Glossary
scope
Scope is how much a statement claims — which things it covers and how much of them. A choice that widens or narrows the passage's scope is wrong even when its topic is right.
Scope is the size of a claim: which cases it covers and how far it reaches. "It saved money" and "it saved three million dollars in its first year" may both be drawn from the same passage, but they are not the same statement, and a comprehension question can be built entirely on the gap between them.
A choice goes wrong in one of two directions. It widens the scope when it turns a specific figure or one example into a general rule, or one season into always. It narrows the scope when it treats part of the passage's claim as the whole of it — the passage's main point is that costs fell, when cost was only one of three effects described. The passage's own qualifiers are the usual evidence for the first failure; the second usually shows up as a detail in the place where the main idea should be.
Read the chosen line and ask what it actually covers — those people, that year, that amount — then ask what the choice claims. Scope and qualifiers are checked in the same pass, at the end of the method.
Taught in
Related terms
- qualifier — A qualifier is a word that limits a claim — all, some, most, only, never, always. Swapping one qualifier for another changes the meaning, and comprehension questions test exactly that.
- main idea — The main idea is the central claim a passage is built to support — what the author wants you to take away, and what the other sentences exist to prove.
Source: Official ASVAB — subtest descriptions (what each subtest asks) and the CAT-ASVAB scored-question counts (accessed 2026-09)