Tennessee Electronic Library Provides Help for High School Equivalency Test Takers

Requirements for earning a high school equivalency diploma are set to change next year, which may set off a scramble among people hoping to complete their course work under the existing rules. The format of the General Educational Development test, commonly known as the GED, will change January 1, 2014 – which means that people studying for the current test may have to start over if they don’t complete it this year.

The Tennessee Electronic Library (TEL) can help. TEL is an online library that provides Tennesseans with free round-the-clock access to more than 400,000 resources. Many of those resources available through TEL’s Learning Express Library can help people who want to prepare for the GED.

For example, TEL offers online courses for each of the GED test’s subject areas: Math, science, social studies, writing, language arts and reading. These courses include exam study strategies, pretests and lessons and exam practice questions.

TEL also offers six GED-related e-books in a downloadable PDF format:

• GED Math
• GED en Espanol
• GED Test Prep
• GED Test Skill Builder: Lauguage Arts, Reading
• GED Test Skill Builder: Math
• Pre-GED Language Arts, Writing

People preparing for the GED can hone specific skills by taking practice tests for math, reading or writing through TEL. Or they can take practice exams that cover all GED topics. The practice exams are automatically scored online so test takers can see how they might fare on the actual exam.

“Services like those available through the Tennessee Electronic Library are changing the way people think about libraries,” Secretary of State Tre Hargett said. “Libraries aren’t just buildings where people can check out books any more. They are also places where citizens can take prepare resumes, search for jobs or take online courses to improve their education. The Tennessee Electronic Library can assist in those efforts – without the need for people to actually visit a library. The Tennessee Electronic Library’s resources are free and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to Tennessee residents.”

TEL is administered by the Tennessee State Library and Archives, which is part of the Tennessee Department of State. For an overview of the resources available through TEL, please visit www.tntel.info.