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(GED) General Equivalency Diploma:
The minimum age requirement to take the GED® test is 18 unless you meet any one of the additional requirements. See below.
If you are underage, you must meet one of the following additional requirements:
- You must be within 60 days of your 18th birthday (regardless of school enrollment status).
- You are within 60 days of when you would have graduated from high school had you remained in school and followed the usual course of study. (Candidates testing under this criterion may not be enrolled in high school.)
- You are 17 years of age; have been out of school for at least 60 consecutive days; and provide a letter of request for the test from the military, a postsecondary educational institution, or a prospective employer. The letter is to be provided to a test administrator at a local Pearson VUE test center that delivers the GED® test for the administrator’s review and approval.
For those testing on the Online Exam:
- Online testing is available in California for any test-taker who meets the eligibility requirements for California.
- A test taker under the age of 18, with an approved waiver from the California Department of Education due to additional requirements may be eligible to test.
- A parent or guardian must be present at the pre-test check-in to give consent and authorize the under 18 test taker to be recorded during testing. If the parent or guardian is not present, the exam session will be revoked.
Visit the GED website by clicking here.
You may take the CHSPE only if on the test date you:
- are at least sixteen years old, or
- have been enrolled in grade ten for one academic year or longer, or
- will complete one academic year of enrollment in grade ten at the end of the semester during which the next regular administration will be conducted. (Regular administrations are the fall and spring administration each school year.)
You must prove your eligibility as part of the registration process.
If you will be 16 or older on the test date: an image of an official document that verifies your date of birth can be uploaded during the registration process. The CHSPE Office will review your documents and contact you if registration materials are unacceptable, so they can be corrected. The following types of identification are accepted during the registration process:
- A copy of your driver license issued by the Department of Motor Vehicles
- A copy of your U.S. certified birth certificate issued by a city, county or state (Hospital certificates are not acceptable documents for proof of eligibility.)
- A copy of your passport (the page with name and birth date only)
- A copy of your identification card issued by:
- The Department of Motor Vehicles The U.S. military,
- A high school,
- A post secondary school, or
- The U.S. government or a foreign government
- A copy of your U.S. Permanent Resident Card
- A copy of your Consular Report of Birth Abroad or Certificate of Birth Abroad
- A copy of your foreign birth certificate
If you will be under 16 on the test date, or older than 16 but don't have an identification type listed above, you can have your school verify your eligibility to test by having an appropriate California school official complete the CHSPE Eligibility Verification Form (found on the Resources page) and then place a school seal on the form. After obtaining the completed form, you will upload the completed form during registration. You will need an acceptable form of Photo Identification (found on the Resources page) on test day.
Students enrolled in school outside of California may not use the CHSPE Eligibility
Verification Form and therefore may not register if they are under sixteen years of age.Visit the CHPSE website by clicking here.
