Liz’s World

Hi, again! Valerie wrote me to ask:

HI Yesterday I took the tape test at Ircc here in florida and the only one im ready for is reading 100% cool ok what is this essay thing.what do I have to write about. im 50 and Im going back to get my GED I got married at 18 and should have stayed in school. ok about this essay.my score on lahnguage was 7.4 has to be 10.0 .wow I have the GED study guide its great .

Valerie,

Congratulations on being ready to pass the GED reading test! Remember, that’s a success already. The good news is that the GED essay doesn’t have to be tough. Really, it’s more about realizing what kind of thing they expect you to write.

You won’t know beforehand what the essay is supposed to be about. When you take the test, they’ll give you a prompt. It sounds something like this:

What event from your childhood taught you an important lesson that you use today?

In your essay, tell about the event, and explain how what you learned affects your life today. Use your personal observations, experience, and knowledge to support your essay.

That last part… “Use your personal observations, experience, and knowledge…” that’s important! It means that you need to write about what you know. The topic could be anything, but it won’t ask you about things you couldn’t know about. It asks for your opinions and experience from your life.

I usually tell people to brainstorm about people they admire, important things that happened to them, and important events in the world that they remember, to get your memories  going before you go take the writing test. You’re going to have to call up some memories and opinions to use in your essay, and thinking about some things you could write about in advance helps–even if you don’t necessarily end up using them on the test.

When you take the test, first read the prompt. Make sure you understand what it’s asking. The prompt up above asks about an experience in childhood and what you learned… so you’d need to pull something up from your memory. Take some time to think about what you’re going to write about. Even if the prompt doesn’t ask you to write about a specific event in your life, relating the prompt to a story in your life helps. Telling a story from your life is the easiest kind of writing, and it can help make your GED essay good!

When you write your essay, you need to have a beginning (1 paragraph is good). In your beginning, give an overview of what you’re going to write. What’s your point of view? What’s  the main point of your response?

Then, you need to have a middle, with details…probably 2-3 paragraphs. Now, if you have events from your life to put in your essay, those are details. Telling a story gives your essay details. That’s why writing about something that happened to you is a good thing… just make sure your story has a point, to relate it to what they’re asking you about.

Then, you need an end, usually 1 paragraph. Wrap everything up. What did you learn? How does what you wrote about apply to the world? Why is it important? What should the reader take away from what you wrote? Try not to repeat what you said… instead, give a bigger picture view about the issue.

When you’re done, you’ve got 4-5 paragraphs that tell your point of view, explain why you think that, with examples from your life, and apply what you’re talking about to the big picture…the rest of the world. Now, how do you know if you did it well? Here are the questions to ask…because this is how the essay is graded:

1. Did you answer the question? Does what you wrote  always relate to what they asked you to write about, and did you include everything they asked for in the prompt?

2. Is what you wrote organized, with a beginning, a middle, and an ending?

3. Do you have good details that explain what you mean? Details can be stories from your life, facts about the world, quotations (but you won’t be able to look anything up!), a description of what something looks like…  examples and events from real life!

4. Do you have good grammar and spelling? A lot of people have trouble with this, and learning grammar can take time. The most important thing is that your writing is clear, that they can understand what you mean. Try to use simple, clear sentences, and read over what you wrote to catch mistakes.

5. Did you choose good words that say what you mean? Working on your vocabulary can help you get ready for the test… but in general, try not to use the same word over and over, and try to use specific words like “angelic” instead of more general words like “good.” If you use the words “very,”  ”really,” and “good” a lot, try thinking of some other words that mean the same thing, that you could use on the test.

Take a look around my blog, and read some of my posts about the GED test and how to write a GED essay. I’ve also got a lot of sample student essays to look at that can help. Try writing a few practice essays (like one that answers the prompt at the top) to see how you do. Remember, the essay test is timed, so keep track of how long it takes you to write an essay. You’ll get faster with practice!

Good luck on your GED!

For more information about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at http://www.passGED.com.