Tutor In-Service Modules
Pre-GED/GED

Many of our students at Literacy Volunteers want to earn their GED (General Education Diploma). Although most LVL students are not ready for GED level work, many have the GED as a long-term goal and can use pre GED level materials to help them begin the preparation process. Here are some facts about the GED from the website of the official GED Testing Service:

• The General Educational Development (GED) Testing Service develops and distributes the GED Tests.
• More than 600,000 adults worldwide take the GED Tests each year.
• Those who obtain scores high enough to earn a GED credential outperform at least 40 percent of today’s high school seniors.
• GED graduates include: comedian Bill Cosby, actor Christian Slater, Delaware’s Governor Ruth Ann Minner, and U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado.
• One out of every seven high school diplomas issued each year in the United States is based on passing the GED Tests.
• More than 95 percent of U.S. employers consider GED graduates the same as traditional high school graduates in regard to hiring, salary, and opportunity for advancement.

Click here to go to the GED site and learn more about the tests. After studying the information on each page, close the new browser window that opened and return to this page to follow another link

Click here to read about the history of the GED tests. This article shows how the definition of "literacy" has changed over the years.

Click here to learn about the subject areas of the tests and how they are structured. Be sure to click on the link for each of the tests and subject areas to see what is covered on each test.

When you have read the above material, test your content knowledge by answering some sample questions: GED Sample Questions. Hopefully, you will answer all the questions correctly. If not, don't despair! We are all life-long learners!

You may want some help with lesson planning for your pre GED level student. Here are 2 links to some excellent lesson plans in the 5 different content areas. Do keep in mind that most of these lessons are for classroom situations, but you can adapt them for use in your one-to-one situation.

Click here to view the Florida Department of Education GED site.

Click here to view the Pennsylvania Department of Education GED site.

This is a link to the South Carolina Department of Education site: http://www.sclrc.org/ged.htm. Here you can download a printable application to take the GED in South Carolina or apply online. Also available here are GED informational brochures and testing date schedules that can be downloaded.

After reading and studying this material, please click here and write a paragraph or two about what you have learned about the GED. Then click "Send" to send it to Literacy Volunteers. A staff member will read your response and contact you. Please feel free to comment on the module and offer suggestions. Completing this module fulfills Literacy Volunteer's requirement for annual tutor re-certification. Thanks for participating.