Bobbie Jean Scott is trying to beat the clock. At 51, the ninth-grade dropout has taken — and failed — the GED diploma test five times. This month, she'll make her sixth attempt.

        If she fails to pass before the national exam changes its scoring system Jan. 1, prior scores that she has been allowed to count toward a cumulative total will be erased, and she will have to begin from scratch.

        “I'm so close to getting it,” the Wyoming woman said. “No more playing after January.”

        GED preparation and test centers around the country are swamped with students scrambling to pass before Jan. 1. The exam is changing to more accurately test what today's high school graduates are expected to know.

        “If they don't take advantage, all of their scores will go back to zero,” said Joan Myers, GED administrator for the state of Ohio.

        Ms. Myers said that testing centers throughout Ohio are adding dates.

        Kentucky also has added test dates. The state opened eight new testing centers Aug. 1, six of them open to the public, said Lisa Schwendau, Kentucky's GED administrator.

        “We're really feeling the crunch right now,” Ms. Schwendau said.

        In the first six months of 2001, 10,271 people took the GED in Kentucky, up from 9,045 from July through December 2000.

        In 2000,18,898 Ohioans earned their GED.

        In Ohio, 14,959 adults took the GED in the first six months of 2001, Ms. Myers said, up from the 13,118 people who took it in the last six months of 2000. Aggressive campaigns have been launched to alert prospective test-takers of the changes, according to the American Council on Education, the national group that administers the GED.

        Between July and December 2000, Ohio GED examiners contacted previous test-takers who had not passed all five sections, urging them to complete the test before January.

        Ohio passed a law in June enabling repeat testers to take the test for free if they passed a practice GED test. Previously only first-time testers who passed a practice test were exempt from the $42 fee.

        The scoring is not the only change in the test. Some of the content is changing to more closely reflect what high school graduates are expected to know, Ms. Myers said.

        Major changes:

        • The writing portion will be scored differently and emphasize organization.

        • The math section will not be exclusively multiple choice. Part will require calculator use.

        “Most of the new test requires a higher-level thought process. You have to go beyond the calculation or memorization,” said Claire Patterson, manager of assessment for Great Oaks Institute of Technology and Career Development, an education and training campus that provides GED testing and preparation in Southwest Ohio.

        Nearly 1,500 people take the GED test free at Great Oaks centers each year. Because of the rush of people looking to take it, Great Oaks added two test dates each at two sites, enabling 80 additional people to take the test, Ms. Patterson said.

        Many students expect the new test will be more difficult.

        “It's supposed to be a little tougher,” said Deborah Shepherd, 48, of Loveland, who is preparing to take the test for the first time in September. “I'm having a rough time now. I can't imagine what it's going to be like then.”

How GED test has evolved

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