You get 70 minutes for roughly 35 items. The weighting is lopsided in a way you can use: civics and government is about 50% of the test, US history about 20%, economics about 15%, and geography and the world about 15%. If your study time is limited, civics is where the points are. These eight questions follow that same distribution. Try each before opening the solution.
Question 1 - The three branches
- A. The legislative branch
- B. The executive branch
- C. The judicial branch
- D. The state governments
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Congress writes laws, the president enforces them, and the courts interpret them. The power to strike down a law as unconstitutional - judicial review - belongs to the federal courts, with the Supreme Court having the final word.
State governments can challenge federal laws in court, but they cannot invalidate them on their own.
Answer: C. The judicial branch
Three verbs will carry you a long way here: make, enforce, interpret.
Question 2 - Checks and balances
- A. Pass the bill again by a simple majority in both chambers
- B. Pass the bill again by a two-thirds vote in both chambers
- C. Get approval from the Supreme Court
- D. Submit the bill to a national referendum
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A veto is the executive check on the legislature. The legislature's counter-check is the override, which requires a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate.
That deliberately high bar is why overrides are rare - a simple majority already passed the bill once and was not enough.
Answer: B. Pass the bill again by a two-thirds vote in both chambers
Both chambers. A two-thirds vote in the Senate alone does nothing.
Question 3 - The First Amendment
- A. Freedom of speech
- B. Protection against unreasonable search and seizure
- C. The right to a speedy trial
- D. Protection against cruel and unusual punishment
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The ordinance restricts what citizens may say about a government official, which is exactly the core of the First Amendment's speech protection - and political criticism of officials sits at the very center of it.
The other three choices name real protections, but they come from the Fourth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments and none of them concern speech.
Answer: A. Freedom of speech
Know the first five or so amendments by what they protect, not by number. The GED describes the situation and expects you to name the right.
Question 4 - Reading a founding document
- A. Judicial review
- B. Popular sovereignty
- C. Federalism
- D. Separation of powers
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Popular sovereignty is the idea that a government's authority comes from the people it governs. That is precisely the claim being made: power is legitimate only with consent, and the people retain the right to withdraw it.
Judicial review is courts reviewing laws. Federalism is the division of power between national and state governments. Separation of powers is the split among the three branches. None of those are what this passage is about.
Answer: B. Popular sovereignty
Social Studies is a reading test more than a history test. Match the idea in the passage to the vocabulary word - you rarely need outside dates or names.
Question 5 - The Electoral College
- A. 218
- B. 269
- C. 270
- D. 435
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A majority means more than half. Half of 538 is 269, so 269 is a tie, not a win.
The smallest whole number greater than 269 is 270.
Answer: C. 270
This is a civics question that is secretly a math question - and the GED loves those. 'Majority' always means more than half, never exactly half.
Question 6 - Supply and demand
- A. Price rises and quantity sold falls
- B. Price falls and quantity sold rises
- C. Price rises and quantity sold rises
- D. Neither price nor quantity changes
Show the solution
The drought reduces supply - less coffee reaches the market at every price. Demand has not moved.
With less available and buyers wanting the same amount, competition pushes the price up. At that higher price, buyers purchase less, so the quantity actually sold falls.
Answer: A. Price rises and quantity sold falls
Change one side at a time. A supply shock moves price and quantity in opposite directions; a demand shock moves them in the same direction.
Question 7 - Opportunity cost
- A. The money spent on the fire station
- B. The library that was not built
- C. The taxes collected to fund the project
- D. The time the council spent debating
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Opportunity cost is the value of the next-best alternative you gave up, not the price you paid. The council did not sacrifice the money - it exchanged it for something.
What it truly gave up was the library.
Answer: B. The library that was not built
Choice A is the trap on nearly every version of this question. Opportunity cost is the road not taken, not the ticket price.
Question 8 - Reading a data table
| Category | 2005 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Health programs | 21% | 29% |
| Defense | 20% | 15% |
| Education | 9% | 7% |
| Interest on debt | 8% | 9% |
- A. The country spent fewer dollars on defense in 2020 than in 2005.
- B. Health programs took a larger share of the budget in 2020 than in 2005.
- C. Education funding was eliminated between 2005 and 2020.
- D. The total budget was smaller in 2020 than in 2005.
Show the solution
The table reports percentages of the budget, not dollar amounts. Health went from 21% to 29%, so its share clearly grew - that is directly readable.
Choice A sounds right but is not supported: defense's share shrank, yet if the overall budget grew, the dollar amount could easily have risen. Choice C is contradicted by the 7% figure. Choice D asks about total size, which the table never reports.
Answer: B. Health programs took a larger share of the budget in 2020 than in 2005.
Share is not the same as amount. Whenever a table is in percentages, be suspicious of any answer choice written in dollars.
Bringing it together
Half of this test is civics, and most of that half is the same handful of ideas asked in different clothes: who does what, how each branch checks the others, and which right applies to the situation described. The economics questions reward one clear definition each. And on every chart, ask what the numbers actually measure before you trust an answer choice. Get those habits down and 70 minutes is plenty.
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