How To Pass GED Math in 3 weeks studying under 2 hours a day while spending less than $20 on prep materials... Almost Guaranteed!

The Definitive 21 Day Plan For Passing The GED Math Test While Spending As Little Time & Money As Possible!

...but if you learned there was a much better and faster way, would you go for it?






Part of my inspiration for this post came from YouTuber Daniel Haddock, who put a video out recently about his experience taking the test. 



One of his main points is that you can self-study for the test and pass it in a relatively short period of time!

How much time you'll need to pass each section will vary based on your background, but in this post I’m going to outline an intensive study plan designed to get YOU ready to pass the math section after just 3 weeks of studying! 

• A one size fits all magic bullet solution
• A program designed to spoonfeed you the material

• A no-nonsense express lane system for passing the math test after just 3 weeks of studying
• A system designed to be completed with less than 2 hours a day spent studying 
• A system you can use without spending a cent over $20!

• Those who are not ready to set aside 2 hours a day max for the next 21 days to dedicate to their preparation
• Those who are not willing to part with $20 to spend on the required materials
• Those who are not ready to do the brutal hard work required to finish the plan in it’s entirety

• Those seeking an exciting and rewarding challenge 
• Those looking to permanently transform their math skills
• Those willing to discipline themselves to give this plan 100% for the next 21 days!

Best case scenario is that you’ll be ready to pass the real test in just three weeks from the day you start! You finish the program, ace the math section, and put it behind you for good!

What do you have to lose?

Part 1: The REQUIRED Materials:

1. “That Tutor Guy's” GED math videos

Chris, aka “That Tutor Guy” is a Stanford-educated tutor with many years of experience. His videos are hands-down the BEST GED prep videos there are on the entire web! 

The quality is outstanding, and he does a truly amazing job of making the material very easy to understand! You simply MUST get the thattutorguy.com videos!

Price: $7

Link: MyGED

***On the last day of the program you’re going to take an official practice test, so you don’t need to buy this until day 21!!

5. A notebook, paper, and pens/pencils

I recommend buying a brand new notebook, and a packet of cheap white printer paper.

The key is to only use the notebook for your math notes, and to use the printer paper to practice problems on.

***DON’T work on practice problems in the same notebook you use for your notes unless you’re copying down specific examples that cover key points. Keep your scratch paper and your notes separate!

Price: You can spend as much or as little as you want on this stuff, it’s totally up to you! If you’re on a really low budget, just go to the Dollar Store!

Materials FAQs:

Q: Can I just use Khan Academy's free videos instead of That Tutor Guy’s?

A: I strongly recommend getting at least get the $7 one week trial on thattutorguy.com! 

While I agree Khan Academy is awesome, Chris's videos will probably work better for you if your goal is raw speed!

As you’ll see, Khan Academy has a place in this plan too, just not as big of a place as Chris's videos. 

Q: Why isn’t Kaplan’s prep book included here?

A: Regular readers of this blog already know that I’m a big fan of Kaplan’s prep materials. However, to stay consistent with the $20 or less budget theme, I didn’t include any Kaplan stuff here. 

If you already have Kaplan’s “purple book,” you can use it for reference or for extra practice during the second and third weeks if you want. However, it’s really not necessary as long as you follow all the instructions!

Part 2: The Plan Explained

The plan you’re going to follow is a simple one: each day you will be given work to do from the prep materials I listed above. 

All you have to do is make sure to complete the work assigned each day, and you’re going to be ready to pass at the end of the 21 days!

The plan is based on the following learning principles:

1. Spaced-Repition
I wrote a whole blog post on the science behind this (see Get Straight A's With The Spacing Effect!), but here's the basic concept: you need lots of repetitions to effectively learn material, but spacing the repetitions out over time instead of massing them into one session is necessary to cement the material in your mind.

For example, you'll notice in the plan how the videos on functions are spread out over a few days rather than lumped into one day. This was done intentionally!

2. Interleaving
Interleaving goes hand-in-hand with spacing, and basically means incorporating different topics into your study sessions rather than focusing on just a single topic. 

For example, on the real test, you might get a few geometry questions about triangles, but it's extremely unlikely that you'll get them all back to back!

The real test will be more like this: You may have to solve a question about triangles, then immediately switch gears and solve an algebra question, then switch gears again to solve a fractions question. 

Studies show that mixing up different topics improves your learning and retention. The ability to distinguish between different types of problems and strategies is a CRITICAl skill that you WILL develop from this program!

3. Deliberate Practice
Deliberate Practice is the one key above all else that will skyrocket your progress! 

Deliberate practice is basically what it sounds like: practicing a task to deliberately improve your performance! The way you do this is by constantly pushing yourself out of your comfort zone by doing tasks that stretch your abilities to the limit!

Deliberate practice takes a lot of effort and intensity, but it will get you results faster than any other method!

The main way you're going to incorporate deliberate practice into your studying is by working on math problems that continuously challenge you! You will do this by answering math questions and then comparing your answer against the correct answer to see what the difference is between them.

The more time you spend doing this, the faster you will get results! Quality is more important than quantity; an hour of high-intensity hard work will pay you back much faster than 3 hours of low-intensity work!

4. Testing
The testing effect is very similar to deliberate practice. The concept is that taking practice tests and doing practice problems boosts your learning and retention. Tons of studies have demonstrated this!

5. Insurance
Okay, so this isn't really a "scientifically proven" learning principle that I'm aware of, but it's another key to your success! Let me illustrate what I mean by "insurance" with an example:

To study functions, you will be watching videos from Khan Academy, Math Antics, and patrickJMT. Just watching one of these YouTubers alone might be enough for you to understand functions, but by watching them all, you'll see the material explained a few different ways.

***Often when you're having trouble understanding a math concept, having it explained to you in a slightly different way does the trick!

General Tips and Suggestions:

•  Your goal each day is to complete everything assigned, and then you’re done for the day!
• Take it a day at a time and try not to worry about what's coming up next!
• Please resist the urge to move ahead of the schedule! This is key to avoid burnout!
• It should only take you about 2 hours to complete the workload each day.  
• As you progress through the plan, you'll probably find you don't need as much time to finish each day!
• If you're at the 2 hour mark and you're almost done, go ahead and finish out. Just be more efficient the the next day! 
• If you're taking 3 hours to finish the work or more in a given day, you're not working fast enough!
• Make sure you’re keeping up with the schedule! 
• If for some reason you get off track, you need to do whatever it takes to get caught back up quickly, or else you risk falling too far behind to finish in 21 days! 
• There are a handful of rest days and “lighter” days in the schedule. If you’re all caught up, reward yourself by taking the day off. If you’re not, then use the time wisely to get back on track!
• Please don’t add anything on during the first week! It’s very important that you get through all of the recommended videos during the first week, and trying to add in extra work will only bog you down! 
• There will be some room in the schedule as you get closer to the end to add extra work in if you want to.
• Take lots of notes, but don’t overdo it to the point where it's taking you too long to finish each day!
• Keep your head up! 
• Remember that you're trying to learn 4 years worth of high school math essentials in 21 days! This isn't going to be easy!
• While at least a little bit of frustration is to be expected, if at any point you're feeling really overwhelmed, frustrated, and burnt out, STOP! The 21 day program might just not be for you! I'd encourage you to still complete it, but to instead extend it to 4 or even 5 weeks (or more) if necessary. 

Part 3: Instructions

***Important instructions for the videos:
As you watch Chris's videos and the other YouTube videos, pause them whenever an example problem is covered and try to work the problem out on your own first!

This is ESSENTIAL for maximizing your efficiency, and you probably won't pass the test if you don't do this! Remember, if you put a little in, you'll get a little out, but if you put a lot in, you'll get a lot out!

Don't worry too much about remembering everything, just try to understand the material as it's presented to you and take good notes! 

If you take too many notes though, you're going to have trouble finishing each day on time!

Here are some tips on taking notes:

• Try your best to keep your notes organized and legible!
• I recommend starting a new page for each day and labeling the page clearly at the top with a header and the date (i.e. Day 1 - Thursday, April 13, 2017)
• Add lots of labels so you can quickly find what you're looking for when you review your notes (i.e. Champions' Guide 101 - 125 notes)
  
• Highlighters and colored pens work well to mark key concepts!
• Don't try to write down everything! This will cause you a lot of frustration!
• Always try to rephrase things in your own words!
• Try to copy down at least 1 key example for each major topic. Include a step-by-step explanation of how to solve the problem in your own words (write this as if you were teaching someone else how to do it)
• Focus mostly on writing down things that you don't think you'll remember, and don't worry too much about writing down things you're sure you'll remember!
• Write down any insights, tips, and strategies that are presented

***Important Instructions for The Champions' Guide:

The purpose of these problems is to teach you the material, NOT to test you, so don't get discouraged if you come across a lot of problems you're not sure how to do!

Take a stab at each problem, but if you get completely stuck on one for more than a few minutes, just go to the solution and use it to figure out how to do the problem! 

There's a lot of material to get through, so don't feel bad about using the solutions as much as you need to!

***That being said, it's crucial to at least try each problem before you go to the solution! Just try something, ANYTHING! 

Here are some tips to try when you get stuck on a math problem before you go to the solutions:

1. First clarify what the question is asking. This may sound like common sense, but sometimes students just start doing calculations without first clarifying what they're trying to figure out!

2. Try to identify what "type" of problem it is. For example, is it a system of equations problem? A greatest common factor problem? etc...

3. Ask yourself: have I solved a similar problem before? 

4. Ask yourself: have I used all of the given information?

• Operations with Integers - Intro to PEMDAS
• Exponents - Intro to Exponents 
• Exponents - Exponent Rules, Like Bases, & Negative Exponents

• Exponents - Scientific Notation
• Square Roots - simplifying roots & radicals

• Ratios & Proportions
• Percentages - Percents as Ratios
• Percentages - Percents As Decimals
• Geometry: Areas of Rectangles & Squares

• Geometry: Basic Circle Area Problems
• Substituting values for x - Intro to Variables & Expressions
• Setting up an Equation - How to Translate Words Into Equations
• Operations with Polymonials - Adding Polynomials (a.k.a. Combining Like Terms)
• Operations with Polymonials - Solving Equations With Distribution

• Operations with Polymonials - Distribution (a.k.a. "multiplying stuff out") 
• Operations with Polymonials - Basic FOIL on 2-by-2 parentheses 
• Factoring - Factoring Stuff Out (a.k.a. "distribution in reverse") 

• Factoring - Easier Factoring Problems 
• Linear Equations to One Variable - Solving Equations With Addition & Subtraction Only] 
• Linear Equations to One Variable - Solving Equations With Multiplication & Division] 
• Linear Equations to One Variable - Solving Two Step Equations 

• System of Equations - Solving Systems of Simultaneous Equations with Elimination
• System of Equations - Solving Systems of Simultaneous Equations with Substitution
• Inequalities - Solving "Linear" Inequalities

• Algebra Basics: What are functions? Math Antics
• Introduction to functions, Khan Academy 
• Functions Part 2, Khan Academy  

• Function Notation, patrickJMT 
• Graphic a Basic Function, Khan Academy 
• Functions (Part III), Khan Academy

• Domain of a function | Functions and their graphs 
• Relations and functions | Functions and their graphs, Khan Academy 

Labels: GED