GED and HiSET science — human body and health

Human health is one of the life-science themes that the GED and HiSET science tests return to most often. Questions do not ask you to recite anatomy; they describe an everyday situation — a hand pulled back from a hot pan, a snack's nutrition label, a boil-water advisory, a long-term health study — and ask you to explain it with a basic idea about how the body works or how disease spreads. This material builds that knowledge with adult, real-life scenarios.

The quiz covers the nervous system (why a reflex travels through the spinal cord and moves the hand before pain is felt, and how the spinal cord carries signals between the brain and the body); digestion (why most nutrients are absorbed in the small intestine, and what an enzyme such as amylase in saliva does to starch); the endocrine system (how insulin from the pancreas brings blood sugar back down after a meal, with glucagon doing the opposite, an example of negative feedback); nutrition (computing the Calories in a serving at 4 Calories per gram of carbohydrate or protein and 9 per gram of fat, and the roles of iron, calcium and vitamin D); pathogens (why antibiotics work against bacteria but not against the viruses that cause colds); disease transmission and prevention (matching a scenario to airborne, waterborne, vector-borne or direct-contact spread, and choosing the measure that breaks the chain in a given situation); noninfectious disease (what a long-term study of physical activity and type 2 diabetes can and cannot conclude); and the body's nonspecific defenses such as mucus and fever.

The flashcards review the key terms: reflex arc, sensory and motor neurons, villi, enzymes, insulin and glucagon, Calorie values of nutrients, antibiotics and viruses, vector-borne disease and nonspecific defenses.

The written work asks for short explanations in your own words: tracing a reflex step by step, explaining what happens to blood sugar after a meal, calculating the Calories in a food and explaining where they come from, or proposing the right public-health measure for an outbreak and justifying it. In the oral exam an examiner describes health situations one at a time, asks you to explain what is happening in the body or in the community, and ends with short feedback on what to review.

The content is general science and public-health knowledge for test preparation, not medical advice. This is independent practice material based on the publicly described content of the two tests; it is not produced or endorsed by GED Testing Service or by ETS.

• Trace a reflex arc and describe the roles of sensory neurons, motor neurons and the spinal cord
• Explain where nutrients are absorbed and what digestive enzymes do
• Describe how insulin and glucagon keep blood sugar in range through negative feedback
• Calculate Calories from grams of carbohydrate, protein and fat
• Explain why antibiotics treat bacterial but not viral infections
• Match transmission routes to scenarios and choose measures that break the chain of infection
• Interpret what a health study can and cannot conclude about risk factors

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the published descriptions of the GED Science test (ged.com) and the HiSET Science subtest (hiset.org: science content knowledge in life science, health and the human body).