Stated Details and Sequence

📄 Stated Details and Sequence

Part 1 of 7 — Detail Questions on the ASVAB

Topic Overview

The Most Common PC Question

Paragraph Comprehension on the CAT-ASVAB has 10 questions in 27 minutes (about 2 minutes 40 seconds each). The official list of PC skills starts with stated and reworded facts and sequence of events. These are detail questions: the answer is written in the passage, though often in different words.

Detail questions usually look like this:

Why Details Are Good News

Detail questions are the most provable questions on the test. You never have to guess what the author meant; you only have to find the sentence and match it. Students who miss them usually answer from memory instead of going back to the text.

Key Fact: For a detail question, the passage is an open book. Find the sentence that answers the question, read it again, and only then choose.

The Find-and-Match Method

1. Read the question and pick out its key words: a name, a number, a date, a place or an unusual word.
2. Read the passage, noticing where each kind of information sits.
3. Go back to the sentence that contains the key words and read it, plus the sentence before and after.
4. Match: choose the answer that says the same thing as that sentence, even if the wording is different.
5. Reject choices that are not in the passage, even if they are true in real life.

Quick Example

The ferry leaves the north dock at 7:15 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on weekdays. On Saturdays it runs only in the morning, and there is no service on Sundays.

On Saturdays, the ferry runs: only in the morning · only in the afternoon · twice a day · not at all

• Key word: Saturdays.
• The sentence with that key word: "On Saturdays it runs only in the morning."
• Answer: only in the morning. "Twice a day" is the weekday schedule, a true detail from the wrong part of the passage.

Warm-up 1. 🎯

The base library lends up to five books at a time for three weeks. DVDs may be borrowed for one week, and reference books must stay in the building. Patrons can renew any item once online, as long as no one else has requested it.

Warm-up 2. 🎯

To clean a rifle bore, first make sure the weapon is clear and unloaded. Next, run a patch soaked in solvent through the barrel from the chamber end. Let the solvent work for a few minutes, then scrub with a bore brush. Finish by running dry patches through until they come out clean.

Warm-up 3. 🎯

Wildfires spread fastest uphill. Heat rises, so flames preheat the brush above them, making it catch fire more easily. Wind can push a fire in any direction, but on a steep slope even a light breeze can turn a small fire into a dangerous one within minutes.

Key Takeaways — Part 1

• Stated details and sequence are official PC skills, and they are the most provable questions on the test
• Common stems: "According to the passage," "The passage states," "What happened first," "Why did," "EXCEPT"
• Find and match: pick out key words, go back to the sentence, read around it, match the meaning
• A true detail from the wrong part of the passage is a classic wrong answer

Up Next: Part 2 — scanning for names, numbers and key words to locate stated facts fast.

📄 Stated Details and Sequence

Part 2 of 7 — Locating Stated Facts

Anchors: The Words That Are Easy to Find

When a question asks about a specific fact, do not reread the whole passage from the top. Look for an anchor: a word that stands out on the page and that the question also mentions.

The Question May Use a Different Word

The question will not always use the passage's exact word. If the question asks about "earplugs" and the passage says "hearing protection," that is your anchor. Think about what the question means, not only what it says.

Key Fact: Once you find the anchor, read the whole sentence it sits in, and usually the sentence before and after. Many wrong answers come from reading half a sentence.

Worked Example

Annual hearing tests for all flight-line personnel will be held in Building 214 from March 3 to March 14. Appointments run from 0730 to 1530, Monday through Friday. Personnel who work night shifts may instead schedule a test on Saturday, March 8, by calling the clinic at extension 4410. Avoid loud noise, including music through earbuds, for 14 hours before the test.

Question 1: Where are the tests held?

• Anchor: a place name: Building 214.
• Answer: Building 214.

Question 2: A night-shift worker wants a Saturday test. What must she do?

• Anchors: "night shift" and "Saturday."
• The sentence: "Personnel who work night shifts may instead schedule a test on Saturday, March 8, by calling the clinic at extension 4410."
• Answer: call the clinic at extension 4410.

Question 3: How long before the test should personnel avoid loud noise?

• Anchor: the number near "noise": 14 hours.
• Trap check: 0730, 1530, 214 and 4410 are all numbers too. Make sure the number you choose belongs to the right part of the sentence.
• Answer: 14 hours.

The "Number Swap" Trap

When a passage contains several numbers, wrong choices often use a real number from the passage attached to the wrong thing. Always check what each number describes.

Find the fact. 🎯

A French company began digging a canal across Panama in 1881, but disease and engineering problems ended the effort within a decade. The United States took over the project in 1904. American engineers decided to build locks that would raise ships 85 feet to an artificial lake and then lower them back to sea level on the other side. When the canal opened in 1914, ships traveling between New York and San Francisco no longer had to sail around South America. The finished canal is about 50 miles long.

Use the anchors. ✍️ Use the Panama Canal passage above. Type numbers only.

1) In what year did the United States take over the canal project?

2) About how many miles long is the finished canal?

3) In what year did the canal open?

Find the fact. 🎯

Check the generator's oil level before every use. Change the oil after the first 20 hours of running time, and every 100 hours after that. Clean the air filter every 50 hours, or more often in dusty conditions. Replace the spark plug once a year, even if the generator has been used very little.

Match each task to its schedule. 🔽 Use the generator passage above.

Key Takeaways — Part 2

• Use anchors to find facts fast: numbers, names, dates, unusual words, signal words
• The question may use a different word for the same thing
• Read the whole sentence around the anchor, and the sentences beside it
• Beware the number swap: a real number from the passage attached to the wrong thing

Up Next: Part 3 — reworded facts, where the right answer says the same thing in different words.

📄 Stated Details and Sequence

Part 3 of 7 — Reworded Facts

The Right Answer Rarely Copies the Passage

The official PC skill list includes reworded facts. On a detail question, the correct choice usually says what the passage says in different words: synonyms, a different sentence order, or a shorter summary of one sentence.

The Word-Match Trap

Test writers know that tired readers grab the choice that looks like the passage. So they build wrong choices that copy the passage's words but change what those words mean:

• They attach the words to the wrong person or thing ("a gas-filled sac" when the passage says other fish have one).
• They flip the meaning (adding or dropping a not).
• They mix words from two different sentences into a new claim the passage never made.

Key Fact: Match meaning, not words. Before you choose, restate the passage sentence in your own words, then look for the choice that says the same thing.

Worked Example

Unlike most fish, sharks have no swim bladder, the gas-filled sac that keeps other fish afloat. Instead, many sharks rely on a large, oily liver that makes them lighter in the water. Even so, many kinds of sharks must keep swimming or they slowly sink.

According to the passage, many sharks stay afloat partly by means of

Restate First

Put the key sentence in plain words before you look at the choices: "Sharks use a big oily liver to help them float." Now the reworded choice is easy to recognize, and the copied phrase is easy to reject.

Reworded or word-match? 🔽

Employees who are late more than three times in a 30-day period will meet with their supervisor. A fourth late arrival also results in a written warning placed in the employee's file. Employees may avoid a late mark by calling the front desk at least one hour before their shift begins.

Match the meaning. 🎯 Use the late-arrival passage above.

Match the meaning. 🎯

In the winter of 1777 and 1778, General George Washington's army camped at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Short of food, blankets and shoes, nearly 2,000 soldiers died of disease. Yet the army that marched out in June was stronger than the one that had arrived, thanks largely to Baron von Steuben, a Prussian officer who drilled the troops in European battle tactics.

Match the meaning. 🎯

Most household smoke alarms run on batteries or are wired into the home's electricity with a battery backup. Fire officials recommend pressing the test button once a month. The batteries in older alarms should be replaced at least once a year, and the entire alarm should be replaced every ten years, because the sensors wear out over time.

Key Takeaways — Part 3

• Reworded facts are an official PC skill: the right answer usually says the passage's idea in different words
• The word-match trap copies passage words but attaches them to the wrong thing, flips them, or mixes two sentences
• Restate first: put the key sentence in your own words, then find the choice with the same meaning
• Match meaning, not words

Up Next: Part 4 — sequence: what happened first, next and last, and the steps of a procedure.

📄 Stated Details and Sequence

Part 4 of 7 — Sequence of Events and Steps

Order Questions

Sequence of events is one of the official PC skills. Sequence questions ask what happened first, next or last, or what step comes before or after another. They show up with two kinds of passages:

• Procedures: instructions such as safety steps, maintenance or first aid
• Narratives and histories: stories and timelines

Signal Words

Writers Don't Always Tell Events in Order

A writer may start with the ending and then jump back: "The convoy reached the depot at noon. Two hours earlier, it had stopped for a flat tire." The order of the sentences is not always the order of the events. When the timing matters, build a quick timeline.

Key Fact: For "which happened first" questions, look for the words before, earlier, had and originally. They often mark events that happened earlier than the sentence placement suggests.

Worked Example: Build a Timeline

The convoy reached the depot at noon. Two hours earlier, it had stopped to repair a flat tire. The trip had begun at dawn, when the trucks were loaded with water and fuel. After unloading at the depot, the drivers rested before starting the return trip.

Which happened first? Loading at dawn, even though it is in the third sentence.

Procedures: Watch for Conditions

In instructions, words like once, until and only after set a condition that must be met before the next step:

"Let the engine cool until the radiator cap is cool to the touch. Only then remove the cap."

A choice that says "remove the cap while the engine is warm" breaks the condition, even though every word in it appears in the passage.

Put the events in order. 🎯

Specialist Grant finally passed her swim qualification on Friday. She had failed her first attempt on Monday, when she panicked in the deep end. Before her second try, she spent two evenings practicing floating with a lifeguard. On Wednesday she tried again and made it halfway across the pool before she had to stop.

Steps out of order. ✍️

(1) Cover the burn loosely with a clean, dry bandage. (2) Before you do that, though, cool the burn under cool running water for about ten minutes. (3) First of all, remove rings, watches or anything tight near the burned area before it starts to swell. (4) Do not put ice, butter or ointment on the burn.

1) Type the number of the sentence that describes the FIRST step:

2) Type the number of the sentence that describes the LAST step:

3) How many sentences describe something the reader should NOT do?

Build the timeline. 🔽

In 1858, workers finished laying the first telegraph cable across the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. Queen Victoria sent a message of congratulations to President James Buchanan, but within about three weeks the cable failed. The American Civil War then delayed new attempts for several years. Finally, in 1866, the huge steamship Great Eastern laid a stronger cable that worked, and messages that once took ten days by ship crossed the ocean in minutes.

Key Takeaways — Part 4

• Sequence questions come with procedures and with stories or histories
• Learn the signal words: first, next, then, before, earlier, had, while, once, until, only after, finally
• The order of sentences is not always the order of events: build a quick timeline
• In procedures, once / until / only after set conditions that a wrong choice will break

Up Next: Part 5 — stated reasons, comparisons and EXCEPT questions.

📄 Stated Details and Sequence

Part 5 of 7 — Reasons, Comparisons and EXCEPT Questions

Stated Reasons

"Why" questions on PC usually have the answer written in the passage, marked by a signal word.

Stated Comparisons

Comparison questions ask how two things are alike or different. Watch for more than, less than, larger, both, similar, unlike, while, whereas. The most common wrong answer reverses the comparison, saying the first thing is larger when the passage says the second is.

EXCEPT and NOT Questions

"All of the following are mentioned EXCEPT…" or "Which of these is NOT stated?" flips the usual job. Three choices are in the passage; the answer is the one that is not.

1. Read each choice.
2. Find it in the passage and mentally check it off. (A reworded version counts as found.)
3. The choice you cannot find, or that the passage contradicts, is the answer.

Key Fact: On an EXCEPT question, a choice you can find in the passage is a wrong answer. Slow down; it is easy to pick the first familiar choice out of habit.

Worked Examples

A reason question

Many airlines ask passengers to keep their seat belts fastened even when the seat belt sign is off. The reason is clear-air turbulence: sudden rough air that can occur in a cloudless sky and that pilots often cannot see on radar.

Why do airlines ask passengers to keep belts fastened?

• Signal: "The reason is…"
• Answer: rough air can strike without warning, even in clear skies.
• A choice such as "because the seat belt sign is always on" contradicts the passage, which says the sign may be off.

An EXCEPT question

The emergency kit in each barracks room holds a flashlight, a whistle, a first-aid pouch and two bottles of water.

The kit contains all of the following EXCEPT: a light · a signaling whistle · a radio · bandages

• a light = flashlight ✓ (reworded)
• a signaling whistle = whistle ✓
• bandages = first-aid pouch ✓ (reworded)
• a radio: not listed. Answer: a radio.

EXCEPT question. 🎯

Full-time employees at the shipyard receive health insurance, two weeks of paid vacation each year and help paying for college courses. After one year on the job, they may also join the company's retirement plan.

Count the details. ✍️ Use the shipyard passage above. Type numbers only.

1) How many weeks of paid vacation do full-time employees receive each year?

2) How many years must an employee work before joining the retirement plan?

3) How many benefits does a full-time employee have from the first day (before the one-year mark)?

Reason question. 🎯

Leaves are green in summer because they are packed with chlorophyll, the substance plants use to capture energy from sunlight. In autumn, as the days grow shorter and cooler, many trees stop making chlorophyll. As the green fades, yellow and orange pigments that were in the leaves all along finally become visible.

Comparison question. 🎯

African and Asian elephants are both the largest land animals on their continents, but they differ in several ways. African elephants are bigger and have large ears shaped a little like the continent of Africa, while Asian elephants have smaller, rounded ears. Among African elephants, both males and females usually grow tusks; among Asian elephants, usually only some of the males do.

Sort the comparison. 🔽 Use the elephant passage above.

Key Takeaways — Part 5

• Reason questions: find the signal (because, since, due to, so, so that, the reason is)
• Comparison questions: watch for a choice that reverses the comparison
• EXCEPT/NOT questions: check off the three choices you can find (reworded counts); the one left over is the answer
• On EXCEPT questions, a familiar choice is a wrong choice

Up Next: Part 6 — strategy for detail questions and the traps that catch careful readers.

📄 Stated Details and Sequence

Part 6 of 7 — Test Strategy and Common Traps

Pacing for Detail Questions

On the CAT-ASVAB you have 27 minutes for 10 questions, about 2 minutes 40 seconds each. Detail questions are often the fastest PC questions, because the answer is sitting in one sentence. Use the time you save to double-check that sentence before you click: once you answer, you cannot go back.

On the paper test (15 questions in 13 minutes, about 52 seconds each) the same method works, just faster.

If time runs short on the CAT, keep reading and answering for real: unanswered questions are scored as random guesses, and a run of wrong answers at the end of a subtest carries a relatively large penalty. Some questions may be unscored tryouts, but you cannot tell which, so treat every one as scored.

Seven Detail Traps

Key Fact: Read every word of a choice. A choice is only correct if all of it matches the passage. One wrong half makes the whole choice wrong.

Watch for half-right choices. 🎯

The base pool is open for lap swimming from 0600 to 0800 and from 1700 to 1900 on weekdays. Family swim runs from 1200 to 1600 on Saturdays and Sundays. The pool closes for cleaning on the first Monday of each month.

Watch for swaps. 🎯

Sacagawea, a Shoshone woman, set out with the Lewis and Clark expedition in the spring of 1805 as an interpreter. Traveling with her infant son, she helped the explorers trade for horses with the Shoshone, whose chief turned out to be her brother. The expedition reached the Pacific Ocean in November of that year.

Watch for the wrong part. 🎯

Before entering a confined space such as a storage tank, a worker must have the air tested for oxygen and toxic gases. A second worker, called an attendant, stays outside the entrance the whole time and keeps in contact. If the attendant sees a problem, he calls for a trained rescue team rather than going in himself, since untrained rescuers are often overcome by the same hazard.

Name the trap. 🔽 Use the Sacagawea passage above. Each choice below is a wrong answer to the question "According to the passage, what did Sacagawea help the explorers do?"

Key Takeaways — Part 6

• About 2 minutes 40 seconds per question on the CAT: detail questions are fast, so spend the extra time double-checking the sentence; you cannot go back
• Seven traps: word match, wrong part, swap, half right, reversed, outside knowledge, EXCEPT flip
• A choice is right only if every word of it matches the passage

Up Next: Part 7 — a mixed mastery set of detail and sequence questions.

📄 Stated Details and Sequence

Part 7 of 7 — Mixed Mastery Set

How to Use This Set

Ten passages, one question each, mixing every detail skill: stated facts, reworded facts, sequence, reasons, comparisons and EXCEPT questions. Work at test pace, about 2 minutes 40 seconds per question.

For every question:

1. Pick out the key words in the question.
2. Find the sentence in the passage that contains them (or their synonyms).
3. Restate that sentence in your own words.
4. Match the choice with the same meaning, and check every word of it.
5. Watch for the traps: word match, wrong part, swap, half right, reversed, outside knowledge, EXCEPT flip.

Question 1.

The dining facility will serve brunch instead of breakfast and lunch on federal holidays. Brunch runs from 0900 to 1300. Dinner hours stay the same, 1700 to 1900. Personnel on duty during brunch hours may request a carry-out meal from the shift supervisor.

Question 2.

Before the Civil War, Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery in Maryland. Rather than stay safely in the North, she returned south about thirteen times to guide roughly seventy enslaved people to freedom, traveling mostly at night. During the war, she served the Union Army as a scout and a spy.

Question 3.

Water evaporates from oceans and lakes when the sun heats it. As the water vapor rises, it cools and condenses into tiny droplets that form clouds. When the droplets join together and grow heavy enough, they fall as rain or snow, and the water flows back toward the sea.

Question 4.

Rotate your vehicle's tires about every 5,000 to 7,500 miles. Front tires usually wear faster than rear tires because they handle all of the steering and, on many cars, most of the braking. Moving the tires to different positions helps them wear evenly and last longer.

Question 5.

Dig a hole two to three times as wide as the tree's root ball but no deeper. Set the tree in the hole so that the top of the root ball is level with the ground. Fill the hole halfway with soil, water it well and then finish filling it. Spread mulch around the base, keeping it a few inches away from the trunk.

Question 6.

Early computers filled entire rooms. ENIAC, completed in 1945, weighed about 30 tons and used about 18,000 vacuum tubes. Today, a smartphone that fits in a pocket can perform calculations billions of times faster than that early machine could.

Question 7.

When lifting a heavy object, bend at the knees rather than at the waist, keep the load close to your body and avoid twisting your back while carrying it. If an object weighs more than about 50 pounds, get a second person to help or use a hand truck.

Question 8.

Each recruit receives a duffel bag at the reception station. Inside are four sets of physical training clothes, two pairs of boots and seven pairs of socks. Uniforms are issued later, during the first week of training, after the recruits have been measured.

Question 9.

The Arctic tern makes the longest migration of any animal known. Each year it flies from its nesting grounds in the Arctic to the coasts of Antarctica and back again, a round trip that can be longer than 40,000 miles.

Question 10.

The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France. Its copper pieces were made in Paris and shipped to New York in 1885, packed in more than 200 crates. Meanwhile, Americans raised money to build the stone pedestal, which was finished in 1886. Workers then assembled the statue on top of the pedestal, and it was dedicated in October of that year.

Key Takeaways — Stated Details and Sequence

• Detail questions are open book: find the sentence, restate it, match the meaning
• Use anchors (numbers, names, dates, unusual words) to find facts fast, and check what each number describes
• The right answer is often reworded; the word-match choice is often wrong
• For sequence, build a timeline: the order of sentences is not always the order of events
• Reasons follow signals like because and so; comparisons get reversed by wrong choices; EXCEPT wants the one detail you cannot find
• Check every word of a choice before you click

Next steps: take the exit quiz, then move on to Inference, Tone and Word Meaning.