target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#fb3_img_img_23c180fd-5c94-5059-bf11-3c763acf55f7.png" alt="Tip"/> If you’re looking for the main idea, start off by checking the first and last sentences of the passage. (No, this doesn’t mean that you should skip the rest of the passage.) For example, suppose you read the following paragraph:
The local school district is facing a serious budgetary crisis. The state, suffering a revenue shortfall of more than $600 million, has cut funding to the district by $18.7 million. Already, 65 teachers have been laid off, and more layoffs are expected.
No, the primary theme of this passage isn’t “schools in our area suck.” The main point of this paragraph can be found in the opening sentence, “The local school district is facing a serious budgetary crisis.” What follows are details regarding the budget crisis.
Sometimes a passage builds up to its main idea, and sometimes the main idea is implied instead of stated. Consider the following paragraph:
The farmers’ market reopened on the second weekend of May. Amid the asparagus and flowers, shoppers chatted about the return of temperatures in the 70s. Across the street, children (and their dogs) played Frisbee in the park. Finally, spring has come to town.
In this paragraph, you may think that the farmers’ market’s reopening is the main point, but the other information about the temperature and the kids playing Frisbee tells you that the main idea is something a bit broader than the market’s opening. The main idea is stated in the last sentence: “Finally, spring has come to town.”
In other words: Rephrasing passages
You likely won’t have time to write down the main point or to jot down your paraphrase or summary. Instead, as you’re reading, simply try to mentally keep track of what’s being said by putting it into your own words.
Look at the following paragraph:
The local school district is facing a serious budgetary crisis. The state, suffering a revenue shortfall of more than $600 million, has cut funding to the district by $18.7 million. Already, 65 teachers have been laid off, and more layoffs are expected.
Now put down this book and spend a few moments paraphrasing the preceding paragraph. Come on. Pick up that pencil and get those brain cells firing. When you’re done, come back to this page and compare your ideas to the passage. If you wrote something like the following, you’re right on track:
The school district has a budget crunch because the state has a budget crunch. The state cut funding to the school district. Some teachers have been laid off already. More may be laid off soon.
Now, if you wrote something like, “It’s finally May, and shoppers and kids-at-play are out and about, enjoying the warmer temperatures of spring,” then you’re not paying attention.
Extra, extra! Identifying subpoints
If a writer stuck to just one point, the Paragraph Comprehension subtest would be a breeze. However, an author usually doesn’t make just one point in a piece of writing, so you also need to understand the other points the author makes. These details, or subpoints, may include facts or statistics, or they may be descriptions that support the main point of the passage. Subpoints help you see what the author’s saying. For instance, look at this passage (from the preceding section):
The local school district is facing a serious budgetary crisis. The state, suffering a revenue shortfall of more than $600 million, has cut funding to the district by $18.7 million. Already, 65 teachers have been laid off, and more layoffs are expected.
The subpoints help you understand the main point, which is that the school district is facing a severe budgetary crisis. The subpoints help you understand why: “The state, suffering a revenue shortfall of more than $600 million, has cut funding to the district by $18.7 million.” You can see that the budgetary crisis is part of a larger problem, which is the state is suffering a severe revenue shortfall. The subpoints also help you understand what this crisis means: “Already, 65 teachers have been laid off, and more layoffs are expected.” By using these facts and figures, the author helps you grasp not only the main point but also the implications of that main point.
Analyzing What You’ve Read: Guessing at What the Writer Really Means
The Paragraph Comprehension subtest of the ASVAB also requires you to analyze what you’ve read. Analysis is more than simply picking out the point of the text. Analyzing a passage requires you to draw conclusions from what you’ve read and understand relationships among the ideas presented in the text.
By drawing conclusions about the meaning of a passage, you reach new ideas that the author implies but doesn’t come right out and state. You must analyze the information the author presents in order to make inferences from what you’ve read. For instance, look at the following paragraph:
The local school district is facing a serious budgetary crisis. The state, suffering a revenue shortfall of more than $600 million, has cut funding to the district by $18.7 million. Already, 65 teachers have been laid off, and more layoffs are expected.
Although the author doesn’t say so, you can draw the conclusion that if the state revenue shortfall could somehow be corrected — by increasing state sales tax, for example — the local school district’s budgetary crisis could be resolved. The $18.7 million cut from the school budget could be restored. The author never actually makes this point in the paragraph, but by using logic, you can draw this conclusion from the facts presented.
Look at the next paragraph:
