Introduction 1 About This Book 2 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 4 Part 1: Getting Started with the ASVAB AFQT 5 Chapter 1: Examining the AFQT 7 Getting a Close-Up View of the AFQT 7 Reaping the Benefits of Getting the Highest Possible Score 9 Establishing a Study Program 10 Guessing Smart 11 Using the Practice Exams to Your Advantage 11 Chapter 2: Facing the AFQT Head-On 13 Looking at the Big ASVAB Picture 13 The computerized ASVAB (CAT-ASVAB) 14 The pencil-and-paper test 15 Scoring the AFQT 16 Understanding raw scores 17 Computing the verbal expression score 17 Getting the AFQT score formula 17 Normalizing the percentile score 17 Making Sense of Minimum Qualifying Scores 17 Considering the AFQT tier categories 18 Making the military cut 18 Retaking the Test 19 Army 20 Air Force 20 Navy 20 Marine Corps 21 Coast Guard 21 Chapter 3: Arming Yourself with a Study Plan 23 Do You Have Enough Time? 23 Planning Your Study Strategy 24 8 weeks out: Figure out what you need most 24 6 weeks out: Take another test 25 4 weeks out: Surprise! Time for another test 25 2 weeks out: Five tests down (and three to go) 25 1 week out: Crunch time 26 The day before the test: Last-minute prep 26 Chapter 4: Mastering the Art of Studying and Test-Taking 27 Reading for Study 27 Checking out the survey, question, read, recall, and review method 28 Taking and reviewing notes 28 Putting Study Strategies to Work for You 29 Working with your own learning style 29 Getting the most out of your study time 31 Taking the Test: Putting Your Best Foot Forward 34 The day before 34 Test day 34 Part 2: Expressing Yourself and Understanding Others 37 Chapter 5: Developing a Solid Vocabulary 39 Growing Your Vocabulary 39 Reading more to learn more 40 Talking to people 40 Adding words to your vocabulary 40 Using puzzles and games to improve your vocabulary 41 You''re on my list: Working with word lists 41 Getting flashes of memory with flashcards 43 Building a Word from Scratch 43 Rooting around for roots 44 Attaching prefixes and suffixes 45 A Word by Any Other Name: Surveying Synonyms and Antonyms 47 Getting Homogeneous with Homonyms 48 Flex Your Lexicon: Vocabulary Exercises 50 Practicing synonyms? It''s all the same to me 50 Antithetic antonyms: The opposite of synonyms 50 Digging around word roots 51 Parsing prefixes: Defining the beginnings of words 52 Suffering through suffixes: The ends of words 52 Defining words from their context 53 Answers and Explanations 54 Chapter 6: The Word Knowledge Subtest 61 Getting Acquainted with the Test Format 61 Bumping Up Your Test Score 62 Keeping an eye on the clock 63 Watching out for the evil homonym 63 Considering guessing 64 Trying On Some Sample Questions 65 Answers and Explanations 66 Chapter 7: Reading for Comprehension 67 Taking Pointers about Points 67 Picking out the main point 68 Simplifying subpoints 69 Analyzing What You''ve Read 69 Say what? What does that passage mean? 69 Say it again, Sam: Paraphrasing 70 Improving Your Reading Comprehension Skills 70 Taking the time to read 70 Skimming and scanning 71 Looking for the main ideas and subpoints 72 Building your vocabulary 72 Paraphrasing 72 Remembering by reflecting 73 Speaking about Speed 73 Diving for Facts: Paragraph Comprehension Practice 73 Finding the main idea 73 Going on a fact-finding mission 74 Drawing conclusions on your own 76 Answers and Explanations 77 Chapter 8: The Paragraph Comprehension Subtest 79 Tackling the Test Format: Types of Questions 79 The treasure hunt 80 Getting the point 81 Dictionary 81 Deep thinking 82 Planning Your Attack 82 Surveying Sample Test Questions 83 Answers and Explanations 85 Part 3: Calculating Better Math Knowledge 87 Chapter 9: Knowing Your Math 89 Making the Most of Math Terminology 90 The Heart of Math: Exploring Expressions and Equations 91 Keeping equations balanced 91 Obeying the order of operations 91 Mental math: Mixing it up with the commutative, associative, and distributive properties 92 Having Fun with Factors 94 Understanding types of factors 94 Finding prime factors 95 Looking at Least Common Multiples 95 Conquering the Fear of Fractions 96 Defining parts and types of fractions 97 Simplifying fractions 97 Multiplying fractions 98 Dividing fractions 98 Adding and subtracting fractions 99 Performing multiple operations 100 Converting fractions to decimals 100 Comparing fractions 101 Getting rational about ratios 102 Dealing with Decimals 102 Converting decimals to fractions 103 Adding and subtracting decimals 103 Multiplying decimals 104 Dividing decimals 104 Rounding 106 Perusing percents 106 Playing with Positive and Negative Numbers 106 Rooting for Roots and Powers 107 Advice about exponents 107 Roots 108 Scientific notation 110 Alphabet Soup: Tackling Algebra Review 110 Visiting variables 110 Following the rules of algebra 111 All Is Not Equal: Examining Inequalities 112 Solving Quadratics 114 Method 1: The square-root method 114 Method 2: The factoring method 114 Method 3: The quadratic formula 116 Knowing All the Angles: Geometry Review 116 Knowing all the angles 117 Common geometric shapes 117 Famous geometry formulas 119 You Got a Problem? Math Knowledge Exercises 120 Math terminology practice 120 Order of operations practice 121 Converting fractions and decimals 122 Solving equations and inequalities 122 Identifying formulas 123 Answers and Explanations 123 Chapter 10: The Mathematics Knowledge Subtest 127 Taking Stock of the Test Structure 127 Direct math questions 128 Math law questions 128 Combined questions 129 Planning Your Test Attack 129 Keeping an eye on the all-important clock 129 Doubling your chances by double-checking 130 Using the answer choices to your advantage 130 Playing the guessing game 131 Practice Makes Perfect: Sampling Some Practice Questions 132 Answers and Explanations 133 Chapter 11: Working with Word Problems 135 Making Sense of Word Problems 135 Setting Up the Problem 136 Getting organized 136 Understanding the problem 136 Identifying the information you need 137 Translating the problem 138 Trying Out Typical Word Problems 141 Age problems 142 Geometric problems 143 Coin problems 144 Travel problems 145 Investment/loan problems 147 Mixture problems 148 Percent problems 149 Work problems 150 Number problems 150 Practical Mathematicals: Arithmetic Reasoning Exercises 151 Fact-finding to figure out which formulas to use 151 Real-world formula problems 152 Putting together tables to make calculations easier 153 Answers and Explanations 154 Chapter 12: The Arithmetic Reasoning Subtest 157 Looking at the Test Structure 157 Developing a Test Strategy 158 Keeping track of the time 158 Choosing an answer and checking it twice 159 Using the answer choices: There''s more than one way to skin an equation 160 Logical guessing 160 Taking Arithmetic Reasoning out for a Spin 161 Answers and Explanations 163 Part 4: AFQT Practice Exams 165 Chapter 13: Practice Exam 1 167 Answer Sheet for Practice Exam 1 169 Part 1: Arithmetic Reasoning 171 Part 2: Word Knowledge 175 Part 3: Paragraph Comprehension 178 Part 4: Mathematics Knowledge 182 Chapter 14: Practice Exam 1: Answers and Explanations 185 Part 1: Arithmetic Reasoning 185 Part 2: Word Knowledge 196 Part 3: Paragraph Comprehension 199 Part 4: Mathematics Knowledge 201 Answer Key 208 Chapter 15: Practice Exam 2 209 Answer Sheet for Practice Exam 2 211 Part 1: Arithmetic Reasoning 213 Part 2: Word Knowledge 217 Part 3: Paragraph Comprehension 220 Part 4: Mathematics Knowledge 223 Chapter 16: Practice Exam 2: Answers and Explanations 227 Part 1: Arithmetic Reasoning 227 Part 2: Word Knowledge 235 Part 3: Paragraph Comprehension 238 Part 4: Mathematics Knowledge 240 Answer Key 246 Chapter 17: Practice Exam 3 247 Answer Sheet for Practice Exam 3 249 Part 1: Arithmetic Reasoning 251 Part 2: Word Knowledge 255 Part 3: Paragraph Comprehension 258 Part 4: Mathematics Knowledge 261 Chapter 18: Practice Exam 3: Answers and Explanations 265 Part 1: Ari.