What Does GED Stand For?
GED technically has a few different meanings depending on who you talk to. Two of the most common definitions are General Educational Development and Graduate Equivalency Degree.
What is a GED and How Do I Get One?
The GED is technically a test (more specifically a series of tests) designed to show that a person has high-school level academic skills. By passing the GED Test, a person is awarded with a Certificate of High School Equivalency. Many people simply refer to this certificate as a GED.
This is not actually a high school diploma but carries about the same authority as one.
The GED is a series of five tests, each one representing a different school subject.
The tests are:
- Reasoning: Includes Reading and Writing
- Social Studies
- Science
- Mathematics
The point is to show that you know all of the information a high school graduate is expected to know. The tests are standardized.
Each test is graded on a scale to 200. Typically, a person must get at least 145 to pass an individual test. If a person fails one of the tests but passes the others, they only need to retake the parts they failed.