The short version. The ASVAB is one test split into ten timed parts. Four of them — arithmetic reasoning, mathematics knowledge, paragraph comprehension and word knowledge — are combined into a score called the AFQT. That score decides whether you are eligible to enlist. The other six are not part of that score. The ASVAB program says the test is used both to determine enlistment eligibility and to assign applicants to military jobs, so the rest of it still bears on what you are offered once you are in.
What the test is for
The ASVAB is used to work out two different things at once, and almost every confusion about it comes from mixing them up.
The first is simple: can you enlist at all? That question is answered by the AFQT score, and the AFQT comes from four parts of the test. The second is: which jobs are open to you? The ASVAB program says scores are used to assign applicants to military jobs as well as to determine eligibility, and each service decides for itself how to read them. Which parts weigh on a particular job is a question for a recruiter, not for a prep site.
So the test is not pass or fail. There is no line you cross. Your AFQT comes back as a number from 1 to 99 — a rank against a reference group, not a percentage of questions you got right — and the service decides what it will accept.
The four parts that decide whether you get in
These are the AFQT parts. On the computer version of the test:
- Arithmetic Reasoning — 15 questions, 55 minutes. Everyday word problems: rates, percentages, how much is left. No calculator.
- Mathematics Knowledge — 15 questions, 31 minutes. School mathematics asked directly: solve for x, find the area, what is the third angle.
- Paragraph Comprehension — 10 questions, 27 minutes. A short passage, then a question about what it actually says.
- Word Knowledge — 15 questions, 9 minutes. The closest meaning to a given word. Nine minutes is not a typo.
Those four are what this site drills, because they are the ones that decide eligibility.
The six parts that decide the job
- General Science — 15 questions, 12 minutes. Biology, chemistry, earth science at school level.
- Electronics Information — 15 questions, 10 minutes. Circuits, current, components.
- Auto Information — 10 questions, 7 minutes. How a vehicle works.
- Shop Information — 10 questions, 6 minutes. Tools and shop practice.
- Mechanical Comprehension — 15 questions, 22 minutes. Levers, pulleys, gears — mostly drawings.
- Assembling Objects — 15 questions, 18 minutes. Spatial puzzles, entirely drawings.
Two notes that matter if you test on paper instead of a computer: auto and shop information are combined into a single part, and assembling objects is not given at all.
"Will I fail because I did not study those six?" No — they cannot stop you enlisting. What they can bear on is the job you are offered once you are in. If a specific job is your reason for joining, ask a recruiter which parts it draws on, and study those too. If your first goal is simply to qualify, the four AFQT parts are the ones that decide it.
How long the whole thing takes
The ten time limits on the computer version add up to 197 minutes, and each part is timed on its own — minutes left over in one do not carry into the next. That is why the nine-minute word knowledge section catches people who are comfortable with the material: there is no spare time to move into it from anywhere else.
Where you take it
Most testing happens at a Military Entrance Processing Station, and every one of those uses the computer version. If you do not live near one, you may test at a satellite location called a MET site, and most of those use paper and pencil. The official position is that scores from the two should be very similar, so there is no easier version to look for.
On the computer version the test adapts to you: answer well and the questions get harder. On paper, everybody gets the same questions.
What to do first
Take a timed practice run of the four AFQT parts and look at the four scores separately rather than the total. Almost everybody is well behind on one of them, and it is usually not the one they expected. Then work that part until it catches up with the others — and only then worry about pace.
See where you stand
The four parts that decide eligibility, 330 questions, every answer explained. First five free, no account, no card.