Sucess Stories

From Home School to College
with a GED in Three Months

by Ashton Anderson

My mom home schooled me for most of my life. When I turned seventeen, I decided to try something different and get my GED. I found out about a GED class through a friend at church and began my preparation. I started in September and by December I had my GED and was ready to enroll in the local community college for the spring semester.

My older brother was also home schooled when he was younger, but he eventually got his GED. He was my inspiration for pursuing my GED. I decided to try out a GED class. The first thing I liked about GED class was the interaction between me and the other students. Home school was sort of lonely since it was just my mom and me.

To enroll in the GED class I had to take a placement test which showed my weakest areas. My weakest area was math and I immediately began working on it. In a very short time I showed a great deal of improvement. After a little work in the other subjects, my practice tests indicated that I was ready to take all of my GED tests.

The big day came, and I attended GED Test Orientation and took my first test which was math. I was very nervous during the test, but afterwards I felt confident that I had done well. I took the four remaining tests the following day. I was really drained after almost seven hours of testing, but the next day I felt much better and eagerly awaited my scores.

Two weeks later I received a phone call from my GED teacher, Mrs. Angel, and she said “Congratulations Ashton, you have your GED!” What a relief it was to realize I was now finished with high school and ready to start a new chapter of my life by going to college. I enrolled for the spring semester.

I’m loving college; it’s everything I thought it would be. I can hardly believe that in only three months time I had gone from home school to college. I would encourage everybody who doesn’t have a diploma to give GED classes a try. You might surprise yourself too.

About the Author

Ashton Anderson is an 18-year old student at Texarkana College. He attended GED class at the Academic Learning Center (ALC) in Texarkana. The ALC is a site within the Bowie-Cass Adult Education Cooperative.