GED or General Educational Development is a testing service which is a joint venture of North American council with Pearson being the sole developer. It includes tests on a group of four subjects. When cleared, GED provides certification that the test taker has high school-level academic skills of North American or Canadian standards.

Although the abbreviation GED is frequently mistaken as “general education degree” or “general education diploma”, the North American Council on education, which owns the GED trademark, coined the abbreviation to identify it as General Educational Development. It measures proficiency of the candidate in science, mathematics, social studies, reading, and writing.

GED tests are available in English, Spanish, and French (in Canada). They are available in large print, audio, and braille (for differently-abled). Tests and test preparations are also offered to persons deployed on military bases. Individuals living outside the United States and Canada may be eligible to take the GED tests through Pearson Vue testing centers. The minimum age to apply for a GED exam is 16 years (some states have 18 years the minimum age).

The GED test is multiple choice questions, drag and drop, hot spots (selecting an area), fill in the blanks, short and extended responses. Tests are taken on subjects like math, which cover topics like quantitative and algebraic problem solving. Science covers topics like earth science, physical science, life science, space science. Social studies has topics included such as U.S history economics and world geography. Reasoning through language tests your reading writing and reasoning ability. All the subject tests are allotted different duration. Reasoning and mathematics are allotted one hundred and fifty and one hundred and fifteen minutes each, where as social studies and science get seventy and ninety minutes respectively. Different states have different GED test fee. You can either create an account on GED’s official website to know the state wise fee structure. The average price for the tests is thirty dollars or less. You have the option of retaking the tests at discounted rates.