January 17, 1982

With an increasing number of assembly lines and showrooms becoming quiet dark places, General Motors and the United Auto Workers cut an unprecedented deal last week. As their contract talks got under way, the corporation and the union agreed to pass along to G.M. customers, dollar for dollar, any savings that result from U.A.W. wage and fringe concessions. Ford, caught by surprise in its separate negotiations, didn't immediately say whether it would go along with the passalong.

ALBANY FOR the next several months here, cartography - the art of drawing maps - will be power. The State Legislature is in the midst of redrawing the boundaries of every district in the State Senate and the Assembly, as well as the lines for the state's Congressional districts. For Long Island, the political changes wrought by reapportionment could be substantial. Though Republican-dominance in Nassau County has long insured the party of a major share of Nassau seats, many of the swing districts in the Legislature - particularly in t he Assembly- are to be found in both Nassau and Suffolk Counties.

NEWARK THE one thing that has been made clear in the murky circumstances surrounding the death of a Guardian Angels patrol leader here last month is that the police and the Angels had not been talking to each other. Each group had been operating in the city streets in the dark, alone. An Essex County grand jury that has been looking into what happened on the night of Dec. 30 is expected to make its determination within a week. Also, the Department of Justice has announced that it will investigate the shooting. At this point, there are two versions: One from the police, one from the Guardian Angels. According to the police, Officer Milton Medina, while on the roof of a tavern investigating a burglary attempt, heard a whistle and saw several people running toward his partner, Officer Angel Ramos, on the ground below. Officer Medina said that he fired his revolver, thinking that Officer Ramos was in danger.

FOR some, the first morning might be the hardest - the waking up and remembering that the familiar routine is gone. For others, that initial sensation of freedom is to be savored, a living testiment to those posters that read, ''Today is the first day of the rest of your life.'' The circumstances that bring about the change can be as varied as the reactions to it. There may have been a slow build-up, a quiet discontent mounting over the years and culminating in the words, ''I quit.'' Or, it might have come suddenly, in the unexpected and often shattering form of an announcement that, even when verbal, is colloquially called the pink slip. The loss of a job, through choice or circumstance, is frequently a major event in one's life -especially if there is a subsequent move to a new career. ''There aren't any studies that yield information about shifting careers per se,'' according to Samuel Ehrenhalt, regional commissioner of labor statistics for the Federal Bureau of Labor Statisics. But, he added, the changing economy and the emphasis on finding ''meaningful'' work have triggered an increasing number of such changes in the suburbs and elsewhere.

FOR three h ours last October, 40,120 ninth-grade students in Connecticut p ondered fractions and percentages, punctuation and the meanings of w ords in the state's third annual proficiency test. The test results, which were reported last week with the aid a phalanx of charts, statistics, press releases and explanatory comments by State Education Commissioner Mark R. Shedd and five advisers, was pronounced to be the most significant of the three tests because it was the first that could be compared with the preceding school year. Unlike the second and third tests, which were given in October, the first test was given in March. It was therefore of little use as a comparative measure with succeeding tests.