Nearly 1 in 4 Americans fail the ASVAB!

[BlissStreet]

Nearly 1 in 4 Americans (17 to 24) fail the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery!
LINK

Nearly one-fourth of the students who try to join the U.S. Army fail its entrance exam, painting a grim picture of an education system that produces graduates who can't answer basic math, science and reading questions, according to a new study released Tuesday.......

.....The report by The Education Trust found that 23 percent of recent high school graduates don't get the minimum score needed on the enlistment test to join any branch of the military. Questions are often basic, such as: "If 2 plus x equals 4, what is the value of x?".......

.....The military exam results are also worrisome because the test is given to a limited pool of people: Pentagon data shows that 75 percent of those aged 17 to 24 don't even qualify to take the test because they are physically unfit, have a criminal record or didn't graduate high school.

I went to a DoD High school and scored so high on the ASVAB that I was taken out to dinner not once, but twice. Once by the army recruiters and once by the marine ones. Apparently they are impressed when you are in the 99th percentile.

Now I know why.

Click here to take a practice exam.

[Z28RockStar]

Appalling but true. I was glad I did well on the ASVAB, so well they wanted me in OCS straight out of highschool, but I was a kid, I didn't understand the difference in rank and pay, I just knew I wanted speed boats and guns right away! Not more school. I went straight into boot camp as enlisted, I wasn't interested in 2+ more years of school lol! Damn hindsights a bitch hahaha. . .

[RiCorvette]

I'm not surprised....
.....that a, uh, a, ???% (calculator clicking)
about a 25cent flailur rat.

[bigearl]

That's funny (in a sad sort of way), I took it 20+ years ago and did fairly well myself. I had recruiters calling me at least a couple nights a week for what seemed like months.

[motorhead]

My wife and i were just having a conversation about this last night. Well, what's the fix?
How do we resolve the problem? They are laying more and more and at a much earlier age on these kids than every before, and it seems to be backfiring. My third grader is doing word problems right now that I had in fifth and sixth grade. Know one in the glass is getting them and many of the kids including mine are shutting down in math because of it. You have teachers that didn't learn this way trying to teach in a fashion that they themselves don't understand. It's totally messed up and know one that can make a difference seems to care.

[Scott@Bjorn3D]

Yeah I took it and had the Air Force beating on my door for 2 months after wards

[PQ]

Originally Posted by bigearl

That's funny (in a sad sort of way), I took it 20+ years ago and did fairly well myself. I had recruiters calling me at least a couple nights a week for what seemed like months.

I took it in 1988 but can't remember my score.

I was going into the Army anyway so it didn't matter. But nobody tried to recruit me to go into rocket science. lol

[brandotron]

It was mandatory at my high school. I intentionally failed.

[WadeWilson]

I'm shocked that so many have problems with it. I took it in '94 and scored very well. My Air Force recruiter was quite pleased with my score.

[PQ]

Originally Posted by Shardik2SS

I'm shocked that so many have problems with it. I took it in '94 and scored very well. My Air Force recruiter was quite pleased with my score.

Is the ASVAB score on our DD-214s?

[CamaroSkooter]

Someone needs to inform the author(s) of this article that their statistical conclusions are fundamentally flawed. The first statistic they mention (the 23% failure rate) is among individuals who take the test. The second statistic they mention (the Pentagon's 75% elgibility rate) is among all citizens aged 17 to 24. Neither statistic is related to the other. And yet the article author(s) are trying to use them in conjunction. You could have a physically fit 26 year old that never took the test and he (or she) doesn't get represented in EITHER set of statistics. They're trying to take the worst possible conclusions (albeit flawed) from both sets of statistics and combine them into one big doom-and-gloom assumption.

Then there's the problem with drawing conclusions from these statistics in the first place. If you tell them to break the statistics out by any number of different criteria, like ethnicity or socio-economic background, you would get a much better idea of what's at play here. I would venture a guess that the majority of the 23% failure rate can be attributed to inner-city minorities or, like brandotron's example, upper-income individuals that are required to take it by their high school who fail it on purpose to avoid being recruited. And I would also guess that the majority of the 75% of people that the Pentagon deems "unfit" are primarily made up of overweight kids who have never done a complete push-up in their life. The majority of those individuals could easily be shaped up by getting sent to FTU before beginning Basic.

[bigearl]

Originally Posted by CamaroSkooter

Someone needs to inform the author(s) of this article that their statistical conclusions are fundamentally flawed. The first statistic they mention (the 23% failure rate) is among individuals who take the test. The second statistic they mention (the Pentagon's 75% elgibility rate) is among all citizens aged 17 to 24. Neither statistic is related to the other. And yet the article author(s) are trying to use them in conjunction. You could have a physically fit 26 year old that never took the test and he (or she) doesn't get represented in EITHER set of statistics. They're trying to take the worst possible conclusions (albeit flawed) from both sets of statistics and combine them into one big doom-and-gloom assumption.

Then there's the problem with drawing conclusions from these statistics in the first place. If you tell them to break the statistics out by any number of different criteria, like ethnicity or socio-economic background, you would get a much better idea of what's at play here. I would venture a guess that the majority of the 23% failure rate can be attributed to inner-city minorities or, like brandotron's example, upper-income individuals that are required to take it by their high school who fail it on purpose to avoid being recruited. And I would also guess that the majority of the 75% of people that the Pentagon deems "unfit" are primarily made up of overweight kids who have never done a complete push-up in their life. The majority of those individuals could easily be shaped up by getting sent to FTU before beginng Basic.

TL- DR, but I bet you got a good score.

[CamaroSkooter]

Never took the test

[Iroczlover]

My son took it last year & he did VERY well on it & they wanted him to enlist right away but he was only 15 at the time.

Next year he will take it again & I bet he will past it lol