Young people, the Army, and the ASVAB...

General General Discussion
1

Boy, how times have changed over the decades. When I was in high school, all male students were required to take the ASVAB at school (one afternoon in the cafeteria, IIRC) This would have been 1977 or 1978. Back then, I don’t recall it being a “pass or fail” test, just an identifier of aptitudes for certain jobs - mechanical, electronics, administrative, general, etc. Although if you can’t get a decent score after 10 tries, maybe the food service industry would be a better fit…

FORT JACKSON, S.C. (AP) — Chaz Andrews has wanted to join the Army since he was 19, but he has failed the service’s academic test more than 10 times over the past decade.

Now, at age 29, Andrews thinks he has a real shot to pass, thanks to a new Army program that gives lower-performing recruits up to 90 days of academic or fitness instruction to help them meet military standards.

“I didn’t want to give up on it,” he said during a recent break in his classroom schedule at Fort Jackson, where he is one of more than 300 recruits who have been allowed to enlist in the new Army prep course. And if Andrews, who is from Brooklyn, New York, is able to raise his test score, he will be allowed to continue on to basic training.

The program, which began in early August, is one way the Army is hoping to fill the ranks as it struggles with recruiting efforts that are expected to fall dramatically short of the goals this year. Army officials have described the situation as dire, with some predicting the service may fall 10,000 to 15,000 soldiers short of its recruiting target on Oct. 1 , or as much as 18% to 25%.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/army-program-gives-poor-performing-113352454.html

2

I’m pretty sure you could fail even back then.

I walked into that test cold at the recruiters office and pretty much aced it.

You have to be really stoopid to get a score bad enough to fail. It is not a hard test at all and I am certain it is easier now than it was back then.

3

I do recall us getting scores back. I did crappy on electronics but did well in mechanical and general. It’s hard to believe that a person could fail in all categories - hell, the military still needs cooks and transportation people.

4

No offense to this dude, but if you can’t pass the ASVAB, and have a high school education, there’s something else going on there. Learning disability, exceptionally high testing anxiety, etc.

5

Historically, if the military has problems meeting their recruiting goals - lower the standards.

6

Probably true. And yet, taking it that many times just to fail and keep trying shows some strongly positive traits that a lot of his peers don’t have.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

7

The sad part is the Commander and Chief and General Austin and Milley are 10 times worse.

8

Any reasonably intelligent person could probably do many (if not a lot) of the occupations in the military.

9

Considering a few of the guys I met in the Corps, I gotta wonder just how bad off a fella has to be to “fail”.

Of course, some folks just vapor lock when it comes to taking tests.

Everyone jokes about “dumb grunts”, even us dumb grunts. Truth be told though the infantry ain’t no place for dummies. Folks with low cognitive abilities ain’t exactly gonna light up the promotion boards either.

I do gotta give thus guy credit for persistence though. I’m kinda surprised it hasn’t born fruit. In my experience “want to” and dedication usually lead to success. That “I really want this” drive generally finds a way.

10

I think it’s largely the same although now it’s computer-based not a written paper test.

I did really well but I stunk with the mechanical and the math. I did well enough though, ended up getting out of the Navy as a Mustang officer.

11

Ironically, Marine infantry scores higher than many other MOSs. They want thinkers, not pet rocks.

12

So here is a candidate who WANTS to be there and doesn’t have a background of being a gang banger or other undesirable. Probably is very academically challenged, so I think they are doing the right thing by helping him with what is essentially a tutoring program. In the past they’d have simply drafted him “as is” and had yet another dumbass who was a liability to himself and everyone around him.

But “wants to be there” is perhaps the most important criteria, it means he can probably learn to fit in and perform. Read about Richard Meadows, the guy had problems reading and writing, maybe he’d have had problems with the ASVAB.

The biggest shame is they waited until this guy was 29 before a program was created to offer assistance.

13

I have served with/supervised more than one soldier who was well below average IQ; I was the squad leader for one for the better part of a year in Korea. It is literally impossible he passed an ASVAB - his recruiting station had a ringer taking tests.

Once a person gets low enough in mental ability, they are a dangerous burden on everyone they serve with.

Its honestly not enough to want to serve.

I would say its possible our school system just failed these folks - never learned basic math, mechanical principals, logical problem solving, etc. Does not mean they are not mentally capable.

Andy

14

When I was enlisted in the early 2000s you had to have a score of I believe 30 or 32 to enlist. So that means roughly 30 percent of the people taking the ASVAB “failed” it.

I took the test my Junior year of high school in one of the exam rooms. I scored an 86 overall with a GT score of 120. I had every job in the Army available to me and chose infantry. If I was going to join the Army I wanted to do Army shit. When I got to my unit I found that a lot of the infantrymen were just like me. They scored high on the ASVAB but wanted combat jobs because they wanted a challenge or to be a frontline Soldier.

That’s not to say there wasnt our fair share of 30 something ASVAB score guys there too. Ive always said that Forrest Gump was more of a documentary than some people realize. Keep them out of leadership positions and they did fine.

15

Could just be an absolute drizzleshit Edjuhkayshun Sizzztuhm…

16

This was my experiance with Tanks, every once in a while you run into someone very like minded.

17

They offered me a million jobs other than what I asked for. I finally had twist their arm to get what I wanted in a contract or I was walking. It was like they couldn’t get that people could score well and also wanted to go on the pointy end of the spear.

18

If Forrest Gump can make buck SGT… so can ASVAB-flunkys. We were still taking that in the early 80’s in NC. Gotta ribbon for acing it in JROTC, IIRC.

19

That is exactly why I guessed it is easier at this point. But that is only a guess.

20

Oh man I wanted to come here and post: “Private Gump! Why did you put that rifle together so quickly!”

You beat me to it. [emoji1]