A GED, or General Education Development is a test developed by the American Council on Education which determines if the taker has the skills and knowledge necessary to get the equivalent to a high school diploma. Therefore it is also called a ‘high school equivalent’.

Contents of the GED Test

The GED test consists of:

• Language arts: Writing (2 parts)
• Language arts: Reading
• Social studies
• Science
• Mathematics

Language Arts: Writing

In the first part of this section, basic grammar skills such as sentence structure, usage and mechanics are tested. This is done by providing the test taker with texts that need correcting. The student is then graded on how well they edit and correct the texts.

In part two, the student is required to write an essay on a topic assigned by the test designers. The student needs to show a well-structured piece of writing to received good marks.

Language Arts: Reading

In this section a test taker answers question from text which are similar to those found in a high school classroom. It incorporates writing from both the fiction and non-fiction genres which are used to assess the test takers reading comprehension.

Social Studies

Topics covered in this section include:

• American history
• World history
• Civics and government
• Economics
• Geography

Science

Topics covered in this section include:

• Life science
• Earth science
• Space science
• Physical science

Mathematics

This part of the test includes the following sections:

• Number operations and sense
• Measurement and geometry
• Statistics, such as data analysis and probability
• Algebra and functions

With around 15 million American obtaining a GED since its start, it has become a very recognized way of proving your knowledge.