What Percentage Does The GED Math Test Consist Of?

The General Educational Development tests are a battery of five exams. The math portion is one-fifth or 20 percent of the total exam. You need to correctly answer 60 to 65 percent of the math questions to receive a passing score in that content area. You must successfully pass each of the five sections of the test — social studies, science, language arts reading, language arts writing and math — to earn a GED certificate.

You will find two 25-question sections on the math portion of the GED exam. Multiple-choice questions take up 80 percent of the exam or approximately 20 questions in each section. The other 20 percent, or 5 questions in each section, are constructed answers, in which you will be asked to fill-in-the-blank or label points on a grid.

You will be allowed a maximum of 45 minutes for each section of the exam. The total math portion of the GED exam takes up to 90 minutes, just slightly more than 20 percent of the entire allotted time. The total amount of time allowed for the entire GED exam, including all subjects, will be about 7 hours. The math section is done in one sitting, with two allotted time segments.

For the first half of the exam, you can use a calculator to complete those 25 questions. The testing center will provide you with one of two types of calculators, depending on the format in which you take the test. When it comes to the second half of the math exam, you are not permitted to use a calculator.

Each math content area you are tested on will have a roughly equal part of the exam, about 20 to 30 percent of per area. The four main content areas are number operations and number sense, measurement and geometry, data analysis, statistics and probability, and algebra, functions and patterns.