If you are considering joining the US military, you’ve probably heard from a friend of a friend: “The ASVAB is so hard, I failed the first time.” This is NOT really true since there is no “bug” in the ASVAB. In this article, I will help you understand what is meant by “failing the ASVAB” and how you can avoid it.
The ASVAB or Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery is the military version of an academic entrance exam. You must achieve a certain score on the exam in order to qualify for your chosen branch and for a specific job, fee, or MOS within your chosen branch.
The ASVAB is designed to test you on the various topics and subjects you have learned throughout high school and can have multiple means of calculating scores depending on which aspect you look at.
Actually, it is impossible to “fail” the ASVAB since the results are simply given as a number system. Instead, you will get a certain score that will put you in a rank or category compared to the rest of the tests in the country.
Each branch will have its own score requirements for both general qualifications and admission to a specific job, fee, or MOS. Therefore, when someone says they “failed” the exam, they really mean that they did not qualify in an acceptance category for their intended branch or field.
The main scoring system of the ASVAB is the AFQT or General Qualification of the Armed Forces. This score takes into account the raw score obtained in 4 sections of the general exam, including Paragraph Comprehension (PC), Word Knowledge (WK), Arithmetic Reasoning (AR), and Mathematics Knowledge (MK).
The scores are combined into a very specific formula that allows you to score between 1 and 99. Your final number or score qualifies you for 1 of 6 categories, so a score of 1-9 places you in the lowest category (V) and a score of 93-99 places it in the top category (I).
While the requirements are constantly changing, these are the general AFQT requirements from low to high:
31 – Army
32 marines
35 navy blue
36 Air Force
45 Coast Guard
As you can see, the overall AFQT scores are well below the maximum range of 99, in fact almost all branches allow you to “pass” or qualify by getting LESS THAN 50% of the questions correct.
