ASVAB sample questions: a worked example for each subtest

One worked sample question for each of the ten ASVAB subtests — with the reasoning shown — plus what each subtest actually asks and where the free practice sets live.

Sample questions are useful for exactly one job: showing you what kind of question each subtest asks. They are not a score preview, and ten of them are not a practice test. Read these to recognize the shape of each subtest, then go work a real set where the questions are different every time.

Below is one worked example for each of the ten subtests, written by us, with the reasoning shown. The descriptions of what each subtest asks are the official ones.

General Science

What it asks: knowledge of physical and biological sciences. Sample: Which of these is a chemical change rather than a physical one? Worked answer: Look for a change in what the substance is, not how it looks. A physical change alters form — ice melting, paper tearing, glass breaking — and the material stays the same substance. A chemical change produces a new substance, which is why rust forming (iron becoming iron oxide) is the answer, while ice melting is not. The tell is whether you could, in principle, get the original material back by a physical process alone.

Arithmetic Reasoning

What it asks: the ability to solve basic arithmetic word problems. Sample: A tool kit costs $45. It is on sale for 20% off, and sales tax of 8% is added to the sale price. What is the total? Worked answer: Do it in two clean steps and keep them separate. Sale price: 20% of 45 is 9, so 45 − 9 = $36. Tax on that: 8% of 36 is 2.88, so 36 + 2.88 = $38.88. The common error is taxing the original price, or subtracting the discount from the taxed total — order matters, and there is no calculator to catch it.

Word Knowledge

What it asks: the ability to identify the best synonym for a given word. Sample: Meticulous most nearly means — (A) careless (B) thorough (C) hurried (D) ordinary. Worked answer: Cover the choices and give your own word first. Meticulous means extremely careful about detail — so thorough (B). The trap is ordinary (D), a real word that fits the topic of "work" but not the meaning. Synoynm questions reward the closest meaning, not the most familiar word.

Paragraph Comprehension

What it asks: the ability to obtain information from written passages. Sample: "The bridge was closed for repairs in April, but reopened in June — two weeks ahead of the posted schedule." According to the passage, when did the bridge reopen? Worked answer: Answer strictly what the passage states: June. The distractor here is the idea of the schedule; the passage tells you the bridge beat it, not what the schedule said. On this subtest the right answer is the one the text supports, not the one that sounds reasonable.

Mathematics Knowledge

What it asks: knowledge of high-school mathematics principles. Sample: If 3x − 7 = 20, what is the value of x? Worked answer: Undo the operations in reverse. Add 7 to both sides: 3x = 27. Divide both sides by 3: x = 9. Check it back: 3(9) − 7 = 20. The alternate trap is stopping at 27 and answering x = 27 — a sign you solved one step but not the whole equation.

Electronics Information

What it asks: knowledge of electricity and electronics. Sample: A circuit has a 12-volt battery and a single 4-ohm resistor. What current flows? Worked answer: Use Ohm's law, I = V ÷ R: 12 ÷ 4 = 3 amperes. The value of this one is that it forces unit discipline — volts over ohms gives amps, and mixing the two up is the error it catches. If a second resistor were added in series, the total resistance would rise and the current would fall, which is the intuition worth carrying in.

Auto Information

What it asks: knowledge of automobile technology. Sample: Which part of a car's charging system converts mechanical energy into electrical energy? Worked answer: Match the part to the energy change, not to the name. The alternator is turned by the engine's belt and produces electricity, so it converts mechanical energy into electrical energy. The battery stores electricity rather than making it, and the starter uses it to turn the engine over — both real components, both doing a different job than the one the question asks for.

Shop Information

What it asks: knowledge of tools and shop terminology and practices. Sample: You need to measure the outside diameter of a bolt to the nearest thousandth of an inch. Which tool is the right choice? Worked answer: Precision drives the choice. A ruler or a tape measure cannot hold a thousandth of an inch. Calipers (or a micrometer) are made for outside diameters at that precision. The reasoning pattern here — let the required tolerance pick the tool — is more useful than memorizing any single tool, because it works for every variation of the question.

Mechanical Comprehension

What it asks: knowledge of mechanical and physical principles. Sample: A small gear with 10 teeth drives a large gear with 30 teeth. If the small gear turns three times, how many times does the large gear turn? Worked answer: Count the teeth that pass, not the gears. The small gear delivers 10 × 3 = 30 teeth; the large gear turns once per 30 teeth it receives, so it turns once. The general rule — a bigger driven gear turns more slowly — gets you the direction of the answer, but the tooth count is what makes it exact.

Assembling Objects

What it asks: the ability to determine how an object will look when its parts are put together. Sample: You are shown several parts and, separately, several assembled shapes. Which assembled shape can be built from exactly those parts? Worked answer: Attack it by elimination and by counting. First, check the number and kind of parts: a shape built from a part you were not given is wrong immediately. Then check orientation — a piece that would have to be flipped, or that locks into a joint it does not have, rules the shape out. What is left, fits. This subtest is spatial, but the discipline is the same one you use everywhere else: rule out what cannot be true rather than trying to picture the whole thing at once.

These are illustrations, not a bank

Ten examples cannot tell you your score, and they are not the questions you will see. What they can do is show you the shape of each subtest so nothing is unfamiliar on test day. The real work is the free practice sets — one per topic, each with a hint and a full explanation on every question:

How to study for the ASVAB turns those sets into an order that targets what you actually get wrong.

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