GED - For Homeschooled Students

One solution for the need of a Grade 12 Diploma......

Our children are in Senior High School level or have completed Grade 12.
They are registered with the Department of Education as homeschooling students.
The Department makes available to us learning materials that are used in the local schools.


In our homeschooling program we have been using some of these textbooks
that are used in the local schools' academic programs, especially in Math, Sciences, 
Chemistry, Physics and Biology, and as well, some of the History texts.
In addition, we have used learning materials from a variety of other sources, 
especially library resources - books, CDs, DVDs, and in the last year, the Internet.


We have not followed a program that gives credits for courses or levels completed in the various subjects.
They children have not had testing, and they do not have credits for the work they have done.
We have kept records of all our childrens' school work over the years, 
including informal non-school learning and projects and activities.


One of our boys - Gregory - has applied for the Military Reserve.  
He was told that he needed to have Grade 12 credits or a Diploma from 
an institution or the Department of Education. 
Our records of school work completed were not sufficient for their purposes.
We were told that a GED Diploma would be acceptable.


We enquired about this of the Department of Education; 
they were quite helpful, in directing us to the GED program; that it has been used 
by other homeschooling students, in order to obtain the necessary Diploma 
for entrance into post-secondary courses or institutions, 
or simply to have a Diploma as proof that the work was done.


The GED program is available to students 18 years of age and older.
They can prepare for the exams by writing tests which are similar to the actual exams; 
this enables them to work on weak areas.  There are booklets of several levels in each of the subject areas 
that can be used to prepare for the test, and the instructors are very available and helpful 
to provide any guidance needed.


Because Gregory had actually done the work at home to achieve Grade 12, it required 
only three or four weeks at three days a week at the local Learning Centre, 
to be very well prepared for the exams.


The exams are scheduled to take place on a preset two days, in Charlottetown.
You must be registered for them ahead of time.  
The results are known in one to two weeks of having written the test.  
You can also obtain the score of how well you did on each test.
In case of failure of a test, it can be rewritten at a later date, as many times as necessary.


This test is standardized across the U.S.A. and Canada.
On P.E.I. contact Department of Education, General Education Development  368-4640


Louise MacAdam