2021 / 2022 ASVAB For Dummies. Angie Papple Johnston

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2021 / 2022 ASVAB For Dummies - Angie Papple Johnston

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whether a particular branch of service lets you join. The score is so important that I plan to keep on repeating it until you’re mumbling “The AFQT is the most important score” in your sleep.

      Chapter 2 has more information about military line scores. See Appendix A for more information on the scores you need to get the job you want.

Branch of Service Line Score
U.S. Army Clerical, General Technical, Operators and Food, Surveillance and Communications, and Skilled Technical
U.S. Air Force Administrative and General
U.S. Navy and Coast Guard Administrative, General Technical, Health, and Nuclear
U.S. Marine Corps General Technical and Clerical

      When you get to the Paragraph Comprehension subtest, you have several passages to read. Most passages are only one paragraph long, and rarely are they longer than two paragraphs. Each passage contains between 50 and 200 words. (Look at it this way: At least you won’t be required to read War and Peace!)

      The ASVAB test authors may ask you to answer only one question about a given reading passage, or they may ask you to answer as many as five questions about one passage. Unfortunately, this subtest doesn’t consist of the most interesting passages you’ll ever read. (You won’t find paragraphs from your favorite sci-fi novel here.) It’s important that you set your attention span dial to the maximum setting. On the paper-and-pencil version, you have 13 minutes to answer 15 questions. If you’re taking the computerized version of the ASVAB, you have 27 minutes to read the passages and answer 10 questions. If you get tryout questions in the Paragraph Comprehension subtest of the CAT-ASVAB, you have 75 minutes to complete 25 questions. I cover tryout questions in Chapter 1.

      In order to understand what you read — which is what the Paragraph Comprehension subtest is all about — you need to develop several abilities, which I cover later in this chapter:

       Finding the main idea or argument that the author is making

       Remembering specific details about the reading

       Drawing conclusions from what you’ve read

       Understanding relationships between ideas

       Paraphrasing or summarizing what you’ve read

      The Paragraph Comprehension questions on the ASVAB usually take one of four forms:

       Finding specific information

       Recognizing the main idea

       Determining word meaning in context

       Drawing an implication from a stated idea

      Each type of question asks you to perform a different kind of analysis of the reading passage. If a passage has more than one question associated with it, chances are each question falls under a different category. The following sections spell out the differences among these four types of questions.

      Treasure hunt: Finding specific information

      This type of Paragraph Comprehension question asks you to pick out (you guessed it) specific information from a passage. Sounds easy, right? Take a look at the following passage, which clearly states the answer to the question that directly follows it:

      An industry trade association found that more than 13,000 martial arts schools exist in the United States with nearly 6 million active members. Of the 13,000 schools, nearly 7,000 offered tae kwon do lessons.

      Example According to this passage, how many people actively participated in martial arts lessons?

      (A) 13,000

      (B) 7,000

      (C) 6 million

      (D) It can’t be determined.

      The correct answer is Choice (C).

      At times, the information that a question asks about isn’t directly stated in the question, but you can infer the information from the text. Remember, in the military, the only easy day was yesterday.

      Warning When questions are phrased in the negative, you may be confused about what the question is asking. (This is especially true when the information being sought isn’t directly stated in the passage.) Misreading a negative question is also easy. Research has shown that people often skip over a negative word, such as not, when they read. Questions on the Paragraph Comprehension portion of the ASVAB are sometimes stated in the negative. When you see a negative word, an alarm should go off in your head to remind you to read the question more carefully.

      Cutting to the chase: Recognizing the main idea

      Sometimes the Paragraph Comprehension questions ask you to identify the main point of a passage. The main point can be directly stated, or it can be implied.

      Tip If you’re not sure what the main point of a paragraph is, reread the first sentence and the last sentence. Chances are one of these two sentences contains the main point. (Flip to “What’s the big idea? Determining the main idea in a paragraph” later in this chapter for more information on identifying main ideas.)

      If the shoe fits: Determining word meaning in context

      Sometimes

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