Hi everybody, my name's Michelle, and if you're here
I image it's because you are ready to take the first
steps towards passing the GED exams,
getting your high school equivalency credential, and changing your life.
If that's the case, congratulations. Today I'm going to talk about
the first three steps that you need to take to pass
the GED exams. Step number one is that
you need to identify your "why."
Why do you want to take the GED exams and get your
high school equivalency credential? If you haven't
identified the reason that you want to go through tis process,
you might have a hard time staying consistent
with your studying and preparation. There are a lot of
different reasons that people might want to start this process
and get their GED. Some people want to get their GED
because they have realized that they are not able to access the same types of
career opportunities without their high school diploma.
This is a super common phenomenon.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics,
in 2017, there were 2.1 million
status dropouts. Those are young adults ages 16-24
who are not currently enrolled in school but also
who don't have a high school diploma or equivalent. That makes
the dropout rate about 5.4 percent.
And that's not even counting those older individuals, over 25,
who do not have their high school diploma.
So if you are in this situation, you are not alone.
And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2019
5.4 percent of individuals ages 25
and older without a high school diploma or equivalent
were unemployed. That's compared to only 3.7 percent
unemployment for individuals 25 and older
who did have a high school diploma or equivalent.
The unemployment numbers are even lower for those individuals who
have some college: as low as 2.7 percent
for those individuals with an associates degree.
That's an opportunity that becomes available to you
once you pass your GED exams. And it's not
just the ability to get a job; the median weekly average
earnings for individuals with a diploma in 2019
was 154 dollars higher
than for those without. That adds up to be more than
8000 dollars difference over the course of a year
imagine what you could do with an extra 8000 dollars a year.
Passing the GED exams
might make the difference between staying in an entry level
position and getting a promotion that would lead to higher earning
potential. But for some people it's not about the career
opportunities or the money. For some people it's about keeping
a promise to a parent or another relative, or setting
a good example for a young child in your life.
Other people just want to prove to themselves that they can stick with it,
and get it done. All these reasons are great reasons.
And when studying gets hard and other distractions come up,
you need to keep that reason front and center.
Take a minute, pause the video, and write out for yourself:
what is your reason for studying to take the GED exams?
What will you be able to do or say
once you've got your high school equivalency credential?
Write it in big, bold letters.
Go ahead, take a second to do it, I'll wait. And now that you've
written it out for yourself, you need to tape it up by
your desk, over your table, on your bathroom mirror,
wherever you're going to see it so that you can remind yourself why you started
and why you need to finish. The most challenging part
of the GED exams and making yourself do it
and staying consistent. This is not like any job or
any school experience you've ever had, there's
no boss or teacher or deadlines to make sure that
you are doing what you need to do. You can enroll in
a prep course, but even then it's on you to make
sure that you attend and that you do the studying that you're supposed to do.
That is why it is so important for you to identify
why you are going to invest all your time in this effort,
and what you are going to gain when you're done.
Alright, step number two. Once you've established your why and you know
what is going to keep you going, you need to learn about this test.
I'm not going to go too deep on this today -
if you want you can press the subscribe button and come back for
a more in depth breakdown in the future,
but the very first thing that you can do to get to know this test,
is make yourself an account on the GED testing website
GED.com. The GED testing service
website is the only place
that you can get registered to take these exams.
So any other site trying to tell you that you can get your GED there
is a scam. And it used to be that there
was no online option at all to get your GED,
but there actually currently piloting an online option in the spring
and summer of 2020
due to all the social distancing restrictions, but as of now
that's only available if you've already pass three out of the four exams.
It may be more broadly available in the future,
so we'll definitely keep an eye on that. Anyway, go ahead and sign yourself
up for an account now. Don't say you're going to do it later, just do it now,
it's free. So once you are signed up, you can explore each of these
test buttons to learn a little bit more about the individual tests.
They tell you how long it is, how many questions it is, and what it covers.
Again, I'm going to go over these a little more in depth in the future,
but they are definitely available for you to start reading and
get an idea of what you're going to start studying for. And once you've
gotten familiar with the descriptions of the test,
you can look at the free practice questions that they provide
which will give you an idea of how you might do if you took those tests tomorrow.
If you do fairly well on those, I recommend
that you look at the GED Ready practice tests
These do cost a little bit of money,
they're six dollars per subject or you can get all four of them
for 20.99 so you save three dollars
but they're a good tool for you to look at what the actual test
is going to look like and see how you actually would do on it.
They're half length versions by the GED testing service,
with the same types of questions you'll see
on the real exams. The score report will tell you
whether you're likely to pass or not, plus it gives you a list
of skills you need to work on with corresponding pages to whatever
test prep book you want to use. Speaking of books, step number three
is to identify what kind of study materials you want
to use. First thing I'll say on this topic is that
you do not have to spend a ton of money to prepare to take the GED exams.
There are a lot of free resources on the internet
especially if you're a little creative
and you can branch away from things that are specifically
labeled as GED prep materials. We know that the
RLA, science, and social studies exams are more about
reading comprehension and critical thinking
than they are about memorizing any particular list of facts.
So you can brush up on the background knowledge
that'll support your reading comprehension
by using free resources like CrashCourse and Khan Academy.
Even though they don't have specific GED prep
courses, they do have courses that contain
all the information that you might want to know to do well
on the GED science and social studies tests.
Like US history, civics, government, and economics
for the social studies test, and high school biology and physics
for the science test.
Khan Academy is also probably the best resource for math
skills practice, and you can use the information from your
GED Ready scores to help you figure out
what skills you should be working on. There are also free resources to
practice your reading comprehension skills.
The best thing that you can do to improve your reading comprehension is
to read widely at your reading level. Read Theory
is a great resource for that. You can make a free student account
and it'll generate passages and questions at your reading level.
And it'll make them more or less difficult
depending on how you're doing so you can really practice that skill.
You can also get physical GED study resources for free.
A lot of local libraries have GED prep
resources to borrow.
You don't have to worry if they're a couple years old. The test hasn't changed
significantly since 2014 so if what your library has
is a 2017 or a 2018 book,
that's fine. Of course you can also buy your own GED prep book.
In the scheme of things they're pretty affordable. I've used
basically every one. The Kaplan version is. probably the most
widely recommended. I'll link to it below if you want to check it out.
They usually are between 20 and 30 dollars.
One thing I do recommend that you buy before you get started
is one of these calculators. This is the
TI-30XS MultiView, and it is the only
calculator that you are allowed to bring with you to use
on the math, science, and social studies tests. You don't
need one because there is a digital version. on the screen
but I think it's helpful to get used to it, and learn how to use
all the special buttons, and feel comfortable and
familiar with it before you go take the test. And some people do prefer to use
the physical version. They're usually only about fifteen dollars
and again, you can use it on three out of the four tests
so, I'd say it's worth it. And then there are all kinds of
paid online resources, including some from the GED
testing service. I haven't used any so I can't
speak to their quality, but again I would let
your GED Ready scores guide your decision making
on how much support you're going to need to get ready to pass
the exams. If you're looking for in person support, there are a
lot of community resources that offer free GED test
preparation, so it's smart to
see what's available near you for free before you pay for any
online test prep resources. Once you
decide what you're going to use to study, it's time to make a plan
and a schedule to decide how you're going to tackle it. Don't expect
to be able to "cram" for this exam, it's really not that kind of test. All four of the exams are skills based.
which means you really need to put in the time
to develop your skills if you"re not yet ready to pass.
I recommend creating a schedule for yourself where you give
yourself an hour or two of practice time per day.
Plot it out on your calendar so you can give yourself that sense of satisfaction
as you stick to your deadlines. Be realistic
about how much you have to review and give yourself enough time
but also make a plan for when you're going to take the
GED Ready test again for that subject
so that you don't let it drag out for forever.
And once you have a study plan, you're ready to start! So quick recap here:
My three suggestions for how to get a good start on
preparing for the GED exams are:
Identify your why
learn about the tests, and identify your study materials.
Your dedication to learning about this process is such a good sign for your success
and I know that you're going to stick with it. Please press the like button if you found this
helpful, that helps youtube show it to other people
so that I can help them as well, and if you'd like to learn more, press the subscribe button
so that you don't miss my next video with more information about
how to create a successful study plan so that you can pass
the GED exams. Thanks as always for watching
I'll see you next time.