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Comment by kingcharles | Hacker News Reader

I'm British. For the lulz I decided to complete the US "GED": "The General Educational Development (GED) tests are a group of four subject tests which, when passed, provide certification that the test taker has United States or Canadian high school-level academic skills." (Wikipedia)

I had not looked at what it encompassed before I signed up. I was given a huge book to study from. I glanced at it briefly each day for two weeks and then sat for the exams.

I got 99% in all subjects. Apparently that was the maximum possible as the score went from 0-99% for reasons I didn't bother to explore.

It was disturbingly easy. And bear in mind that I was thrown out of my British secondary school at 16 because my exam scores were the worst on record at my school, allegedly.

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I guess you didn’t study the part where they teach you percentiles. 99th percentile is the highest you can score and means out of 100 people taking the class, you scored higher than 99 of them.

That is good, but also consider that most people taking the GED have some sort of problem preventing them from completing a regular high school diploma.

> most people taking the GED have some sort of problem preventing them from completing a regular high school diploma.

Don't assume it's an academic problem though. My grandfather beat my father for years, until my father ran away from home when he was 15, consequently never finishing highschool. He got a GED years later, then eventually a masters degree. There are unfortunately many people in circumstances like his or similar, unable to finish highschool for non-academic reasons. It's important to keep this in mind because otherwise GEDs will be associated with poor academic performance, which is unfair.

It didn't state 99th percentile on the form. It specifically says 99%. And at the bottom it explains that 99% is the highest mark and the results go from 0% to 99%.

The GED isn't our A-levels. It's mostly for people who dropped out of high school for some reason and don't want to have "high school dropout" be their identity. SAT's are more akin to our college-bound testing.

I don’t even think we have A-level equivalents in Canada. We have the American AP courses, which carry 1st year university / college credit. We also have the IB diploma program available (seems to be of European origin), which can also grant 1st year credit. However these programs aren’t available at all schools.

A regular Canadian high school graduate is not eligible for admissions to many of the UK universities based on the little time I’ve spent looking at the admissions standards.

This sounds identical to the system in the US: a mix of AP and more recently IB. It is interesting to me that the IB program has somewhat high status even in countries with (optional) academic tracks that are often more rigorous than the AP or A Level systems. It actually seems to be an effective equalizer for many students hoping to study in different countries.

The GED is for drop-outs and doesn’t really encompass the range of courses available at many high schools, it’s literally the bare minimum. I’ve known 14 year olds that have passed it.

To contrast I earned some college credits during my last two years of high school due to advanced placement tests.

... Do you laugh with your friends about how one time you studied for two weeks and took the GED tests?

There must have been some use in taking it for you, right?

Otherwise, I guess I am missing the joke.

Only so that I could check the box on forms to say I had a High School Diploma/GED.

I think there must be a language difference between us, since I usually interpret "for the lulz" as meaning "without a [good] reason." Kudos to you for doing well on it.

The oddest reason I've ever heard for taking a standardized test was from a fellow who was an SAT tutor. He would take the test in order to covertly write down good math questions onto his calculator while the instructors weren't looking. He made a point of telling me that when you do this, you have to make sure you answer most questions incorrectly. He knew other tutors who took the tests, got perfect scores, and then were told they couldn't take it again. There was almost pride in his voice when he said to me (paraphrased), "If CollegeBoard sees a 30-year-old man acing the SAT, they're going to look at him funny if he tries to take it again. If they see a 30-year-old man bombing the SAT repeatedly, they're just going to think he's stupid."

Doing this is of course morally dubious, to put it nicely. But I still am amused by the whole thing. There's a degree of "sticking it to the man" both in pilfering question examples from CollegeBoard and lowering the curve by an infinitesimally small amount when he takes the exams.

That was actually a smart idea to fail the exam. As a SAT tutor your first instinct would be to show off and try to get a perfect score.

To add another anecdote, I know many people who have been through the prison system. Certain prisons will give you a test on entry to see where your skill level is on the 3 Rs. The firm rule is FAIL THE TEST. Do not try to be smart. The dumbest ones get the priority for school places in the prison. Schooling = extra credits = early release from custody.

I suspect GED is aimed at drop-outs and adult learners etc, the requirements are probably less onerous than graduating high school.

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