Critical Thinking Skills on the Social Studies Test

The GED Social Studies Test requires students to demonstrate a wide range of critical thinking skills:

• Comprehension questions (20%) measure the student’s ability to understand the basic meaning and intent of a passage or graphic.
• Application questions (20%) measure the student’s ability to use information in a new context or situation.
• Analysis questions (40%) measure the student’s ability to break down information or understand the relationship among its basic parts.
• Evaluation questions (20%) measure the student’s ability to make judgments about information based on criteria provided in the passage or graphic.