GED and HiSET social studies — fact, opinion and point of view

Much of the social studies test hands you a short source — an editorial, a letter, a speech, a campaign flyer, a company statement — and asks not what you remember but what the source is doing. The GED describes this as reading for meaning and analyzing historical events and arguments; the HiSET asks candidates to analyze and evaluate information. Both come down to the same handful of moves, and this material practices each of them on original sources written for the purpose.

The twelve questions go in a deliberate order. First, fact against opinion, twice: once picking the sentence that can be checked (a ridership figure) and once the sentence that is a judgment (a company calling a plant closing "the only responsible choice"). Then the parts of an argument: the main claim of a letter asking the city to keep its pool open later, the piece of evidence that actually supports a claim about a job-training program, and the unstated assumption behind a proposal to lower a speed limit.

The middle of the set works with more than one source. A mill owner and a striking worker describe the same strike in 1894, and the question is why their accounts differ when both may be telling the truth. A farmer's letter from the Dust Bowl years is paired with a population figure, and the question is what the number adds and what it cannot show.

The last questions are about purpose and reliability: a flyer paid for by the companies that would build the road it promotes, a First World War bond poster and the technique it uses, which of four documents is a primary source for the 1918 influenza epidemic, the false-cause error in a letter about streetlights, and which of four accounts of a flood is most reliable for a particular question.

Throughout, sources with an interest are treated fairly: a stake in the outcome is a reason to check a claim, not proof that it is wrong, and no question asks which policy is better.

The flashcards cover fifteen terms — fact, opinion, claim, evidence, assumption, point of view, bias, propaganda, bandwagon, loaded language, primary and secondary source, credibility, hasty generalization and false cause. The written work asks for longer answers on eight new sources, including a policy debate where both sides are set out as their own supporters would put them, and the oral exam asks you to take a source apart aloud, one question at a time.

Zestly is an independent study tool, not affiliated with GED Testing Service or the HiSET program.

• Separate a sentence that can be checked from a value judgment
• Identify a writer's main claim, the evidence that supports it, and the assumption it depends on
• Explain why two accounts of the same event differ, and what a second source adds
• Recognize a source's purpose and interest without treating an interest as proof of falsehood
• Name common persuasion techniques and reasoning errors such as bandwagon and false cause
• Tell primary from secondary sources and judge which source is most reliable for a given question

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the published descriptions of the GED Social Studies test (Reading for Meaning; Analyzing Historical Events and Arguments) and the HiSET Social Studies subtest. Every source quoted in the questions is invented for practice.