GED Math Test Tutor, for the 2025-2026 GED Test: All the Tools You Need to Succeed (Ged(r) Test Preparation) - Softcover

Rush M A, MS Sandra

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0738612103 ISBN 13: 9780738612102

Publisher: Research & Education Association, 2016

Synopsis

Named "Best GED books of all time" by BookAuthority
GED Math Test Tutor delivers award-winning prep that is 100% aligned with today's GED Math test.

Here's what's in it for you:

• Expert review of every concept covered on the test - REA's targeted subject review covers all the math topics you'll see on the exam, including fractions, decimals, percentages, algebra, polynomials, scientific notation, and more.
• Know your way around the TI-30XS MultiView calculator - A step-by-step tutorial on the official GED calculator gets you up and running in no time.
• Helpful hints you need to know - Hundreds of hints, shortcuts, and exercises reinforce key math points, including the secrets of rounding, calculating with fractions, how to tell the difference between domain and range, and much more!
• Diagnostic pretest and two full-length practice tests - A diagnostic pretest pinpoints your strengths and weaknesses. Two full-length practice tests feature every type of question and skill assessed on the real exam. Each practice test comes with detailed solutions to help you master the material.

​If you're concerned about your math score on the GED test, you need REA's GED Math Test Tutor!

• Certified by GED Testing Service to be 100% aligned and up-to-date for today's GED test
• Winner of the ProCert Excellence in Education Award for Best-in-Class GED Prep

Get on your way with REA, a trusted GED Publisher Partner.

About this title

About the Author

Sandra Rush earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from Temple University in Philadelphia. While an undergraduate student, she served as a math tutor for members of the basketball team as well as for local public school students. In these early years of her own higher education, she realized that teaching mathematics had a special appeal.

She has taught mathematics and physics from the junior high school to university levels in three states. Sandra has also continued her side career of tutoring and coaching students at all levels. Her one-on- one approach with young adults has yielded excellent results.

Sandra's interest in education has extended beyond the classroom to the field of publishing, including writing and editing manuals on preparation for standardized tests at all levels. This book is the latest of her efforts to make mathematics both understandable and enjoyable for generations of students.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

About the GED® Mathematical Reasoning Test
This introductory chapter is as important as any of the following chapters. The subject review chapters will show you what you need to know about mathematics for the GED® test, but if you don’t know how to take the test and what to expect, you may not be successful, even if you understand the math. To be successful with the GED® Mathematical Reasoning test, it is essential that you know three skill sets: math skills, calculator skills, and some computer skills.

How This Book Can Help
For all three skill sets, practice, practice, practice will pay off. This book helps with the mathematical reasoning skills, so read the book carefully and be sure you understand each section before you advance to the next. Numerous examples will give you the practice and confidence you need to do well. To paraphrase GED Testing Service®, it’s not just about knowing how, but rather why!

Remembering isn’t the same as memorizing. This book is designed to help you remember facts that you need without having to memorize. To help you get off to a running start, the book features a diagnostic pretest up front. Test-takers often overestimate how prepared they are for a test, so we suggest taking the diagnostic pretest before you delve into the review.

Your performance will help you pinpoint what you know and what you don’t so you can spend time on the areas that need more attention. Then move on to the subject review, where you’ll find everything you need to excel on the GED® test covered in strict alignment with GED® standards. In the review, each mathematical topic is introduced, accompanied by several example questions with answers and explanations that are designed as further teaching aids to help you remember what has been presented.

Exercises at the end of each chapter allow you to assess how well you understood the concepts introduced in the chapter. These exercises are presented in GED® test formats so you can get used to how questions will be presented on the actual test.

You probably have heard the saying, “We learn from our mistakes.” If you do make a mistake on any of the exercises, use that as a further learning experience and don’t be discouraged. If you ever locked the key in your car, that was a learning experience (a frustrating one, for sure) and, at least for a while after that, you always made sure you had the key in your hand when you locked the door. So if you choose the wrong answer to an exercise in the book, go to the explanation of the correct answer and learn from it so you won’t make that type of mistake again.

The final part of the book contains two full-length practice GED® Mathematical Reasoning tests followed by the correct answer choices with explanations. Time yourself (115 minutes) to get a sense of how quickly you must come up with answers. You can go back to any question at any time and you can change your answers if you want to, but you need to do it all within the 115-minute time frame. Admittedly, taking the test on paper is different from taking the test on a computer, but the goal here is to learn the math and strategy to answer the problems correctly.

What to Expect on the GED® Mathematical Reasoning Test
The latest version of the GED® math test is called “Mathematical Reasoning.” Previously, the GED® test emphasized mathematical skills, knowing mathematical facts and formulas, and how to perform specific calculations for a problem. Today’s test places the emphasis on understanding and logical thinking rather than memorization, and it is based on real-world problem-solving skills. This next-generation test expects the test-taker to understand what a problem is asking for and proceed to answer it based on the information given. Use the four-part plan for reasoning skills to answer the questions:

1. Figure out what is known, what is necessary to solve the problem, what information is missing (usually your solution), and what is unnecessary (just because something is mentioned doesn’t mean it has anything to do with your solution).

2. Devise a strategy to solve the problem. This may involve making a sketch or a table (use the erasable note board you will be given at the testing center) or looking for a pattern, for example.

3. Solve the problem according to your strategy and choose or enter the correct answer.

4. Make sure the answer makes sense.

The GED® Mathematical Reasoning test measures how well you can figure out what is asked for and then apply mathematical skills, whether from your own memory bank or by using the tools that are available on the test, to come up with answers. This book shows you how to do this.

The total test time is 115 minutes, but that includes 2 minutes for an introduction and wrap-up, so the actual testing time is only 113 minutes.

The math test has a maximum of 49 raw score points. The value of each question varies with the difficulty of the question. Therefore, the number of questions on the test is not 49. In fact, it is 46, as seen in the practice tests at the end of this book. GED Testing Service® converts total raw score points into a final score.

Questions are presented one at a time on the computer screen. One chart, table, or problem scenario may have several questions associated with it. The computer uses a split screen for this type of question. On a split screen, the graphic or scenario stays on one half of the screen, and the questions appear one by one on the other half. Fortunately, there is a “Previous” button if any of these questions depend at all on a response to a prior question.

Fifty-five percent of the questions involve algebra, but that doesn’t mean you are just given an equation and asked to solve it. Questions on any of the math subjects on the test (each of which is covered in a chapter of this book) may involve algebraic reasoning. The other 45 percent of the questions are computational.

Your score is based strictly on the number of correct answers, with no penalty deducted for wrong answers or bad guesses. Therefore, you should answer every question. Once you have selected an answer to a question, take an extra second or two to make sure it makes sense. As an obvious example, the change you receive from a purchase shouldn’t be more than the money you gave the clerk, or the discounted cost of an item shouldn’t be more than the original price.

New GED® Performance Levels
Your final score is reported on a scale that ranges from 100 to 200 on each of the four content area tests. The passing standard for each of the four GED® test modules has been reset to 145 (from 150).

On December 31, 2015, the GED Testing Service® revised its Performance Levels on the GED® test. The revision followed extensive analysis of candidate performance in the first year of the latest version of the test. If you’ve already taken any of the four GED® content-area tests, this shift in scoring bands means it’s possible that what was a failing score in 2015 could retroactively become a passing score in 2016*. The current Performance Levels are as follows:

• Performance Level 1: Below Passing (100–144 scaled score points)

• Performance Level 2: Pass / High School Equivalency (145–164 scaled score points)

• Performance Level 3: GED® College Ready (165–174 scaled score points)

• Performance Level 4: GED® College Ready + Credit (175–200 scaled score points)

Test-takers scoring in Performance Levels 3 or 4, in any content area, can obtain an ACE CREDIT® transcript.

For scores in Performance Level 3 (GED® College Ready; 165–174 scaled score points), the ACE CREDIT® transcript documents your readiness for placement in credit-bearing courses in postsecondary education as well as recommended exemption from placement testing.

For Mathematical Reasoning test scores in Performance Level 4 (GED® College Ready + Credit; 175–200 scaled score points), the ACE CREDIT® transcript provides a recommendation that the institution you plan on attending grant 3 undergraduate semester hours in College Algebra.

Types of Questions
The GED® Mathematical Reasoning test has five types of questions: multiple-choice, dropdown, fill-in-the-blank, hot-spot, and drag-and-drop.

Multiple-Choice Items
The usual multiple-choice questions are a major part of the test, but not all of the questions are multiple-choice. These questions have four answers from which to choose, designated A, B, C, and D. You don’t necessarily have to come up with the correct answer from scratch—you only have to be able to identify the correct answer among the four choices. You should be able to eliminate one or more of the answer choices without any calculation if they are obviously wrong (for example, the problem asks for a whole number and one answer choice is a fraction or decimal), or inappropriate ? (for example, the problem indicates that the answer will be in the set {1, 2, 3, 4, 5} and the answer choice is 6). To choose an answer, click next to the letter for that choice.

Drop-Down Items
Drop-down items are a variation of multiple-choice questions. These are responses that are embedded directly in the text, and you click on one of three to five given choices to make the statement true.

Fill-in-the-Blank Items
Fill-in-the-blank questions involve problems for which you type your answer in a box. It can be the value you got from doing a specific calculation, a one-word or one-phrase answer to a question, or an equation you would use to solve a problem. Fill-in-the-blank questions may have more than one blank to fill in. These questions are similar to multiple-choice questions except that you aren’t given any choices for your answer. You must come up with the answer on your own and type it in a box that is part of the question. Don’t be concerned about entering extra spaces as you type your answer because the extra spaces are automatically deleted when the test is scored.

A symbol selector sheet is provided on-screen so that you can use symbols in your answer. Each question of this type will state which symbols may be used in your answer. See the section on the symbol selector tool later in this introduction.

Hot-Spot Items
Hot-spot items require some computer skill in moving the cursor exactly where you want it. These items accompany some sort of graphic on which you click a location to insert a point on a coordinate grid, number line, dot plot, or an edge on a geometric figure. If you change your mind about the placement of a point, clicking that point again will delete it and you will be able to insert a new point on the graph. Occasionally, you will be asked to plot, say, three points. If you try to insert a fourth one, you will be prompted that you have already inserted the requested number of points. You can then delete one of the other points to replace it with the new point.

Drag-and-Drop Items
Likewise, drag-and-drop items require computer dexterity in moving the cursor to drag small images on the screen, such as words or parts of numerical expressions (e.g., numbers, operators, or variables), and drop them into boxes where they make sense. Typically, you are given some choices to drag into boxes.

On-Screen and Other Resources
The test provides many helpful resources (virtual calculator, calculator reference sheet, a formula sheet, and erasable note boards that are to be used as scratchpads—even a time clock so you can pace yourself ). It is essential that you be familiar with each of these so you can easily use them during the test. They will cut down on your test-taking time as well as help with the accuracy of your answers.

The two choices at the lower right corner of each screen are important to bear in mind. One is “Next,” which you have to click to go to the next question. The other is “Previous,” which comes in handy when all of a sudden you remember how to do a former question, or when you need the results from the last question to answer the present question. This may happen in a split-screen situation, where a graphic or table, for example, is displayed on the left side of the screen, and two or more questions about the same visual are asked on the right side of the screen.

Edition details

• Publisher: Research & Education Association
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0738612103
• ISBN 13: 9780738612102
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 368