In an effort to assess community college students' knowledge of the liberal arts, the Center for the Study of Community Colleges developed and field tested a student survey and General Academic Assessment (GAA) instrument. The GAA was completed by a sample of 8,024 students at four large, urban community college districts. The scores were cross tabulated by selected student characteristic variables (e.g., age, ethnicity, native language, and reason for attending college) and selected educational background variables (e.g., the number of college units already completed by the student, and the number of social science courses the student had taken prior to the GAA test). The social science portions of the GAA focused on knowledge of society, government, and history. On these sections, older students scored higher than younger students. A comparison of the scores of students who had completed less than 15 college units with the scores of students who had completed 60 or more units indicated that there were no great differences among ethnic groups in the rate of gain in social sciences. The native language of the student appeared to be a significant factor in the social science section of the GAA, with native English speakers scoring 5.17 compared to 4.12 for non-Native English speakers. Those students attending college to satisfy a personal interest scored higher than those intending to transfer or receiving occupational training. There appeared to be a positive correlation between the number of semester hours completed and scores on the social science section of the GAA. (EJV)