Glossary
exponent
An exponent tells you how many times to multiply a number by itself: 2 to the third power means 2 × 2 × 2. It is shorthand for repeated multiplication.
An exponent is a number written above and to the right of a base, and it counts how many times the base is used as a factor. In 2³ the base is 2 and the exponent is 3, so 2³ means 2 × 2 × 2 = 8. The exponent saves writing a long product out, which is why very large and very small numbers are written with one.
The rules worth carrying into the test: a number to the first power is itself; anything to the zero power is 1, including 5⁰ and (2x)⁰, which surprises people; multiplying like bases adds the exponents (2³ × 2⁴ = 2⁷); dividing like bases subtracts them; and a power raised to a power multiplies them ((2³)² = 2⁶). A negative exponent is not a negative answer — it means a reciprocal, so 2⁻² is 1/4.
An exponent is easy to confuse with multiplication: 2³ is 8, not 6, and the difference costs points more often than the rules do. A root is the reverse operation, so a square root asks which number, multiplied by itself, gives the value in front of you.
Taught in
Related terms
- square root — A square root is the number that, multiplied by itself, gives the value you started with: the square root of 49 is 7, because 7 × 7 = 49.
- order of operations — The order of operations is the agreed sequence for evaluating an expression — parentheses, then exponents, then multiply and divide, then add and subtract, left to right within a step.
Source: Official ASVAB — subtest descriptions (what each subtest asks) and the CAT-ASVAB scored-question counts (accessed 2026-09)