GED RLA Guide: Reading, Editing, and the Extended Response

You get 150 minutes in three sections, with a 10-minute break between Parts 2 and 3. One of those sections is the 45-minute extended response, which has its own clock, so plan to use all 45 minutes on it. The rest is reading and language questions.

Question formats include multiple choice, drop-down menus for editing, drag-and-drop, select an area, and the typed essay.

GED.com lists three skill areas for RLA:

• Reading for meaning. Excerpts from a variety of informational and literary sources. You'll show you understand them, draw conclusions, and follow how they're built. Informational texts include articles, workplace documents, and historical U.S. documents; literary texts are mostly fiction.
• Identifying and creating arguments. Telling claims from evidence, judging whether evidence is convincing, and, in the extended response, building your own argument about which side is better supported.
• Grammar and language. Passages with drop-down menus where you choose the correct word, punctuation, or sentence structure. They look like everyday documents: emails, memos, letters, and notices.

Expect questions that ask you to:

• Identify the main idea or a theme
• Find a supporting detail or the best evidence for a claim
• Make an inference the text supports
• Figure out what a word or phrase means in context
• Explain why the author included a paragraph or how the text is organized
• Tell a supported claim from an unsupported one
• Compare two texts on the same topic

How to answer: Every correct answer can be proven from the passage. If you can't point to the sentence that backs your choice, keep looking. Be suspicious of answers that are true in real life but aren't in the text, and of extreme words like always, never, and proves.

Worked example

The city's new bike-share program launched in May with 300 bikes. By August, riders had logged more trips than planners had projected for the entire first year. Planners now say they underestimated demand in neighborhoods without a subway stop.

Which inference is best supported by the passage?

1. The city will add 300 more bikes next year.
2. Residents of neighborhoods without subway access used the program more than planners expected.
3. Subway ridership fell after the program launched.
4. Most riders use the bikes for exercise.

Answer: B. The planners' own statement links the higher-than-projected demand to neighborhoods without a subway stop. A may happen, but the passage never says so. C and D aren't mentioned at all. Inference questions reward the choice that follows from the text, not the one that sounds most likely.

How to answer: Read the whole sentence with each option in place. The right answer fixes the error without creating a new one. Don't pick an option because it sounds more formal; myself and whom are wrong more often than people think.

What it asks: In GED.com's words, you "analyze two passages, decide which argument has more convincing evidence and explain why the evidence supports your choice." The two passages take opposite sides of an issue, and you use evidence from both. It is not asking what you personally believe. You can disagree with the side you pick; you're judging the quality of the arguments.

How it's scored: Scorers look at three things:

1. Argument and use of evidence: Do you make a clear claim about which side is stronger, and support it with specific, relevant evidence from the passages?
2. Development and organization: Do your ideas build logically, with each point explained and connected to the next?
3. Clarity and command of standard English: Are your sentences clear and varied, with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics?

Time budget (45 minutes): about 10 minutes reading and planning, 25–30 minutes writing, and at least 5 minutes rereading and fixing errors.

A structure that works:

1. Introduction: Name both positions and state which is better supported, with a one-line reason.
2. Body 1: The stronger side's best evidence, two or three specific details, and why each one is convincing (named sources, data, direct relevance, answers to objections).
3. Body 2: The weaker side's problems: anecdotes, generalizations, emotional appeals, claims with no support, or conclusions that don't follow.
4. Body 3 (optional): A fair point from the weaker side, and why it doesn't change your conclusion.
5. Conclusion: Restate your judgment in fresh words.

Mini example

Passage 1, from a school superintendent, argues for moving high school start times later. It cites the district's own one-year pilot at two schools, where first-period tardies dropped and attendance rose, and a statewide pediatricians' group that recommends later starts for teenagers. Passage 2, from a parent, argues against the change. She says her son would get home too late for his after-school job and claims "teenagers will just stay up later anyway," without evidence.

A strong opening and first body paragraph might look like this:

Both writers want what's best for the district's students, but they disagree about whether high schools should start later. The superintendent's argument is better supported because it relies on results from the district's own pilot program and the advice of medical experts, while the parent relies mainly on one family's experience and an unsupported prediction.

The superintendent's strongest evidence comes from inside the district. During the one-year pilot, the two participating schools saw fewer first-period tardies and higher attendance. Because this data comes from local schools, it speaks directly to how the change would work here. The superintendent also cites a statewide pediatricians' group, which adds expert support to the local results.

Notice what the paragraph does: it names specific evidence, then explains why that evidence is strong. That second step is what separates high-scoring responses from summaries.

• Choosing what's true in real life instead of what's in the passage. The test rewards what the text supports.
• Falling for extreme wording. "Always," "never," and "proves" are rarely right on inference questions.
• Picking the fancier-sounding option on editing questions. Correct beats formal.
• Arguing your own opinion on the extended response. Judge the arguments, not the issue.
• Summarizing instead of evaluating. Retelling each passage earns little; explaining why evidence is strong or weak earns the points.
• Using evidence from only one passage. The prompt asks for both.
• Skipping the proofread. Five minutes of rereading fixes the errors that pull down your clarity score.

Start with RLA Test 1 in our free GED practice tests, and save Test 2 for the end of Week 3. Both follow the real 150-minute structure: reading and language questions, a full 45-minute extended response with a sample answer and a scoring checklist, then more reading and editing. For registration, scoring, and online testing rules, see the GED overview, and for books with more practice, see our GED prep book picks.