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Home  Educators & GED Testing Professionals
Social Studies Test
The GED Social Studies Test measures a candidate’s skill in
understanding and interpreting key history, geography, economics, and
civics concepts and principles and applying them to visual and written
academic and workplace contexts. Source materials and questions on the
GED Social Studies Test address the experiences of citizens, consumers,
and workersin the United States, Canada, and the rest of the world.
The test questions are based on written and visual texts drawn from a
variety of sources including academic and workplace texts as well as
primary and secondary sources.
Content
The GED Social Studies Test includes questions in each of the
following areas:
- History: 40 percent (national, 25 percent; world, 15 percent)
- Geography: 15 percent.
- Civics and government: 25 percent.
- Economics: 20 percent.
GED Social Studies Test—U.S. Edition
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Content Area
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Topics
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| U.S. History |
Beginnings to 1820 |
Native Peoples, Colonization, Settlement,
Revolution, the New Nation |
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1801 to 1890 |
Expansion, Reform, Civil War, Reconstruction, Industrial
Development |
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1890 to present |
Emergence of Modern American, Great Depression, World War II, Postwar
United States, Contemporary United States |
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| World History |
Beginnings to 1000 B.C. |
Beginnings and Early Civilizations |
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1000 B.C. to 300 B.C. |
Classical Traditions, Empires, Religions |
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300 B.C. to 1770 A.D. |
Growing Trade, Hemispheric Interactions, First Global Age); 1750 to 1914
(Age of Revolutions |
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1900 to present |
Urbanization; World Wars; Global Depression; Advances in Science and
Technology; New Democracies of Africa, Asia, South America; the Cold
War; “Global Culture” |
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| Civics and Government |
Civic Life, Politics, Government; Foundations of
the American Political System; American Government; Relationship of
United States to Other Nations; and Roles of the Citizens in American
Democracy. |
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| Geography |
World in Spatial Terms; Places, Regions, and
Physical Systems; Human Systems, Environment, and the Society; and Uses
of Geography. |
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| Economics |
Economic Reasoning and Choice; Comparison of
Economic Systems, Business in a Free Enterprise System, Production,
Consumers; Financial Institutions; and Government’s Role in the
Economy, Labor and the Economy, Global Markets, and Foreign Trade. |
GED Social Studies Test—Canadian Edition
The GED Social Studies Test, Canadian Edition, includes the same
questions as the U.S. test that relate to concepts and issues with
global or international settings, as well as Canadian-specific issues
and history.
| Canadian Issues |
National Unity, Canada in the World, Dilemmas of
Status in Relations Between Canada and the United States, Canadian
Political System, Parliamentary Governance Structures, Residual Powers
to Federal Government, Provincial vs. Federal Relations, Canadian-U.S.
Relations, and Economic Issues. |
|
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| Canadian History |
Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples, European
Exploration and Colonization, Growth and Chance, Growing Frontier
Community, Political Reform and Confederation, The Age of MacDonald
(1867–1891), Canada in the 20th Century, and Facing the Challenges
of the Modern World. |
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Context
Approximately 60 percent of the GED Social Studies Test questions
relate to concepts and issues taken from a global or international
perspective, and the other 40 percent address a specific national
setting (either United States or Canada).
Historical Documents
Each form of the GED Social Studies Test includes an excerpt from at
least one of the following fundamental historical documents of the
United States and Canada:
- Declaration of Independence.
- U.S. Constitution.
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- Landmark Supreme Court cases (in the United States).
- The Charter of Rights and Freedoms (in Canada).
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Practical Documents
Each form includes one practical document (a source of information
used by most adults in their roles as citizens, consumers, and workers),
such as:
- Consumer information.
- Voters’ guides.
- Atlases.
- Tax forms.
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- Budget graphs.
- Political speeches.
- Almanacs.
- Statistical abstracts.
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Format
All GED Social Studies Test questions are multiple-choice questions
based on one of the following three types of source materials:
- Prose (40 percent): narratives, high school textbooks and
resources, editorials, speeches, newspapers, newsmagazines, historical
documents.
- Visual text (40 percent): maps, graphs, charts, diagrams,
political cartoons, photographs, lithographs, works of art.
- Written and visual text (20 percent): a combination of a map
and narrative, a photograph and editorial, etc.
Prose sources are no longer than 200 words, and text for a single
question is 50–60 words. Prose-based questions constitute 40
percent of the test, whereas visual text or visual and written questions
represent 60 percent.
Cognitive Levels
The GED Social Studies Test requires that candidates use higher-level
thinking skills. These skills often require prior knowledge of important
social studies concepts, principles, events, and skills.
Comprehension
Comprehension questions (20 percent) measure the candidate’s
understanding of the meaning and intent of text and/or visual material.
These questions measure the candidate’s ability to:
- Restate information.
- Summarize ideas.
- Identify implications and make inferences.
Application
Application questions (20 percent) measure the candidate’s ability
to use information and ideas in a situation different from that provided
by the question stimulus. These questions measure the candidate’s
ability to:
- Identify an illustration of a generalization, principle, or
strategy.
- Apply the appropriate abstraction to a new problem without prompting
or instruction.
Analysis
Analysis questions (40 percent) measure the candidate’s ability to
break down information and to explore the candidate’s
understanding of the relationship between component ideas. These
questions measure the visual ability to:
- Distinguish facts from opinions and hypotheses.
- Distinguish conclusions from supporting statements.
- Recognize information that is designed to persuade an audience.
- Recognize unstated assumptions.
- Recognize fallacies in logic in arguments or conclusions.
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- Identify cause and effect relationships and distinguish them from
other sequential relationships.
- Recognize the point of view of a writer in a historical
account.
- Recognize the historical context of the text, avoiding
“present-mindedness.”
- Identify comparisons and contrasts among points of view and
interpretations of issues.
- Determine implications, effects, and value of presenting visual data
in different ways.
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Evaluation
Evaluation questions (20 percent) measure the candidate’s ability
to use provided criteria to make judgments about the validity or
accuracy of information. These questions measure the candidate’s
ability to:
- Assess the appropriateness of information to substantiate
conclusions, hypotheses, and generalizations (using such criteria as
source, objectivity, technical correctness, currency).
- Assess the accuracy of facts.
- Compare and contrast differing accounts of the same event.
- Recognize the role that values, beliefs, and convictions play in
decision making.
Please direct questions about this page to:
ged@ace.nche.edu
This page last updated on 11/19/2008
| General Educational Development (GED) Tests, GED, Social Studies |
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