Help Friend is a super computer Geek/ No High School

A very kind offer from an expert on the topic. Your friend should definitely take Tom up on his offer.

 

Many thanks to Everybody!

I want to thank everybody for the answers that thave been provided.
This is why this Forum is the best of it's kind, there is such a wealth of knowledge and a true willingness to share it...

 

Mr Nixon,
Thank you very much for your offer.
I will direct my friend to your web side and pass on your e-mail.
Best regards,

 

As a recent GED student (October '08), I thought I'd lend my thoughts. I dropped out, persay, back around... 2006 I believe. Left public school in 10th grade and tried online/home-school -- didn't work out. So I stopped and the state forgot about me.

Fast forward, two years out of school. No school work of any kind done in that time. I took a practice exam online once, and went in and took the GED. I'm like your friend in a way. I was/am a math/science/history/social science wiz, but I was sub-par in English (writing only, analytical genius if I do say so myself).

I passed with a score equivalent to the top 8% of high-school seniors in the nation, basically cold turkey style. I took the Oklahoma GED, so as far as state is concerned I'm not sure where they rank on the scale. I found the material to be... inadequate for measuring adult knowledge. Most of it was 8th grade knowledge. I should have scored higher, but I'm not the type to study. It makes me nervous.

My advice is for your friend to study this book and try these practice tests.

I took the test in one day, but they do offer in a two-day session. I finished about 3 hours early, as once you finish the Math/English sections you're free to move ahead at your own pace (here anyways).

Here's a breakdown of the material I saw:

Math: Basic arithmetic, very little algebra or geometry. Nothing higher than geometry.

Science: VERY basic. I don't remember seeing anything higher than Biology, and there were few questions on that subject.

Social Science: Basic run-down of history/economics/geography/government. Most of the questions were in relation to graphs and satirical comics.

English I: Analyzing Literature / Sentence Structure, nothing else.
English II: Personal Experience Writing; My Topic: Write an essay about an experience you have had with something you liked/disliked but later on you liked/disliked. Explain. (Elementary Writing, anyone?)

Very basic and general testing. Easily passed by most people, in my humble opinion.

Edit: To follow-up after reading over the posts above, I thought I'd add a little more.

First off, the above posters are right in that you shouldn't offer an opinion on the difficulty of the test when talking to him. What is easy to others may not be easy to him. I probably found the test easy because I was only out of school for 2 years and I was an Honors student at an "A" school in Florida.

Being from Florida, I'd also like to follow-up on the questions about requirements. When I checked into the process before I moved to Oklahoma in June '08, there was no requirement to take the preparatory classes or anything of the sort. If time is an issue I suggest he studies on his own, if he's not sure about being prepared I would suggest he goes in for one class and see how he does. Most of the time the teachers will tell students who are prepared to just take the test.

Regarding fees as I know times are tight now, as far as I know the federal government limits the amount that can be charged in relation to the actual TESTING of the GED. This limit (if I remember correctly) is $50.

In relation to testing centers, I lived in Clay County and was told I would have to test at the Orange Park High School. Check ahead of time, as slots fill up fast.

Best of luck to your friend!

 

I dropped out of HS in Junior year, sucked horribly at math, fell asleep during the math portion of the test (always do) and passed without studying. IIRC, I passed the math portion with a 540 and the cutoff was 500. I was in the top 2% of the english portion though.

Math is the hardest part of it, but overall the test is Junior-year level at worst. If he is english-literate and math-literate, he will do fine.

I always fall asleep during math exams - 95% of why I never took the SATs was that I slept through the math portion of the PSATs.

Also, weirdly enough none of the colleges I've ever went to required that I provide it.