Chapter 3

Word Knowledge

Know What to Expect

One of the subsections of the ASVAB evaluates your ability to identify the meanings of words. This section, called the Word Knowledge (WK) section, is essentially a test of your vocabulary. However, that’s not the entire story. While knowing the definitions of many words will certainly help you in this section, there are other ways to identify the correct answer and eliminate the wrong answers in WK questions. This chapter will not only focus on helping you improve your vocabulary, it will also help you develop strategies to guess effectively when you may not know the meanings of the words in the question.

On the WK section of the CAT-ASVAB, you will have 8 minutes to answer 16 vocabulary questions. If you are taking the paper-and-pencil ASVAB, you will be given 11 minutes to complete a total of 35 questions. Whichever version of the test you’re taking, your goal is the same: find the synonym for a given word in a fraction of a minute.

A little more than half of the questions in the WK section will ask you to define words with no context. We’ll call these No-Context WK questions. Here’s an example of this type of question.

1. Gregarious most nearly means
   1. conspicuous
   2. twisting
   3. outgoing
   4. dark

If you happen to know the meaning of the underlined word, fantastic. If not, don’t get discouraged. Although questions of this type do not provide you with context clues, there are decoding strategies, or ways of guessing a word’s meaning, that can help you answer these questions correctly. Decoding strategies that involve understanding words’ prefixes, suffixes, and roots will be a major emphasis of this chapter.

The other type of question you’re likely to see in this section will ask you to define a word that appears in the context of a sentence. We’ll call these In-Context WK questions. Take a look at an example of this type of question:

1. Nomadic tribes often move their villages when the seasons change.
   1. warlike
   2. wandering
   3. exclusive
   4. hasty

Notice that in this type of WK question, you can use clues in the sentence to help you find the word’s meaning. Later in this chapter, we’ll discuss ways to get the most out of each sentence’s context to help you more effectively predict the underlined word’s meaning. Oh, and don’t worry—we’ll be sure to revisit the two questions above later in this chapter.

This chapter includes:

• the Kaplan Method for Word Knowledge Questions
• paraphrasing a word’s meaning
• decoding strategies for guessing a word’s meaning, including:
  • prefixes, suffixes, and word roots
  • loose meaning associations
  • positive and negative charge
  • remembered context
• using context to guess a word’s meaning
• eliminating answer choices based on logic
• strategies for building your vocabulary
• practice questions

Regardless of the type of WK question you’re facing, having a consistent and repeatable method will help you tremendously in this section. Use Kaplan’s 3-Step Method for WK to attack every question you see in your practice; by Test Day, it will be second nature.