Could you pass this new, harder high school equivalency test?

by Ken

Here in New York State there has been a rolling uproar since January, when the NYS Education Department began replacing the age-old General Educational Development (GED) test with what DNAinfo New York's Amy Zimmer describes as "a more rigorous test that's pegged to the new federal Common Core standards."

The 7.5-hour Test Assessing Secondary Completion, known as the TASC, covers far more challenging topics than the GED, requiring students to know everything from Newton's second law of motion to the reasons particular amendments were added to the Constitution.

On the writing section, students now have to read nonfiction articles and compare and contrast them — much more difficult than the old open-ended GED prompts, which asked students questions like what they would do with $1 million, [Bronx Youth Center instructor Renee] Davis said. 

Amy explains that the consternation continues to spread, since the rollout has spread the new test only gradually since the state began using it in January. And apparently the providers still haven't caught up with the need to prepare prospective test-takers for the test they'll be taking -- or to prepare instructors for the test they're preparing their students for.

NOTE THAT THERE REALLY IS
"A NEW GED," AND THIS ISN'T IT

Even the DNAinfo editors seem confused on the point this week, referring in the headlines to "the new GED." In fact, as Amy explains, there is a new GED, also tailored to Common Core, but the price has doubled, she says, to "roughly $120 per student," and since NYS "covers the full cost of the high school equivalency exam, it would have had to reduce the number of students each year that could take the new GED, created by the American Council on Education and testing giant Pearson." CTB/McGraw Hill's TASC is costing the state "just $52 per student."

Ironically, as Amy reported in March ("New 'GED' Test Will Be Harder Than Regents Exams, Critics Say"): "[B]ecause of backlash from elementary, middle and high school families and teachers, the state's Board of Regents recently decided to delay pegging high school graduation requirements to the Common Core until 2022 — five years later than the previously set target for the high school equivalency exam," meaning that "New Yorkers seeking a high school equivalency diploma will be held to a higher standard before high school students are."

For her latest report, Amy Zimmer spoke to Bronx Youth Center math instructor Renee Davis.

In her 15 years teaching GED prep classes, Davis never needed to teach such a high a level of math. Now, she not only needs to rewrite her curriculum to better prepare her students — she also has to brush up on her own skills.

"It's math that I have to re-teach myself," Davis said. "It went to a much higher level. It's hard."

And test-takers who have been taking TASC, without benefit of preparatory materials that are only now becoming widely available, have noticed the difference. Amy Zimmer began her March report:

Madalyn Vidal's head was spinning after she spent two-and-a-half hours Wednesday taking the first of three parts of the overhauled high school equivalency exam at the FEGS Bronx Youth Center.

"I walked out feeling not smart, like I needed a dictionary," said Vidal, 23, a Bronx resident who left school in 10th grade because of "family issues" but now hopes to go to community college. "My head was hurting. I don't know if it was me or the tension of trying to pass."

You'll note that there's a three-year phase-in of Common Core standards built into TASC, which is another thing that differentiates it from the new GED, which I gather is already Common Core-ready. I assume this means that TASC is going to get harder over the next couple of years.

But the scoring of the test apparently should come as some consolation to test-takers who walk out sure that they've failed. Amy reports:

The minimum passing score for the new test was determined by giving it to a group of recent high school graduates who likely also struggled with the more difficult questions, said Kevin Douglas, policy analyst for United Neighborhood Houses, which offers GED prep programs.

"It is likely that individuals can get fewer correct answers and still pass, relative to the percentage correct they would have needed on the GED," Douglas said.

"Early on this year, there were many reports of students failing to finish the test, or failing to return for the second day of testing because they were so discouraged," Douglas continued, "not realizing that even with what might have felt like a poor performance, they may have indeed passed if they persisted."

ARE YOU READY FOR DNAinfo's SAMPLE QUIZ?

I don't dare tell you how long it took me to adapt this mere five-question quiz for our format (not entirely successfully, as you'll note in Questions 4 and 5), because if I did, you'd think boy, I sure have lots of time on my hands, and I guess you'd be right -- though were that times come from, I don't know. But then, for our readers, we don't scrimp.

QUIZ: Could you past the new, harder GED?
[Quiz created by DNAinfo New York's Nigel Chiwaya from practice items distributed by CTB/McGraw Hill]

1. 
Read the list in the box. Then answer the question that follows.



Which of these is the best title for the list in the box?

(a) Causes of World War I
(b) Causes of the Cold War
(c) Causes of the Revolutionary War
(d) Causes of the Russian Revolution

2. 
Which of these describes a role of DNA in a cell?

(a) DNA is the material that forms into the cell’s membrane.
(b) DNA produces the energy needed for the cell’s activities.
(c) DNA provides the information to make proteins for the cell
(d) DNA is the building block for the other molecules in the cell.

3. 
Two rectangles are similar and the dimensions shown are in centimeters.



What is the measure of x, in centimeters?

(a) 4.0
(b) 5.6
(c) 8.4
(d) 11.0

4. 
The table below gives selected values for the linear function, f(x).



Which of the following functions has the same slope as f(x)?


[Alas, there are limits to my graphical and HTML fluency -- fairly severe limits, actually. So here, in order to check the correct answer below, you'll have to letter the choices yourself -- (a), (b), (c), and (d). But if you can't handle that, should you really be attempting this quiz? -- Ed.]

5. 
The time, T, it takes for 2 people working together to complete a job is given by:



In the equation

• r₁ is the work rate of the first person

• r₂ is the work rate of the second person

Which formula could be used to find r₁ if you knew the values for T and r₂?


[See note for Question 4.]

I HAVE TO SAY --

that most of these questions at first looked harder than they subsequently seemed to me. For example, for Question 1, when you read "the list in the box," those sound like potential causes for an awful lot of wars. But in fact for three of the choices they're pretty silly. Question 2 became more comfortable for me when I read it as written, asking for "a role" of DNA. I thought Question 3 was inexatly worded, plumb forgetting that in geomeltry "similar" means that the two rectangles have the exact same shape, and not that they have "similar" shapes, but the answer still seemed pretty clear -- really, you don't even have to do the decimal arithmetic.

Question 4 had me in a panic for a bit, since I thought I was going to have to remember what the heck a "slope" is. Then I realized that all you have to do is just try out the choices, and while all four are good for the first value, three of them are only good for the first.

Which leaves Question 5, and here I don't see how you have a prayer unless you remember enough algebra to solve it. It's pretty basic algebra, though, of a kind that I do actually occasionally find myself applying in Life As We Know It. I whipped out a sheet of scrap paper and just went at the equation step by step, and was immensely relieved to find that my answer was among the offered choices.


OH YES, THE ANSWERS --

If you can't read them upside-down, you can just rotate your screen -- or else stand on your head.

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