I’m 57 - out of HS for 39 years. I was surfing the web and came across the ASVAB - the military aptitude test, as I understand it. Having some time to kill I took the test. What I learned is A - I know very little about auto mechanics. Almost nothing. B - it’s been a long time since my mechanical math days.
Here are my scores. I’m a little embarrassed about those two above, but did okay on the rest. I didn’t expect to do well on automotive or electronics - I can change a fuse (old house) or put gas in my car. I was surprised at how many science questions I didn’t know. And I wonder which reading comp question I got wrong - they seemed straight-forward enough.
Full ASVAB Practice Test
Your time: 01:33:29
You answered 117 out of 145 questions correctly, (80.69%)
Average score 47.91%
Your score 80.69%
Categories
01 General Science 75%
02 Arithmetic Reasoning 100%
03 Word Knowledge 100%
04 Paragraph Comprehension 90.91%
05 Mathematics Knowledge 87.5%
06 Electronics Information 75%
07 Automotive Information 63.64%
09 Mechanical Comprehension 50%
10 Assembling Objects 93.75%
I took it in 1995 when the Navy was trying to recruit me. I don’t remember what my score was, or if they even ever told what I scored (I don’t think they did, since I didn’t actually sign up), but I remember that I found it really easy, like Idiocracy easy. But I was just finishing high school at the time so all of my schooling was still pretty fresh.
I took it, or its equivalent, in 1973. I don’t know what my scores were, but the recruiter told me I could have whatever school I wanted. Then he convinced me I wanted to learn Avionics. So I did. It was the start of a rewarding career path. It would be fun to take it again. Similarly, I wouldn’t mind doing the SATs or ACT just for the heck of it.
I wish I had chosen an actual skill. Definitely one of the worst decisions I’ve made.
A guy that took it the day I did was working on attempt #3 at a passing score. His recruiter must have been really pissed at the Army.
You have to be really, really dumb to fail the ASVAB but it does happen. I don’t remember exactly what I made when I took it, I made a 90 something as the overall score, the highest you can make is 99 I believe, and then they have these separate line scores, using some other grading system that goes over 100. I scored pretty well over 100 something on all those, not sure how high they go. I’m not particularly smart, I’m sure the average Doper would fuck up the curve.
I took the ASVAB as a senior in high school and scored 92 out of 99 with a 130 GT score. Could’ve done anything in the military, and I chose to be a grunt in the Marines.
So, I recall taking (what I think was) the ASVAB several years ago. I wonder if that’s something where I could get my scores today; some 30 odd years later.
When I was a senior in high school everyone was required to take it one day in the school audotorium, balancing the books and bubble-in test thingys in our laps. I had absolutely no interest whatsoever in ever having anything at all to do with the military in any way, shape or form, and resented the requirement. For my name I put in John F. Kennedy, but not having known to plan ahead of time I didn’t know the address for Arlington Cemetary so I just put my real address. I made a 97 or 98 on the test and the tester bothered to figure out my real name based on the address and I had to put up with phone calls from military recruiters harassing me to join for months afterwards.
Exactly. Idiocracy easy. I got an upper-90’s score and had every recruiter from every branch within 100 miles hounding me. I got so many free pairs of socks! It didn’t help that I had multiple siblings in the military.
Yeah, my 80 percentile would have humiliated me in HS, when I was 98th percentile on PSATs and 96-97 on SAT. But I’ve forgotten somethings. I actually did better on the automotive than I though I would.
If that’s not the real test, is there a place to take the real one (without the humiliation of stepping into a recruitment office at age 57)?
The only thing I remember about the tests is drawings showing several meshed gears, where it would tell you the direction one of the gears was rotating and you had to answer what direction another of the gears was rotating.
Not taking this one. On the real on in high school I got 96 (at least that’s what the recruiter who called said; I don’t remember actually seeing any results). My sister got 99. But we didn’t take too seriously, as several people in our class attempted to deliberately fail, and we assumed that was so throughout the country (I think we were thinking it was a percentile rating from people who took it that year - we didn’t pay much attention to how it worked and only took it because we were required (or at least thought we were)) . I’m sure I’d do much worse now.
Didn’t get too many recruiter calls. My sister said the Reserves lady was pushy but everyone else accepted “not interested” easily enough. I remember one asked my ACT scores then said “you’re not interested, are you?” and I said nope. Seems like other people in my class had pushier calls.
I remember clearly getting a call from a Marine Corps recruiter when I was a senior. He asked what I was doing after high school. Not joining the Marines, was my reply! I think I laughed in to the phone before I hung up.
Two years later I scored a 99-130 and enlisted as a Marine infantryman.
The really sad story was that I also passed the DLAB that day…passed up an Intel job because it shipped to boot camp in two weeks and I wanted to leave at the end of summer.
I regret not becoming a linguist, too. The first time was because I was only a reservist, and they didn’t want to invest in such long training. And they probably saw the writing on the wall that Russian would be less important in the near future.
When going regular army (voluntary move) my condition was an MOS change, and the huge bonus for 93D at the time was enough to cause a short-sighted decision to do that, instead.
I took that path to 98G. Got to spend 16 MONTHS in Monterey, CA learning Arabic. That and the rest of the job was The Shit. I completed my 4 year enlistment and returned to the real world for the sole reason that I was a GD moron. Best job I ever had and I’ve been pissed at myself for 22 years now for scampering off.
It was funny because I enlisted at a very low point in my life when I had zero self esteem. When I was waiting to take the ASVAB I was listening to other folks in the room talking about this being their 2nd or 3rd try. Made me very nervous. When I asked my recruiter how I’d done he thought I was kidding (I’d crushed it) and set me up for the DLAB. I took that one with one other fellow. When we left the room he was very confident, and I was resigned to taking a gun bunny job. Turned out, he didn’t rate for any language but I rated for Arabic or Chinese. Weird.
So I did. It was the start of a rewarding career path. It would be fun to take it again. Similarly, I wouldn’t mind doing the SATs or ACT just for the heck of it.
I wish I had chosen an actual skill. Definitely one of the worst decisions I’ve made.