The Paragraph Comprehension subtest is an important part of your AFQT score, which is the most important score because it determines whether a particular branch of service lets you join. The score is so important that I plan to keep on repeating it until you’re mumbling “The AFQT is the most important score” in your sleep.
The vast majority of military jobs require a decent score on the Paragraph Comprehension subtest. In fact, you’ll have a hard time qualifying for any branch if the ASVAB shows the military that you won’t understand the written orders you’ll receive. For example, if the directions in a military recipe make your head spin, how are you going to use it to cook an edible meal for 2,000 troops? (Assuming you want to become a military cook, that is.) Table 5-1 shows the military job qualification line scores that are calculated by using your Paragraph Comprehension subtest score.
Chapter 2 has more information about military line scores. See Appendix A for more information on the scores you need to get the job you want.
TABLE 5-1 Military Line Scores That Use the Paragraph Comprehension Score
| Branch of Service | Line Score |
|---|---|
| U.S. Army | Clerical, General Technical, Operators and Food, Surveillance and Communications, and Skilled Technical |
| U.S. Air Force | Administrative and General |
| U.S. Navy and Coast Guard | Administrative, General Technical, Health, and Nuclear |
| U.S. Marine Corps | General Technical and Clerical |
Eyeing the Physique of the Paragraph Comprehension Subtest
When you get to the Paragraph Comprehension subtest, you have several passages to read. Most passages are only one paragraph long, and rarely are they longer than two paragraphs. Each passage contains between 50 and 200 words. (Look at it this way: At least you won’t be required to read War and Peace!)
The ASVAB test authors may ask you to answer only one question about a given reading passage, or they may ask you to answer as many as five questions about one passage. Unfortunately, this subtest doesn’t consist of the most interesting passages you’ll ever read. (You won’t find paragraphs from your favorite sci-fi novel here.) It’s important that you set your attention span dial to the maximum setting. On the paper-and-pencil version, you have 13 minutes to answer 15 questions. If you’re taking the computerized version of the ASVAB, you have 27 minutes to read the passages and answer 10 questions. If you get tryout questions in the Paragraph Comprehension subtest of the CAT-ASVAB, you have 75 minutes to complete 25 questions. I cover tryout questions in Chapter 1.
In order to understand what you read — which is what the Paragraph Comprehension subtest is all about — you need to develop several abilities, which I cover later in this chapter:
Finding the main idea or argument that the author is making
Remembering specific details about the reading
Drawing conclusions from what you’ve read
Understanding relationships between ideas
Paraphrasing or summarizing what you’ve read
Trying the Four Flavors of Comprehension Questions
The Paragraph Comprehension questions on the ASVAB usually take one of four forms:
Finding specific information
Recognizing the main idea
Determining word meaning in context
Drawing an implication from a stated idea
Each type of question asks you to perform a different kind of analysis of the reading passage. If a passage has more than one question associated with it, chances are each question falls under a different category. The following sections spell out the differences among these four types of questions.
Treasure hunt: Finding specific information
This type of Paragraph Comprehension question asks you to pick out (you guessed it) specific information from a passage. Sounds easy, right? Take a look at the following passage, which clearly states the answer to the question that directly follows it:
An industry trade association found that more than 13,000 martial arts schools exist in the United States with nearly 6 million active members. Of the 13,000 schools, nearly 7,000 offered tae kwon do lessons.
(A) 13,000
(B) 7,000
(C) 6 million
(D) It can’t be determined.
The correct answer is Choice (C).
At times, the information that a question asks about isn’t directly stated in the question, but you can infer the information from the text. Remember, in the military, the only easy day was yesterday.
Cutting to the chase: Recognizing the main idea
Sometimes the Paragraph Comprehension questions ask you to identify the main point of a passage. The main point can be directly stated, or it can be implied.
If the shoe fits: Determining word meaning in context
Sometimes the Paragraph Comprehension subtest asks you to determine the meaning of a word when it’s used in a passage. The correct definition that the question is looking for can be the most common meaning of the word, or it can be a less well-known meaning. In either case, you have to read the passage, make sure you understand how the word is being used, and select the answer option that’s closest