If you know anyone looking for a GED diploma, be sure to warn them about the fake GED scams out there! The New York Attorney General is seeking jail time for one man who’s been selling fake diplomas, but there are a lot more out there.

The Recession Drives More to Take the GED

To be as competitive as possible, stay on track to your GED! More and more adults are pursuing their GEDs in Kansas and around the country. Stay ahead of the game by making the commitment to study and get your GED.

GED Success Story Contest for Virginia GED Grads

Virginia GED grads could win a Wii or Ipod Nano for sharing their GED story on YouTube. If you’re from Virginia, take a look at this GED story contest…

Questions? Problems? Ideas? Post in the GED Forums.

GED Math: More Word Problem Advice

Another GED student wrote in asking for advice about dealing with word problems, so here’s Curtis’s advice.

GED Math: Fraction Rap

Trouble with fractions? Listen to this fraction rap for some fun learning!

Do you have any questions? Do you need more explanations? Are you having trouble with a specific math question, or an area of math? Be sure to contact Curtis to ask for math help.

More GED Stories

All across the U.S., people like you need to get their GED…so you’re not alone in what you’re trying to do. Read what other GED students are doing, and get motivated to get your own GED.

Chinedu wants help, so he can help others…

Warren just needs to stay motivated!

Stephanie wants a GED… and stability…

Atilda wants to go to college and have a career…

Stacey Ann needs some support. She doesn’t want to quit…

Juanita wants to show her family that she can do this…

Share your story and your successes! If you want to motivate yourself, post your success story when you pass your first test… or all of them.

We want to hear about your personal story…so share your GED story with us.

GED Social Studies: Restated Information

Here’s a social studies skill that will help you on the reading and science tests, too. Becca wrote a blog on recognizing restated information… the same idea written in different words.

If you have any problems, questions, or comments on social studies for the GED, ask Becca.

A new year is starting, and now’s the time to get back on track with your GED. Promise yourself, you’ll have your GED this year… even in the next few months. You can do it!

Sunflower Writes:

I’m such a big procrastinate person I was doing so well studying I got sick for a minute now I’m finding all and every excuse in the book not to start studying for my GED again. Is anyone here having the same problem where you just feel like you cant do it so why bother.You see I’m scared of succeeding why I don’t know maybe its because I was always told I would never be anything in life.I know I have to pass this GED test if I want to give my kids a better life.Sometimes I wonder if i’m the only person like this out there I hope not because its not a good feeling …….

Leonard Replies:

It’s a new year… time to make new year’s resolutions! I know a lot of people who feel like you do, who procrastinate and put off studying for their GED. And I know a lot of GED teachers who see students drop out when they’re really close to succeeding, too. You’ve hit the nail on the head, when you say you’re “scared of succeeding.” A lot of people feel the same way, but not a lot of people talk about it.

The truth is, success can be scary–especially when you haven’t had a lot of it. How would it change your life? And what if you can’t really do it after all? The truth is, you can do it. And it can change your life. But you’re in control of those changes, of what you choose to happen for yourself and your family. You know that you want something better. So, just take a deep breath.

The best way to get through it is to take things one step at a time. Don’t think too far into the future. Just think, every day, “today I will study 1/2 hour.” Okay. Just that. That’s not too hard, or too frightening. It’s just 1/2 hour. Make it your BIG priority. Your promise to yourself every day. Focus on just that: studying 1/2 hour a day. Take it one subject at a time, the easiest subject first. And when you’re ready with a couple of subjects, take the GED test, and get those subjects out of the way. Then you can move forward, with some success already under your belt. One small step at a time. You don’t need to worry about what will happen after you get your GED. Just focus on what’s right in front of you.

To avoid procrastinating, make a rule: you’ll never miss two days’ studying in a row. If you miss one day, don’t kill yourself about it. Just get right back on the horse. You can do it!

Now’s the time for New Year’s Resolutions. And you can get your GED with plenty of the year left over to celebrate and relax. Promise yourself a vacation from worrying about stuff for a few months after you get the GED. So you don’t have to face any big decisions right away… just take some time to be happy and feel like you’ve accomplished something.

You can do it. And if you need help with a study plan, call 1-877-480-7780. Just keep going!

Respond at the GED Forums.

GED Math: Fractions

Curtis has an article about adding and subtracting fractions and a good practice problem about using fractions in everyday life.

Do you have any questions? Do you need more explanations? Are you having trouble with a specific math question, or an area of math? Be sure to contact Curtis to ask for math help.

More GED Stories

All across the U.S., people like you need to get their GED…so you’re not alone in what you’re trying to do. Read what other GED students are doing, and get motivated to get your own GED.

Mary Jo’s a mom who hopes she can get her GED.

Mina needs her GED because she’s got something to give.

Victor has a CPA degree in his country, but now he needs a GED.

Becky wants to feel better about herself by getting her GED.

Share your story and your successes! If you want to motivate yourself, post your success story when you pass your first test… or all of them. We want to hear about your personal story…so share your GED story with us.

GED Reading: Taking Notes

Maria has another good study skill for you… how to take notes to improve your learning.

If you have any problems, questions, or comments on reading for the GED, ask Maria.

A practice test is a great tool to help you study for the GED. It gives you personalized information about your own skills—so it tells you exactly what you need to study. Here’s a handy guide to use GED practice tests for more effective studying.

Math

Most GED learners find math the hardest subject. That’s not too surprising! When you take the math practice test, you’re taking a test in another language—mathematics.

Here are some ways you can use your practice test to study math:

Take a math practice test to see how you do.

• Did you score 450 or above? Congratulations, you’re ready for the test!
• Is your score between 410 and 450? You’re close! If your other scores are high, you probably don’t need to worry, but brush up on what’s hardest.
• Is your score between 350 and 410? You’re probably only missing a passing score by a few questions. Find out one or two areas of math that you really don’t understand, and study them well.
• Is your score below 350? Start studying basic math, and focus on really understanding math fundamentals and how to approach word problems. Find one or two areas really difficult? Don’t worry about them. Focus on areas that are easier for you–they’ll improve your score more in less time.

Pay attention to what problems are hardest–and find out how to solve them.

• While you take the test, note down the problems that are hardest.
• What was hard about the problem? Was it the way it was stated? Was it the subject matter?
• Find similar problems in your study guide, or ask a teacher about the problem.
• Identify areas you need to study based on the problems that were difficult.

Take another practice test once you’ve mastered a little more math—and be sure to notice how much you’ve improved!

Thinking about your personal best strategy for passing the writing exam can reduce your study time and increase your overall score. First, you need to assess your own abilities. The best way to do this is with a practice test, and the best type of practice test to use includes a multiple-choice writing exam and an essay exam graded separately, like the passGED online practice tests. Your exam results will show you your personal starting point.

I scored less than a 2 on the essay test and lower than 410 on the multiple choice writing test. You need to develop both writing skills and technical language knowledge. Since you need a minimum of 2 on the essay exam, you’ll definitely need to spend some time working on essay writing. However, it’s not very hard to get a 2, if you know what’s expected. If you’re a second language learner or have a lot of problems writing about your thoughts or ideas, maybe a 2 is all you need. First, get a basic idea of what’s required to get a 2 on the essay test. Then, spend your time learning the technical aspects of writing: spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Finally, practice your test-taking skills, like how to guess intelligently on multiple choice questions. Try bringing your multiple choice score up to 450 or more with a 2 on the essay.

I scored less than a 2 on the essay test and better than 410 on the multiple choice writing test. Since you’re already scoring 410 or better on the multiple choice, focus your efforts on bringing your essay writing up to a 2. It really isn’t that hard! If you’re having a hard time achieving your average score of 450, shoot for a 3 on the essay. That will probably be easier than bringing up your multiple choice scores.

I scored a 2 or higher on the essay test and lower than 410 on the multiple choice writing test. Don’t worry about your low score on the multiple choice writing exam. Just a half-point increase in your essay score could raise your score by 40 points! Since you’ve already earned a 2 on the essay, you can probably learn to raise your essay score to a 3 with a little effort. Focus on bringing your essay writing skills up to at least a 3, and practice your test-taking skills, like how to guess intelligently on multiple choice questions. If you can get a 3 on your essay, you’re in good shape, even if you’re not quite scoring 410 on the multiple choice.

I scored a 2 or higher on the essay test and higher than 410 on the multiple choice writing test. Congratulations! You’ve probably got the skills to pass the GED writing exam. Before you go for it, though, try to get either your multiple choice test score up to 450, or your essay score up to a 3. Do you find it easy to study multiple choice questions and learn facts about spelling, grammar, and punctuation? Then try to raise your multiple choice score. This is a good option for English language learners and left-brain people. However, for most people, raising the essay score is easier and gives you more valuable skills for work and college. Try doing more reading and writing about things that interest you, and focus on improving your writing skills.

The most common reason you will miss correct answers on the GED is that you misread either the question itself or text that goes along with the problem, or you simply did not follow directions. So, your first strategy is to read every question and answer very carefully. Give each question and answer your full attention and focus. Read every word and make sure you understand exactly what they say.

You will encounter three possibilities when you do multiple-choice questions.

1. The first possibility is that you know the correct answer. You read the problem and you can easily pick out the correct answer.

2. The second possibility is that you definitely do not know the answer. You don’t have a clue.

3. The third, and most common possibility is that you are unsure of the answer. You have some idea, but are not positive one way or the other. These answers can hurt your score the most because you will tend to choose the answer that your hunch tells you is correct.

The biggest challenge you face in answering multiple-choice questions is deciding if an answer is a number two, where you have no clue, or a number three, where you are unsure but have a hunch. Hunches can defeat you. The reason hunches are so problematic is that the test writers have written answers that “look correct” but are not. These answers appeal to the hunch takers because they are in the gray area of sounding “kind of” correct.

GUESSING STRATEGY #1: KILL THE HUNCH
Here’s an easy way to test the correctness of your hunches. Ask yourself if you would bet $100 on your hunch. One Hundred dollars is a lot of money to most people. You will probably not put a $100 on an answer that is just a hunch, that you are not pretty sure of.

The $100 betting strategy will help you decide if an answer is just a hunch, a guess, or actually based on some knowledge you have about the topic. Your goal is to eliminate the hunches and put the answer into the pure guess category, #2 or the #1 category where you base your choice on actual knowledge and experience.

When you discover that your hunch is just really just a guess, then you put the answer into the second group, the questions you do not know the answer to. Now you can take a guess without the influence of the hunch and your chances of getting a correct answer are much better. The hunch answer was most likely wrong because the test writers put it in the test to mislead you, or at least to get you to think more clearly. By eliminating the foggy hunch answer, you have increased your chance considerably because now you use the law of averages to guess.

Since you do not have a clue which of these answers are correct you will want to make a purely random choice. Make a rule that you will follow whenever you encounter a pure guess choice, like taking the last of the choices, and follow that rule in every single case. By the law of averages you will get 30% to 50% of these answers correct. When you follow this strategy you will have improved your guessing average by as much as 60%. This translates to an additional ten to fifteen percent correct answers.

GUESSING STRATEGY #2: WATCH OUT FOR SLANG
Answers that use slang are generally incorrect. But use a little caution with this rule because the inverse is not always true. Answers that are the most scientific and formal sounding often are correct, but not always. The test takers sometimes write answers that have a formal or scientific feel t o them that are incorrect.

This strategy of eliminating slang answers is used to eliminate wrong answers, not necessarily to pick correct ones. Generally, answers that use slang words will be wrong more often than not.

GUESSING STRATEGY #3: EXTREME OR ABSOLUTES
Watch for words like always, never, none or all, best, worst, solely. Correct answers rarely are absolutes or extremes. Answers with these words are usually incorrect. Eliminate them from your choices just on principle, even though they may seem correct.
Choose answers that use qualifiers like: sometimes, may, can, likely, often, or will often. In a guessing situation these choices will be more often be correct than not. They will give you an edge when you do not have a clue.

GUESSING STRATEGY #4: OPPOSITES
If there are two answers that are opposites of each other, one is likely to be correct. This is just common sense in test writing. It takes a lot of time to think up opposites, therefore the test writer is generally not going to take the time to write opposites for two answers that are not true. Opposites are usually included to confuse the test taker. Watch for them. When you find them then you know with some certainty that one of the answers is correct. You are now down to a 50/50 choice. The best strategy at this point is to use your rule of thumb, take the last choice and move on to the next question. If you can put the questions in the #1 category, the ones you have some knowledge of, then make an informed guess, but be sure to apply your $100 bet.

Try out your guessing strategy on the practice test questions. You’ll see that they can improve you score substantially.

First of all, the math test covers the broadest range of knowledge of any test. It includes number sense and operations, measurement, data analysis, geometry and algebra.

Second and most important, the math test is a test of knowledge and facts, not critical thinking skills as the Science, Reading and Social Studies tests are. You really have to know the math to pass.

The good news is that the scoring for the math test is the easiest; you need only to get 45% of the answers correct to pass, that’s less than half right.

What do you need to pass? Here’s a good strategy for passing the math test.

1. Don’t sweat the algebra questions. At most there are 3, maybe 4 questions that deal with pure algebra. If you missed all of these, and did okay on the rest, you would easily pass the test. You could spend a lot of time relearning algebra and still miss a couple of the questions. Why? Because the algebra questions will expect you to do fairly advanced algebra and it’s hard to learn this from a GED book, or even our online courses. There’s just too much to learn.

2. Go back to the basics. If you can do simple number operations, measurement, and some data analysis in abstract and word problem forms you will do fine on the GED tests. So spending lots of time on the basics will help you most.

The other thing that will help is getting lots of practice with word problems. Over 70% of the questions on math test are stated as math word problems. What you want to do is develop a basic word solving strategy that allows you to identify what you need to solve. Our math unit on Number Sense and Operations will teach you a basic word problem strategy that follows the structure of computer gaming… something that makes sense to everyone, even those who don’t play computer games.

3. Learn to pace yourself and not waste time on questions you can’t answer. Your goal is to get 25 to 30 questions correct out of 50 (a little over 50%). You’ll have 1-1/2 hours to complete the math tests. The test is split into two parts, one with the use of the calculator, one without.

If you allow yourself no more than 2 minutes on each question YOU THINK YOU CAN SOLVE, this will give you plenty of time to make sure it’s correct. Therefore, your first step with each question is to decide if it’s something you can actually solve. On the first reading if it looks too hard, skip it and go on to the next problem. But use a guessing strategy to make an attempt at the answer (see the next issue of my newsletter). A good guessing strategy can get 10% – 15% correct answers even if you no idea what the correct answer is. On the math test this would give you an extra 5 – 7 correct answers, probably the difference of passing or not passing for many folks.

Our math courses, they’re three of them now, will help you learn the basics as well as more advanced math. They include hundreds of practice problems. Couple this with the online practice test to give yourself even more practice. I’ve found that working with actual GED questions and then going back to relearn forgotten material is the best overall strategy.