How the GED Test Works

guess law enforcement suite no. Uh, military suite No. A little sort of addiction swite, yes, because people are addicted to knowledge, buddy, and uh here in the United States, and I believe in Canada, if you don't graduate high school and then later on you say, you know what, that was a mistake. I'm just gonna go back to high school. And they say you can't do that. You say, well,

what do I do? And then they say it's your g e D, dummy, and you go, oh, oh, that's great because that's my General equivalently diploma, right, And they say, no, that's not what it stands for. No, you should have

stayed in high school. Although I don't think they teach this in high school now, of course they don't g D. A lot of people do think it stands for General equivalenc Diploma, but it stands for General Education Development, which is a company a brand name, Yeah, like Seeing Eye Dogs, brand name, Heroin, Yeah, brand name, Kleenex, brand name, m M barbecue No very nice xerox is though, Yeah. Those are called generic size trademarks, yeah, band aid. Yeah. Things

that were a trademark name or still are. But it becomes so widespread and so dominant in their market they become the name for all of the other versions of themselves. Petroleum Nope, vassoline though, but yes, which should be called petroleum jelly. Yeah, No one says that, though weirdos say that. They just say vasoline or lube. Do you have any petroleum jelly for sale? People say, I don't know what you mean. You say, well, I mean vasiline, and they say, well,

why didn't you just say that? And then uh, you just get quiet, and then they say, yes, we have some vasoline for sale, and then you buy the right aiight bran because it's cheaper and it's the same thing, but it just does petroleum jelly. That's right, all right? This is off to a banging start. That was a horrific story. Um about eight hundred and fifty thousand people in the United States and took this has got a lot of stats in it. By the way, was it

just eight fifty I'm surprised. I thought it was like a million. No, I've got the stats right here, my friend, under key findings. More than eight d adults adults world wide took at least one of the five content area tests. So that's our first point is the g e D isn't a single test, but it is five subtests are what they called them. Well, it wasn't two thirteen, that's right, it's switched in two thousand fourteen. This is a heck of a time to be talking about g e D.

It really is, because there's been some big changes lately. Uh. And only on not only but seven forty three thousand completed the entire test battery and the reason why was because that change. Usually it's fewer than that. Usually, the the proportion of people who take the the g e D to the people who take and finished the g

e D the same year is much different. There's a huge difference this year or two thirteen, it was close because everybody wanted to complete it because it was about to get a lot harder in two thousand yea, And of those who took the complete battery of tests passed it. Uh. And the way they have it's pretty cool. The way they established the passing score is they give it to high school graduates and the top six of high school seniors. They compare that against the test. They used that as

the norm. I did not know that. Yeah, that is very clever. Yeah, I thought so. I mean that's a high school equivalence intest. Yeah, that makes perfect sense now and the whole a lot. I mean you kind of said it like, well, people you know, drop out of high school and then years later they say, yeah, maybe I should go back an average of nine years. By the way, is it nine now? Yeah, nine years later.

And they they had statistics from I think starting from geez many many years ago, and they remained pretty consistent as far as racial divide and men or women and then people who pass or people who fail. Reasons people take it, It's fairly consistent over the years. It's pretty interesting. The reason people take it um ultimately is so they

can get gainful employment. But it seems to flip flop depending on the economy whether they're going to go on and go to college afterward, because you need your g e d. To get into college or because as the

general education UM development. Uh. People say there's roughly four million jobs out there that are just waiting for people to prove that they can fill them, and one way to prove that is to have a g e D. It basically says I am qualified for most of your unskilled labor at least, and so going and getting a g e D is for a lot of people a huge investment in their future. Um. So that's pretty much why the g e D. It provides quote proof of

readiness for higher education or the workplace. That's the whole point. It's it's it's proof that you're ready to move on. Uh. Yeah. And they actually have statistics too on why people take it. Um said they took it for educational reasons. Uh, and

it's not just one or the other. I think it can be multiple reasons, because more than half and I thought this was pretty neat said they tested for personal reasons such as being a positive role model and for a sense of personal satisfaction, and then said for employment reasons to get a job basically, so I thought that was those findings are interesting. I like the role model thing, like even though only four points five percent of the people who take it are over fifty years of age.

I say hats off to that four point five percent because they you know, that's probably personal satisfaction or role model reasons right there. You're never too old to get educated. Don't give up. That sounds like an ending, but this is just the beginning. Well, maybe we can cut and paste it under the I'll say it again at the end. Okay, so um, people have pretty great reasons for this. It

also helps the economy. If you have a bunch of unfilled jobs out there in your economy, and you have a bunch of unemployed people, and all that you need to get the two together is proof that this group of people is qualified to fill this these unfilled jobs, then you have a real need to get those people qualified as easily as possible. And for many, many, many many years, the g e D was a state sponsored,

nonprofit way of making that happen. That's right. If you want stats to back that up, sir, Okay, the net lifetime fiscal contribution of a high school graduate or g e D holder is almost three thousand dollars. Wow. Uh, and you're gonna have about a ten tho dollar difference in annual salary if you get that g e D

or do not. And with one point two million UH college dropouts each year, UM, people should encourage people to take the g E D. And I'm gonna go out and say, and people are probably gonna be mad some people. I think it should be subsidized. If you want your g E D. I think you should be able to take it for free. Well in a lot of states. It is some states, but a lot of people have a big problem with that. Shouldn't have dropped out of

high school to begin with. But um, that doesn't make any sense because what we needed more educated people saying get better jobs and not be a tax burden in other ways, you know what I'm saying. Um, So, the whole idea of the g D initially was it was basically a compromise between the military and the a c E. The American Council of Educators, I believe, and um, apparently when World War two broke out, or when the US entered the Second World War, UM, there was this idea

of just handing out wartime diplomas. If you came aboard, you got drafted, you you and did whatever you can, just have your high school diploma, and Uh, the a C said that's a really bad idea because you're gonna have some people coming back afterwards who are unqualified, but people will think they're they're qualified. It is bad for the economy to do that. Let's come up with something else.

Military said, fine, do it, and the a C said fine, we will, and they went off and they came up with the what is the g E D. Yeah, for five years it was just for military, right, like you had to be a military service member to to take the g E D. And then after that they're like, you know what, this is a pretty good idea, so let's expand it to everybody. Yeah, it was a great idea, and they did expand it. And over the years since then, Uh,

it has gone through now five iterations, UM. Previously to the last one was in two thousand two, and uh it's changed quite a bit over the years. UM, like all standardized standardized test. I guess. Uh. Previously you like back in the nineteen forties and fifties, UM, it was pretty much just reading and writing skills, social studies, science and math. But like basic skills, they didn't try to make it like a like a real world test. You know,

does that make sense? Uh, like real world applications. Like later on they started putting things like newspaper articles that you could read instead of just like read this text about Johnny and his dog, right, And I yeah, I think it was definitely also geared towards people high school level maturity too. And then later on they were like, well, we've got a lot more adults taking this than we realized, so let's change it. It just took them like thirty

years to make that change. Yeah. Um, it took on a lot more of a conceptual evaluation over the years as well, and uh, showing people examples from like, like I said, real world, their home life and their work life, so they can say, hey, that's me in these test examples. I get it. And it's not. It's it's more humanized I think. Right. Plus, they instituted a big one, the writing test, an essay section that was definitely new critical thinking skills, and all of a sudden g D got

a little harder. But it wasn't over then, and we'll talk about more after this, so check. They revamped the g e D in for like the first time seriously in thirty years, and um, it's a little more real world, a little more reflective, And they just missed this the cusp of a real change, because in nineteen eighty two the world became a little more aware of the fact that it was globalizing. And so six years after that, the g e D said we need to make some

changes as well, and they revamped again. Had they just waited until eight, they could have skipped the whole nineteen seventy eight revamp, that's true. And eight is when they added that essay uh component, which was makes a lot of sense to me. Did they I thought they added it in no, huh? And in seventy eight is when they separated the reading test and basically said we're not going to do any more of this, just straight up like fact recall stuff. Um. And at this point only

of the takers were taking the test for employment. Um, we're taking it to basically go to college. Yeah, And that's reflective of a larger thing where the premium or the rebate you get for a college degree was much higher, and that fluctuates over time. And I read this paper where you can basically look at it like supplying demand, where if employers are saying we need more skilled labor um. So you need to go to college, but if you do,

we're gonna pay you more. Then more people who took the g e D would go on to to um college or whatever. But if not when the premium was lower, say, like unions were in charge and they were like, are people that need college educations but you're still going to pay them? Well, the people would take the g e D just to get into industry. Yeah. Interesting, they're all very closely aligned. Now people are like, do you even need a college education? Which to me, I think is

a separate episode that we should do. I totally agree to because the whole notion of uh, there's a lot of people challenging, uh, the validity of college these days, and especially the stupidity of taking out exorbitant amounts of student student loans. They're going to cripple you and cripple the economy the United States. Well yeah, I mean, especially if you're not going to be able to make that back. Yeah. Um. There's some people that say that the student loan problem

is like the biggest problem facing our economy. They're called Occupy Wall Street. No, they're called Mark Cuban. Like a lot of smart people businessmen are saying this is just getting out of hand. Yeah, I think we should definitely do an episode on that. So before you can go to college, though, you need that g e D or your high school diploma. Um, so let's say you do want to take the g e D. These days, you can prep yourself. You don't have to just go in cold.

They are all kinds of materials you can get online. Um, if you go through the official g e D site. Because there are now three things you can do. There are three tests you can take. G e D isn't your only option. No. It used to have a monopoly in the United States. Yeah, but since uh, Pearson Education a private company, basically I guess bought bought it out right. Yeah.

The a C, the American Council of Educators on Education. Okay, Um, they were the ones that owned g e D and they were running in as an profit and they said, we need to revamp this, so we're going to take on a for profit education. Educational publisher Pearson and Pierson came in and said, okay, thanks for bringing us on. Uh, do you know what a hostile takeovers? And a C said not really, we're edging and then they were pushed out of the door. Here's the banker's box exactly right.

So Pearson took over and is running this as for profit. Yeah, but there are other options now, um, I think Pearson and the official g e D is the only one available in all fifty states, but most states now you can also take the T A S C, which is run by also known as Task mcgrawl Hill or H little I, Big Set, High Set which is administered by E T S and UH and most states now you

can have your choice of all those. Um. Yeah, what happened was in two thousand and fourteen, the g E D, which was a basically n g O run nonprofit testing resource, Yeah, became privatized, and now there's competition among private businesses. That's right. So where I started with all this kabbadigook was how

to prep um. Depending on which tests you take, you will probably want to use their testing materials, although they say that, um, any kind of preparatory materials that you can find are probably gonna be good for all three of the tests because while they're not exactly like, they all have the basic standard five components or four oh and only four on some of them. Yeah, so apparently the g D went from UM to language and language arts and reading modules to one. But basically they're covering

language arts, are reading, science, math, and social studies. Right before it was language arts and writing and then language arts and reading and now that's just one. Yeah, it's called reasoning through Language Arts and the g e D battery. Nice. The whole kit and caboodle is gonna take you, uh close to eight hours. Um, it's all parched out in

the time. But if you do need more time, if you have some sort of learning disability or something, or if you want to be in a room by yourself, most of these testing centers will accommodate that visual learners are easily distracted by other people in the room. Yeah, I am, so that's why they stick. They make sense. You you can have you can have your own room, dude,

I never thought about that. That makes total sense. Like I do my best studying for the podcast when I go in one of our office rooms and just lock the door. Huh. And also, because Jonathan Strickland is super loud, it is pretty loud. He loves telling stories really loudly. Okay, So also a lot of if you're interested in taking the get a lot of information, uh you're gonna want is it depends on the state, like where you can

take it, how much it's gonna cost. It all varies by state, um, and the guidelines of your state are gonna dictate, uh sometimes which one you have to take. I think state of Washington signed a deal with Pearson to make that the only one for the state. Yeah. I think there's twelve states where you have a choice of all three that all um, but the g E D is available in not all fifty states. I think

some of them dropped it. Interesting. I think Pierson really ticked off a lot of companies by basically saying, you remember these fees that before it was the state was subsidizing it to an extent. Some states were saying, okay, so this is how much the test people charge, and then we can add fees onto that. So that's that's how it stands still today to run to run the center where they take it is where those fees come,

right exactly. Some states said we're not adding any additional feest and we're going to subsidize the actual cost of the test. UM. So when the when the when g E D doubled basically their rates. Um they were passing it along to the states and basically saying, you know,

passive all to the test takers if you want. The thing is is like these are disproportionately low income people and doubling the rates even even if we're talking like fifty six dollars suddenly being like a hundred, a hundred and twenty, that's a significant increasing cost cost prohibitive in some cases. Right, that's just for the test too, that's not that's not for prep materials and that kind of thing, which a lot of states also uh subsidized as well

and gave up for free. Yeah, so I think Pierson takes some people off with the with the sudden for profit model. But Pearson, in its defense says, we really kind of updated this thing for the twenty one century. Yeah, they moved it to a computer based test, not an online test, but it has to be taken. The G E. D Brand test Pierson tests has to be taken on a computer now, whereas the other two you can still take with pen and paper or on a computer. Right.

But Pearson says, in the long run, this is gonna save money because it's cheaper to things on a computer. But that also came with some controversy because while it seems to us like computers are ubiquitous and everybody knows how to use one, maybe a really poor fifty year old person has never touched a computer, so they have to learn how to use a computer before they can

even take the test. Right, So, Chuck, we're talking about the controversy right because I put it kind of flippy earlier, like the G E D was privatized and it is essentially as simple as that, But that's that there there's so much more to that that doesn't just exist in a vacuums still loaded concept these days to take education and privatize it UM that that are at a for

profit model to education. UM, it has brought a lot of criticism again Pierson saying, uh, yeah, we kind of need these people to take this test on computers because that's where the jobs are, Like, you have to know how to use a computer to work almost anywhere these days. That's a good So it's a good thing to make these people learn to use a computer first. So there's you know, what's what's the problem in that? UM. A

lot of people would respond and say that's great. Maybe this is something we could have implemented a little more slowly. Maybe you could have given the States and then hence the state funded testing centers a little more of a heads up that this is where it was going to go. Or provide the computer as an option, because not every job involves a computer. No, it's true for now, but uh, task and high set both offer computer and paper versions,

right like you said. Um again, Pearson says, well, that's great. The States still has to pay for grading of the pen and paper versions. With the computerized version, we have it all built in. People don't have to wait around for their scores. They get in immediately since it's on a computer and it can be graded by the computer. Apparently, you can take a module, you can find out that you you didn't pass the module immediately and take it two more times before having to enter like a thirty

or sixty day waiting period. You can just sit there and take it two more times, right there. Yeah, that's pretty handy. So, I mean, there is. It's not entirely like you know, Evil Co came in and took over the g D, but I think the the sweeping changes they made were so abrupt that it caught a lot of people off guarden and they're I mean, they're suffering

as a result. Some people some states have just entirely dropped the g e D. It's not even an option, wow, the official g e D. So you brought up a good point. Um, you don't have to take the entire test at once because some people can't afford a hundred and sixty bucks or more. You can break it out into modules and pay as you go. Uh. And like you said, if you don't pass one, you can retake just that module. It's not all or nothing, which is great. You can take it in Spanish, you can take it

in French, I think too. Yeah, you said at the very beginning that around the world eight hundred and fifty thousand people took it. Yeah, you can be elsewhere in the world to get your US high school diploma equivalent of the diploma your g E D. Uh. They have brail versions. Um, they have large print and audio versions and don't show up and expect that though. That's the kind of thing that when you're registering you have to let them know and make sure that they can accommodate you.

And it's also interesting that people, some people say, you know, this whole computer thing is is a mess. But most of the information you're gonna have to go to online to find out this stuff. I mean it's available to I mean you can go to the learning center and stuff like that and get a pamphlet. I'm sure still, but everything I saw was like, hey, go online and check out this, Go online and check out your state's guideline, go online and check out study courses. So it helps

to you know, have that capability. But you can go to a public library and get online. You can you know, you can also get all the printed stuff at your library. To um. One of the big changes to that that um Pearson took a little heat for was they were revamping everything so much, from five modules to four. Scoring went in completely different directions. I think it used to be something like a fifty was the minimum. Now it's

a hundred and fifty score is the minimum. No total, I think, yeah, So overall they just completely revamped everything. So they said, if you are taking your g E D in two thousand thirteen, and you've got like three or four of the five modules, you might want to finish your fifth one, because come two thousand fourteen, you are gonna have to take it all over again, which is why there was this huge rush to go take it.

But I read this one article and a guy named Jose Ortiz of Fort Myers, Florida, so that he was waiting to take it in two thousand fourteen because he heard it was going to be harder and he looked forward to the greater challenge of it. Hats off, Jose, Yeah, that's awesome. I think the math um section got considerably more difficult because now you are expected to be able to pass up through algebra two and apparently that is higher. Uh, that's more math in is required at the community college

level in a lot of cases algebra. So they've taken a lot of heat. I was interested in taking the G E D. Actually it was free. I would have taken it to see how I did. And there's no like free sample test online. I don't know. I can see them having it locked down now. Maybe, Uh, if you're gonna take the test, Uh, it is still at

a testing center. There over thirty of those across the US, and they're going to be at community colleges, public schools, adult education, uh, continuing ed centers, adult stuff like that, adult education. Oh yeah, I love how they're like the hipster band now are they? Oh yeah, so'sual? Like yeah, Hollo Notes is so awesome. It's like where were you in? Man? That was first made fun of. Oh yeah until Tuesday. They're still great. Man. Hollan Notes sounds awesome still that

live from Darrrel's house. Have you ever seen that he has a studio and his uh at his place and he's a show on Playdia I think where he has musicians come in and like everyone from Billy Gibbons of zz Top to Hoodie Darious. Yeah he's a country now, yeah that's what I heard. He's a country and uh, they'll just come in and do like they'll do like a Hollan Note song and then like a zz Top song and whatever they want to do. It's pretty fun. Did you ever see the guar at the A V

Club's live concert series? Oh, when they did the cover series. That's one of my favorite things is the AVY Clubs Undercover. Yeah that's what it is. Yeah. Every year they take i think it's like twenty songs, put them on a board, and then one at a time bands choose them and mark them off and so it's like time goes on you less and less choice. But Guar, who did they do? Man?

I don't remember what they did? Oh? Man, it was really good too, and it was that they'd been on once before, the only one I saw as their second appearance. I can't remember. It's worth just look up Guar and a V Club. Yeah. I highly recommend the whole series. They've been doing it for a few years now. It's pretty cool. I saw ted Leo and the Pharmacist. That an awesome version of Everybody wants to Rule the World. Man, that is a good That whole record, from beginning to

end is amazing. Songs from the Big Chair, Yeah, yeah, agreed, we do uh el Chipa does shout. That's a good one. Yeah, and it's super easy. Oh the one I saw was Billy Ocean. Oh that's right. But apparently Guar also has done They've covered Kansas, They've covered the Pet Shop Boys. Yeah, the Kansas one I've seen. They did carry on My Wayward Sun, didn't they probably? Yeah that's pretty cool man. How do we get on that? From? G. E. D. Hallow notes adult education? Yeah, I don't think I have

anything else. I don't either, um so Like I said before, I would say it again. It's never too late. You can inspire your kid, your grandkid. Maybe they're thinking about dropping out of high school. You go out and take that test and show them that that education is valuable. Yes, that's that's from your uncle Chuck. Nice Chuck, and Uncle Josh, your aunt Jerry, aunt or aunt. I say aunt, but people say aunt, So I do aunt? Uh? You say aunt? Right? Yeah,

I say yeah. Yeah, it's supposed to be guttural and clipped like German. Yeah. I still call my As a forty three year old, I'll still call my aunts and uncles like Uncle jimmy Uncle Steve. Yeah, it's still I just it'd be weird. And my my nieces are in their early twenties now and they call me Uncle Chuck and Emily, and I'd be it'd be weird if they just call me Chuck. Oh, I have mine call me

Mr Clark very nice. Well, since we got into the versus aunt debate, that means you can type in G E D in the search bar how stuff works dot com and get your foot in the door. Get started at learning how to use the computer to prepare to take the piercing based g E. D test Uh and I think I said search bar in there right, yeah, which means it's time for listener mail. Uh. This is from Joachim in Denmark and it's about goats licking feet.

Oh yeah, this is serious. Hey guys, I'm sitting here listening to your Salt podcast read listening to it and suddenly remembered why that episode annoyed me last time I listened to it. Yeah, I know, I didn't see why he had to say annoyed him, but well, I think he's from Denmark. I don't think they're annoyed as like our annoyed. You know you're off the hook, walk King yucky. Um, you mentioned a particular type of torture called goats tongue

and categorize it as kind of a tickle torture. What you need to know about goats is they can eat and digestue about anything, including you, me, the thing you live in, the thing you drive in, the thing you're married to, and the thing that pays you money. I really like that goats will very slowly, but very doggedly, lick the flesh clean off the soles of your feet. If you ever had a small cut underneath your feet.

You'll know that you're we're actually quite sensitive down there. Um. Having the flesh looked off will expose all your nerve endings, which the goat will then proceed to look through. Think of it like having the soles of your feet sand papered off and then just keep stand papering untill there's nothing left but bone. Uh. That is from like I said, your Kim in Denmark, and that was it. It just

kind of stopped right there. He gets a total break because he now he had other stuff to say, like what a big fan he was, and he's re listened to a lot of these so he can say whatever he wants. Oh awesome because he re listens. Yeah, and who on earth would do that? And some will do like really listen to the whole thing. My breed thought, Okay, everybody, are you okay? Yeah? People who are listening to this for the third time, Well you q A the podcast

before their release. Yeah, I listened to them after the release to make sure that nothing got through that shouldn't have. Really, you didn't know that, Yeah, I didn't know my QA was being Q eight No, no, no, not that. I'm just there's been a few times where we've been like, there's a little mess up in there, Aunt Jerry, Aunt Jerry. But all the oh wait, yeah, that's right, we say aunt when we're angry. All that is to say that it's all I can do to say this stuff and

listen to it again. I'm sure you feel the same way. Yeah, that's like one of the worst parts of our job. And happy Thanksgiving to us one and all. Right, So if you want to get in Chuck, in touch with Uncle Chuck, Mr Clark or Aunt Jerry, you can tweet to us. That's why I cap podcast. You can join us on Facebook, dot com, slash stuff you Should Know. You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at how stuff Works dot com and as always, joins sutter home.

On the web, it's called Stuff you Should Know dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, is it how Stuff Works dot com.