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How the GED Test Works · Stuff You Should Know

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Should Know Fromhouse Stuff Works dot com. Hey,
0:11
Speaker 1: I'm welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W.
0:14
Speaker 1: Chuck Bryant, and that's this Stuff you Should Know the
0:15
Speaker 1: podcast Good Day. Oh there's Jerry. She snuck up on its.
0:24
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, this one is a part of our I
0:28
Speaker 1: guess law enforcement suite no. Uh, military suite No. A
0:35
Speaker 1: little sort of addiction swite, yes, because people are addicted
0:40
Speaker 1: to knowledge, buddy, and uh here in the United States,
0:45
Speaker 1: and I believe in Canada, if you don't graduate high
0:48
Speaker 1: school and then later on you say, you know what,
0:52
Speaker 1: that was a mistake. I'm just gonna go back to
0:55
Speaker 1: high school. And they say you can't do that. You say, well,
0:57
Speaker 1: what do I do? And then they say it's your
1:00
Speaker 1: g e D, dummy, and you go, oh, oh, that's
1:03
Speaker 1: great because that's my General equivalently diploma, right, And they say, no,
1:08
Speaker 1: that's not what it stands for. No, you should have
1:10
Speaker 1: stayed in high school. Although I don't think they teach
1:12
Speaker 1: this in high school now, of course they don't g D.
1:15
Speaker 1: A lot of people do think it stands for General
1:17
Speaker 1: equivalenc Diploma, but it stands for General Education Development, which
1:22
Speaker 1: is a company a brand name, Yeah, like Seeing Eye Dogs,
1:26
Speaker 1: brand name, Heroin, Yeah, brand name, Kleenex, brand name, m
1:32
Speaker 1: M barbecue No very nice xerox is though, Yeah. Those
1:42
Speaker 1: are called generic size trademarks, yeah, band aid. Yeah. Things
1:47
Speaker 1: that were a trademark name or still are. But it
1:50
Speaker 1: becomes so widespread and so dominant in their market they
1:53
Speaker 1: become the name for all of the other versions of themselves.
1:58
Speaker 1: Petroleum Nope, vassoline though, but yes, which should be called
2:06
Speaker 1: petroleum jelly. Yeah, No one says that, though weirdos say that.
2:10
Speaker 1: They just say vasoline or lube. Do you have any
2:12
Speaker 1: petroleum jelly for sale? People say, I don't know what
2:16
Speaker 1: you mean. You say, well, I mean vasiline, and they say, well,
2:19
Speaker 1: why didn't you just say that? And then uh, you
2:23
Speaker 1: just get quiet, and then they say, yes, we have
2:25
Speaker 1: some vasoline for sale, and then you buy the right
2:27
Speaker 1: aiight bran because it's cheaper and it's the same thing,
2:29
Speaker 1: but it just does petroleum jelly. That's right, all right?
2:33
Speaker 1: This is off to a banging start. That was a
2:34
Speaker 1: horrific story. Um about eight hundred and fifty thousand people
2:38
Speaker 1: in the United States and took this has got a
2:42
Speaker 1: lot of stats in it. By the way, was it
2:44
Speaker 1: just eight fifty I'm surprised. I thought it was like
2:46
Speaker 1: a million. No, I've got the stats right here, my friend,
2:53
Speaker 1: under key findings. More than eight d adults adults world
3:00
Speaker 1: wide took at least one of the five content area tests.
3:05
Speaker 1: So that's our first point is the g e D
3:07
Speaker 1: isn't a single test, but it is five subtests are
3:11
Speaker 1: what they called them. Well, it wasn't two thirteen, that's right,
3:15
Speaker 1: it's switched in two thousand fourteen. This is a heck
3:18
Speaker 1: of a time to be talking about g e D.
3:19
Speaker 1: It really is, because there's been some big changes lately. Uh.
3:22
Speaker 1: And only on not only but seven forty three thousand
3:26
Speaker 1: completed the entire test battery and the reason why was
3:32
Speaker 1: because that change. Usually it's fewer than that. Usually, the
3:37
Speaker 1: the proportion of people who take the the g e
3:40
Speaker 1: D to the people who take and finished the g
3:43
Speaker 1: e D the same year is much different. There's a
3:46
Speaker 1: huge difference this year or two thirteen, it was close
3:50
Speaker 1: because everybody wanted to complete it because it was about
3:52
Speaker 1: to get a lot harder in two thousand yea, And
3:56
Speaker 1: of those who took the complete battery of tests passed it. Uh.
4:01
Speaker 1: And the way they have it's pretty cool. The way
4:04
Speaker 1: they established the passing score is they give it to
4:08
Speaker 1: high school graduates and the top six of high school seniors.
4:15
Speaker 1: They compare that against the test. They used that as
4:17
Speaker 1: the norm. I did not know that. Yeah, that is
4:20
Speaker 1: very clever. Yeah, I thought so. I mean that's a
4:23
Speaker 1: high school equivalence intest. Yeah, that makes perfect sense now
4:26
Speaker 1: and the whole a lot. I mean you kind of
4:28
Speaker 1: said it like, well, people you know, drop out of
4:31
Speaker 1: high school and then years later they say, yeah, maybe
4:34
Speaker 1: I should go back an average of nine years. By
4:37
Speaker 1: the way, is it nine now? Yeah, nine years later.
4:39
Speaker 1: And they they had statistics from I think starting from
4:44
Speaker 1: geez many many years ago, and they remained pretty consistent
4:48
Speaker 1: as far as racial divide and men or women and
4:53
Speaker 1: then people who pass or people who fail. Reasons people
4:56
Speaker 1: take it, It's fairly consistent over the years. It's pretty interesting.
5:00
Speaker 1: The reason people take it um ultimately is so they
5:05
Speaker 1: can get gainful employment. But it seems to flip flop
5:09
Speaker 1: depending on the economy whether they're going to go on
5:13
Speaker 1: and go to college afterward, because you need your g
5:18
Speaker 1: e d. To get into college or because as the
5:21
Speaker 1: general education UM development. Uh. People say there's roughly four
5:27
Speaker 1: million jobs out there that are just waiting for people
5:30
Speaker 1: to prove that they can fill them, and one way
5:34
Speaker 1: to prove that is to have a g e D.
5:36
Speaker 1: It basically says I am qualified for most of your
5:41
Speaker 1: unskilled labor at least, and so going and getting a
5:45
Speaker 1: g e D is for a lot of people a
5:47
Speaker 1: huge investment in their future. Um. So that's pretty much
5:52
Speaker 1: why the g e D. It provides quote proof of
5:55
Speaker 1: readiness for higher education or the workplace. That's the whole point.
5:58
Speaker 1: It's it's it's proof that you're ready to move on. Uh. Yeah.
6:02
Speaker 1: And they actually have statistics too on why people take it.
6:06
Speaker 1: Um said they took it for educational reasons. Uh, and
6:12
Speaker 1: it's not just one or the other. I think it
6:13
Speaker 1: can be multiple reasons, because more than half and I
6:16
Speaker 1: thought this was pretty neat said they tested for personal
6:20
Speaker 1: reasons such as being a positive role model and for
6:23
Speaker 1: a sense of personal satisfaction, and then said for employment
6:30
Speaker 1: reasons to get a job basically, so I thought that
6:33
Speaker 1: was those findings are interesting. I like the role model thing,
6:36
Speaker 1: like even though only four points five percent of the
6:40
Speaker 1: people who take it are over fifty years of age.
6:43
Speaker 1: I say hats off to that four point five percent
6:45
Speaker 1: because they you know, that's probably personal satisfaction or role
6:49
Speaker 1: model reasons right there. You're never too old to get educated.
6:53
Speaker 1: Don't give up. That sounds like an ending, but this
6:56
Speaker 1: is just the beginning. Well, maybe we can cut and
6:59
Speaker 1: paste it under the I'll say it again at the end. Okay,
7:02
Speaker 1: so um, people have pretty great reasons for this. It
7:07
Speaker 1: also helps the economy. If you have a bunch of
7:10
Speaker 1: unfilled jobs out there in your economy, and you have
7:13
Speaker 1: a bunch of unemployed people, and all that you need
7:17
Speaker 1: to get the two together is proof that this group
7:20
Speaker 1: of people is qualified to fill this these unfilled jobs,
7:24
Speaker 1: then you have a real need to get those people
7:28
Speaker 1: qualified as easily as possible. And for many, many, many
7:31
Speaker 1: many years, the g e D was a state sponsored,
7:35
Speaker 1: nonprofit way of making that happen. That's right. If you
7:39
Speaker 1: want stats to back that up, sir, Okay, the net
7:43
Speaker 1: lifetime fiscal contribution of a high school graduate or g
7:45
Speaker 1: e D holder is almost three thousand dollars. Wow. Uh,
7:50
Speaker 1: and you're gonna have about a ten tho dollar difference
7:52
Speaker 1: in annual salary if you get that g e D
7:55
Speaker 1: or do not. And with one point two million UH
7:59
Speaker 1: college dropouts each year, UM, people should encourage people to
8:04
Speaker 1: take the g E D. And I'm gonna go out
8:07
Speaker 1: and say, and people are probably gonna be mad some people.
8:10
Speaker 1: I think it should be subsidized. If you want your
8:13
Speaker 1: g E D. I think you should be able to
8:14
Speaker 1: take it for free. Well in a lot of states.
8:16
Speaker 1: It is some states, but a lot of people have
8:18
Speaker 1: a big problem with that. Shouldn't have dropped out of
8:20
Speaker 1: high school to begin with. But um, that doesn't make
8:24
Speaker 1: any sense because what we needed more educated people saying
8:27
Speaker 1: get better jobs and not be a tax burden in
8:30
Speaker 1: other ways, you know what I'm saying. Um, So, the
8:34
Speaker 1: whole idea of the g D initially was it was
8:37
Speaker 1: basically a compromise between the military and the a c E.
8:42
Speaker 1: The American Council of Educators, I believe, and um, apparently
8:48
Speaker 1: when World War two broke out, or when the US
8:51
Speaker 1: entered the Second World War, UM, there was this idea
8:54
Speaker 1: of just handing out wartime diplomas. If you came aboard,
8:58
Speaker 1: you got drafted, you you and did whatever you can,
9:01
Speaker 1: just have your high school diploma, and Uh, the a
9:04
Speaker 1: C said that's a really bad idea because you're gonna
9:07
Speaker 1: have some people coming back afterwards who are unqualified, but
9:11
Speaker 1: people will think they're they're qualified. It is bad for
9:13
Speaker 1: the economy to do that. Let's come up with something else.
9:15
Speaker 1: Military said, fine, do it, and the a C said fine,
9:19
Speaker 1: we will, and they went off and they came up
9:22
Speaker 1: with the what is the g E D. Yeah, for
9:25
Speaker 1: five years it was just for military, right, like you
9:28
Speaker 1: had to be a military service member to to take
9:31
Speaker 1: the g E D. And then after that they're like,
9:33
Speaker 1: you know what, this is a pretty good idea, so
9:35
Speaker 1: let's expand it to everybody. Yeah, it was a great idea,
9:38
Speaker 1: and they did expand it. And over the years since then, Uh,
9:42
Speaker 1: it has gone through now five iterations, UM. Previously to
9:48
Speaker 1: the last one was in two thousand two, and uh
9:51
Speaker 1: it's changed quite a bit over the years. UM, like
9:55
Speaker 1: all standardized standardized test. I guess. Uh. Previously you like
10:00
Speaker 1: back in the nineteen forties and fifties, UM, it was
10:04
Speaker 1: pretty much just reading and writing skills, social studies, science
10:08
Speaker 1: and math. But like basic skills, they didn't try to
10:12
Speaker 1: make it like a like a real world test. You know,
10:17
Speaker 1: does that make sense? Uh, like real world applications. Like
10:23
Speaker 1: later on they started putting things like newspaper articles that
10:26
Speaker 1: you could read instead of just like read this text
10:29
Speaker 1: about Johnny and his dog, right, And I yeah, I
10:31
Speaker 1: think it was definitely also geared towards people high school
10:36
Speaker 1: level maturity too. And then later on they were like, well,
10:38
Speaker 1: we've got a lot more adults taking this than we realized,
10:41
Speaker 1: so let's change it. It just took them like thirty
10:44
Speaker 1: years to make that change. Yeah. Um, it took on
10:47
Speaker 1: a lot more of a conceptual evaluation over the years
10:49
Speaker 1: as well, and uh, showing people examples from like, like
10:55
Speaker 1: I said, real world, their home life and their work life,
10:57
Speaker 1: so they can say, hey, that's me in these test examples.
11:01
Speaker 1: I get it. And it's not. It's it's more humanized
11:05
Speaker 1: I think. Right. Plus, they instituted a big one, the
11:09
Speaker 1: writing test, an essay section that was definitely new critical
11:14
Speaker 1: thinking skills, and all of a sudden g D got
11:17
Speaker 1: a little harder. But it wasn't over then, and we'll
11:20
Speaker 1: talk about more after this, so check. They revamped the
11:28
Speaker 1: g e D in for like the first time seriously
11:31
Speaker 1: in thirty years, and um, it's a little more real world,
11:35
Speaker 1: a little more reflective, And they just missed this the
11:39
Speaker 1: cusp of a real change, because in nineteen eighty two
11:42
Speaker 1: the world became a little more aware of the fact
11:46
Speaker 1: that it was globalizing. And so six years after that,
11:52
Speaker 1: the g e D said we need to make some
11:54
Speaker 1: changes as well, and they revamped again. Had they just
11:58
Speaker 1: waited until eight, they could have skipped the whole nineteen
12:02
Speaker 1: seventy eight revamp, that's true. And eight is when they
12:05
Speaker 1: added that essay uh component, which was makes a lot
12:09
Speaker 1: of sense to me. Did they I thought they added
12:11
Speaker 1: it in no, huh? And in seventy eight is when
12:16
Speaker 1: they separated the reading test and basically said we're not
12:20
Speaker 1: going to do any more of this, just straight up
12:22
Speaker 1: like fact recall stuff. Um. And at this point only
12:30
Speaker 1: of the takers were taking the test for employment. Um,
12:36
Speaker 1: we're taking it to basically go to college. Yeah, And
12:39
Speaker 1: that's reflective of a larger thing where the premium or
12:43
Speaker 1: the rebate you get for a college degree was much higher,
12:48
Speaker 1: and that fluctuates over time. And I read this paper
12:51
Speaker 1: where you can basically look at it like supplying demand,
12:54
Speaker 1: where if employers are saying we need more skilled labor um.
12:59
Speaker 1: So you need to go to college, but if you do,
13:02
Speaker 1: we're gonna pay you more. Then more people who took
13:05
Speaker 1: the g e D would go on to to um
13:08
Speaker 1: college or whatever. But if not when the premium was lower, say,
13:12
Speaker 1: like unions were in charge and they were like, are
13:14
Speaker 1: people that need college educations but you're still going to
13:17
Speaker 1: pay them? Well, the people would take the g e
13:19
Speaker 1: D just to get into industry. Yeah. Interesting, they're all
13:24
Speaker 1: very closely aligned. Now people are like, do you even
13:26
Speaker 1: need a college education? Which to me, I think is
13:29
Speaker 1: a separate episode that we should do. I totally agree
13:32
Speaker 1: to because the whole notion of uh, there's a lot
13:35
Speaker 1: of people challenging, uh, the validity of college these days,
13:40
Speaker 1: and especially the stupidity of taking out exorbitant amounts of
13:45
Speaker 1: student student loans. They're going to cripple you and cripple
13:49
Speaker 1: the economy the United States. Well yeah, I mean, especially
13:52
Speaker 1: if you're not going to be able to make that back. Yeah. Um.
13:55
Speaker 1: There's some people that say that the student loan problem
13:58
Speaker 1: is like the biggest problem facing our economy. They're called
14:01
Speaker 1: Occupy Wall Street. No, they're called Mark Cuban. Like a
14:04
Speaker 1: lot of smart people businessmen are saying this is just
14:07
Speaker 1: getting out of hand. Yeah, I think we should definitely
14:09
Speaker 1: do an episode on that. So before you can go
14:13
Speaker 1: to college, though, you need that g e D or
14:15
Speaker 1: your high school diploma. Um, so let's say you do
14:19
Speaker 1: want to take the g e D. These days, you
14:21
Speaker 1: can prep yourself. You don't have to just go in cold.
14:24
Speaker 1: They are all kinds of materials you can get online. Um,
14:27
Speaker 1: if you go through the official g e D site.
14:31
Speaker 1: Because there are now three things you can do. There
14:34
Speaker 1: are three tests you can take. G e D isn't
14:36
Speaker 1: your only option. No. It used to have a monopoly
14:39
Speaker 1: in the United States. Yeah, but since uh, Pearson Education
14:43
Speaker 1: a private company, basically I guess bought bought it out right. Yeah.
14:48
Speaker 1: The a C, the American Council of Educators on Education. Okay, Um,
14:55
Speaker 1: they were the ones that owned g e D and
14:58
Speaker 1: they were running in as an profit and they said,
15:01
Speaker 1: we need to revamp this, so we're going to take
15:03
Speaker 1: on a for profit education. Educational publisher Pearson and Pierson
15:09
Speaker 1: came in and said, okay, thanks for bringing us on. Uh,
15:12
Speaker 1: do you know what a hostile takeovers? And a C
15:15
Speaker 1: said not really, we're edging and then they were pushed
15:18
Speaker 1: out of the door. Here's the banker's box exactly right.
15:21
Speaker 1: So Pearson took over and is running this as for profit. Yeah,
15:26
Speaker 1: but there are other options now, um, I think Pearson
15:29
Speaker 1: and the official g e D is the only one
15:31
Speaker 1: available in all fifty states, but most states now you
15:35
Speaker 1: can also take the T A S C, which is
15:37
Speaker 1: run by also known as Task mcgrawl Hill or H
15:42
Speaker 1: little I, Big Set, High Set which is administered by
15:46
Speaker 1: E T S and UH and most states now you
15:49
Speaker 1: can have your choice of all those. Um. Yeah, what
15:51
Speaker 1: happened was in two thousand and fourteen, the g E D,
15:53
Speaker 1: which was a basically n g O run nonprofit testing resource, Yeah,
16:01
Speaker 1: became privatized, and now there's competition among private businesses. That's right.
16:05
Speaker 1: So where I started with all this kabbadigook was how
16:08
Speaker 1: to prep um. Depending on which tests you take, you
16:12
Speaker 1: will probably want to use their testing materials, although they
16:14
Speaker 1: say that, um, any kind of preparatory materials that you
16:18
Speaker 1: can find are probably gonna be good for all three
16:21
Speaker 1: of the tests because while they're not exactly like, they
16:24
Speaker 1: all have the basic standard five components or four oh
16:29
Speaker 1: and only four on some of them. Yeah, so apparently
16:31
Speaker 1: the g D went from UM to language and language
16:35
Speaker 1: arts and reading modules to one. But basically they're covering
16:40
Speaker 1: language arts, are reading, science, math, and social studies. Right
16:44
Speaker 1: before it was language arts and writing and then language
16:46
Speaker 1: arts and reading and now that's just one. Yeah, it's
16:48
Speaker 1: called reasoning through Language Arts and the g e D battery. Nice.
16:53
Speaker 1: The whole kit and caboodle is gonna take you, uh
16:57
Speaker 1: close to eight hours. Um, it's all parched out in
17:00
Speaker 1: the time. But if you do need more time, if
17:02
Speaker 1: you have some sort of learning disability or something, or
17:05
Speaker 1: if you want to be in a room by yourself,
17:07
Speaker 1: most of these testing centers will accommodate that visual learners
17:10
Speaker 1: are easily distracted by other people in the room. Yeah,
17:14
Speaker 1: I am, so that's why they stick. They make sense.
17:16
Speaker 1: You you can have you can have your own room, dude,
17:20
Speaker 1: I never thought about that. That makes total sense. Like
17:22
Speaker 1: I do my best studying for the podcast when I
17:24
Speaker 1: go in one of our office rooms and just lock
17:26
Speaker 1: the door. Huh. And also, because Jonathan Strickland is super loud,
17:31
Speaker 1: it is pretty loud. He loves telling stories really loudly. Okay,
17:36
Speaker 1: So also a lot of if you're interested in taking
17:40
Speaker 1: the get a lot of information, uh you're gonna want
17:44
Speaker 1: is it depends on the state, like where you can
17:47
Speaker 1: take it, how much it's gonna cost. It all varies
17:50
Speaker 1: by state, um, and the guidelines of your state are
17:52
Speaker 1: gonna dictate, uh sometimes which one you have to take.
17:56
Speaker 1: I think state of Washington signed a deal with Pearson
18:01
Speaker 1: to make that the only one for the state. Yeah.
18:02
Speaker 1: I think there's twelve states where you have a choice
18:04
Speaker 1: of all three that all um, but the g E
18:09
Speaker 1: D is available in not all fifty states. I think
18:12
Speaker 1: some of them dropped it. Interesting. I think Pierson really
18:15
Speaker 1: ticked off a lot of companies by basically saying, you
18:19
Speaker 1: remember these fees that before it was the state was
18:24
Speaker 1: subsidizing it to an extent. Some states were saying, okay,
18:29
Speaker 1: so this is how much the test people charge, and
18:35
Speaker 1: then we can add fees onto that. So that's that's
18:38
Speaker 1: how it stands still today to run to run the
18:41
Speaker 1: center where they take it is where those fees come,
18:43
Speaker 1: right exactly. Some states said we're not adding any additional
18:46
Speaker 1: feest and we're going to subsidize the actual cost of
18:48
Speaker 1: the test. UM. So when the when the when g
18:52
Speaker 1: E D doubled basically their rates. Um they were passing
18:56
Speaker 1: it along to the states and basically saying, you know,
18:59
Speaker 1: passive all to the test takers if you want. The
19:02
Speaker 1: thing is is like these are disproportionately low income people
19:06
Speaker 1: and doubling the rates even even if we're talking like
19:09
Speaker 1: fifty six dollars suddenly being like a hundred, a hundred
19:12
Speaker 1: and twenty, that's a significant increasing cost cost prohibitive in
19:17
Speaker 1: some cases. Right, that's just for the test too, that's
19:20
Speaker 1: not that's not for prep materials and that kind of thing,
19:23
Speaker 1: which a lot of states also uh subsidized as well
19:27
Speaker 1: and gave up for free. Yeah, so I think Pierson
19:29
Speaker 1: takes some people off with the with the sudden for
19:32
Speaker 1: profit model. But Pearson, in its defense says, we really
19:37
Speaker 1: kind of updated this thing for the twenty one century. Yeah,
19:40
Speaker 1: they moved it to a computer based test, not an
19:43
Speaker 1: online test, but it has to be taken. The G E.
19:46
Speaker 1: D Brand test Pierson tests has to be taken on
19:49
Speaker 1: a computer now, whereas the other two you can still
19:53
Speaker 1: take with pen and paper or on a computer. Right.
19:55
Speaker 1: But Pearson says, in the long run, this is gonna
19:57
Speaker 1: save money because it's cheaper to things on a computer.
20:01
Speaker 1: But that also came with some controversy because while it
20:05
Speaker 1: seems to us like computers are ubiquitous and everybody knows
20:09
Speaker 1: how to use one, maybe a really poor fifty year
20:12
Speaker 1: old person has never touched a computer, so they have
20:15
Speaker 1: to learn how to use a computer before they can
20:18
Speaker 1: even take the test. Right, So, Chuck, we're talking about
20:20
Speaker 1: the controversy right because I put it kind of flippy earlier,
20:25
Speaker 1: like the G E D was privatized and it is
20:28
Speaker 1: essentially as simple as that, But that's that there there's
20:32
Speaker 1: so much more to that that doesn't just exist in
20:34
Speaker 1: a vacuums still loaded concept these days to take education
20:38
Speaker 1: and privatize it UM that that are at a for
20:41
Speaker 1: profit model to education. UM, it has brought a lot
20:45
Speaker 1: of criticism again Pierson saying, uh, yeah, we kind of
20:50
Speaker 1: need these people to take this test on computers because
20:53
Speaker 1: that's where the jobs are, Like, you have to know
20:55
Speaker 1: how to use a computer to work almost anywhere these days.
20:59
Speaker 1: That's a good So it's a good thing to make
21:01
Speaker 1: these people learn to use a computer first. So there's
21:05
Speaker 1: you know, what's what's the problem in that? UM. A
21:08
Speaker 1: lot of people would respond and say that's great. Maybe
21:12
Speaker 1: this is something we could have implemented a little more slowly.
21:15
Speaker 1: Maybe you could have given the States and then hence
21:17
Speaker 1: the state funded testing centers a little more of a
21:20
Speaker 1: heads up that this is where it was going to go.
21:23
Speaker 1: Or provide the computer as an option, because not every
21:26
Speaker 1: job involves a computer. No, it's true for now, but uh,
21:31
Speaker 1: task and high set both offer computer and paper versions,
21:34
Speaker 1: right like you said. Um again, Pearson says, well, that's great.
21:40
Speaker 1: The States still has to pay for grading of the
21:43
Speaker 1: pen and paper versions. With the computerized version, we have
21:46
Speaker 1: it all built in. People don't have to wait around
21:48
Speaker 1: for their scores. They get in immediately since it's on
21:51
Speaker 1: a computer and it can be graded by the computer. Apparently,
21:55
Speaker 1: you can take a module, you can find out that
21:58
Speaker 1: you you didn't pass the module immediately and take it
22:01
Speaker 1: two more times before having to enter like a thirty
22:04
Speaker 1: or sixty day waiting period. You can just sit there
22:06
Speaker 1: and take it two more times, right there. Yeah, that's
22:08
Speaker 1: pretty handy. So, I mean, there is. It's not entirely
22:10
Speaker 1: like you know, Evil Co came in and took over
22:14
Speaker 1: the g D, but I think the the sweeping changes
22:18
Speaker 1: they made were so abrupt that it caught a lot
22:21
Speaker 1: of people off guarden and they're I mean, they're suffering
22:23
Speaker 1: as a result. Some people some states have just entirely
22:26
Speaker 1: dropped the g e D. It's not even an option, wow,
22:29
Speaker 1: the official g e D. So you brought up a
22:31
Speaker 1: good point. Um, you don't have to take the entire
22:33
Speaker 1: test at once because some people can't afford a hundred
22:36
Speaker 1: and sixty bucks or more. You can break it out
22:39
Speaker 1: into modules and pay as you go. Uh. And like
22:42
Speaker 1: you said, if you don't pass one, you can retake
22:45
Speaker 1: just that module. It's not all or nothing, which is great.
22:49
Speaker 1: You can take it in Spanish, you can take it
22:51
Speaker 1: in French, I think too. Yeah, you said at the
22:55
Speaker 1: very beginning that around the world eight hundred and fifty
22:58
Speaker 1: thousand people took it. Yeah, you can be elsewhere in
23:02
Speaker 1: the world to get your US high school diploma equivalent
23:07
Speaker 1: of the diploma your g E D. Uh. They have
23:10
Speaker 1: brail versions. Um, they have large print and audio versions
23:14
Speaker 1: and don't show up and expect that though. That's the
23:17
Speaker 1: kind of thing that when you're registering you have to
23:20
Speaker 1: let them know and make sure that they can accommodate you.
23:23
Speaker 1: And it's also interesting that people, some people say, you know,
23:28
Speaker 1: this whole computer thing is is a mess. But most
23:32
Speaker 1: of the information you're gonna have to go to online
23:34
Speaker 1: to find out this stuff. I mean it's available to
23:37
Speaker 1: I mean you can go to the learning center and
23:38
Speaker 1: stuff like that and get a pamphlet. I'm sure still,
23:41
Speaker 1: but everything I saw was like, hey, go online and
23:44
Speaker 1: check out this, Go online and check out your state's guideline,
23:47
Speaker 1: go online and check out study courses. So it helps
23:51
Speaker 1: to you know, have that capability. But you can go
23:53
Speaker 1: to a public library and get online. You can you know,
23:56
Speaker 1: you can also get all the printed stuff at your library.
23:59
Speaker 1: To um. One of the big changes to that that
24:03
Speaker 1: um Pearson took a little heat for was they were
24:07
Speaker 1: revamping everything so much, from five modules to four. Scoring
24:12
Speaker 1: went in completely different directions. I think it used to
24:15
Speaker 1: be something like a fifty was the minimum. Now it's
24:20
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty score is the minimum. No total,
24:25
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, So overall they just completely revamped everything.
24:30
Speaker 1: So they said, if you are taking your g E
24:32
Speaker 1: D in two thousand thirteen, and you've got like three
24:35
Speaker 1: or four of the five modules, you might want to
24:38
Speaker 1: finish your fifth one, because come two thousand fourteen, you
24:41
Speaker 1: are gonna have to take it all over again, which
24:43
Speaker 1: is why there was this huge rush to go take it.
24:45
Speaker 1: But I read this one article and a guy named
24:48
Speaker 1: Jose Ortiz of Fort Myers, Florida, so that he was
24:51
Speaker 1: waiting to take it in two thousand fourteen because he
24:54
Speaker 1: heard it was going to be harder and he looked
24:56
Speaker 1: forward to the greater challenge of it. Hats off, Jose, Yeah,
25:00
Speaker 1: that's awesome. I think the math um section got considerably
25:04
Speaker 1: more difficult because now you are expected to be able
25:09
Speaker 1: to pass up through algebra two and apparently that is higher. Uh,
25:14
Speaker 1: that's more math in is required at the community college
25:17
Speaker 1: level in a lot of cases algebra. So they've taken
25:20
Speaker 1: a lot of heat. I was interested in taking the
25:21
Speaker 1: G E D. Actually it was free. I would have
25:23
Speaker 1: taken it to see how I did. And there's no
25:25
Speaker 1: like free sample test online. I don't know. I can
25:29
Speaker 1: see them having it locked down now. Maybe, Uh, if
25:33
Speaker 1: you're gonna take the test, Uh, it is still at
25:35
Speaker 1: a testing center. There over thirty of those across the US,
25:40
Speaker 1: and they're going to be at community colleges, public schools,
25:43
Speaker 1: adult education, uh, continuing ed centers, adult stuff like that,
25:48
Speaker 1: adult education. Oh yeah, I love how they're like the
25:57
Speaker 1: hipster band now are they? Oh yeah, so'sual? Like yeah,
26:00
Speaker 1: Hollo Notes is so awesome. It's like where were you in? Man?
26:04
Speaker 1: That was first made fun of. Oh yeah until Tuesday.
26:09
Speaker 1: They're still great. Man. Hollan Notes sounds awesome still that
26:13
Speaker 1: live from Darrrel's house. Have you ever seen that he
26:15
Speaker 1: has a studio and his uh at his place and
26:18
Speaker 1: he's a show on Playdia I think where he has
26:20
Speaker 1: musicians come in and like everyone from Billy Gibbons of
26:24
Speaker 1: zz Top to Hoodie Darious. Yeah he's a country now,
26:29
Speaker 1: yeah that's what I heard. He's a country and uh,
26:32
Speaker 1: they'll just come in and do like they'll do like
26:34
Speaker 1: a Hollan Note song and then like a zz Top
26:36
Speaker 1: song and whatever they want to do. It's pretty fun.
26:39
Speaker 1: Did you ever see the guar at the A V
26:41
Speaker 1: Club's live concert series? Oh, when they did the cover series.
26:45
Speaker 1: That's one of my favorite things is the AVY Clubs Undercover.
26:49
Speaker 1: Yeah that's what it is. Yeah. Every year they take
26:51
Speaker 1: i think it's like twenty songs, put them on a board,
26:54
Speaker 1: and then one at a time bands choose them and
26:56
Speaker 1: mark them off and so it's like time goes on
26:59
Speaker 1: you less and less choice. But Guar, who did they do? Man?
27:02
Speaker 1: I don't remember what they did? Oh? Man, it was
27:04
Speaker 1: really good too, and it was that they'd been on
27:06
Speaker 1: once before, the only one I saw as their second appearance.
27:10
Speaker 1: I can't remember. It's worth just look up Guar and
27:12
Speaker 1: a V Club. Yeah. I highly recommend the whole series.
27:15
Speaker 1: They've been doing it for a few years now. It's
27:16
Speaker 1: pretty cool. I saw ted Leo and the Pharmacist. That
27:19
Speaker 1: an awesome version of Everybody wants to Rule the World. Man,
27:24
Speaker 1: that is a good That whole record, from beginning to
27:27
Speaker 1: end is amazing. Songs from the Big Chair, Yeah, yeah, agreed,
27:32
Speaker 1: we do uh el Chipa does shout. That's a good one. Yeah,
27:36
Speaker 1: and it's super easy. Oh the one I saw was
27:39
Speaker 1: Billy Ocean. Oh that's right. But apparently Guar also has
27:43
Speaker 1: done They've covered Kansas, They've covered the Pet Shop Boys. Yeah,
27:47
Speaker 1: the Kansas one I've seen. They did carry on My
27:49
Speaker 1: Wayward Sun, didn't they probably? Yeah that's pretty cool man.
27:54
Speaker 1: How do we get on that? From? G. E. D.
27:57
Speaker 1: Hallow notes adult education? Yeah, I don't think I have
28:03
Speaker 1: anything else. I don't either, um so Like I said before,
28:08
Speaker 1: I would say it again. It's never too late. You
28:11
Speaker 1: can inspire your kid, your grandkid. Maybe they're thinking about
28:14
Speaker 1: dropping out of high school. You go out and take
28:17
Speaker 1: that test and show them that that education is valuable. Yes,
28:21
Speaker 1: that's that's from your uncle Chuck. Nice Chuck, and Uncle Josh,
28:25
Speaker 1: your aunt Jerry, aunt or aunt. I say aunt, but
28:29
Speaker 1: people say aunt, So I do aunt? Uh? You say aunt? Right? Yeah,
28:34
Speaker 1: I say yeah. Yeah, it's supposed to be guttural and
28:40
Speaker 1: clipped like German. Yeah. I still call my As a
28:44
Speaker 1: forty three year old, I'll still call my aunts and
28:46
Speaker 1: uncles like Uncle jimmy Uncle Steve. Yeah, it's still I
28:50
Speaker 1: just it'd be weird. And my my nieces are in
28:52
Speaker 1: their early twenties now and they call me Uncle Chuck
28:54
Speaker 1: and Emily, and I'd be it'd be weird if they
28:56
Speaker 1: just call me Chuck. Oh, I have mine call me
29:00
Speaker 1: Mr Clark very nice. Well, since we got into the
29:08
Speaker 1: versus aunt debate, that means you can type in G
29:11
Speaker 1: E D in the search bar how stuff works dot
29:13
Speaker 1: com and get your foot in the door. Get started
29:16
Speaker 1: at learning how to use the computer to prepare to
29:19
Speaker 1: take the piercing based g E. D test Uh and
29:23
Speaker 1: I think I said search bar in there right, yeah,
29:25
Speaker 1: which means it's time for listener mail. Uh. This is
29:31
Speaker 1: from Joachim in Denmark and it's about goats licking feet.
29:35
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, this is serious. Hey guys, I'm sitting here
29:38
Speaker 1: listening to your Salt podcast read listening to it and
29:42
Speaker 1: suddenly remembered why that episode annoyed me last time I
29:45
Speaker 1: listened to it. Yeah, I know, I didn't see why
29:47
Speaker 1: he had to say annoyed him, but well, I think
29:49
Speaker 1: he's from Denmark. I don't think they're annoyed as like
29:51
Speaker 1: our annoyed. You know you're off the hook, walk King yucky. Um,
29:58
Speaker 1: you mentioned a particular type of torture called goats tongue
30:01
Speaker 1: and categorize it as kind of a tickle torture. What
30:04
Speaker 1: you need to know about goats is they can eat
30:06
Speaker 1: and digestue about anything, including you, me, the thing you
30:09
Speaker 1: live in, the thing you drive in, the thing you're
30:12
Speaker 1: married to, and the thing that pays you money. I
30:15
Speaker 1: really like that goats will very slowly, but very doggedly,
30:19
Speaker 1: lick the flesh clean off the soles of your feet.
30:22
Speaker 1: If you ever had a small cut underneath your feet.
30:24
Speaker 1: You'll know that you're we're actually quite sensitive down there. Um.
30:28
Speaker 1: Having the flesh looked off will expose all your nerve endings,
30:30
Speaker 1: which the goat will then proceed to look through. Think
30:33
Speaker 1: of it like having the soles of your feet sand
30:35
Speaker 1: papered off and then just keep stand papering untill there's
30:38
Speaker 1: nothing left but bone. Uh. That is from like I said,
30:42
Speaker 1: your Kim in Denmark, and that was it. It just
30:45
Speaker 1: kind of stopped right there. He gets a total break
30:47
Speaker 1: because he now he had other stuff to say, like
30:49
Speaker 1: what a big fan he was, and he's re listened
30:52
Speaker 1: to a lot of these so he can say whatever
30:53
Speaker 1: he wants. Oh awesome because he re listens. Yeah, and
30:57
Speaker 1: who on earth would do that? And some will do
31:00
Speaker 1: like really listen to the whole thing. My breed thought, Okay, everybody,
31:07
Speaker 1: are you okay? Yeah? People who are listening to this
31:10
Speaker 1: for the third time, Well you q A the podcast
31:13
Speaker 1: before their release. Yeah, I listened to them after the
31:16
Speaker 1: release to make sure that nothing got through that shouldn't have. Really,
31:21
Speaker 1: you didn't know that, Yeah, I didn't know my QA
31:24
Speaker 1: was being Q eight No, no, no, not that. I'm
31:26
Speaker 1: just there's been a few times where we've been like,
31:29
Speaker 1: there's a little mess up in there, Aunt Jerry, Aunt Jerry.
31:34
Speaker 1: But all the oh wait, yeah, that's right, we say
31:36
Speaker 1: aunt when we're angry. All that is to say that
31:38
Speaker 1: it's all I can do to say this stuff and
31:41
Speaker 1: listen to it again. I'm sure you feel the same way. Yeah,
31:43
Speaker 1: that's like one of the worst parts of our job.
31:46
Speaker 1: And happy Thanksgiving to us one and all. Right, So
31:52
Speaker 1: if you want to get in Chuck, in touch with
31:55
Speaker 1: Uncle Chuck, Mr Clark or Aunt Jerry, you can tweet
31:59
Speaker 1: to us. That's why I cap podcast. You can join
32:01
Speaker 1: us on Facebook, dot com, slash stuff you Should Know.
32:03
Speaker 1: You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at
32:05
Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com and as always, joins sutter home.
32:09
Speaker 1: On the web, it's called Stuff you Should Know dot com.
32:17
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
32:19
Speaker 1: it how Stuff Works dot com.