In 1983-84, the Center for the Study of Community Colleges developed and field tested an instrument, the General Academic Assessment (GAA), to assess community college students' knowledge of several liberal arts areas, including mathematics. The GAA was completed by a sample of 8,024 students at four large, urban community college districts. The scores on the math portion of the test were cross tabulated by selected student characteristics (e.g., age, ethnicity, native language, and reason for attending college) and educational background variables (e.g., number of college units already completed, and number of math courses taken). Results of the analysis revealed that the highest mean GAA scores in mathematics were achieved by: (1) younger students recently graduated from high school; (2) students intending to transfer to a four-year college; and (3) students who rated their abilities in algebra as "excellent." GAA math scores also correlated positively with the number of semester hours completed and the number of mathematics courses completed. (UCM)