Customer Reviews

Master The ASVAB: CD INSIDE; Score High and Launch Your Military Career (Peterson's Master the ASVAB (W/CD))

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I know how important it is to find a "good review" especially for a book that could help shape your military career, which is precisely why I decided to take the time to write about my CAT-ASVAB experience after reading two study books, taking numerous practice exams, and then re-reading the study books all over again.

First, some of you might be wondering what score I made (I know I would be too). I got a 95%, qualifying me for virtually every program in the military. My best sections were Mathematics Knowledge, Paragraph Comprehension, Electronics Information, and tied for fourth were General Science, Arithmetic Reasoning, Mechanical Comprehension, Assembling Objects, and Word Knowledge. In all of these sections I scored higher than 60. Now that we've established my credibility for this particular subject, let us move on to the review of the study material(s) themselves, and to what extent they helped in preparing me for the exam.

The two books I read were "Master The ASVAB: by Scott A Ostrow, Therese DeAngelis" and "McGraw-Hill's ASVAB, Second Edition" (book titles should always be underlined, but not sure how to do that at the moment). My favorite of the two was "Master the ASVAB: by Scott A Ostrow" because I felt the practice exams were more difficult especially since they are timed. The practice exams for McGraw-Hill's ASVAB were pretty good too, but they just didn't quite feel like the real thing since the tests were not timed. Both books were comprehensive, sparing no expense in covering everything that could (emphasis added) show up on the ASVAB. I'm going to re-emphasize the word "could" because it is likely that 90% of the material won't.

I know this might sound like good news to those of you looking for an advantage, but, the truth is, most of the questions I saw on the exam were not directly covered in the study books. For the mathematically-minded, I will quantify the word "most". By "most" I mean 75-80% of the questions on the exam will not directly be covered in these study books I've listed.

This may sound like a bummer to some and good news to those whom subscribe to the notion that you can't study for this exam, but there is some silver lining here if you continue reading. What the study materials do well is familiarize you with general content and subjects, which will enable you to be a "better guesser". There were a lot of questions, for example, in the General Science section that I guessed on, but I've confident I probably got most of them right since I was able to eliminate choices that were obviously incorrect, thanks to my trusty ASVAB study companions.

Furthermore, I think both books do a tremendous job familiarizing you with the type of Mathematics questions you could see as well as Arithmetic Reasoning, Mechanical Comprehension, and Electronics Information. Keep in mind though, that if you are taking the CAT-ASVAB, everyone's questions could be potentially different. In my Math section, I had Logarithm questions, while other military candidates did not (Thank God I took College Algebra recently before I took the test!) These sections combined make up the 20-25% of the exam which are covered directly in the ASVAB study companions.

To conclude, if I had to go through it all over again, I would not change how I prepared for the exam. Probably the most important element to test-taking (also known as the "X-factor) is Confidence. If you don't have confidence going into an exam, you are likely to second-guess yourself every step of the way. Confidence is probably the greatest gift these books could give since you should already have a good idea of the format of the exam, as well as questions that could (emphasis added for the last time) show up.

Don't listen to all the idiots that are trying to convince you NOT to study for the exam. In today's education system, where public schools are as wry as Fox News, you can't afford to take your chances especially with something as important as deciding what job you're going to be doing in the Military.

If you've made it this far in my review, it tells me you really care about your future. Just remember one thing, Study your a** off so only You can decide what job your a** will be doing for the next 4-6 years, and not the drones down in MEPS. Trust me, they are not your friends, and I'm not either. Which is precisely why I'm telling you to study as much as you can so that you don't need any friends and you can do whatever the H** you want to do in the Military.

Good luck and Happy Test Taking,,,

This book is a great study guide to prepare for the ASVAB. After going through the book and taking the pretests, I felt a lot more prepared and got a 92. I am not intending to brag but I have not had a math class in 5 years and this helped me review important areas that I would have done poorly without review. Get the book and give yourself plenty of time to prepare.

I followed the directions in the book as much as I could with the time I had. Scored 90 on AFQT and high marks in all areas; enough to qualify for every job in the military. My scores a few years ago without it are not worth mentioning because they were so bad. Thanks to this book I am eligible for some exciting things!

I thought this book did a pretty good job of preparing me. To be honest, I mostly used it to learn more about Electronics, Auto/Shop, and Mechanical Comprehension. I've always been very good at English, so I can't say it really helped me improve there. The book did help me review some math concepts I had forgotten, too.

Some people are complaining that the questions in the book didn't show up on the test. I just took the ASVAB a month ago and I felt like this book had a very good idea of the kind of questions that would be on the test. The subject review sections are very helpful. I studied by taking the first diagnostic practice exam. I read through all the explanations of the questions, took notes, and then read the subject reviews for any areas I was weak on. I took the second exam in full and reviewed all the question explanations. After that, I only did exam sections for subjects I was weak on, again paying attention to the explanations. In all, I probably spent about 6-8 hours studying with this book and nothing else. I scored a 99 and all my line scores were above 140. I couldn't have done it without this prep book.

If you're worried, get this book, study, and don't sweat it test day because you'll do fine.

i had taken the asvab test already for the pre-test one, and got a 50 on it and that was a few months ago.. this book boosted my score to a 98 on the pre-test. and on the full asvab i still maintained a 98 on it so i must say that i now am a member of the us navy... vary good book i would say its the right one to study up on..

Like many others who have had the great "pleasure" of taking the ASVAB ill-prepared in high school, resulting in a relatively low score, I was recommended to purchase a study guide. After leafing through a few pages of this guide, I came to the conclusion that this would be the best guide for those of us who don't have the additional time to work through a "step-by-step" program that many of the competitors provide. "Master the ASVAB" is chocked full of practice test material. It carefully outlines how the test is administrated, and how these practice tests, if taken under similar testing constraints as the real ASVAB, does a great job in preparing you for the real test. I found that many of the questions provided in this guide were also listed in the real ASVAB (can't beat that!) This guides only downfall is its lack of math and word knowledge preparation. I found that many of the math knowledge questions provided in both this guides practice tests and the real asvab were not properly explained in this guide, if at all. Furthermore, I found that this guides method of educating its reader with word knowledge brief and a little uninformative (something similar to the "flash-card" system provided in the text would be nice.) However, where this book is lacking in those two fields it significantly makes up for in the mechanical and engineering sections. With plenty of detailed diagrams and thorough explanations, this guide can seemingly turn any reader into an apprentice mechanic or engineer. All in all, I am well pleased with my purchase. Scoring a 90 on the ASVAB has significantly improved my chances in gaining my preferred military career.

4 1/2 stars.

I'm in the Air Force and utilized this book as well as the McGraw-Hill Asvab book. I would say that this book is more indepth with all subjects, however did not cover everything that the McGraw-Hill book did. I scored a 56 the first time I enlisted and 4 yrs later I retook the test today on (pencil and paper)for better job opportunities and got an 88. The information inside the book is solid and should be studied, HOWEVER if you choose to utilize the cd as I did you will find faults within the software when you log in online. There are some questions that you will answer right and the program will tell you it's wrong. Also, if you're doing math make sure you follow the order of operations (Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally). I found a problem in one of the tests that did not use this order and thus gave me a wrong answer. I would advise that if you're in HS and thinking about taking the ASVAB then definitely test, and if you don't do well then you can always retest within a month. However, if you're already enlisted and want to improve your score then study study study, test. Job opportunities can come at anytime and if you're wanting to retrain then make sure you're qualified for the job. Keep in mind that the military will keep the most recent test score, if you don't do well you can retest again in 6 months. Don't slack on your studies because overall, this will be your career for at least 4 years so don't get stuck doing a job you don't like. One final note, the more information you know the better you'll do. I had 2 asvab books and studied both. I would not say one was better than the other,however it did cover different questions/material that was very similar on the test.

I recently took the exam and scored 99 on it. I am not bragging considering that I graduated from college and it was almost expected of me to get a fairly high score.

**Please check out MiliTary,dotCoM, About,dotcom, WiKipedia,dotorg, and TrueWorldHistory, dotInfo for additional resources and free practice questions. All review materials including books and CD's in the market are intended to be a quick refresher and guide, not a comprehensive preparation resource.**

(ASVAB test takers - Please keep in mind that your ASVAB score isn't the only factor that determines which job you are going to get. The general level of competitiveness and which jobs are available at the time you are enlisting also matter. Personally, I chose Army because it is the only branch that guarantees the job that you choose at the time you enlist.)

Overall, this is a decent guide. The test covers a broad range of subjects and topics and it is impossible to know all the questions and answers no matter how hard and how long you prepare for it.I went through the book once and it helped me get a better understanding of the nature of subjects that are covered on the test. One thing was that the actual questions on the exam were a bit harder than the ones presented in the book.

Remember that unless you do relatively well on the primary subjects (word knowledge, paragraph comprehension, arithmetic reasoning, and math knowledge) you will never get a decent score. So even if you ace the mechanical comprehension and general science area you could still get a low overall score.

In order for you to do well on the exam, try to stay focused and diligent while you are in school. Besides mechanical and physics subjects, the primary subjects and general science subjects would be relatively easy if you have studied diligently during the school years. So do not slack off while you are in middle school and high school. You can ruin your future by doing just that.

Also don't just rely only on what is taught at schools. Read lots and lots of books on economy, politics, current events, finance, history, newspapers, magazines, investigative journals. Also, go onto YouTube and check out important documentaries and alternative media, take advantage of vocational classes that may be offered at your schools, talk to many mentors who can guide you. No one single test prep book, advice, or mentor can ever save your future. It takes years of hard work, right connections, tactics and strategies, and much luck to succeed.

The world is becoming ever-increasingly a dangerous place to live.
So Be Careful, Stay Alert, Take Care of Yourselves, and Good Luck.

The BEST Book Ever!!! Not only is it inexpensive, the is the most comprehensive book you are ever going to come across! I took the ASVAB and noticed that very similar questions came from this book.

P.S. Don't forget to purchase ASVAB Basics

This Book helped to earn me a 93 on my ASVAB test!

i used this book for many many hours reading, taking practice exams and reviewing. the content in this book was very beneficial to he score i earned. i am a high school graduate and loved this product. i didn"t have a chance to use the CD included however i am sure that it would only help to boost your score.