ASVAB Paragraph Comprehension study guide

What this subtest actually asks of you

Paragraph Comprehension is 10 of the 135 scored questions on the computer ASVAB — 7% of the scored test — and it is one of the four subtests that produce your AFQT score (how the ASVAB is scored). It is the shortest of the four, and the one where a reader who knows nothing about the subject can still get every question right.

That is the whole point of it, and it decides how to study:

• The answer is always in the passage. Every question can be answered from the text in front of you, and from nothing else.
• Your own knowledge is the main source of wrong answers. Not ignorance — extra information. A choice that is true in the world but not stated in the passage is wrong, every time.

So this is not a recall test and not a vocabulary test. It is a search-and-verify test: find the line that answers the question, then check that your answer is what the line actually says.

The question words change everything

Four phrases decide what kind of answer you are looking for, and reading them is step one of the method:

• "According to the passage…" — the answer is stated. There is a sentence that says it.
• "The passage suggests / implies…" — the answer is one step from a stated sentence. Not two.
• "The main point / the main idea…" — the answer is the claim the other sentences exist to support.
• "As used in the passage, X most nearly means…" — the answer is what the word is doing here, which may not be its most common meaning elsewhere.

A four-step method

1. Read the question first. Before the passage. You cannot search for a line when you do not know what it is supposed to say, and reading the passage first means reading it twice.

2. Find the line. Locate the sentence (or two) that carries the answer, and put your finger on it. If you cannot find a line, re-read — for every question on this subtest there is one. This step does most of the work, and it is why the subtest rewards patience more than speed.

3. Answer from the text alone. Say what the line says, in your own words, before you look at the choices. Then pick the choice that matches. Reading the choices first is how outside knowledge gets in: a plausible choice starts to feel true once you have read it.

4. Verify two things. The qualifiers — all, some, most, only, never, always — because a choice that upgrades "most" to "all" is wrong even though the topic is right. And the scope — "$3 million in its first year" and "it saved money" are not the same claim.

Five passages, worked through

Every passage below was written for this page; none of them appears in the practice set. The walkthrough is the same each time: the question, then the line, then the trap.

1. The true statement that answers the wrong question

The city replaced its older streetlights with LEDs over two years. Energy use for lighting fell by more than half, and the savings paid back the purchase price within four years.

According to the passage, what happened to the city's lighting energy use? — It fell by more than half · It paid back the purchase price · It rose slightly · It stayed the same

• The question asks about energy use. The line is "Energy use for lighting fell by more than half."
• The trap: "It paid back the purchase price within four years" is in the passage and is completely true. It just answers a different question. A true statement that answers the wrong question is the classic wrong answer here, and step 1 is the defense.

2. One step is an inference; two steps is your opinion

The trail gains 3,000 feet over four miles. Hikers who start after noon often finish in the dark.

What can be inferred about the trail? — It is four miles of flat walking · It takes longer to hike than its distance suggests · It is closed after noon · It is unsafe even for experienced hikers

An inference is one step from the text: the passage supplies the evidence and you draw the conclusion. Add a fact the passage never states, or take a second hop past it, and you have stopped inferring and started writing your own opinion.

• The line is the two sentences together: a steep climb, and hikers running out of daylight.
• The trap: "unsafe even for experienced hikers". The passage says people finish in the dark; it never says the trail is unsafe. That is a second step, and the second step is your own opinion. "One step from the text" is the rule whenever a question asks what the passage suggests.

3. A detail is not the main idea

Canned beans are packed within hours of harvest, while beans sold as fresh may spend a week in trucks and warehouses. As a result, canned beans sometimes keep more of their vitamins than the fresh beans beside them in the store.

The main point of the passage is that — canned beans are packed within hours · fresh beans travel for a week · canned beans can be at least as nutritious as fresh · vitamins are destroyed by cooking

• The line is the "As a result" sentence — the claim the first two sentences exist to support.
• The trap: the first sentence: true, from the passage, and not the main point. For a main-idea question, ask which sentence the others are there to support. The last choice invents a cause — cooking — that the passage never mentions.

4. What the word is doing here

The committee's report was terse: three pages of findings and no recommendations. Two members said they could not act on it.

As used in the passage, terse most nearly means — brief · rude · careless · confusing

• The line is the colon — "three pages of findings" — plus the members' reaction.
• The trap: "rude" is a meaning terse carries elsewhere, and "careless" is what the members' complaint might make you feel. The passage is using the word to mean short. In-context questions are about this passage, not the dictionary's first entry.

5. A hedge is not a conclusion

Although the new fee was expected to reduce visits, attendance was unchanged in its first season. The park has not yet decided whether to keep it.

Based on the passage, what does the park know about the fee? — It failed · Attendance never fell at any point · It did not reduce attendance in its first season · It will be removed

• The line is "attendance was unchanged in its first season" plus the park's undecided position.
• The trap: there are two. "It failed" treats one season and an undecided park as a conclusion. "Attendance never fell" takes "its first season" and quietly makes it permanent. Watch the qualifiers and the scope — this question is built to punish skipping step 4.

The traps, collected

1. True, but not in the passage — your outside knowledge, wearing the passage's clothes.
2. True, but answering a different question — the passage's own facts, pointed at the wrong thing.
3. Two steps instead of one — a "suggests" question answered with a conclusion the text does not support.
4. The detail presented as the main idea — true, and not what the passage is about.
5. The qualifier swap — most becomes all, in its first season becomes always.
6. The dictionary meaning — a word's most familiar sense, when the passage is using another one.
7. The hedge read as a conclusion — "has not decided" and "has not yet" are not verdicts.

Notice that none of these require you to know anything about the subject. Every one of them is a verification failure, which is why the method spends two of its four steps on verifying rather than reading.

How to practice this

• Work the free Paragraph Comprehension practice set with the question read first, every time, even when it feels slower.
• Put a finger on the line that answers each question before you choose. If you cannot find one, that is the answer telling you the choice is wrong.
• When you review, look at the wrong choices and name which trap each one is. That is the skill this subtest is actually testing.
• Read the explanation on every question, including the ones you got right.
• Read to the end of the paragraph before you commit. Each passage is a short paragraph rather than a single sentence, and the sentence that qualifies the first one — the although, the however, the number that changes the picture — is usually later in it. Answering from the opening sentence is how the word-knowledge habit costs you a comprehension question.

How to study for the ASVAB has the rest of the method, and what the pass adds.

Where to go next

• Next topic — Mathematics Knowledge
• The exam itself — how the ASVAB is scored, how many questions, and what makes the ASVAB hard.

Paragraph Comprehension carries 10 of the 135 scored questions on the computer test — the published subtest table's count — and it is one of the four subtests the AFQT score is computed from.

Elk Ridge Academy is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Department of Defense, USMEPCOM, or MEPS.