All about the GED Math Test

The GED math test is the most difficult part of the GED for many students. The thinking skills required for GED math are more specialized. They’re math thinking skills. Since most people work with language a lot more than with numbers, language skills come easier for many people. Still, you can master GED math, with the right tools and the right approach.

The GED math test has two parts. One part of the math test doesn’t allow you to use a calculator, and the other part does. The calculator will be provided to you at the test site; you can’t bring your own. The calculator you’ll need to use is the Casio fx-260 Solar Scientific Calculator. Since it’s a little more complicated than a simple calculator, it’s a good idea to buy this calculator to practice with (it’s not expensive). It has some advanced features that can be helpful and time-saving on the GED test. And, since it operates a little differently than non-scientific calculators, you’ll want some practice to make sure you know how to use the basic features.

For both parts of the test, you’ll be given scratch paper to work out problems and make notes. Each part of the GED math test counts the same amount toward your final score, and each part will have 25 questions. You’ll have 45 minutes for each part. That gives you just over 1 minute, 45 seconds per question. If you average about a minute and a half (1 minute, 30 seconds) for each question, you’ll have time to go back over your answers. On the math test especially, though, you won’t spend the same amount of time on each question. Some questions should be easy and only take a few seconds, and some questions will need more time.

The makers of the math test want you to master:

• the ability to solve problems, analyze, and reason
• the ability to understand word problems, charts, tables, graphs, and diagrams
• the ability to understand math problems from real-life situations

The math test covers four general areas of math, and each is approximately 20% to 30% of the test, or about 12 to 13 questions.

Number Operations and Number Sense includes understanding negative and positive numbers, fractions, decimals, percents, scientific notation, ratios, proportions, roots and exponents and using these in real-life math problems. You’ll also need to understand different mathematical operations, like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and when to use them. The test also expects you to be able to estimate to solve problems and check your answer.

Measurement and Geometry includes understanding concepts about geometric figures (like triangles, rectangles, lines, angles, and circles) and comparing them to each other. You’ll need to be able to visualize how figures look if they’re turned or flipped, use the Pythagorean Theorem to solve problems (learn to look for right triangles in diagrams!), graph a linear equation and understand graphed lines (including slope), use appropriate units of measurement and convert a measurement to a different type of unit (like inches to feet), solve problems of geometric sizes (like area, volume, or perimeter, including changes in measurements based on changes in the figure), solve problems about rate (like miles per hour), and read measurements (from scales, meters, or gauges).

Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability includes understanding tables, charts, and graphs, including choosing effective ways to show data; analyzing, making conclusions about, making predictions from, and evaluating arguments based on data; understanding and using mean, median, and mode; and simple, dependent, and independent probability.

Algebra, Functions, and Patterns includes understanding variables; manipulating, changing, creating, and solving equations and expressions that include variables; showing equations involving variables as tables, graphs, equations, or in words; and understanding the meaning of formulas.

That’s a lot of math! But it’s definitely learnable, and focusing on understanding basic math concepts and developing math thinking skills will help. Most of the problems on the GED math tests are word problems, since the GED creators want to know that you understand how to solve problems in normal, everyday situations. You’ll see situations involving work, family and home, technology, and other everyday math contexts. Part of studying for the math test is understanding what type of math is needed in different situations and then being able to apply it.

80% of the math questions (40 questions) are multiple choice, which means that if you can estimate a solution, you may be able to choose the answer quickly, without working out every step of the problem. That’s a big time saver on the GED. 20% of the questions (about 10 questions) ask you to solve the problem without multiple choices. You’ll enter your answer in a grid. You’ll want to double check these answers, since a simple error might throw you off.

About half of the GED math questions include a visual part of some kind, like a diagram, chart, table, map, or other graphic. The GED math test’s thinking skills are divided into three types. About 20% (10 questions) of the test covers procedural questions, which ask you to choose the correct way to solve a problem; read and understand graphs, charts, and tables; make geometric figures; and round, estimate, or order numbers. About 30% (15 questions) of the math test are conceptual questions, which ask you to show that you know how basic math ideas work. The rest of the test, 50% or 25 questions, is about solving math problems. You need to understand what the question is asking for, choose the right information to use, choose the right math ideas needed to solve the problem, and solve it!

So, what do you need to pass? Here’s a good strategy for passing the math test.

Don’t sweat the tough algebra questions, like quadratic equations. At most there are 3, maybe 4 questions that deal with difficult algebra. If you missed all of these, and did okay on the rest, you would easily pass the test. You could spend a lot of time relearning algebra and still miss a couple of the questions.

Why? Because it’s hard to learn and remember more difficult math, and you’ve got a lot of other things you’re trying to learn and remember. If there are one or two things, like quadratic equations, that you just don’t seem to get, don’t sweat your time on them.

Instead, focus on really thoroughly learning the easier things and being able to think through the word problems and diagrams to understand what they’re really asking.

Choose the easiest way to solve problems. Maybe you don’t remember how to do quadratic equations and have no idea how to solve for x. You can probably still find the correct answer by trying to plug the values for x from the answer choices into the equation to see if they work.

Go back to the basics. If you can do simple number operations with different types of numbers, measurement, and some data analysis in abstract and word problem forms, you will do fine on the GED tests. Spending lots of time on the basics will help you the most.

Focus on word problems. Get as much practice with these as you can. Over 70% of the questions on math test are stated as math word problems. What you want to do is develop a basic word solving strategy that allows you to identify what you need to solve. You need to figure out the question. Finding the answer usually isn't too hard.

Learn to pace yourself and not waste time on questions you can’t answer. Answering all the questions that are easy and getting the right answers to questions you can do with a little work is your best strategy. You don't need to get every question right to pass, so make sure you have time to answer all the questions you know first. Then you can try to improve your score by figuring out some of the harder ones. Working with actual GED practice questions and then going back to relearn forgotten material is the best overall strategy.

What Is Really Important?

1. The math test covers a lot of ground, so it can be hard to focus your studying. Here’s what’s most important:
2. Knowing how to identify what a word problem is asking for and how to change the word problem into the right math problem.
3. Knowing basic math: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. You should be able to do basic math quickly and accurately, in your head. The more comfortable you are with basic math, the quicker and easier the test will be.
4. Being able to estimate correct answers in your head and look at the problem in a straightforward, real-world way, to see if your answer makes sense. Don’t get so caught up in complex math that you miss the simple ideas.
5. Being able to use the Casio fx-260 Solar Scientific Calculator accurately and easily.
6. Being able to use fractions, decimals, percentages, negative numbers, exponents, and ratios.
7. Being able to solve simple interest problems.
8. Knowing the Pythagorean Relationship and how to apply it to word problems and diagrams, especially recognizing right triangles in diagrams and illustrations.
9. Being familiar with metric measurements (like centimeter, meter, and kilometer) and English measurements (like feet, inches, and miles), and how to convert, add, and subtract them.
10. Understanding measures of central tendency (mean and median) and how to use them with data.
11. Understanding simple, independent, and dependent probability, like the likelihood of picking one particular card out of a deck.
12. Being able to read and understand tables, charts, and graphs.
13. Being able to manipulate and solve a simple equation for a variable (like x + 2 − 3x = 10).
14. Understanding and being able to use exponents and roots or scientific notation.
15. Knowing how to graph equations, lines, and points.
16. Being able to find the perimeter, area, or volume of geometric figures.
17. Understanding and being able to work with lines and angles.
18. Recognizing types of geometric shapes, knowing their qualities, and being able to compare them.

That’s less than 20 basic areas that you can master, by taking them one step at a time. None of them is too difficult. Just study one at a time until you’re comfortable with each one.

The GED math test gives you a page of math formulas that you can use on the test, but just seeing the formulas doesn’t do you any good. The important thing is understanding what they mean. You just need to understand what they mean.