The General Educational Development® (GED®) Test includes a two-part test that evaluates your ability to construct a two-page essay on a given topic and asks multiple-choice questions on grammar topics. The essay makes up 40 percent of the GED® Writing Test score, and the multiple-choice section makes up the rest. The essay portion tends to ask you a question about a personal experience and tests your ability to express and organize ideas, and the multiple-choice portion asks you to find errors and make changes in a sentence or passage. GED® classes, practice tests, study books and Internet resources can be helpful for preparing for and scoring well on both parts of the GED® Writing Test.
Many community colleges and some high schools offer GED® classes that can help you prepare. You will learn the proper structure for the essay portion of the GED® Writing Test and will get to practice writing about topics that your instructor gives you. In addition, the course also should cover the multiple-choice part of the exam and will refresh your memory on grammar concepts and composing proper sentences. You also will have the advantage of being able to ask the instructor to clarify any concepts that give your difficulty and can get feedback that can prepare you for the real exam. Furthermore, some colleges and organizations offer GED® classes online so that you can study and send in your work from home.
If live classes are not an option, GED® study books are a useful alternative. Many bookstores offer books that specifically cover the GED® Writing Test in detail and include practice exercises you can use. Some also include essay topics and diagrams for creating a structured essay, in addition to a rubric that you can use to rate your work. If you purchase a book that comes with a computer disk, you can also perform exercises on your computer that might use a time limit similar to the real test. Many of these books give detailed explanations for each practice problem and have an index that refers you to the section where you can find more information on a topic.
Practice tests are also useful for gauging your readiness for the GED® Writing Test. Some GED® study books include practice exams, but there also are many available for free on the Internet. The questions on these tests are similar to the format of the real exam and allow you to calculate your potential score. The biggest benefit of practice tests is that you can see what parts of the GED® Writing Test give you the most trouble, so that you can spend your time working on what you need to improve.
