TASC Passing Score

The TASC exam is no longer available, but earlier TASC results may still count toward your HiSET or GED scores!

In 2021, several states used the TASC exam for high school equivalency (HSE) testing, e.g., New York, West Virginia, and Indiana, but they switched to either the GED or HiSET, and New Jersey stayed with the GED and HiSET.

Online GED Classes

A simple and easy way of getting your GED diploma.

Learn fast, stay motivated, and pass your GED quickly.


In this post, we’ll take a look at what scores were required to pass the five TASC individual subtests. The TASC (Test Assessing Secondary Completion) subject tests were scored on a scale from 300 to 800.

The minimally required score to pass the five subject tests was 500 on EACH subject test. Averaging was not possible, so your total TASC score could not be under 2500.

The TASC™ subject tests (also called modules as they were independent subtests) covered the academic subject areas of English Reading, English Writing, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Science.

The TASC English Writing subtest additionally asked you to produce an essay, and for this, you were required to reach at least a 2-score out of a possible 8.

So keep in mind that even if your overall score was 2500 or better, but you hadn’t reached the 500-barrier on one of the five TASC subtests, you hadn’t passed the TASC exam. The minimally required score had to be earned on EACH of the five subtests!

Online GED Classes-Fast, Simple and Cheap

Get Your GED Diploma in 2 Months.
A Customized Plan To Help You Get Your Diploma Fast & Easy.


The entire TASC exam would take a little under eight hours to complete, but you had the liberty to take the five subtests one at a time.

The TASC measured, like the HiSET and GED, proficiency and competencies at a level that compares to that of graduating high school students.

Highest TASC Score

The highest attainable score on each TASC subtest was 800, and a score of 8 for your essay. So the highest possible cumulative score on the TASC exam was 4000, and an 8 for the essay writing section.

If you managed to reach a particularly high score in the fields of Reading, Writing, or Math, you would receive a “Distinguished Achievement” notation for the related subject field.

To reach “Distinguished Achievement” status, you had to attain a score of at least 580 on the Reading portion and a 560 score or up for the Math or Writing sections.

If you attained “Distinguished Achievement” status, you could even see requirements such as submitting SAT or ACT scores or having to take remedial coursework requirements waived, depending on the school.

This website offers free GED practice tests to help you get going on your GED prep track. You can see if this online learning method appeals to you, but our free lessons and practice tests do not constitute a full scope of all GED topics.

That is provided by Onsego GED prep, an accredited, full-scale GED prep course that has received the predicate “100% GED Test Aligned” from GED Testing Service. Onsego will help you get ready for the real thing efficiently.

TASC Test Results

The TASC exam was one of three available high school equivalency (HSE) exams in the U.S., and three states were still using the TASC exam in 2021 for this purpose: West Virginia, New York, and New Jersey. You could take the exam in a paper-and-pencil format or in a computerized format, but New Jersey and West Virginia only offered computer-based testing.

The TASC exam offered adults who couldn’t complete high school another opportunity to earn a credential that is, all across North America, respected and accepted in the same way as a regular high school diploma.

Employers, government agencies, and schools of post-secondary education accept the diploma that’s awarded upon successfully completing the five TASC subject tests in lieu of a high school degree.

If you had passed the TASC exam, you qualify for jobs that require a secondary education credential, and you can also apply to universities and colleges, and you also will be eligible for financial aid programs.

The TASC exam was published by Data Recognition Corporation (DRC), one of America’s leading educational assessment publishers and known for developing the Test of Adult Basic Education, or TABE.

When Would You Receive Your Scores?

How long it would take before you got your TASC scores depended on the state where you took the exam and whether you took the TASC exam in a computer-based format or the paper-and-pencil formatted version.

In general, however, if you took the TASC exam on a computer, you could see how you performed in practically all sections of the exam right after you completed the exam.

Your score report would be available through your TASC account within a few hours from the moment you completed the exam. After a few business days, you could access your score reports through the TASC portal of your state.

When you took the TASC exam on paper, you had to be more patient. Then, your score reports would take up to 10 days, and you could access your reports through your TASC account in approximately 10 to 14 days.

TASC Grading System

As said above, there were five independent TASC subject tests that covered English Writing, English Reading, Social Studies, Science, and Mathematics. Each subtest was made up of predominantly multiple-choice questions.

If you had taken the TASC exam on a computer, you would also see technology-enhanced formats such as drag questions. There were also extended-response and gridded-response questions, and on the English Writing section, you had to produce an essay based on a passage and a writing prompt.

On the TASC exam, every gridded response and multiple-choice question was worth 1 point. There was no punishment for incorrect answers, so you could answer each and every question!

Extended response questions could be worth more than 1 point if they contained two or more answers, and if a question included two parts, you had to answer both parts correctly. Only then, you got that question right.

Your essay was not machine-graded as it is on the GED test. It would be read by two experienced scorers who awarded points on a 0-4 scale. So the maximum score attainable on the essay was 8. If the two scorers had awarded the same scores or within one point, their scores were added together, and that would be your essay score.

If, for example, one reader awarded you a 4-score while the other reader gave a 3, your total score would be 7. If the two awarded scores were more than just one point apart, a 3rd reader would be brought in, and the two closest scores would make up your essay grade.

If you failed one of the TASC subtests, there was no need to take the entire TASC exam again. You could take just that section again, and you had two free retakes, but completion had to be achieved within one calendar year, or the standard fees would apply again!

Retaking Policies

If you hadn’t achieved enough points to pass either a subject test (500) or overall (2500), you were required to retake the related subject test(s). So you had to retake that specific subtest or those specific subtests on which you hadn’t reached 500 points.

If you took the entire exam again, only your highest scores from different testing sessions were kept to be included in your total score report.

Although there was no requirement to retake those subtests on which you already scored 500 points or up, you could retake some other subtests as well to improve your total score.

Last Updated on February 14, 2024.