New GED exam greeted with mixed feelings

By CRA News Service

Adults across Palm Beach County this week began taking the new GED high school equivalency exam, which officials say is now a tougher, computerized tests.

The face-lift, the first in more than a decade, makes it more rigorous and aligned to skills needed for college and today’s workplace, education advocates said.

The new exams are designed to better prepare students for vocational training, college or careers by testing the skills employers are looking for now, said Armando Diaz, spokesman for the GED Testing Service.

“It’s more critical thinking instead of plug and chug,” Diaz said.

For example, many multiple choice, fill-in-the-bubble questions will be replaced with in-depth questions that require test-takers to read longer passages and show understanding by defending opinions in short answers or essays.

The pass rates for the current GED tests have ranged from 66 percent to nearly 73 percent each year between 2002 to 2011.

The new tests, overseen by the national GED Testing Service – which is jointly owned by the Pearson learning company and the American Council on Education – will condense five subject-matter exams into four and will include more difficult questions aligned with new Common Core Curriculum Standards that have been adopted in Florida and most other states. Instead of taking tests with pencil and paper, students will have to take the exams on computers. The good news is the new computerized tests will immediately tell students whether they passed or failed.

Education advocates are greeting it with mixed feelings.

Some adult education principals say it’s important for the tests to keep up with current technology, while others are concerned that degree-seekers who are not computer proficient will be left behind.

And the new GED has a new price: $128 for the full exam. The old paper and pencil test was $70.