Did you do well on this practice exam? I sure hope so! Use this answer key to score the practice exam in Chapter 21.

The AFQT isn’t scored based on number correct, number wrong, or even percent of questions correct. Instead, the score is derived by comparing your raw score with the raw score of others who have taken the test before you. In determining the raw score, harder questions are worth more points than easier questions. (For more on scoring, turn to Chapter 1.)

Don’t waste time trying to equate your score on this practice test with your potential score on the actual AFQT. It can’t be done. Instead, use the results of this practice test to determine which areas you should devote more study time to.

Subtest 1: Arithmetic Reasoning Answers

How’d you do on this subtest? If you don’t feel so good about the results, you may want to put off taking the real ASVAB until you feel more confident about your math skills. In addition to reviewing Chapters 6 and 7, you may want to find a tutor or a class that can help you brush up on the basics. I can’t stress enough how important it is to score well on this subtest.

1. C. If Mike has 15 dimes, he has in dimes. Subtract that from the total to find out how much he has in quarters: Then, divide that result by $0.25 to determine how many quarters he has: .
2. B. The percent increase is the amount of increase, $25, divided by the original amount, $500: . Convert 0.05 to a percent by multiplying 0.05 by 100 to get 5 percent.
3. B. The probability of randomly selecting a dime is equal to the number of dimes in the bag, 5, divided by the total number of coins in the bag, 20: .
4. B. If 1 gallon contains 4 quarts, 2 gallons contain 8 quarts. Multiply that number by the number of pints per quart, 2, to get 16 pints in 8 quarts.
5. B. Use the interest formula where I is the interest, P is the principal, r is the interest rate (as a decimal), and t is the time in years.
   
6. D. Convert miles to feet by multiplying 1.2 miles by the conversion factor, 5,280 feet:
7. D. According to the chart, 53 percent of the attendees were women. Multiply the percent of women (0.53) by the number of attendees (200): .
8. B. Subtract the purchase amounts ($22 and $8) from the amount in your checking account: . Then add the amount of deposit: .
9. B. The probability of choosing one of the six left-handed students in the class (remember, it’s a class of 30, and 24 students are right-handed) is easy to find. Because students are left-handed, reduce the fraction to come up with the probability. . You have a one-in-five chance of randomly choosing a leftie.
10. D. Each total load costs $3.25 . Multiply that by 4 to get the total cost of all your laundry: . You might be better off taking it to your parents’ house, where it’s free (and your mom feeds you)!
11. B. Convert the minutes to hours by dividing 12 by 60: . Use the distance formula, , to find the distance in miles that she walked: .
12. A. Use the Pythagorean theorem, , to find the length of the diagonal, c:

    

    Use the positive answer because length is always positive.

13. C. For the first picture to be hung on the wall, there are three choices. After he hangs the first picture, there are two choices left for the second picture, and then one choice left for the last picture. Multiply to find the number of different ways he can arrange the three pictures: .
14. D. The easiest way to figure out how much the cleaning company would charge is to first determine how much it charges per square foot. Divide $600 by 4,800 to find that out: per square foot. You want the company to clean 12,000 square feet, so multiply that number by the per-square-foot rate:
15. A. Kendra earned for the 40 hours she worked. Her overtime pay rate is per hour. She earned an additional in overtime pay. Her total pay last week was .
16. B. Seventy-five percent of the total amount of water the tub will hold, x, is equal to 600 gallons. You can represent this fact with the equation . Solve the equation to determine how many gallons the tub holds when full:
    

    The full hot tub holds 800 gallons of water. Half of 800 gallons is 400 gallons.

17. A. Let q equal the number of quarters and d equal the number of dimes. The value of the quarters is 25q, and the value of the dimes is 10d. So the value of dimes and quarters is .

    You also know that the total number of coins is 15, so . You can rearrange this equation to isolate q: . Now you can substitute that for the q in the first equation and solve for d:

    
18. B. Use the formula for a rectangle, , to find the area of the table top: The formula for the area of a square is , where s is the length of one side. Use it to find the area of the game board: Then you can find the amount of area not covered by the game board by subtracting the area of the game board from the area of the table top:
19. C. Let x represent the distance between the cities on the map. Write and solve an equation to find x:
    
20. C. Let x represent Kenneth’s age. You can then write Jake’s age as x + 4 and Alicia’s age as x – 2. The sum of their ages is 38. Write and solve an equation to find x:
    
21. A. The area of a circle is . If the radius is 10 feet, then the area is Multiply the area by the cost per square foot: .
22. C. John took six quizzes in science class. To find his average, first add all of his scores together: . Then, divide that number by 6 (the number of quizzes John took):
    

    His average score was 7.5.

23. C. Subtract the $15 base fee from $75 to find Robert’s total hourly earnings: . Divide $60 by $20 to find the number of half-hours that he worked: half-hours. Three half-hours equal 1.5 hours, so add this amount of time to 8:45 a.m. to discover that he finished the job at 10:15 a.m.
24. D. If two angles are supplementary, the sum of their measures is equal to . To find the supplement of angle P, subtract its measure from : . Angle Q is less than half the supplement of angle P, so divide by 2 and then subtract : .

25. C. Write the fraction of points scored by Rose as a percent: .

    Together, Rose and Carla scored of the points scored by the team. So the percentage of points not scored by either player is .

26. C. This problem uses the distance formula: . John’s distance is the product of his rate (3.5 mph) and the time (2 hours): . Garret’s distance is the product of his rate (4.25 mph) and the time (2 hours): . After 2 hours, they’re .
27. B. Use the formula , where a is the amount of time Jim takes to repair the unit and b is the amount of time Kyle takes to repair the unit:
    

    To figure out how many minutes are in of an hour, multiply that fraction by 60 minutes:

    

    An alternate way to solve this problem is by finding out how much Jim and Kyle can do in the same unit of time, such as 1 hour. Jim can do half of a heating unit in 1 hour, while Kyle can do one-third of a heating unit in 1 hour. Adding their times in a formula like this can be very useful:

    

    Together, they can do of a unit in 1 hour, leaving of the unit to go. It takes 12 minutes longer for them to finish the unit , which tells you that they need 12 more minutes).

28. D. To find the length of one side of the square, find the square root of the area: Multiply the side length by 4 to find the perimeter: .
29. C. Let x represent the amount of water to be added to the 20 percent mixture, and then make a chart to help solve the problem.

    

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    From the table, you know that the amount of added water is 100x, and the amount of juice is . The sum of these two amounts is equal to the amount of mixture, . Write and solve an equation to find x:

    

30. B. The number of different trucks David can choose from is the product of the number of colors (3) and the number of drive options (2). So he has choices of trucks.

    Similarly, the number of sedans he can choose from is the product of the number of colors (4) and drive options (2). So he has choices of sedans.

    The total number of options is the sum of the number of choices of trucks and sedans: .

Subtest 2: Word Knowledge Answers

As with all AFQT subtests, the Word Knowledge subtest determines whether you qualify for enlistment. If you’re not seeing improvement in your scores, work with a partner who can quiz you on vocabulary words. I also recommend reviewing the vocabulary lists in Chapter 4 several times a week.

1. B

2. C

3. A

4. C

5. C

6. B

7. A

8. B

9. D

10. B

11. A

12. C

13. D

14. C

15. D

16. C

17. A

18. B

19. C

20. D

21. B

22. D

23. C

24. A

25. B

26. D

27. D

28. B

29. C

30. D

31. C

32. B

33. D

34. B

35. A

Subtest 3: Paragraph Comprehension Answers

If you’re struggling with this subtest, remember to take your time when you read the passages. Then read the question and go back and skim the passage to confirm that you’re choosing the correct answer.

1. C. The author doesn’t explicitly state that California changed Terry, but you can infer the correct answer from the phrase “too much for their beach bum mentality.” Based on that phrase and the distinction between sunny California and the worst winter, you can determine that the weather in California had ruined her ability to handle cold weather. The other answer choices can’t be inferred from the limited information given in the paragraph.
2. B. You may think that the paragraph is about the increased number of pets in American households, but that’s only a small piece of information. The other information about pets in shelters and rescue facilities dominates the rest of the paragraph, with the main idea presented in the last sentence. All the information supports the idea that Americans need to adopt more rescue pets.
3. D. You’ll notice that all the percentage numbers fall within the middle two sentences. You may be tempted by Choice (A), but read carefully and you’ll see that it’s the total number of households with pets, not the number with rescue pets.
4. A. The paragraph describes how the artists were known for their preference, or inclination, for undertaking these large and unconventional projects.
5. C. The passage states that shoes last six months for average use, so that’s the only information that could lead to a logical assumption about Tara or her shoes. The other answers aren’t related to the presented information.
6. C. The passage says that De Niro was nominated for six other awards in addition to the Oscar he won in 1975. That makes seven nominations in all.
7. B. Although Tiffany certainly seems to have bad luck with flights, the passage describes the different inclement weather conditions for her region. The use of “sometimes” at the end signifies its unpredictability.
8. D. The passage states that the thunderstorm caused her flight to be delayed for five hours, which is the meaning of postponed.
9. B. The term centennial means 100 years, but even if you didn’t know this fact, you read that the people gathered in 1961 to celebrate a war that started a hundred years earlier, in 1861.
10. B. The passage provides safe driving tips for snowy conditions in order to prevent safety hazards. The first part of the first sentence states the focus.
11. A. The passage describes what to do and what not to do when driving in snow. The author explains the results of each action. Therefore, you can infer that knowing what actions are dangerous in the snow will help you drive more safely.
12. D. If back-to-school shopping has begun, the beginning of school must be around the corner. Nothing in the passage suggests any of the other answers are correct.
13. A. The passage states that 532 of his designs were developed.
14. D. The last sentence of the passage says that Frank Lloyd Wright is as famous as Bruce Springsteen. You can infer that his career is famous as well.
15. C. The passage states that sailors and skiers share similar feelings toward their respective fellow athletes. Sailors don’t like to share the water with motorboaters, so the inference you can draw is that skiers don’t like to share the mountain with snowboarders.

Subtest 4: Mathematics Knowledge Answers

If you’re missing too many math questions, keep studying, and consider asking someone who excels in math to help you grasp the basic concepts. If your scores are improving, keep doing what you’re doing right up until test day.

1. A. The value of is equal to –5 multiplied by itself three times:
   
2. B. To get x alone on one side of the inequality, divide both sides of the inequality by 2:
   
3. C. This one is simple addition.
4. C. The digit 4 is in the tens place, the digit 5 is in the ones place, the digit 2 is in the tenths place, and the digit 1 is in the hundredths place.
5. C. Locate point P by starting at the origin and moving along the x-axis until you’re even with point P. That’s the –3 mark, so –3 is your x coordinate. Now move along the y-axis until you reach point P. It’s at the 2 mark, so 2 is the y coordinate.

   

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6. C. Divide 11 by 4 using long division.
   
7. D. To get y by itself on one side of the equal sign, add 2 to both sides of the equation: . The –2 and 2 on the left side cancel each other, so .
8. B. The formula for the circumference of a circle is Substitute 9.24 for C and 3.14 for and then solve for d by dividing both sides by 3.14.
   
9. C. Write 28 percent as a decimal: . Multiply: .
10. C. To multiply terms with the same base, add the exponents:
    

    Simplify:

11. A. This expression has two pairs of like terms. First, 2 and 4 are like terms and have a sum of 6. The terms 2y and y are also like terms and have a sum of 3y (remember that y is the same as 1y).
12. D. The sum of the angles of a triangle is always equal to . To find the value of x, subtract and from : .
13. C. Using the order of operations, simplify inside the parentheses first: . The expression 3! is the product of all whole numbers from 3 down to 1: .
14. C. To add these fractions, you have to find their common denominator, which is the least common multiple (LCM) of all three denominators. In this case, the common denominator is 16. Multiply the numerator and denominator of each fraction by the number that makes each denominator 16. (You don’t have to do anything to the middle fraction because it already has the common denominator.)
    
15. A. The factors of a number are all the numbers, including the number and 1, that divide into the number without a remainder. The number 51 has four factors: 1, 3, 17, and 51.
16. B. Write this sentence as an equation, using x to represent the percent you’re trying to find: . Divide both sides by 0.9 to get x alone on one side of the equal sign.
    

    You convert the decimal 0.45 to a percent by multiplying 0.45 by 100: .

17. B. If two angles are complementary, the sum of their measures is . Because the measure of angle P is , you find the complement of angle P by subtracting its measure from .
18. D. Because the triangle is a right triangle, you need the Pythagorean theorem: . You know the lengths of side a and the hypotenuse (c), so plug those values into the theorem and solve for b:
    

    Use the positive answer because a length is never negative.

19. D. When you decrease something, you’re subtracting from it. In this instance, you’re taking 11 away from x; that means you have . “Is” means “equals” in mathematical terms (and you know that every equation must have an equal sign). “Twice x” means 2x. Your equation will look like this: .
20. D. The mean is the sum of all values divided by the number of values, or the average. First, find the sum of the values: . Because there are six values, you’ll set this side of the equation up as a fraction:
    

    You already know the answer to the equation is 7.5, so your equation will look like this:

    
21. A. Use the order of operations: simplify inside the parentheses first, compute all exponents next, multiply and divide from left to right after that, and then add and subtract from left to right:
    
22. A. First, use the distributive property to remove the parentheses: . Then, simplify by adding 9 and 8 to get .
23. C. The formula for the volume of a right cylinder is . Substitute into the formula:
    

    Reorder the terms:

    
24. B. You can break the figure down into a rectangle on the left with dimensions 7.5 cm by 10 cm and a right triangle on the right whose base is and whose height is .

    

    © John Wiley & Sons Inc.

    The area of the rectangle is , and the area of the triangle is . Add the two areas to find the total area:

25. A. The problem only gives you the number of boys, so first you have to find the number of girls by subtracting 140 from 260: . When you need to express the number of girls to boys as a fraction, there are 120 girls for every 140 boys; that means 120:140 or , which simplifies to .

    On the ASVAB, you have to pay close attention to wording; if they’d asked for the ratio of boys to girls, Choice (B) would’ve been correct.