Chapter 2

Prepping for the RLA Test

In This Chapter

Getting familiar with the writing and grammar component of the RLA test

Developing your reading and comprehension skills

Gearing up to write an essay

Discovering strategies to help you succeed

The Reasoning Through Language Arts (RLA) test evaluates your skills in comprehending and applying concepts in grammar and writing. (Grammar is the basic structure of language - you know: subjects, verbs, sentences, fragments, punctuation, and all that.) Most of what you're tested on (both in writing and grammar) is stuff you've picked up over the years, either in school or just by speaking, reading, and observing, but, to help you prepare better for this test, we give you some more skill-building tips in this chapter.

The RLA test is divided into three sections. You start off with a 35-minute question-and-answer section that focuses on writing and reading comprehension, and then you spend 45 minutes writing an Extended Response (the essay). After a 10-minute break, you finish with a 60-minute question-and-answer section that presents more questions on reading and writing. The length of the two question-and-answer sections may vary slightly, but the overall time is always 150 minutes, including the 10-minute break.

In this chapter, we provide all you need to know to prepare for the RLA test and its different components. From reading everything you can to practicing your writing, grammar, and spelling to improving your reading comprehension and speed, this chapter, along with those in Part II, equip you with what you need to nail the test.

Grasping What's on the Grammar and Writing Component

Although the GED test doesn't label question sets with the words writing or grammar, the concepts are worked into almost everything on the test. To pass this component of the RLA test, you need to demonstrate that you have a command of the conventions of Standard English. You need to know the appropriate vocabulary to use and avoid slang. Texting shortcuts may save you time while communicating with your friends, but they're not acceptable in formal writing. You need to be able to spell, identify incorrect grammar, and eliminate basic errors, including such common errors as run-on sentences or sentence fragments.

To help you succeed, we provide insightful information in the following sections about what skills this part of the test covers, what you can do to brush up on those skills, and how the questions are presented. With this information in hand, you can be confident in your ability to tackle any type of grammar or writing question on test day.

Looking at the skills the grammar and writing component covers

The grammar and writing component of the RLA test evaluates you on the following types of skills related to grammar. Note that unlike the other GED test sections, this component of the RLA test expects that you know or at least are familiar with the rules of grammar. Just looking at the passages provided won't do you much good if you don't understand the basics of these rules already.

• Mechanics: You don't have to become a professional grammarian to pass this test, but you need to know or review basic grammar. Check out Chapter 7 to review what you should know or may have forgotten. The mechanics of writing include the following:
  • Capitalization: You have to recognize which words should start with a capital letter and which words shouldn't. All sentences start with a capital letter, but so do titles, like Miss, President, and Senator, when they're followed by a person's name. Names of cities, states, and countries are also capitalized.

  • Punctuation: This area of writing mechanics includes everyone's personal favorite: commas. (Actually, most people hate commas because they aren't sure how to use them, but the basic rules are simple.) The more you read, the better you get at punctuation. If you're reading and don't understand why punctuation is or isn't used, check with your grammar guidebook or the Internet.

    A general rule: Don't use a comma unless the next group of words is a complete sentence. For example: "As agonizing as it was to leave her friends, college was what she wanted." College was what she wanted is a complete sentence and can stand alone, so using a comma here is correct.

  • Spelling: You don't have to spot a lot of misspelled words, but you do have to know how to spell contractions and possessives and understand the different spellings of homonyms - words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings, like their and there.

  • Contractions: This area of writing mechanics has nothing to do with those painful moments before childbirth! Instead, contractions are formed when the English language shortens a word by leaving out a letter or a sound. For example, when you say or write can't, you're using a shortened form of cannot. In this example, can't is the contraction.

    The important thing to remember about contractions is that the apostrophe (that's a single quotation mark) takes the place of the letter or letters that are left out.

  • Possessives: Do you know people who are possessive? They're all about ownership, right? So is the grammar form of possessives. Possessives are words that show ownership or possession, usually by adding an apostrophe to a person's or object's name. If Marcia owns a car, that car is Marcia's car. The word Marcia's is a possessive. Make sure you know the difference between singular and plural possessives. For example: "The girl's coat is torn." (Girl and coat are singular, so the apostrophe goes before the s.) "The girls' coats are torn." (Girls and coats are plural, so the apostrophe goes after the s.) When working with plural possessives, form the plural first and then add the apostrophe.
• Organization: On the test, you're asked to correct passages by changing the order of sentences or leaving out certain sentences when they don't fit. You have to work with passages to turn them into logical, organized paragraphs. You may be asked to work with paragraphs to form a better composition by changing them around, editing them by improving or adding topic sentences, or making sure that all the sentences are about the same topic. The important thing to remember is that the questions all offer you a choice of answers. That means you have only a limited number of options for making the passages better. Read the questions carefully, and you should have no problems.
• Sentence structure: Every language has rules about the order in which words should appear in a sentence. You get a chance to improve sentences through your understanding of what makes a good sentence. Extensive reading before the test can give you a good idea of how good sentences are structured and put together. The advice here is read, read, and read some more.
• Usage: This broad category covers a lot of topics. Grammar has a wide variety of rules, and these questions test your knowledge and understanding. Subjects and verbs must agree. Verbs have tenses (for example, present and future) that must be consistent. Pronouns must refer to nouns properly. If the last three sentences sound like Greek to you, make sure you review grammatical usage rules. Usage also covers vocabulary and acceptable Standard English usage. People have become very comfortable with short forms used in texting, but "LOL" and "C U L8R" aren't acceptable in formal writing.

Having a firm grasp of these writing mechanics can help you get a more accurate picture of the types of questions you'll encounter on this part of the test. The chapters in Part II of this book help you master the basics.

Understanding the format of the grammar and writing component

The grammar and writing component consist of a set of questions, mainly multiple-choice but also drag-and-drop or other technologically enhanced question formats and the occasional fill-in-the-blank question. One type of question asks you to read, revise, and edit documents that may include how-to info, informational texts, and workplace materials. Don't worry; almost all of the questions are some form of multiple-choice, which means you don't have to come up with the answers all on your own. And the best part: Practicing for this component helps you understand the grammar and other language skills needed for the Extended Response. It even carries over to the other GED test sections.

To answer the questions in this part of the RLA test, read the information presented to you carefully. Reading the questions before reading the entire text is often helpful because then you know what to look for. And because you're dealing with grammar, as you read each passage, you can ask yourself, "Can I correct this passage? If so, how?"

Rocking the Reading Comprehension Component

You may not understand why the GED test examines your knowledge of literature comprehension....