Approximately 40% of the Science questions on the GED exam is in Life Sciences. The following pages describe the Life Sciences standards and provide sample items for each standard. The goal of this document is to describe the ideas that students need to understand so that teachers understand what they need to teach. The sample items in this document can be used with students since have already been released to the public.

We used the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and A Framework for K-12 Science Education for reference, since the TASC standards are based on NGSS standards with the same title.

Here are a couple of the sample questions in the document linked above:

Which sequence represents the levels of biological organization from smallest to largest?

(1) organism → cell → tissue → organelle → organ system → organ
(2) organ system → organ → organism → cell → tissue → organelle
(3) organelle → organ system → cell → organism → tissue → organ
(4) organelle → cell → tissue → organ → organ system → organism

Which process uses energy to combine inorganic molecules to synthesize organic molecules?

(1) respiration
(2) digestion
(3) photosynthesis
(4) decomposition