Which Math Topics Should I Study for the ASVAB Exam?
If you are dreaming about a career in the United States Armed Services, then you will have to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery.
The ASVAB exam is the military portion of an entrance exam and tests you on the different topics that you have learned throughout your high school education.
The math portion in particular stumps many students because the use of a calculator is now allowed.
My goal is to show you how to study for this exam and be confident solving problems in your head or using pen and paper.
The best way to learn something of course is to practice.
This means that in order to succeed with the math sections, both Arithmetic Reasoning and Mathematics Knowledge, you will have to do practice problems.
To ensure that you are comfortable with the material, you will do these problems WITHOUT using a calculator.
The best place to find ASVAB style practice questions is to check your school's library or local library and pick up a sixth or seventh grade math book.
Now you may think sixth or seventh grade is a lower level than the actual ASVAB.
However, don't forget that these sixth graders and seventh graders are allowed to use a calculator and you are not.
When you do these problems, you will likely find them more difficult given that you have to solve them by hand.
Start from the beginning going through the basic topics and see if you can figure out how to get the answers without a calculator.
Topics include algebra, ratios, fractions, proportions, percentages, and even some trigonometry.
Keep in mind that your answer does not have to be 100 percent accurate.
On the ASVAB, the choices will be different enough allowing you to select the correct answer choice even when you have not found a 100% accurate result.
As long as you are close enough to the actual value, (by rounding and simplification) you will be able to rule out the far-off incorrect choices so that only the correct response remains.
This allows you to round difficult numbers simplifying them to a form that is easily manipulated or calculated when using just pen and paper.
For example, if you have to multiply a number such as 2.
11 times 7.
8, you can round the 2.
11 down to 2, round the 783 up to 8.
Suddenly you went from a long mathematical equation that would take you so long to write out to something as simple as 2 times 8 which is 16.
The actual answer is 16.
5 which is close enough.
The ASVAB exam is the military portion of an entrance exam and tests you on the different topics that you have learned throughout your high school education.
The math portion in particular stumps many students because the use of a calculator is now allowed.
My goal is to show you how to study for this exam and be confident solving problems in your head or using pen and paper.
The best way to learn something of course is to practice.
This means that in order to succeed with the math sections, both Arithmetic Reasoning and Mathematics Knowledge, you will have to do practice problems.
To ensure that you are comfortable with the material, you will do these problems WITHOUT using a calculator.
The best place to find ASVAB style practice questions is to check your school's library or local library and pick up a sixth or seventh grade math book.
Now you may think sixth or seventh grade is a lower level than the actual ASVAB.
However, don't forget that these sixth graders and seventh graders are allowed to use a calculator and you are not.
When you do these problems, you will likely find them more difficult given that you have to solve them by hand.
Start from the beginning going through the basic topics and see if you can figure out how to get the answers without a calculator.
Topics include algebra, ratios, fractions, proportions, percentages, and even some trigonometry.
Keep in mind that your answer does not have to be 100 percent accurate.
On the ASVAB, the choices will be different enough allowing you to select the correct answer choice even when you have not found a 100% accurate result.
As long as you are close enough to the actual value, (by rounding and simplification) you will be able to rule out the far-off incorrect choices so that only the correct response remains.
This allows you to round difficult numbers simplifying them to a form that is easily manipulated or calculated when using just pen and paper.
For example, if you have to multiply a number such as 2.
11 times 7.
8, you can round the 2.
11 down to 2, round the 783 up to 8.
Suddenly you went from a long mathematical equation that would take you so long to write out to something as simple as 2 times 8 which is 16.
The actual answer is 16.
5 which is close enough.
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