In , the first single year for which data are available, 58, took the test. Now all 50 states, 10 U. Two states, Arkansas and New York, do not charge for the tests. He said an examinee pays the local testing center, not the ace directly, and that the money is divided between the ace and the center, depending on local overhead costs.
The five-part, six-and-a-half-hour test now includes sections on writing skills, social studies, science, reading skills, and mathematics. The test involves multiple-choice questions that reflect the material taught in required courses in most high schools, according to Mr. For example, in the writing-skills section, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, usage, sentence structure, and textual logic and organization are included; the social-studies part covers economics, geography, political science, U.
The test includes little material taught in elective courses, such as foreign languages, music, or home economics, according to Mr. The ged Testing Service does not provide any preparation courses for the test, he said, but every state department of education offers some sort of program, usually through adult-education classes, to help individuals prepare for the test.
The test is normed so that 30 percent of high-school seniors would fail it, according to its sponsors. To Ms. The survey found that some 39 percent of the test-takers came from those six states, 58 percent were women, 79 percent were white, and 93 percent were born in the United States.
About 88 percent said they had completed 9th grade, and about 41 percent of those surveyed cited personal reasons for not completing high school. About 39 percent said they took the ged for job-related reasons. Another 30 percent took the tests in order to meet an admission requirement for college or vocational training, while 25 percent said they were taking it primarily for personal satisfaction. Mary Davis of Washington, D. Pregnant at the age of 16, she had dropped out of high school in the 10th grade.
She came from a family of nine children, only two of whom graduated from high school. She was married and divorced and raised four children. Then, at the age of 27, she decided to take the test. She spent a year relearning some subjects and studying test-taking skills at Shaw Junior High Community School, the same school she had attended before dropping out.
She took the test and failed the first time. Davis, who works as a cartographist for the District of Columbia Department of Finance and Revenue, said that so far the test has not helped her get a better job or increased her salary, but she thinks interviewers now look upon her more favorably.
Whitney said that although the average age of the ged test-takers has remained fairly stable, the proportion of and year-olds taking the test has increased over the past decade. This is because the test has become more widely known, and people are deciding at an earlier age that they want some sort of educational certification, he said.
Most states require test-takers to be at least 17 or 18, Mr. Whitney said. In general, states also require ged candidates to have been out of school for at least a year, or to have passed their high-school graduation date, before they can become eligible to take the test.
According to a follow-up study two years after the survey, high-school graduates and those with ged certificates have similar success rates when they continue on to college or careers. The equivalency-diploma recipient who enrolls in some form of postsecondary education is most often a young adult who selects a community college or a middle-aged person who selects a career-transition program, such as a technical school or an apprenticeship, the survey found. Of the people polled in the follow-up study, 9 percent were enrolled full time in a postsecondary institute, 8 percent were enrolled part time, and 32 percent reported that they had been enrolled at some time between taking the test and responding to the survey.
Although no national study has compared the college careers of equivalency-diploma recipients and high-school graduates, individual studies of selected colleges show that their success rates are about equal.
A study at Brandon University in Manitoba, Canada, for example, found that there was no statistically significant difference in the grade-point averages of the two groups of students. A similar study of a vocational program at Lake City Community College in Florida found that ged students actually earned higher grade-point averages in the community college than did high-school graduates, and that roughly equal proportions of students in both groups completed the program.
Byrd, the West Virginia Democrat who sponsored the measure. Throughout these changes, it has remained an essential avenue for anyone who did not finish high school. Equivalent to a high school diploma, the GED certificate opens many doors one may have thought were closed forever. Learn Just 1 Hour a Day.
Home About Us. Our Story. At GED Testing Service, we have helped over 20 million students achieve high school equivalency and pursue a brighter future.
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