AHSGE Language

3 Tips for AHSGE Language Test

The Alabama High School Graduation Exam (AHSGE) is conducted by the Alabama State Board of Education to improve the proficiency levels in the basic subject areas taught to students in the eleventh-grade of their high school. To receive a diploma from the State of Alabama and to pursue higher education, taking this exam is mandatory. Every student is required to complete the credits as prescribed by the Alabama State Board of Education and the local schools alongside clearing all the sections of the test. This exam aids a student to display his aptitude and knowledge expertise to graduate from Alabama.

A brochure for AHSGE is provided to students when they enter the ninth grade of school. It is essential to sign the forms enclosed in the brochure, by the students and their parents to confirm the receipt of receiving the brochure by the school authorities. It strongly emphasizes on gaining strong subject knowledge combined with critical thinking and problem solving skills. This stresses on attaining a detailed insight into the Language, Reading, Maths, Science and Social Studies sections.

This exam is an assessment test that judges a student’s preparedness in the 4X4 basic curriculum of high school. This involves a thorough brushing up of all that the student has already learnt during high school.

The thumb rule to be charted is to keep you updated by following the official website of the Alabama Department of Education: http://www.alsde.edu/html/home.asp

The exam is divided into 5 sections namely:

  1. AHSGE Reading
  2. AHSGE Language
  3. AHSGE Maths
  4. AHSGE Science
  5. AHSGE Social Studies

The Language test section comprises of 100 multiple-choice questions with four options each. The test is required to be completed within a time frame of 3 hours and the minimum passing score required for this section is 560. The test content comprises of the language mechanics and expression skills of the eleventh grade high school studies.

You will be assessed in the skill of identifying grammatical errors, usage of correct sentences/phrases, correcting sentence structure and words, apt usage of words and correct form of punctuation and capitalization in addition to your writing skills.

Topics Covered in the AHSGE Language Section: You will be asked 5 questions each to recognize

  1. Correct form of nouns
  2. Correct form of verbs
  3. Subject-verb agreement
  4. Pronoun-antecedent
  5. Verb shifts
  6. Correct Pronoun case
  7. Effective use of voice
  8. Correct use of modifiers
  9. Commonly confused words
  10. Use of clear and defined language
  11. Use of formal & informal language
  12. Sentence Structure
  13. Internal parallelism
  14. Definite usage of capitalization
  15. Definite usage of commas
  16. Definite usage of colon and semi-colon
  17. Definite usage of quotation marks and underlining
  18. Right use of the apostrophe
  19. 10 questions to gauge your abilities in completion of paragraphs and paragraph progression

Significant Tips to Achieve Good Scores in the AHSGE Language Section

    • Use a pencil and work your test directly in the test booklet first. This not only saves time but also gives you the confidence and focus to complete the document booklet neatly.
    • Do not hurry even if you feel the question is easy.
    • Try to answer the questions that you are confident with at first, so that you get enough time to work on the tougher ones later.
    • Make use of the process of elimination method. This helps in clearing out the confusion of synonymous choice of options.
  • Read every sentence or phrase very carefully and double check in order to make the appropriate usage of comma, colon, punctuation etc., Ask yourself a question every time you make a choice – Does this sentence make sense? Is there a need of a comma, punctuation or a period at some part of the sentence?

There are many ways to prepare for the Language section of the exam. However, you must practice enough to select the correct answer as there might be many instances where you would have very similar options to choose from. To achieve this, a continuous study of English grammar and language is the only key tool to succeed in this section of the exam.