GED® Test: RLA Performance Level Descriptors - What Your Score Means - Level 2 - Pass/High School Equivalency

Sep 14, 2026

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GED® RLA Performance Level Descriptors explain what a Level 2 (Pass/High School Equivalency) score indicates for test-takers in Reading and Language Arts. It describes expected abilities across analyzing and creating text features and technique, using evidence to understand and build arguments, and applying knowledge of English language conventions and usage. The descriptors also outline progression toward the GED® College Ready level by emphasizing deeper inference, stronger structural analysis, and evidence-based reasoning in complex texts.

LanguageEnglish

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Reading Time8 min

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What Your Score Means: Level 2—Pass/High School Equivalency

Analyzing and Creating Text Features and Technique

Using Evidence to Understand, Analyze, and Create Arguments

Applying Knowledge of English Language Conventions and Usage

Skills Needed to Progress to GED® College Ready

GED® Test: Reasoning Through Language Arts Performance Level Descriptors What Your Score Means: Level 2—Pass/High School Equivalency Test-takers who score at this level are typically able to demonstrate satisfactory proficiency with the skills identified in the Below Passing level as well as to comprehend and analyze challenging passages similar to Sandra Cisneros’“Eleven,” John Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley: In Search of America, and Donald Mackay’s The Building of Manhattan. Test-takers who score in this performance level are typically able to demonstrate the following skills: Analyzing and Creating Text Features and Technique • Order sequences of events in texts at a satisfactory level • Make inferences about plot/sequence of events, characters/people, settings, or ideas in texts ata satisfactory level • Analyze relationships within texts, including how events are important in relation to plot or conflict; how people, ideas, or events are connected, developed, or distinguished; how events contribute to theme or relate to key idea; or how a setting or context shapes structure and meaning • Analyze the roles that details play in complex literary or informational texts at a satisfactory level • Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining connotative and figurative meanings from context • Analyze how meaning or tone is affected when one word is replaced with another, at a satisfactory level • Analyze the impact of specific words, phrases, or figurative language in text, with a focus on an author’s intent to convey information or construct an argument • Analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of ideas • Analyze the structural relationship between adjacent sections of text at a satisfactory level • Analyze transitional language or signal words and determine how they refine meaning, emphasize certain ideas, or reinforce an author’s purpose, at a satisfactory level • Analyze how the structure of a paragraph, section, or passage shapes meaning, emphasizes key ideas, or supports an author’s purpose [GEDtestingservice.com](GEDtestingservice.com) • [GED.com](GED.com) GED® and GED Testing Service® are registered trademarks of the American Council on Education. They may not be used or reproduced without the express written permission of ACE or GED Testing Service. The GED® and GED Testing Service® brands are administered by GED Testing Service LLC under license from the American Council on Education. Copyright © 2016 GED Testing Service LLC. All rights reserved. GED® Test: RLA Performance Level Descriptors What Your Score Means: Level 2—Pass/High School Equivalency (continued) • Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in texts, at a satisfactory level • Infer an author’s implicit as well as explicit purposes based on details in a text, at a satisfactory level • Analyze how an author uses rhetorical techniques to advance his or her point of view or achieve a specific purpose Using Evidence to Understand, Analyze, and Create Arguments • Comprehend explicit details and main ideas in a text at a satisfactory level • Summarize details and ideas in text at a satisfactory level • Make sentence-level inferences about details that support main ideas at a satisfactory level • Infer implied main ideas in paragraphs and whole texts at a satisfactory level • Determine which details support a main idea at a satisfactory level • Identify a theme, or identify which element(s) in a text support a theme at a satisfactory level • Make evidence-based generalizations or hypotheses based on details in text, including clarifications, extensions, or applications of main ideas to new situations, at a satisfactory level • Draw conclusions or make generalizations that require synthesis of multiple main ideas at a satisfactory level • Identify s

FAQs

What does a Level 2 score mean on the GED® RLA test?

A Level 2 (Pass/High School Equivalency) score indicates satisfactory proficiency with key Reading and Language Arts skills, including comprehension, analysis, and evidence-based reasoning on challenging passages.

What skills are covered under analyzing and creating text features and technique?

The descriptors include ordering events, making plot and character inferences, analyzing relationships and theme support, interpreting word meaning and figurative language, and evaluating how sentence or paragraph structure shapes meaning and author purpose.

What editing and language convention skills does Level 2 require?

Level 2 includes correcting frequently confused words, pronoun usage, misplaced or dangling modifiers, subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement, wordiness, capitalization, punctuation, run-ons and fragments, apostrophes for possessives, and the use of transitional words for logic and clarity.

Sep 14, 2026

Upload by Hazel