Test Preparation

You are tested on knowledge and skills you have acquired from life experiences, work experiences, television, radio, books, magazines, newspapers, consumer products, and advertising. Many questions will involve the roles that adults play: citizen and community member, worker, and/or family member. Many documents will be “how to” documents especially found in business settings.

In particular, keep these facts in mind about the specific tests:

• A. Part I of the Language Arts, Writing Test requires you to recognize or correct errors, revise sentences or passages, or shift constructions in the four areas of organization, sentence structure, usage, and mechanics (capitalization, punctuation, and spelling). The types of letters and memos you would normally write are likely to be included. Informational texts from business-related documents will be used.

  In Part II you will have to write a well-developed essay on a topic familiar to most adults. You will be asked to have an audience and a purpose in mind for the essay. You will write in a real life context and adopt a role. You will be asked to generate (produce) ideas, express them clearly, organize the ideas, and connect them appropriately.

• B. Three of the five tests - Social Studies, Science, and Language Arts, Reading - require that you answer questions based on reading passages or interpret graphs, charts, maps, cartoons, or diagrams. Developing strong reading and thinking skills is the key to succeeding on these tests.

  The Social Studies Test looks at history in terms of critical points in time and clusters (groups) of historical periods. Psychology, the science of behavior, is not a separate content area, but it is included in other social studies areas. More emphasis is placed on US & world history and civics and government.

  The Science Test is based on the National Science Education Standards (NSES). It emphasizes scientific understandings and places special emphasis on the environment and on health questions. Science educaiton focuses on the activities or ways in which people use science in their daily lives.

As expected, the Language Arts, Reading Test asks you to read literary text and to show that you can comprehend, apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate concepts. In addition, the test asks you to read and comprehend nonfiction prose including informational texts (such as job benefits or letters to the editor typicsl in daily living), literary nonfiction, texts based on viewing components, and business documents.

The Mathematics Test consists mainly of word problems to be solved. Therefore, you must be able to combine your ability to perform computations with problem-solving skills. Fifty percent of the problems will require the use of a calculator provided at the test site, and fifty percent of the questions will not permit the use of a calculator. Alternate formats are especially important on this test.

The calculator use is intended to eliminate the tediousnesss of making complex calculations in realistic, everyday settings. Thus, two separate booklets are used. Booklet One, Mathematical Understanding and Application, permits the use of the calculator provided by the GED Testing Service. Booklet Two, Estimation and Mental Math, does not permit calculator use. Twenty percent (20%) of the questions will include alternate formats of bubble-in grids or graphs (coordinate plane graphs with number lines).