Okay so, you have to be prepared for a lot of word problems on the arithmetic reasoning
section on the ASVAB. Here is one example of something that you might see when you take
the ASVAB. "A woman has two bank accounts. One contains three hundred twenty-nine dollars
and awards four percent in interest each month. The other contains nine hundred twenty-one
dollars and awards seven percent in interest each month. What will the combined value of
her two accounts be at the end of the month?" Okay so, it's not really hard, it's just there
are a lot of steps and you don't get to use a calculator. So, here's what I'd say, focus
in. Don't get overwhelmed by all the different things you have to do, start somewhere. So,
start with the first account. That she has three hundred twenty-nine dollars in it and
she earns four percent interest for that month. We only have to find how much she has at the
end of the month. So, just one month. So, to find how much interest she has, you take
her three hundred twenty-nine dollars and multiply it times the four percent. But since
we don't multiply by percents, you have to change that percent to a decimal by moving
that decimal two places to the left. What this is going to give us is how much interest
she earned on that account in that month. Four times nine is thirty-six. Four times
two is eight, plus three is eleven. Four times three is twelve, plus one is thirteen. There
are two numbers behind this decimal, so your answer should have two numbers behind the
decimal. So, in that first account, where she had the three hundred twenty-nine dollars,
she earned thirteen dollars and sixteen cents. To find the total that she has in that account,
you need to add how much she deposited and the interest she earned. And when adding with
decimals, you have to line them up. So, you can add a decimal at the end of three hundred
twenty-nine, put the two zeroes so you can line it up with the thirteen dollars and sixteen
cents. Now we just add, six, one, bring your decimal down, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, carry
your one. One, two, three, four. Okay so, that's account one. In account one at the
end of the month, she had three hundred forty-two dollars and sixteen cents. We're going to
do the same thing with account two, it's just that the numbers are a little different. In
account two she had nine hundred twenty-one dollars and earned seven percent in interest.
So, to find the interest, multiply nine hundred twenty-one times the seven percent interest,
but just like the four percent, you have to change it into a decimal. So, you take this
decimal, move it two places to the left and it's seven-hundredths, now multiply. Also,
I do want to point out, that when we're multiplying with decimals, we don't line up the decimals.
You deal with the decimals at the end in your product. Seven times one is seven. Seven times
two is fourteen. Seven times nine is sixty-three, plus one is sixty-four. Two numbers behind
the decimal, two numbers behind the decimal. So in her second account, she earned sixty-four
dollars and forty-seven cents. To find the total for that account, you just need to add
the nine hundred twenty-one dollars, add that decimal and those zeroes, so you can line
them up, and the sixty-four dollars and forty-seven cents. So we have seven, four, bring down
your decimal, one plus four is five, two plus six is eight, nine hundred eighty-five dollars
and forty-seven cents. Now, they did ask what will the combined value be. So the last thing
we have to do, is add those two totals together. And I'm going to do it up here so I can line
them up. Three hundred forty-two dollars and sixteen cents, and nine hundred eighty-five
dollars and forty-seven cents. Six plus seven is thirteen, carry your one, that's six, bring
down your decimal, two plus five is seven, four plus eight is twelve, carry your one,
nine, ten, thirteen. So, one thousand three hundred twenty-seven dollars and sixty-three
cents. Now, if this were the ASVAB, I probably wouldn't have gone through all of this if
these were my answer choices. You can kind of just reason yourself to the answer. We
know that we want to know the combined value of her two accounts. So if you just add them
without even factoring in the interest, nine hundred twenty-one plus three hundred twenty-nine
is one thousand two hundred fifty dollars. So you already know it can't be A or B, those
are too low, it's not enough. Those two together are going to be more than either one of these
answers. And then C is just the combined total, but it doesn't factor in the interest. So,
then you know C also can't be the answer, which leaves you with the only logical choice,
D. Now, on the actual ASVAB, their answer choices may not be that easily reasoned out,
so you may actually have to work it out, which is why I did that for you, so you could see
how to work it, if the answer choices couldn't be easily eliminated. So, there you have an
example of a word problem of something that the type of thing that you'll see when you
take the arithmetic reasoning section of the ASVAB.
The ASVAB contains two math sections, arithmetic reasoning and mathematical knowledge. Here
is one example of the type of problem you'll see on the arithmetic reasoning section of
the ASVAB. "A woman owns a dog walking business. If two workers can walk eight dogs, how many
dogs can three workers walk?" You see, we have three pieces of information here. We
have two workers walking eight dogs, and then we have how many dogs, that's our question,
what we're trying to find, can three workers walk? So we have workers and dogs, workers,
and we need to find dogs. A lot of times, when you have a question that has three pieces
of information in it, where you're looking for the fourth, you're going to be setting
up a proportion. Two workers can walk eight dogs, that's your first ratio. It's a rate,
two workers for every eight dogs. Now, the key to setting up a proportion is to be consistent.
So, our first ratio we set up as workers to dogs, which means our second ratio must also
be workers to dogs. So, we have three workers can walk how many dogs? Or you can put an
"x" there, your variable, what you're trying to find. Now, how do you solve a proportion?
And there is more than one way, but the way that works every single time is to use cross-products
or cross-multiply. Two times "x" is "2x" and eight times three is twenty-four. The cross-products,
of every proportion, are equal. So now, you just solve for "x" by undoing multiplying
by two, by dividing both sides by two. So, "x" equals twelve. Those three workers can
walk twelve dogs. So, there you have one example of an arithmetic problem that you might see
on the arithmetic reasoning section of the ASVAB.
The arithmetic reasoning section of the ASVAB has a lot of word problems on it. So, get
ready. Here I have an example of the type of word problem that you'll see when taking
the ASVAB. "A steak dinner at a restaurant costs fifteen dollars and ninety-nine cents.
If a man bus a steak dinner for himself and four friends, what will the total cost be?"
So, they're expecting you to not read carefully. They're expecting you to see this fifteen
dollars and ninety-nine cents and this four and then just multiply. So, what you have
to notice is he's buying this steak dinner for himself and four friends, meaning he's
buying a total of five steak dinners. So, we need to multiply that fifteen dollars and
ninety-nine cents times five. Now since you don't get to use a calculator, you need to
be prepared to multiply by hand. Five times nine is forty-five. Five times nine is forty-five,
plus four is forty-nine. Five times five is twenty-five, plus four is twenty-nine. And
five times one is five, plus two is seven. Now, where does the decimal go? When multiplying
with decimals, you count how many numbers are behind the decimals in your factors and
you put that many numbers behind the decimal in your product. There are only two numbers
behind this decimal, and that's the only decimal in my factors. So, my product needs to have
two numbers behind the decimal. So, it's going to cost seventy-nine dollars and ninety-five
cents, which, in this case, would be answer D. So, there you have an example of the type
of word problem that you're going to see on the arithmetic reasoning section of the ASVAB.
Okay so, be prepared on the ASVAB for a lot of word problems. Here is one example of the
type of word problem that you're going to see on the arithmetic reasoning section of
the ASVAB. It says, "Four co-workers contributed two dollars and fifty-eight cents, ten dollars
and twenty cents, nineteen dollars and eighty-nine cents, and twelve dollars and eighty-nine
cents respectively to purchase a retirement gift for their boss. What is the maximum amount
they can spend on a gift?" So, pretty simple, all we have to do is add all these amounts
together. Really, the only thing you need to be thinking about is, lining up the decimals
in these numbers. And you can add them in any order you want, so I usually like to start
with the biggest number for whatever reason. And I'll put the next one underneath that.
Okay, so I'm just adding these together. Keep in mind, you don't get to use a calculator,
so you are going to have to be able to add this stuff on paper. Nine plus nine is eighteen,
eighteen plus eight is twenty-six, carry the two. That's, two and eight is ten, and then
you have another ten here, so ten, twenty-five. You can go ahead and bring that decimal down.
And then we have two, four, six plus nine is fifteen. One, two, three, four. So, the
most they have to spend is forty-five dollars and fifty-six cents. And there you have an
example of a word problem that you could see on the arithmetic reasoning section of the
ASVAB. One of the math sections tested on the ASVAB
is arithmetic reasoning. Since you won't be able to use a calculator, you'll need to be
proficient at adding, subracting, multiplying, and dividing by hand. Here is one example
of a type of problem that you could see on the arithmetic reasoning section of the ASVAB.
"A florist has seven hundred thirty-three flowers. How many full bouquets of sixteen
flowers can he make?" So, he is trying to take these seven hundred thirty-three flowers
and divide them up into bouquets of sixteen flowers. Since he's dividing them up, that's
what we're going to do, divide. So, we need to divide seven hundred thirty-three by sixteen.
Sixteen cannot go into seven; but, it can go into seventy-three four times. Sixteen
times four is sixty-four. Then we subtract seventy-three minus sixty-four is nine. Bring
down the three, and sixteen goes into ninety-three five times. Sixteen times five is eighty.
Then we subtract and we get a remainder of thirteen. You can keep going, or you can stop
here and you can think about what you have. You have forty-five bouquets made up of sixteen
flowers each and then you have thirteen flowers left over. Those left over flowers can't make
another full bouquet of sixteen flowers. So, that means he can only make forty-five full
bouquets of flowers. If you wanted to continue, you would add a decimal and bring it up, then
add a zero and bring it down. Sixteen goes into one hundred thirty eight times, and that's
one hundred twenty-eight. You subtract and you get two, and again, you could continue,
but you see that you can make forty-five full bouquets and eight-tenths of another bouquet.
But, that eight-tenths is not a full bouquet. So, the answer here would be forty-five. And
there you have one example of an arithmetic problem that you could see when taking the
ASVAB.