When adults make the decision to enter a GED test preparation program, we want to make sure they are making the most of their time spent working toward their credential. The GED test requires students to show proficiency in Reasoning through Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, and Mathematics. While some students might need to give extra attention to a specific subject, there are some exercises you can use that can benefit all students preparing for the GED test.
Here are four tips and tricks to help students improve test-taking skills and build confidence while preparing for the GED test. These expert tips are from Kara Krawiec, who presented them in our Teacher Training Plus webinars on high school equivalency. You can click the link in each tip to learn more.
1. Make writing relevant. Writing an essay can be intimidating, which causes many students to put off that portion of the GED test—until they can’t. When we make the writing process relevant and more accessible to students, the more comfortable they will become putting their thoughts into writing.
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- Remember, strong readers become strong writers. Encourage students to develop a love of reading and to read everything they can that interests them. Watch as their writing improves the more they read.
- Make it personal by asking students to reflect on and write about familiar topics. It’s easier for students to write and establish their voice when they’re confident in what they’re saying. The more they write, the easier it becomes.
- De-emphasize grammar and mechanics. It’s easier to get students to write when they don’t have to worry about being perfect. Emphasize the importance of developing ideas first, and work on revising them later.
- Once students become comfortable writing, begin to introduce the GED essay, including the prompt, rubric, and writing process.
2. Improve reading comprehension. It becomes easier for students to take meaning from what they are reading when we can help them connect with a text. Increasing comprehension skills will prepare students to approach the timed reading portion of the test.
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- Promote active reading strategies like previewing and skimming the text, identifying unfamiliar words, asking questions, making predictions, and drawing inferences. Show students that reading is more than just following words on a page and that by using “academic eyes,” they can build their comprehension skills.
- Model techniques like chunking and annotating. Breaking passages into smaller sections allows them to synthesize information and process it more effectively, which leads to higher retention. Annotating text with notes, underlines, or circles, for example, can help them identify the main idea, unfamiliar words, and more. Show students an example of this by sharing your own reading process.
- Teach students how to break down words and explain how denotation vs. connotation influences meaning. Fluency and vocabulary work together to improve comprehension.
3. Build critical thinking skills. Success across GED tests requires the ability to think critically. The test is designed to assess both basic knowledge and how well the test-taker can use and analyze information. To effectively help a student prepare for the test, we want to help them build critical thinking skills. One of the best ways to do this is to ask students questions that require deeper thinking.
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- Start with “why?” and “how?” Although there isn’t one magic question that can help students develop their critical thinking skills, simply asking “why?” and “how?” are great starting points. “Why” questions push students to think about reasons, causes, and motivations. “How” questions, on the other hand, are looking for explanations about processes or sequence of events, for example.
- Focus on process, reflection, and evaluation. Ask questions that focus on students’ thought processes and feelings about a text rather than just comprehension. They might know what the text is saying and its main idea, but asking them to reflect on how it made them feel promotes critical thinking.
- Ask questions that aren’t on the page. Don’t be afraid to come up with your own questions and ask about things that struck you during a lesson, even if you don’t have the answers. Your questions will lead to discussion, which challenges students to engage.
4. Increase visual literacy skills. When it comes to the GED test, it’s necessary for students to interpret and decode graphs, charts, tables, and maps to answer questions or understand passages. Practicing these skills will make it easier for students to approach and use visual elements.
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- Connect reading comprehension and visual literacy. Visual information helps tell a story. Show how you can use reading comprehension skills with visual elements. Using active reading skills, students can highlight, ask questions, analyze, interpret, make predictions, and draw conclusions from a graph, diagram, map, photo, etc.
- Introduce visual literacy step by step and teach students how to decode data. Students not only need to identify different types of visual elements, so help them build an understanding of key components.
- Use graphs and charts to improve critical thinking. Ask students to critically analyze the relationships presented in graphs and charts and evaluate what visual information they take in every day by questioning its credibility.
Incorporating these tips into instruction can help students feel like they are gaining useful skills that not just help them pass the GED test, but that they can transfer into daily life and work.
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