If you’re 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 actually NOT true since there is no ‘failure’ on the ASVAB. In this article, I’ll help you understand what ‘failing the ASVAB’ means and how you can avoid it.
The ASVAB or Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery is the military version of an academic entrance exam. You are required to achieve a certain score on the exam 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 during high school and can have multiple means of scoring depending on the aspect tested.
In reality, 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 place 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 grades and admission to a specific job, rate, or MOS. Therefore, when someone says that they “failed” the exam, they really mean that they did not qualify in an acceptance category for their intended branch or field.
The primary scoring system for the ASVAB is the AFQT, or Armed Services General Qualification. 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 mathematical knowledge (MK).
The scores are combined in a very specific formula that allows you to rate from 1 to 99. Your number or final score qualifies you for 1 of 6 categories, so that a score of 1 to 9 places you in the lowest category (V) and a score of 93-99 places it in the superior category (I).
While the requirements are constantly changing, here are the general AFQT requirements from lowest to highest:
31- Army
32 marines
35 navy
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 answering LESS THAN 50% of the questions correct.
