SACRAMENTO — Adults in California who are working toward their General Educational Development (GED) certificate by taking the Spanish-language version of the test have until the end of December to complete the current series.

A new generation of Spanish-language GED tests will be released in January 2004 and will be structured in a way that no longer corresponds to the five subtests (writing skills, social studies, science, literature and the arts, and mathematics) found in the current test series. Because of these changes, scores earned on the current tests cannot be combined with scores from the new tests.

Those who have not finished the Spanish-language GED test, or who begin testing before January 1, 2004 have until December 31, 2003 to complete and pass the test. If the test is not completed and passed by this deadline, all scores will be invalidated and examinees will be required to start testing again with the new series of GED tests.

To pass the current series of Spanish GED tests, examinees must earn a standard score of 40 or higher on each of the five subtests AND a standard score of 225 or higher overall.

Though examinees have until the end of this year to complete and pass the Spanish-language test, it is unlikely that testing centers in California will remain open for testing throughout November and December of 2003. Therefore, examinees that need to finish the test should plan to complete the testing process as quickly as possible.

For information on where to finish up the test in California, please contact the State GED Office at 800/331-6316. This information is also available at the State GED Office Web site, located at: General Educational Development Test (GED) - Testing.

# # # #

Spanish