The GED Essay Question will be about, according to the ACE, "an issue or subject of general interest," which will require you to either state and support an opinion or explain how view a particular subject. The prompt will tell you that you have 45 minutes to "plan, write, and revise" your answer. It will tell you that you'll have a scratch paper for making an outline, writing down notes, or sketching out a first draft; you'll answer the question in a booklet comprised of "two pages of lined paper."
As the essay prompt says, the typical GED question has to do with "an issue or subject of general interest." These could have to do with parenting, life goals, American culture, or your childhood. You could be asked to show how something works in a step-by-step manner, to compare or contrast items, to state an opinion and then support it, or describe or define something in detail. The ACE, on its website, has the following sample question: "What is one important goal you would like to achieve in the next few years?" You can find sample questions on GED preparation websites such as GEDforFree.com (see Resources).
According to GEDforFree.com, "There is a standard 5-paragraph format that you should follow when writing a critical essay for the GED." Each paragraph should begin with an indentation of five spaces before the first sentence, if you'll be using a computer, or about an inch of space if you'll be writing your essay by hand on paper. In the five-paragraph format, the introductory, or first, paragraph contains the thesis statement. Three body paragraphs support, develop, or clarify your thesis statement. Finally, your conclusion paragraph will, according to GED for Free, "show the significance of your topic in a meaningful way and tie it in to a more universal theme."
According to the ACE, there are four areas that your essay answer will be scored on. These include how well you made "well-focused" main points in the essay, clearly organized your answer, developed your ideas, and used correct grammar, punctuation, spelling, and sentence structure. Therefore, the typical essay answer should correspond with these scoring standards.