return to civilian life. Common reasons for GED recipients not having received a high school diploma include adult immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
to the United States or Canada, homeschooling
Homeschooling
Homeschooling or homeschool is the education of children at home, typically by parents but sometimes by tutors, rather than in other formal settings of public or private school...
, leaving high school early, the inability to pass required courses or mandatory achievement test
Achievement test
An achievement test is a test of developed skill or knowledge. The most common type of achievement test is a standardized test developed to measure skills and knowledge learned in a given grade level, usually through planned instruction, such as training or classroom instruction...
s, the need to work, personal problems, and wanting to get into college early.
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. Seventy 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
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, the GED tests are available in Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, large print, audiocassette, and braille
Braille
The Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
. Tests and test preparation are routinely offered in prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
s and on military base
Military base
A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. In general, a military base provides accommodations for one or more units, but it may also be used as a...
s in addition to more traditional settings. Individuals living outside the United States, Canada, or U.S. territories may be eligible to take the GED Tests through private testing companies.
History of the GED testing program
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 enrolled in the military 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
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
. 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%) reported taking the test with the intention of continuing their education beyond high school, rather than to get better employment (30%).
A fourth revision was made in 2002 to make the test comply with more recent standards for high-school education.
How the test works
The GED comprises five tests: "Language Arts: Writing", "Social StudiesSocial sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
", "Science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
", "Language Arts: Reading", and "Mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
".
To ensure fairness, all Official 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
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is a law that was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1990. It was signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H. W. Bush, and later amended with changes effective January 1, 2009....
or the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada. It forms the first part of the Constitution Act, 1982...
.
Local policies determine whether students must take all five tests in one day. Some locations divide the tests among two or more days, and testing days are not always consecutive.
Part I
The "Language Arts: Writing" test portion is divided into two parts, of which the first covers sentenceSentence (linguistics)
In the field of linguistics, a sentence is an expression in natural language, and often defined to indicate a grammatical unit consisting of one or more words that generally bear minimal syntactic relation to the words that precede or follow it...
structure, organization, usage
Linguistic prescription
In linguistics, prescription denotes normative practices on such aspects of language use as spelling, grammar, pronunciation, and syntax. It includes judgments on what usages are socially proper and politically correct...
, and mechanics. Test-takers read text from business, informational, and instructional publications and then correct, revise, or improve the text according to Edited American English
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
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 essayEssay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
on an assigned topic in 45 minutes. Persons who finish Part I early may apply the remaining time to their essays. 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. There is no minimum word count. The essay should be long enough to develop the topic adequately. Assigned topics are always an opinion or perspective that does 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 historyHistory of the United States
The history of the United States traditionally starts with the Declaration of Independence in the year 1776, although its territory was inhabited by Native Americans since prehistoric times and then by European colonists who followed the voyages of Christopher Columbus starting in 1492. The...
, world history
World History
World History, Global History or Transnational history is a field of historical study that emerged as a distinct academic field in the 1980s. It examines history from a global perspective...
, civics
Civics
Civics is the study of rights and duties of citizenship. In other words, it is the study of government with attention to the role of citizens ― as opposed to external factors ― in the operation and oversight of government....
and government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
, economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, and geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
; 70 minutes are allotted for the 50 questions.
In the social studies test, test-takers read short passages and answer multiple-choice questions. Some passages come from such documents as the Declaration of Independence
Declaration of independence
A declaration of independence is an assertion of the independence of an aspiring state or states. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another nation or failed nation, or are breakaway territories from within the larger state...
and U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
decisions. Many questions use graphs, charts, and other images, such as editorial cartoons, along with or instead of written passages.
Questions involving economics as well as civics and government rely heavily on practical documents, such as tax forms, voter-registration forms, and workplace and personal budgets. Topics such as global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
and environmental law
Environmental law
Environmental law is a complex and interlocking body of treaties, conventions, statutes, regulations, and common law that operates to regulate the interaction of humanity and the natural environment, toward the purpose of reducing the impacts of human activity...
also are covered.
Science
This 80-minute test of 50 multiple-choice questions covers life scienceBiology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
, earth science
Earth science
Earth science is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth. It is arguably a special case in planetary science, the Earth being the only known life-bearing planet. There are both reductionist and holistic approaches to Earth sciences...
, space science
Space science
The term space science may mean:* The study of issues specifically related to space travel and space exploration, including space medicine.* Science performed in outer space ....
, and physical science
Physical science
Physical science is an encompassing term for the branches of natural science and science that study non-living systems, in contrast to the life sciences...
. It measures the candidate's skill in understanding, interpreting, and applying science concepts to visual and written text from academic and workplace contexts. The test focuses on what a scientifically literate person must know, understand, and be able to do. Questions address the National Science Education Content Standards and focus on environmental and health topics (recycling
Recycling
Recycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse...
, heredity
Heredity
Heredity is the passing of traits to offspring . This is the process by which an offspring cell or organism acquires or becomes predisposed to the characteristics of its parent cell or organism. Through heredity, variations exhibited by individuals can accumulate and cause some species to evolve...
, and pollution
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
, 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. Subjects covered include photosynthesis
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is a chemical process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight. Photosynthesis occurs in plants, algae, and many species of bacteria, but not in archaea. Photosynthetic organisms are called photoautotrophs, since they can...
, weather
Weather
Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere, just below the stratosphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate...
and climate
Climate
Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
, geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, magnetism
Magnetism
Magnetism is a property of materials that respond at an atomic or subatomic level to an applied magnetic field. Ferromagnetism is the strongest and most familiar type of magnetism. It is responsible for the behavior of permanent magnets, which produce their own persistent magnetic fields, as well...
, energy
Energy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
, and cell division
Cell division
Cell division is the process by which a parent cell divides into two or more daughter cells . Cell division is usually a small segment of a larger cell cycle. This type of cell division in eukaryotes is known as mitosis, and leaves the daughter cell capable of dividing again. The corresponding sort...
.
Language Arts: Reading
This 65-minute, 40-question test examines a test-taker's ability to readReading (process)
Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of constructing or deriving meaning . It is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas...
and understand texts similar to those encountered in high-school English classrooms. The test has five fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
and two nonfiction passages, each about 300–400 words long. The fiction passages include portions of a play, a poem, and three pieces of prose. The nonfiction passages may come from letters, biographies, newspaper and magazine articles, or such "practical" texts as manuals and forms. 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. Test-takers must use the calculators issued at the testing center, no other.Forty of the 50 questions are multiple-choice; the other 10 use an alternate format, requiring the test-taker to record answers on either a numerical or coordinate-plane grid. Both portions of the test have questions of both types. The test booklet offers a page of common formulas as well as directions for completing the alternate-format items and using the calculator.
The test focuses on four main mathematical disciplines:
- Number operationsOperation (mathematics)The general operation as explained on this page should not be confused with the more specific operators on vector spaces. For a notion in elementary mathematics, see arithmetic operation....
and number sense - Measurement and geometryGeometryGeometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....
- Data analysis, probabilityProbability theoryProbability theory is the branch of mathematics concerned with analysis of random phenomena. The central objects of probability theory are random variables, stochastic processes, and events: mathematical abstractions of non-deterministic events or measured quantities that may either be single...
, and statisticsStatisticsStatistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments.... - AlgebraAlgebraAlgebra is the branch of mathematics concerning the study of the rules of operations and relations, and the constructions and concepts arising from them, including terms, polynomials, equations and algebraic structures...
, functions, and patterns
Test administration
There are more than 3,200 Official GED Testing Centers in the United States and Canada. Testing centers are most often in adult-educationAdult education
Adult education is the practice of teaching and educating adults. Adult education takes place in the workplace, through 'extension' school or 'school of continuing education' . Other learning places include folk high schools, community colleges, and lifelong learning centers...
centers, community college
Community college
A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries.-Australia:Community colleges carry on the tradition of adult education, which was established in Australia around mid 19th century when evening classes were held to help adults...
s, and public schools
Public education
State schools, also known in the United States and Canada as public schools,In much of the Commonwealth, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, the terms 'public education', 'public school' and 'independent school' are used for private schools, that is, schools...
. Students in metropolitan area
Metropolitan area
The term metropolitan area refers to a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories, sharing industry, infrastructure, and housing. A metropolitan area usually encompasses multiple jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships,...
s may be able to choose from several nearby testing locations.
Official GED Testing Centers are controlled environments. All testing sessions take place in person (not online) according to very specific rules, and security measures are enforced. Breaks may be permitted between tests, depending on how many tests are being administered in a session. There may be restrictions on what test-takers may bring into the testing room.
There are approximately 25 different editions of the GED Tests that may be in circulation. This measure helps catch test-takers who may be cheating
Cheating
Cheating refers to the breaking of rules to gain advantage in a competitive situation. The rules infringed may be explicit, or they may be from an unwritten code of conduct based on morality, ethics or custom, making the identification of cheating a subjective process. Cheating can refer...
. As with any standardized test
Standardized test
A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent, or "standard", manner. Standardized tests are designed in such a way that the questions, conditions for administering, scoring procedures, and interpretations are consistent and are administered and scored in a...
, the various editions are calibrated to the same level of difficulty.
Cost
The cost of the GED for test-takers varies depending on the state. The most reliable and up-to-date information regarding any given area's current testing costs and policies may be found by contacting the local testing center.In some areas, there is no charge to students who wish to receive the GED. In Arkansas, for example, there is no charge to students who pass a practice test. In Connecticut, veterans and students under age 21 take the test for free; depending on their local GED board, students can also take preparation courses for free and/or receive a free copy of the official preparation textbook.
In other states, the test-taker must pay for the cost of the test. Fees in 2008 ranged from $7.50 at North Carolina's community colleges to more than $100 in California. There may be a fee for registering for the exam, and then a separate fee for rewriting any failed section. The test-taker may retake a section until the expiration date of the exam, generally the last day of that year or the next year.
Students with disabilities
Disabled persons who want to take the GED Tests may be entitled to receive reasonable testing accommodations. If a qualified professional has documented the disability, the candidate should get the appropriate form from the Testing Center:- Physical disabilityDisabilityA disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental or some combination of these.Many people would rather be referred to as a person with a disability instead of handicapped...
and chronic-health disability (such as blindnessBlindnessBlindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
, low vision, hearing impairment, and mobility impairment): "Request for Testing Accommodations—Physical/Chronic Health Disability" form - Learning or cognitive disabilityLearning disabilityLearning disability is a classification including several disorders in which a person has difficulty learning in a typical manner, usually caused by an unknown factor or factors...
(such as dyslexiaDyslexiaDyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...
, dyscalculiaDyscalculiaDyscalculia is a specific learning disability involving innate difficulty in learning or comprehending simple arithmetic. It is akin to dyslexia and includes difficulty in understanding numbers, learning how to manipulate numbers, learning maths facts, and a number of other related symptoms...
, receptive aphasiaAphasiaAphasia is an impairment of language ability. This class of language disorder ranges from having difficulty remembering words to being completely unable to speak, read, or write....
, and written-language disorder): "Request for Testing Accommodations—Learning and Other Cognitive Disabilities" form - EmotionalEmotional and behavioral disordersEmotional and behavioral disorders is a broad category which is used commonly in educational settings, to group a range of more specific perceived difficulties of children and adolescents...
or mental-healthMental healthMental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...
disorder (such as bipolar disorderBipolar disorderBipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...
, Tourette's syndrome, and schizophreniaSchizophreniaSchizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
): "Request for Testing Accommodations—Emotional/Mental health" form - Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity DisorderAttention-deficit hyperactivity disorderAttention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a developmental disorder. It is primarily characterized by "the co-existence of attentional problems and hyperactivity, with each behavior occurring infrequently alone" and symptoms starting before seven years of age.ADHD is the most commonly studied and...
(inattentive type, hyperactive–impulse type, or combined type): "Request for Testing Accommodations—Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder" form
The candidate should return the completed form to the GED Testing Center. Each request is considered individually. If accommodations are approved, the local GED testing examiner will conduct the testing with the approved accommodations. Accommodations are provided at no extra charge. Accommodations may include, but are not limited to:
- Audio-cassettes tests
- BrailleBrailleThe Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write, and was the first digital form of writing.Braille was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, a blind Frenchman. Each Braille character, or cell, is made up of six dot positions, arranged in a rectangle containing two...
or large-print tests - Vision-enhancing technologies
- Use of video equipment
- Use of a talking calculator or abacus
- Use of a sign-language interpreter
- Use of a scribe (a person who writes down the test-taker's answers)
- Extended testing time
International testing
The Maine Department of Education, through a contract with the GED Testing Service of the American Council on Education, awards a Maine High School Equivalency Diploma to those candidates who have successfully tested through Pro metric's International GED Testing Program. Pro metric offers a computerized version of the test at various locations worldwide. The test-taker can set dates on available weekdays throughout the year.Passing the GED testing battery
Possible scores on an individual test within the GED battery, like those on an individual section of the SATSAT
The SAT Reasoning Test is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. The SAT is owned, published, and developed by the College Board, a nonprofit organization in the United States. It was formerly developed, published, and scored by the Educational Testing Service which still...
, range from a minimum of 200 to a maximum of 800. A score of 800 on an individual test puts the student in the top 1% of graduating high school seniors. ACE issues recommendations for what constitutes a minimum passing score for any given sub-test (currently 410) and for the test as a whole (currently 2250, i.e. an average of 450 per test across all five sub-tests). Although most GED-issuing jurisdictions (for the most part, Boards of Education of U.S. states) adopt these minimum standards as their own, a jurisdiction may establish higher standards for issuance of the certificate if it chooses. Many jurisdictions award honors
Honors student
An honors student is a person recognized for achieving high grades or high marks in their course work.Honors students may refer to# Students recognized for their academic achievement on lists published periodically throughout the school year, known as honor rolls, varying from school to school, and...
-level equivalency diplomas to students meeting certain criteria higher than those for a standard diploma in a given jurisdiction. Some districts hold graduation
Graduation
Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become Graduates. Before the graduation, candidates are referred to as Graduands. The date of graduation is often called degree day. The graduation itself is also...
ceremonies for GED Tests passers and/or award scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
s to the highest scorers.
Colleges that admit based upon high school grades may require a minimum score on the GED for admittance based upon the GED. For example, Arizona State University requires an average sub-test score of 500 in addition to the certificate.
In most jurisdictions, students must earn a minimum score of 410 on each of the five tests, as well as an overall average of 450 or above.
If a student passes one or more but not all five tests within the battery, he or she needs only retake the test(s) s/he did not pass. Most places limit the number of times students may take each individual test within a year. A student may encounter a waiting period before being allowed to retake a failed test. Tests must be completed by the expiration date, which is generally every 2 years on the last day of the year.
The GED credential itself is issued by the state, province, or territory in which the test taker lives.
Many government institutions and universities regard the GED as the same as a high school diploma with respect to program eligibility and as a prerequisite for admissions. The United States military, however, has explicitly higher requirements in admissions for GEDs to compensate for their lack of a traditional high school diploma. Likewise, economic research finds that the GED certification itself (i.e. without further postsecondary education or training) does not create the same labor market opportunities available to traditional high school graduates.
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. Others believe the GED is harder than it should be; according to GED Testing Service statistics from the 2003 GED Statistical Report, the number of candidates who tested, completed, and passed the tests declined in 2002 and 2003. This decline is attributed to the new tests being more difficult.
The most common criticism is of the test battery's mainly multiple-choice format. Others argue that the reading-comprehension test is too simple, and that there are too many basic operations on the mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
portion and not enough advanced algebra
Algebra
Algebra is the branch of mathematics concerning the study of the rules of operations and relations, and the constructions and concepts arising from them, including terms, polynomials, equations and algebraic structures...
and geometry
Geometry
Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....
questions.
In response to this criticism, the test was revised in 2002 to make it more difficult to pass. One of the most important revisions made it more difficult to guess correct answers from the choices provided. This greater degree of difficulty is achieved by requiring students to show the process for finding the correct answer to a question, rather than simply providing a correct result. For example, a typical mathematics question will not ask what the second leg of a right-angled triangle
Triangle
A triangle is one of the basic shapes of geometry: a polygon with three corners or vertices and three sides or edges which are line segments. A triangle with vertices A, B, and C is denoted ....
is when the lengths of the first leg and the hypotenuse are given. Instead, It will ask for the formula that should be used to find the correct answer. This requires the student to use algebra and geometry to explain their answer.
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. These are found mostly in the "Mathematics" and "Language Arts: Writing: Part I" tests.
The test is administered to a representative sample of graduating high-school seniors each year, about 30% of whom fail the test. That only 70% of these students pass the test may show that it is harder than commonly believed.
While people who have earned GEDs tend to earn more than dropouts and less than high school graduates, economist James Heckman
James Heckman
James Joseph Heckman is an American economist and Nobel laureate. He is the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, Professor of Science and Society at University College Dublin and a Senior Research Fellow at the American Bar Foundation.Heckman...
has found that this is primarily due to preexisting differences in the characteristics and backgrounds of GED graduates. When controlling for other influences, he finds no evidence that, for the average taker, the GED as a credential improves an individual's economic opportunities above those for other dropouts. However, on-going academic research shows that the minority of takers with high levels of both academic ability and characteristics of persistence and motivation potentially benefit greatly from obtaining a GED.
Further reading
- GED Technical Manual, 2nd Edition. (1998). Washington, DC: GED Testing Service of the American Council on Education.
- Northcutt, Ellen [et al.]. Steck-Vaughn Complete GED Preparation (2002). Austin: Steck-Vaughn Company. ISBN 0-7398-2837-1
- Rockowitz, Murray [et al.]. Barron's How to Prepare for the GED High School Equivalency Exam (2004). New York: Barron's Educational Series, Inc. ISBN 0-7641-2603-2
- Mitchell, Robert. McGraw-Hill's GED: Science (2003). New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. ISBN 0-07-140704-9
- Larry Elowitz [et al.]. GED Success: 2003 (2003). Lawrenceville, New Jersey: Peterson's. ISBN 0-7689-0906-6
External links
- GED Testing Service Official website of the GED program
- The GED Testing Program from ERIC Clearinghouse on Tests Measurement and Evaluation
- DANTES site for members of the U.S. military