Study Skills & Test Prep Articles

Article / Updated 10-18-2023

After you’ve identified which ASVAB subjects you’re the weakest in, concentrate on boosting your abilities in those areas to improve your overall success on the exam. These tips can point you in the right direction as you study: Check out library books about the specific subject you’re struggling with, such as human anatomy or beginner’s electronics. Review reliable online sources related to ASVAB subjects. Ask someone in your community to tutor you. For example, get your Uncle Joe to show you the parts under the hood of his prized Camaro. Study with a buddy. Saying things out loud can help with memorization. Not to mention, studying with someone else makes you more accountable and can even make learning fun.

Article / Updated 10-18-2023

Many subtests in the ASVAB, such as General Science, Mechanical Comprehension, Electronics Information, and Auto and Shop Information, are hard to ace because you probably didn’t learn much about them in high school. So you may need to memorize facts and illustrations to do well in the areas of the ASVAB that you aren’t familiar with. Use these ten study methods to trick your brain into remembering all the things you need to know to get an excellent score on the ASVAB: Acronyms: An acronym uses the initial or important letters of a phrase to create an easily memorable abbreviation, such as PEMDAS to help remember the order of operations in mathematics (parenthesis, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction). Acrostics: This mnemonic device uses a group of words that start with particular letters to convey a meaning, such as the newly revised acrostic “My Very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nothing,” to help you remember the eight planets (sans Pluto): Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Categorizing: Mentally dividing information into categories can help you remember similarities and differences. For example, studying plants and animals separately may help you remember photosynthesis, which occurs in plants, not animals. Chunking: Especially helpful with numbers, chunking is the process of breaking big chunks of information into smaller segments. For example, you can break larger numbers into shorter segments to help you remember them. That’s why you memorize phone numbers by saying “five, five, five, (pause) one, two, three, four.” Loci method: This mnemonic device helps you remember something if you can associate that thing with a familiar place (loci means “location”). For example, if you visualize E = MC2 spray-painted on your bedroom wall, you’re sure to see that picture when you close your eyes, which helps you memorize that formula. Q and A: Question-and-answer practice is a good study tool for memory if you have more than one person available to quiz you. Get the most out of this study technique by using it together with the re-review method later in this list. Recording: Recording yourself reviewing information (such as vocabulary definitions) and then playing it back aids in memory retention. Re-review: Reviewing new information more than once in the same day helps set that information in your brain more effectively than waiting a few days to look over it. Rhymes: Rhyming with catchy phrases and sentences is an easy way to retain information. For example, “i before e except after c” is a popular rhyme used to help spell some words in the English language. Visualizing: Creating mental pictures of different concepts you want to memorize makes remembering them easier. For instance, picturing yourself running a marathon, exhausted and out of breath, may help you remember that the exhaust of a car is the tailpipe that blows out the smoke.

Article / Updated 10-18-2023

An ASVAB study schedule is imperative to your success. No matter how many days are left until test day, you can use this guide to help structure your plan. If you’re a few months out, use this study guide and take your time to really pinpoint the areas that need the most attention. If you don’t have much time to spare, jump to the end of this schedule, pump out that extra effort, and eat, sleep, and breathe ASVAB from now until test day! One month before test day You have 30 days until test day. Let the studying begin! Take an ASVAB practice exam and score yourself on each subtest. Rank each subtest: 1 through 4 for each AFQT subtest (Word Knowledge, Paragraph Comprehension, Mathematics Knowledge, and Arithmetic Reasoning), and 1 through 5 for the specialty subtests, with 1 being the lowest rank. Spend the most time studying for the areas you ranked the lowest, giving special attention to the AFQT subjects, such as Mathematics Knowledge and Arithmetic Reasoning. For the remainder of your time, concentrate on the specialty subjects, such as Electronics Information, especially if you know your desired military jobs require a specific score, or if you want to ace the ASVAB. Two weeks before test day You’re in the home stretch. Try not to get nervous if you don’t know some of the material as well as you’d like. Use these strategies to boost your confidence: Take the same ASVAB practice exam you took at the beginning of your study plan, scoring each subtest the same way as before. Compare your new (and hopefully improved) practice test scores to the original scores. Note any improvements you’ve made within each subtest. Note the struggles you’re having in specific areas and write them down. For example, you may still have a hard time dividing fractions, memorizing planets, identifying vehicle parts, or learning suffixes. Spend the next two weeks fine-tuning the areas that need improvement. If you scored very high on any specific subtest (as in, you missed only one or two questions), set aside your review of that material in favor of spending time on topics that you still feel shaky about. Periodically check your ASVAB growth by trying out another practice test so you can see your progress. Feel confident that your hard work will pay off and don’t give up. Note: If you’re just now starting to study for the ASVAB, don’t panic. Take a practice exam and score each subtest to see where you need to focus your time in the next two weeks. Then get studying! One day before test day If there were ever a time not to stress, this is it. Follow these suggestions to prepare for the big day: Relax and enjoy your day because the last thing you need is built-up anxiety. Pack up everything you need to take the test, such as your ID card, any necessary paperwork, directions to the test site, lip balm, reading glasses, car keys, and so on, and be sure to set your alarm. Break down your final study review into two one-hour sessions: During the first hour, concentrate on your weak subjects. Read over the types of questions and the work you’ve done to prepare for them. Then take a break. During the second hour, look over the highlights and any notes you have for each subtest. Stay hydrated with plenty of water. Get at least eight hours of rest.

Article / Updated 10-18-2023

Some math problems on the ASVAB AFQT will require you to apply formulas to solve real-world problems. It's important to not only be familiar with these formulas, but also to know when and how to apply them. Practice exercise In the following practice exercise, you need to match the word problem to the appropriate formula. (You don't actually need to solve the problems—this exercise is just to test your ability to choose the right formula.) When you're finished, check the "Answers and explanations" that follow. Answers and explanations The correct answer is Choice E.The problem asks you to find the circumference of a circle, and the formula for that is where C represents circumference and r represents the circle's radius. Remember, the radius of a circle is half its diameter. The correct answer is Choice C.The formula to solve a work problem that asks you how long it will take two people together to accomplish a task is The correct answer is Choice A.Investment and loan problems can typically be solved with the interest formula, which is I = prt. I stands for interest, p represents the principal, r represents the interest rate, and t represents the amount of time you're evaluating. The correct answer is Choice B.When a problem asks you, "How many square feet … ," it's looking for an area. The formula for the area of a rectangle is A = lw, where A represents area, l represents length, and w represents width. The correct answer is Choice D.In this problem, you need to use the formula for the volume of a cube, which is V = s3, where V represents volume and s represents the length of a side.

Article / Updated 10-18-2023

The Word Knowledge subtest of the ASVAB AFQT will contain some questions that ask you to define an underlined word in a sentence. Even if you don't know the word's meaning, you should be able to figure it out based on its context within the sentence. If you're unsure about your context skills, try the following practice exercise to test them. Practice exercise The following chart contains five sentences, each of which contains an underlined word. Copy the chart onto a sheet of paper. Then, based on each sentence, write your definition in the "Your Definition" column. Then look up the word in the dictionary (or check the definitions under "Answers and explanations") to find out how close you were. In the "Dictionary Definition" column, write the official definition; this will help you to remember it. Sentence Your Definition Dictonary Definition 1. Smoking has deleterious effects on your health. 2. The topic was too serious for her to be so facetious. 3. The English lexicon contains hundreds of thousands of words. 4. She told him not to plagiarize, but he copied the text anyway. 5. The commander didn't want to capitulate, but the general told him to surrender. Answers and explanations Deleterious is an adjective that means causing harm or damage. Facetious is an adjective that means treating serious issues with deliberately inappropriate humor. Lexicon is a noun that means the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge. Plagiarize is a verb that means to take someone else's work or idea and pass it off as one's own. Capitulate is a verb that means to cease to resist or to surrender.

Article / Updated 10-18-2023

Anything that saves you time and brain power on the ASVAB AFQT Mathematics Knowledge subtest is useful for two reasons: first, because you're working on a limited time budget, and second, because you can't use a calculator. That's where math properties, like the commutative and associative properties, can help. The commutative and associative properties let you break the rules about adding or multiplying from left to right: The commutative property of addition says you can rearrange the numbers you're adding without changing the result. Similarly, the associative property of addition lets you decide how to group the numbers you're adding. Together, these properties let you add a string of numbers in whatever order you like. For example, you can make calculations easier by pairing up numbers whose ones digits add up to 10 before adding other numbers in the list. Because subtracting is essentially the same thing as adding a negative number, you can extend these addition properties to subtraction problems, too — just be careful to keep track of the negative signs. The following example shows how smart groupings can let you add and subtract figures faster. Notice which calculations are easier to do in your head. Similarly, the commutative and associative properties of multiplication let you multiply numbers in any order you like. Check out how switching the numbers around can make mental math easier: You can even use these multiplication properties with division, as long as you remember that division is the same thing as multiplying by a fraction:

Article / Updated 10-05-2023

The Reading Comprehension portion of the GMAT is about 12 questions (more or less) in the Verbal section. In Reading Comprehension, you are shown a reading passage of one to three paragraphs, along with between two and six questions about each passage. You can refer to the passage while you answer each question about it. Practice questions Both practice questions are based on the following passage. The "morning star" isn't a star; it's always a planet. And sometimes two Morning Stars appear at once, such as Mercury and Venus. The same idea applies to the "evening star": You're seeing a planet, and you may see more than one. "Shooting stars" and "falling stars" are misnomers, too. These "stars" are meteors — the flashes of light caused by small meteoroids falling through Earth's atmosphere. Many of the "superstars" you see on television may be just flashes in the pan, but they at least get 15 minutes of fame. — From Astronomy For Dummies, by Stephen P. Maran Which of the following titles would be the most appropriate for the contents of this passage? A. 15 Minutes of Celestial FameB. What Was That Flash? C. Explaining the Evening Star D. Don't Wish on the Morning Star! E. Some Stars Aren't What You Think! Which of the following situations is most similar to that described in the bolded section? A. A group of teenagers identifying the constellations in the sky based on what they learned in their freshman year science class.B. A couple looks through a telescope to try to see Jupiter's rings but the sky is too cloudy. C. A group of people on a boat spot what they think is a pack of dolphins in the ocean in the distance, but the captain informs them they're actually looking at buoys bouncing in the water. D. A man thinks he won the city marathon but he actually misread his time and came in second. E. A group of friends follow what they think is the sound of a band playing, and end up dancing the night away at a club. Answers and explanations The correct answer is E. The best title captures some understanding of the main point of the passage, which is that the Evening and Morning Stars are not actually stars at all. Choice (E) is the best of the answers here. The correct answer is C. The passage describes mistaking one thing for another, which is clarified by an expert (in that case, the author). Choice (C) describes a similar phenomenon.

Article / Updated 10-05-2023

Most questions on the GRE are multiple choice. Most require you to select the one best answer choice, but some require you to select two or more answers. The questions that require two or more answers are easy to spot because the answer choices have small check boxes (rather than ovals or words to select) and the directions say, “Pick two answers” or “Pick all applicable answers.” To help you select the correct answer(s), keep these tips in mind: If you don’t know the answer, rule out as many obviously incorrect choices as possible and guess from the remaining choices. Don’t spend more than 2 or 3 minutes on any one question. Guess an answer, mark the question for review, and come back to it at the end of the section. As long as you have time left in that section, you can revisit previous questions. Guessing an answer is better than leaving the question unanswered. A wrong answer counts the same as no answer, so there’s no harm in guessing. You may as well throw the mental dice and try to get it right—just mark it for review and come back to it later during that section.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 10-05-2023

Although there's no shortcut to success on the math sections of the SAT, you can study and prepare in order to get the best SAT score you possibly can. Knowing what will be on the test (and what won't be) is key so you know what to brush up on. Also, some basic strategy goes a long way toward helping you get the best score you can. Finally, mapping out a time-management plan to answer (and skip!) the right questions can really boost your score.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 10-02-2023

Taking a state real estate exam is necessary for becoming a licensed real estate agent. Every state requires real estate agents to have a license — and to take and pass a state examination to get that license. You need to cover a lot of ground in preparation for the test, but your efforts are well rewarded by a fun, exciting career.