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GED practice test: a preview for all four subjects
Get a feel for each of the four GED subjects with a short set of original questions — try them, then reveal the worked answer. Written by KINDL, not copied from any exam.
Below is a short practice preview for each of the four GED subjects. It won't replace a full-length mock, but it's a genuine taste of the kind of thinking each subject asks for — reasoning from information, not memorising facts. Try each question first, then open the answer to see the working.
Preview 1 of 4 · 4 questions
Mathematical Reasoning — test preview
Everyday, applied maths — number sense, algebra and geometry. On the real test you can use a calculator on the second part.
Question 1
A recipe for 4 people uses 300 g of rice. Keeping the same ratio, how much rice is needed for 6 people?
- A.400 g
- B.450 g
- C.500 g
- D.600 g
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Answer: B
Find the amount per person: 300 g ÷ 4 = 75 g each. For 6 people: 75 × 6 = 450 g.
Question 2
If 3x − 5 = 16, what is the value of x?
- A.5
- B.7
- C.9
- D.11
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Answer: B
Add 5 to both sides: 3x = 21. Divide by 3: x = 7.
Question 3
A rectangular room is 5 m long and 4 m wide. What is its area?
- A.9 m²
- B.18 m²
- C.20 m²
- D.40 m²
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Answer: C
Area of a rectangle is length × width: 5 × 4 = 20 m². (Option B, 18, is the perimeter — a common mix-up.)
Question 4
In a class of 40 students, 30% wear glasses. How many students wear glasses?
- A.10
- B.12
- C.13
- D.15
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Answer: B
30% of 40 = 0.30 × 40 = 12 students.
Preview 2 of 4 · 4 questions
Reasoning Through Language Arts — test preview
Reading for meaning, inference, and grammar in context — the core of RLA.
Question 1
Choose the option that completes the sentence correctly: “Neither the teacher nor the students ___ ready for the test.”
- A.was
- B.were
- C.is
- D.has been
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Answer: B
With “neither … nor,” the verb agrees with the nearer subject — here “students,” which is plural — so the correct verb is were.
Question 2
The porch light was still on when Bilal got home at dawn. On the kitchen table he found a plate covered with foil and a short note in his mother's handwriting: “Eat before you sleep.”
What do the covered plate and the note most strongly suggest about Bilal's mother?
- A.She was angry that he came home late.
- B.She had forgotten he was coming home.
- C.She cared about him despite the late hour.
- D.She wanted him to skip the meal.
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Answer: C
Leaving food ready and a caring note points to concern for him, even though he arrived at dawn. Nothing in the passage shows anger (A) or forgetfulness (B), and the note asks him to eat, not skip the meal (D).
Question 3
Regular short walks — even ten minutes at a time — can lift your mood and sharpen your focus. You don't need a gym or a spare hour to feel the benefit.
What is the main point of the passage?
- A.Gyms are a waste of money.
- B.Only long workouts improve health.
- C.Even brief walking has real benefits.
- D.Focus cannot be improved by exercise.
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Answer: C
The passage's central claim is that short walks are worthwhile. Options B and D contradict it, and A adds a judgement the passage never makes.
Question 4
In the sentence “The instructions were so concise that everyone finished early,” the word concise most nearly means:
- A.confusing
- B.brief and clear
- C.very long
- D.decorative
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Answer: B
“Concise” means brief and clear. The clue is that people finished early — that fits clear, short instructions, not confusing or lengthy ones.
Preview 3 of 4 · 4 questions
Science — test preview
Reading data and reasoning about experiments matters more than recall here.
Question 1
A plant's height is recorded each week: Week 1 — 2 cm, Week 2 — 5 cm, Week 3 — 9 cm, Week 4 — 14 cm.
Between which two weeks did the plant grow the most?
- A.Week 1 and Week 2
- B.Week 2 and Week 3
- C.Week 3 and Week 4
- D.It grew the same each week.
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Answer: C
The weekly increases are 3 cm, 4 cm, then 5 cm. The largest jump is between Week 3 and Week 4 (from 9 to 14 cm).
Question 2
In an experiment testing whether playing music affects plant growth, which is the control group?
- A.the plants that receive music
- B.the plants that receive no music
- C.the plants given extra water
- D.the plants kept in the dark
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Answer: B
The control group is the one treated identically except for the factor being tested. Here that means the plants with no music, so their growth can be compared against the ones that got music.
Question 3
Which of these is a chemical change rather than a physical change?
- A.ice melting into water
- B.sugar dissolving in water
- C.wood burning
- D.water boiling into steam
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Answer: C
Burning wood forms new substances (ash, gases) and can't be simply reversed — that's a chemical change. Melting, dissolving and boiling only change form, not the substance itself.
Question 4
A student notices that a metal spoon left in a cup of hot tea slowly becomes warm at the handle, even though the handle is not in the tea.
Which idea best explains why the handle warms up?
- A.evaporation of the tea
- B.conduction of heat through the metal
- C.the tea cooling down
- D.reflection of light off the spoon
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Answer: B
Heat travels along the metal from the hot end to the handle — that's conduction. Metals conduct heat well, which is why the handle warms even though it never touches the tea.
Preview 4 of 4 · 4 questions
Social Studies — test preview
Civics, economics, geography and reasoning from a source — not memorising dates.
Question 1
In a democracy, the main way ordinary citizens choose who governs them is by:
- A.paying taxes
- B.voting in elections
- C.reading the news
- D.obeying laws
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Answer: B
Voting is how citizens directly decide who holds office. The other options matter to civic life but don't select the government.
Question 2
If the supply of a product falls while demand stays the same, its price will most likely:
- A.rise
- B.fall
- C.stay exactly the same
- D.drop to zero
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Answer: A
When something becomes scarcer but people want the same amount, competition for it pushes the price up. This is the basic law of supply and demand.
Question 3
A city report finds that traffic jams cost daily commuters about two hours each, and estimates that a new bus line along the busiest route could cut that time roughly in half.
Which goal best explains why the city would build the new bus line?
- A.to increase traffic on the route
- B.to reduce commuting time
- C.to raise fuel prices
- D.to close the busiest road
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Answer: B
The report links the bus line to cutting commute time in half, so reducing commuting time is the goal it supports. The other options aren't suggested anywhere in the source.
Question 4
A country that shares no border with any ocean or sea is best described as:
- A.a peninsula
- B.an island
- C.landlocked
- D.a delta
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Answer: C
A landlocked country is surrounded by land with no coastline. A peninsula and an island are largely surrounded by water, and a delta is a landform where a river meets the sea.
These are original KINDL-written practice items to illustrate each subject's style; they are not real GED questions and don't reproduce official difficulty or formatting exactly. For the official practice test, use GED Ready at ged.com. To see what scores mean, read GED test scores explained.
Frequently asked questions
No — they're original questions written by KINDL to give you a feel for the style and thinking each subject tests. They aren't taken from any real exam. For the official practice test, use GED Ready on ged.com.
