The GED Language Arts Reading Test: Just the Facts

The GED Language Arts Reading Test is a passage-based, multiple-choice test. The test is 65 minutes long and contains 40 questions. The questions have been designed to assess the reading skills expected of adults in their roles as family members, employees, and community members.

Literary texts comprise 500 of the test, with one passage from each of the following areas:

• Poetry
• Drama
• Prose fiction before 1920
• Prose fiction between 1920 and 1960
• Prose fiction after 1960

Nonfiction texts comprise the remaining 25% of the test. Each test will contain passages from two of the following types of texts:

• Nonfiction prose
• Critical reviews of visual and performing arts
• Workplace and community documents, such as articles related to employee behavior, legal documents, letters, memos, reports, etc.