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Hawaii’s high school dropouts have just one way of getting a diploma: they must pass an exam known as the GED, or General Educational Development. That 71-year-old test recently changed, and that’s worrying some people.

Contrary to what the GED’s might suggest, the new exam is no cakewalk.

The new version, which was rolled out as a limited option for some Hawaii students since April 2013, has more science questions and writing requirements, while also requiring test-takers to have computer skills and background knowledge. Mastery of relatively sophisticated math, such as linear equations and geometrical formulas, is a prerequisite. (See below for some sample questions.)

The recent overhaul of the GED, which marks the exam’s fifth change since 1942, has caused consternation among adult education experts. They fear that the new format and the additional costs for students to take the test could prevent them from succeeding in a post-schooling world where academic credentials are increasingly important. In Hawaii, about of Hawaii’s teens .

But for now, the test is maintaining its monopoly in Hawaii even though the changes, which include a switch from paper to computers and the privatization of the exam by an international for-profit education company, have prompted many other states to offer other, significantly less expensive assessments. The GED in Hawaii costs $150 per student.

The GED changes may have broad implications. High school equivalency exams can be crucial in helping disadvantaged learners — such as non-Native English speakers and low-income minorities — gain access to employment beyond the lowest-wage, dead-end jobs.

Three out of every four jobs in the country a high school diploma or the equivalent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“This is high stakes for them,” said Annette Young-Ogata, an educator who oversees e-learning programs in Hawaii. “This is their future. This is their second chance.”

The new exam, which formally launched on Jan. 2 and is being described by educators and test developers as tougher than the previous version, has among adult education administrators across the country about the exam’s cost and difficulty.

Hawaii bumped its per-student exam fee up from $75 to $150 in 2011, when the for-profit first took over the GED, and other states have been following suit.

In 2011, Hawaii also experienced a relatively significant drop in the number of people who signed up to take the exam, an indication that the price increase might be preventing some people from taking the test when they need to leave school to support their families or themselves.

Although exam fees vary from state to state, the base cost for taking the GED across the country has jumped 140 percent since the nonprofit American Council on Education partnered with the for-profit Pearson in 2011. The test used to cost .

Hawaii GED officials estimate that it costs more than $220 per student to actually administer the test here given the price of materials and proctors. The state’s adult schools are already stretched thin, relying this past year on a roughly $4.5 million budget, just $2.5 million of which comes from the state. That $4.5 million has to cover all the state’s adult education costs, from staff payroll and computer purchases to maintenance and training for Hawaii Department of Education substitute teachers.

As a result of the GED changes, at least 16 states are now offering new alternatives. There is the CTB/McGraw-Hill’s Test Assessing Secondary Completion (TASC) and the Educational Testing Service’s High School Equivalency Test (HiSET), which each cost about $50, and other options are expected to join the equivalency field before long. A few states, including Indiana, Louisiana and New York, have stopped administering the GED altogether because of concerns about cost and content.

“It’s just the (GED) brand — not the credentials — that the students are achieving,” said Amy Riker, director of Educational Testing Service, which administers the HiSET. She was speaking in a recent conference call with reporters.

Hawaii is considering trying out the TASC, but plans are still very preliminary, officials say.

“I don’t see it happening (anytime soon),” Sanpei said. “A lot of it has to do with people being familiar with the term ‘GED.’ People will say, ‘What is the TASC?’”

Hawaii Students Do Well on GED

The GED is still considered the “most bona fide” exam by employers and colleges, Young-Ogata said. “Once it (the new GED) gets a hold and people understand it and people talk about it, I think it will catch on.”

The new GED has four sections, down from five before, with each scored on a 200-point scale. Students need to score at least three out of every four questions correctly — 150 points on each section and at least 600 points total. On the old test, students needed at least 2,250 points out of 4,000 points total — or to answer slightly more than half of all of the questions correctly.

The GED is no longer offered in a paper-and-pencil version; computer literacy courses are available to students who need the training. Administrators such as Sanpei and Young-Ogata say the changes will prove rewarding, highlighting the computer version’s convenience and relevance to evolving workforce needs. The last time the exam was changed was in 2002.

Students in Hawaii perform better on the GED than their peers in other states, perhaps because the state gives students a practice test and has those who do poorly in the pre-screening take remedial classes, Sanpei said.

Over the past few years, the average national pass-rate has , while in Hawaii it’s typically at least 75 percent. In 2011, the most recent year for which such data is available, 79 percent of students in Hawaii who completed the exam passed it. The national average was .

But when Hawaii increased the fee to $150 in 2011, it saw a significant drop in the number of people who signed up to take the GED, suggesting that price might be a key factor in participation rates, according to Young-Ogata. Nearly 2,000 people signed up to take the GED in 2009 and 2010 each — 1,996 students in the former year and 1,961 in the latter. In 2011, that dropped to 1,740.

Every year, slightly fewer than one-third of GED test-takers in Hawaii are 16- or 17-year-olds, many of them high school dropouts whose decision to take the exam from the DOE.

More than 40 percent of GED participants are students between the ages of 18 and 24 who are returning to school — an indication that for many the GED is a second chance at getting ahead. More than half of people who take the exam in Hawaii say they have plans to go to college, according to Young-Ogata, while about one in three say they want to get a better job.

Meanwhile, some experts, including economist and Nobel laureate James Heckman, question whether equivalency exams in general offer a quality substitute for a full high school education.

Students who take the GED are more likely to drop out of college and earn lower salaries than their peers who’ve earned high school diplomas, according to Heckman, whose on the exam has been widely publicized. Evidence shows that students with GED diplomas, rather than regular high school diplomas, lack what Heckman calls “character skills” — persistence, curiosity and self-control, among others.

Try these:

GED Testing Service

GED Testing Service

GED Testing Service

Click for more sample questions.

DISCUSSION: *What do you think about the new GED? Is the higher cost a good thing or a bad thing? And how do you feel about a for-profit company overseeing the test?”