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[debeez]

So I've homeschooled my daughter for the past year and a half.  This spring she asked me if she could go ahead and enter the local community college.  She was fifteen at the time.

"Sure", I said.  

The local community college told us that they would not allow her to enroll full-time in credit classes unless she had already obtained her high school diploma or her GED.  They would not accept a "diploma" from homeschool.

So we sent in the application to the state for her GED.  It was refused, on the basis of her age.  Apparently no one younger than 16 can obtain their GED in this state.  

So we waited...September rolled 'round and I sent in the application again..."she's sixteen now, please give her permission."  They did, and sent us the following:

Certificate of Permission to take the GED
A list of testing centers
A list of GED study centers
And a list of instructions on what she would need to take the test.

Another $20
ID
The Certificate of Permission from the state
A completed demographic form (that must be obtained from a study center)

We found out we could NOT sign her up for the test unless she showed up at the testing center with all of the above in hand.  We called the two study centers in our area, one only took single teenage mothers.  She isn't knocked up, so we called the other one on the list. "You have to show up on a Monday, the center is open from 9-2:30"  So she shows up at 9:15 and finds out that the doors are locked and no one gets in after 9 am.  "You'll have to come back next Monday."

So, yesterday, she went in again.  They asked her for her paperwork, which she had shown them the last time as well, and told her she was there on the wrong day.  "Come back tomorrow."

So today she showed up there again.  They handed out this damned demographic form that you can't sign up for or take the GED without.  She contemplated heading for the door then and there, but someone else tried to do the same thing and was stopped and told that they had to stay.  She's a little timid, so she sat there all morning and until 1:30 learning all about how to pass the GED and even took a practice test.  

"Mom, if that practice test is anything like the GED, I could pass the test in my sleep."  She added, "One of the questions was 'A hummingbird's beak is long and narrow, what kind of food does it eat?'"

Now she has to wait until October 5th, 8 am, to sign up for the test.  Apparently you have to sign up in person, with all of your paperwork, for a test that she will finally take on October 15th and 16th.  

So, now that I've told you this long, arduous tale...why do you think that form is SO important that they would structure an entire study center and GED test around it?

   

[RagnarDanneskjold]

So, now that I've told you this long, arduous tale...why do you think that form is SO important that they would structure an entire study center and GED test around it?

Another $20

[Bear]

Don't keep us in suspense! What are the gory details?

Bear
 

[debeez]

Sorry, as long-winded as I was, I wasn't clear...the 2nd round of $20 is collected when you actually register for the test.  The study centers are "free".  Unless you count the amount of time it has taken out of my days, and hers to deal with this BS.

[conspiracynut]

I took the GED in order to get enough credits to get my high school diploma (this was many years back) but the catch then was that your high school class had to have graduated in order for you to take the GED so I had to wait about 6 months longer than I wanted to.

So now I have a both a HS diploma and a GED.

When I went to get the results from the GED I was looked at very strangly by the girl giving it to me. "Why did you take the GED?" she asked?

"To graduate High School." I replied.

"You have the highest score this testing center has ever seen. You are in the 99th percentile nationwide. Why did you need it to graduate high school?"

I didn't tell her that I had been kicked out of the regular school and sent to the alternative school because I mouthed off to some teachers and then to the principal. I just mumbled something and left relieved that the whole nightmare was over.

The kicker is that I am not that smart. It is a very easy test.

Probably nowdays with all the homeschoolers taking the GED I would not be in that percentile!

Good luck. (not with the test, that is easy - but with the burocracy.)


 

[debeez]

Update:

Well, she finally got in to the test in February.  It was a 2-day test, on a Friday afternoon and a Saturday morning, up north, near my mother's house.  So she goes up the day before, on Thursday, spends the night at my mother's, takes the first set of tests, and heads back to her house for the night.

The next morning the alarm clock does not go off.  Somehow it was set wrong, or just simply not working.  She flies around the house frantically, leaves, gets to the testing center five minutes late and they say, "Sorry, you can't come in.  We just finished explaining the test (the same explanation as the day before), you have to hear the instructions, and we aren't going to make the others sit and wait while we give you the instructions.  You will just have to come to the next test date."

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!  I started swearing a blue streak when she called and told me.

So, on Monday, she calls the GED office and is informed that she will have to wait for the test to come back from the state, submit another $20 to the state for a new application, and sign up for the next test date.

We wait for nearly two weeks to get the scores back from the state...76% for Science, 79% History, and 96% in Reading Comprehension.  It missed the minimum total score by 200 points.  In other words, on the three tests she has left, she only has to score a cumulative of 200 additional points in order to obtain an acceptable minimum passing score.  Each test is worth at least 200 points by itself, it looks like it will be a breeze.

We applied again, sent in the $20 to the state...and waited another two weeks for them to reply.  The reply advised us that she had to wait until after March 28th to sign up for the test again.  Why?  No particular reason.

So now we wait for the 28th to pass by, so that she can once again try to sign for the test.  That will also cost us another $20.  Who knows how long it will take from here.

Meanwhile, she is signed up for SAT's in May.  Considering our luck, she will probably take them and get the results back before we ever finish with the GED.

   

[penguinsscareme]

The way this is going, she'll graduate h.s. before she passes the GED.

[Nedda of the Hill]

I've been researching this same thing for my daughter who is moving to her gram-me's in MO next month.  
Lucky for us, the only requirement for homeschoolers to enroll at the community college she will attend is a minimum of 18 on the ACT.

I hope that GED is worth the PIA to get it!

[debeez]

I hope that GED is worth the PIA to get it!

Nah, I don't think it's worth it.  The only problems being that I am stubborn as a Missouri mule (they don't call us the Show Me state for nuthin') and bull-headed (I'm a Taurus) to boot.  I'm cursed, see, I just can't let it go...like some damn dog with a bone.

But I get things done, one way or another, come hell or high water.

There will be great merry-making and joy when we finally do get this accomplished!

[dervish]

I know someone who was a substitute teacher.  She had to pass a CBEST to get her qualification.  She said that anyone who can pass a GED could pass the certification to teach.

Furthermore, a lot of people who take courses to teach miss out on a lot of classes in other areas.  It makes me wonder why so many people feel that teachers are brilliant and edumacated.  (Yes, I know it's mispelled.)  


Btw, I once got in trouble because of Iron Maiden (a heavy metal group that my b/friend at the time listened to).  There was this song on Alexander the Great with dates and one of those dates contradicted the one in the school textbook (that we were on at that time--which is why he played it, to "count as studying").  I checked out a couple of books at the library and got another one from the school library that showed IM was right and the textbook was wrong.

When I showed it to the teacher (who was actually a coach that taught because Texas law or something requires the coaches to teach a subject), I got sent to the office for disrupting class.  I got into some minor trouble over that, and they also took the school library book from me.  I never found it in their library again.  

Later I took a multiple choice test on Alexander the Great.  The year I disputed was one of the choices, but the year it actually was wasn't.  So I crossed out their year and wrote in the correct one and then checked it.  Natch, I got it wrong.  It was the only one I "got wrong."