Getting a GED
If you’ve read the other articles on this site, you know I’m a high school dropout. I left school after the tenth grade and ended up on the streets. I had an advantage that many people in similar positions don’t: I had a girlfriend who cared about me very much and wanted to see me get back on my feet. Maybe I will go into details on that in another post, but, for now, I’m going to concentrate on her role in getting me to get my General Educational Development certificate.
Near the end of my time being homeless, I was staying in a kind of halfway house, working for a marketing company doing phone and face-to-face surveys. Alone, I would not have been in a position to get out of the shelter, but, with my girlfriend, I was able to move into my first apartment. Eventually, I lost my job at the market research company, and there was a period of aimlessness, but then I stumbled onto these here internets. Before too long, I had figured out ways to make money online and I was rapidly able to build a nice income for myself. This money allowed my girlfriend and I to move to a much nicer place, allowed her to advance her education and career opportunities by taking various unpaid internships, and generally improved the quality of our lives. Occasionally, my girlfriend would bring up the fact of my aborted education, but I wasn’t particularly interested in the subject. Things were going well; we had a nice apartment, good friends, and some money in the bank. I was content to just stay on the path we were on. As a friend of mine puts it, I have “momentum issues.” I start slowly, and once I am going, I slow down, stop, and change course slowly. I didn’t see an immediate benefit to getting my GED, so I didn’t get my GED. My girlfriend, who has slightly better long-distance vision than I do, continued to broach the subject on occasion, but no action was ever taken.
All good things, as the saying goes, must come to an end, and so it was with our extended streak of prosperity. I found myself earning less and less money with my online ventures, my girlfriend and I made a big cross-country move, we had some ugly personal issues, and we were no longer living the easy life. The GED issue became rather larger than it had been in the past. My girlfriend, who is relentlessly self-improving and hates to be stationary in life, began to apply a great deal more pressure in regards to my educational situation. Hi-ho, hi-ho, it was off to school I had go.
I don’t pretend to be perfect, and my lack of motivation in regards to certain issues (like my education) is certainly one of my biggest flaws. Without the pressure and help from my girlfriend, I probably wouldn’t have my GED today, but I do. I’m glad she laid it on so thick, and I’m glad that she gave me so much support and encouragement.
I’ve rambled enough in this introduction. Let me just say that getting my GED was a good decision, and I am (mostly) glad I did it. Maybe you’ll find something in the following list that will help motivate you or give you a reason to take the test. For your sake, I hope so.
Here, for you to take as you will, are Ten Things I Know About Getting a GED, which are also
Ten Things You Should Know About
Getting a GED
- 10: The GED is not going to solve all your life’s problems.
Often times, when a person’s life is not going well, that person will focus on one single problem and begin to believe that solving that problem will be an instant cure for everything that is wrong with his life. Whether it’s a lack of money, or a weight problem, or having your mother-in-law living with you, don’t expect your life to instantly become a pleasure cruise just because you remove one obstacle. - 9: You should plan beyond getting your GED.
Taking and passing the GED test is only step one in what should be a more complex, long-term plan. As I said in #10, the GED is not going to magically solve all your problems. You need to have a plan of action to go with your new status as a high school graduate equivalent. Personally, I believe the main purpose of getting your GED should be to use it to go on to further education, but this is obviously not right for everyone. If you plan to use the GED to obtain a better job, or to get a promotion with your current employer, plan ahead: talk to your boss, watch the newspapers for jobs you might be interested in, research salaries and opportunities in your area, or in another area you might want to move to. If you plan to go on to school, find out which community colleges are in your area and get your FAFSA together so you will have some money waiting for you when you get your GED certificate. - 8: Don’t be afraid of the GED.
One of the most common reasons for not taking the GED, at least among dropout I’ve known, is simple fear. Many people do not like tests, and the GED represents a sort of super-test: it covers a large number of subjects and attempts to test, in just a few hours, knowledge that most people acquire over the course of an entire high school career. Don’t be intimidated by this. Don’t let your fear keep you from improving your life. All the GED really tests is skills that you probably already use in your day-to-day life: basic math, reading comprehension, and writing skills. If you can read this blog, you’re probably already there on the reading part. If you write your own blog, you’re probably already there on the writing part. If you can convert decimals to fractions and do a little multiplication and division, you’re probably already there on the math portion of the test. If you’re weak in any of those areas, you can improve! See the next item for details. - 7: There is a lot of help out there for people who need to brush up on high school skills.
If you know that you are weak in math, or that your writing skills are not stellar, use the wealth of information available on the internet to help prepare for the test. Use Google to search for free GED preparation resources, and use the expert advice from the people at About.com to help guide you. This About.com article lists some study guides you can purchase or look for at your local library. Google will yield literally thousands of useful results if you search for “GED prep”, “help with basic math”, “improve my writing skills”, and other similar phrases. - 6: Sooner is better than later.
I dropped out of high school after the tenth grade. Really, I never even dropped out. I turned eighteen just as school was starting, and I simply never showed up for eleventh grade. I didn’t get my GED until I was twenty-eight years old. That’s a lot of wasted time. I don’t mean “wasted” in the sense that I didn’t do anything with that time, rather I mean “wasted” in that I didn’t do with that time what I probably would have done if I had gotten my GED earlier. Time passes more quickly than you ever expect it to when you’re busy living your life. I don’t regret very many things in my life, but I do wish I had gotten my GED earlier than I did. I feel the press of time, now. When I think of studying engineering or astronomy or marine biology, I realize how far behind I am, and how much less I will probably be able to accomplish than I would have if I had started earlier. For your own sake, don’t sit around thinking about getting your GED, go out and do it. - 5: Don’t sweat the time limits and prepare for some boredom.
One of the things that people find frightening about the GED is that it is a strictly timed test. While this is true, the times allowed for the various sections are fairly generous. Furthermore, there is no advantage to finishing early, so don’t rush yourself! As a matter of fact, there is actually a sort of penalty for finishing early. I finished every section of the test at least half an hour early, and when you finish early, they kick you out of the room! I wasn’t allowed to just put down my head and take a nap, or read a book; instead, I was made to leave the room and sit on a bench in the blazing hot Nevada sun between sections of the test.
4: Don’t be embarrassed.
Don’t be embarrassed to sign up for prep courses. Don’t be embarrassed to register for the test. DOn’t be embarrassed to take your seat in the testing room. Don’t be embarrassed to take the test very seriously and to try your hardest on all sections. Those preparation classes and books exist to fill a need, and everyone else in that testing room is in the same boat as you. You should never allow self-consciousness to hold you back. - 3: Skip the tough questions.
This could really be considered general test-taking advice rather than GED-specific advice, but it certainly applies to the GED. If you’re hung up on a question, move on. Answer as many questions as you can, then go back and fill in the blanks. If you’re really pressed for time or really stumped, guess! Just fill in any old answer. Remember, every question is worth the same amount of points (except possibly for the more objective writing sections), and answering one really hard question but leaving all the others blank will result in failing the test. Conversely, answering dozens of easy questions can result in a pass, even if you leave the hard ones blank. - 2: You’ll feel better about yourself, and others will see you differently.
Before I took the GED test, I already felt good about my intellect. I didn’t think taking the test would have any effect on my ego or my self-image. I didn’t expect to feel any different after I got my GED, but I was wrong. I felt proud that I’d gone out and done it, and I was surprised at how enthusiastic other people were on my behalf. Just as some people look down on high school dropouts, many people respect the effort and determination it takes to go back and face an issue like not having a high school diploma. Although it is a small accomplishment in the grand scheme of things, getting my GED is an accomplishment, and one that I am proud of. You may not realize it, but everyone who graduated high school has at least that one accomplishment in their lives, a rite of passage that they faced and conquered. As dropouts, we don’t have that. Obtaining a GED can give you that pride and sense of accomplishment, feelings that you may not even realize you are missing. - 1: There’s no downside.
When someone asks, “Why should I,” and the best you can come up with is, “Why not,” it may not seem like you have a very compelling argument to make. In this case, I think, “Why not,” fits very well. There are no high-paying jobs out there that you are going to be locked out of by getting your GED; there is no sense of pride that you’re going to lose by getting your GED; there is probably nothing good in your life that obtaining a GED will take away from you. The only effects of getting your GED are good ones. You’ll feel better, you’ll gain respect, your job prospect and future education options will expand, your horizons will broaden. You may not need your GED, but there’s no reason not to have it. There’s nowhere to go but up with your GED.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Also in the ged test you can only take the test 3 times a year after that they make you wait till next year to take it which puts a great amount of stress on the test taker as it is