Many people believe that in order to join the military, they are only required to pass basic training, a process in which a person physically prepares themselves to become a soldier. Well, today’s military wants a soldier that is both physically fit and intelligent. For this reason would-be soldiers must be able to pass another type of test that determines how much intellect they possess. This test is called The Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery, (known as ASVAB) for short. If a person fails the test, they will not be eligible to join the Armed Forces, though they will be given an opportunity to take the test again if they desire. If they pass they will be allowed to
join. Additionally, the military will use the results of the test to determine what type of military job they would best be suited for.
The ASVAB test itself tests several areas of knowledge, such as math, science, vocabulary and reading comprehension. It also has exams that test one’s skills when it comes to auto & shop, mechanics and electronics. Of course, before a person gets to the true meat of the ASVAB, they will usually be given a pre-qualification test first. This pre-qualification test does receive a score, but if the score is low a person will still be able to proceed with the real test. The purpose of the pre-qualification test is to give a person an idea of how they will do on the real ASVAB.
In terms of scoring, the ASVAB does not have an official score for the overall test. However, the AFQT, a part of the ASVAB does have a score. This is what military people are referring to when they are bragging about their score, (though many mistakenly believe it is in reference to the ASVAB). In the case of the AFQT the score is on a 99 point scale.
When it comes to what is needed to pass the AFQT portion of the ASVAB, it will depend on what branch of the military a person is trying to get into. Most will allow for scores that are in the low to mid 30s. Yet, a person will not want to get in the military on the bare-bones minimum scores, because their
military job opportunities will become limited. For this reason, soldiers should study for the ASVAB exam before they plan on taking it.
Many study aides are available for the ASVAB exam. The best ones will contain several practice tests along with detailed information on the type of knowledge a person will need to be able to do well. If a person is looking to get into a specific type of military job, they can consider getting an ASVB exam guide that is designed around that specific career. Really ambitious soldiers may want to make sure they are fully covered by studying both a general ASVAB study guides as well as more specific career-based ones. Either way, as long as a
soldier does some preparation for the ASVAB exam, they won’t be totally shocked at both the test and their resulting AFQT score. But in case you’re searching for the ultimate adventure, why not become a
Navy Seal.
