[1differential]

Oh gosh, the good old army and it's effective measurements techniques. I remember wanting to be a military officer after undergrad and getting disqualified at MEPS for a nonsense issue (which I'll omit for privacy) and the guy next to be getting green lit to continue processing with the Marines with a ...wait for it... 11/100 on the ASVAB.

[torstenvl]

The Marine Corps minimum is 35.

And it isn't "x/100," i.e., got x questions right and everything else wrong. It's xth percentile, i.e., better than x% of graduating high school seniors.

[imwillofficial]

No it isn’t. It’s x/99.

Also, it’s 35 today, but waivers are often granted and standards have changed throughout the years.

Lowest I’ve seen was 18.

[giantg2]

"better than x% of graduating high school seniors."

A very easy standard. I think I got a 96 or something like that and I missed a question about what was written on a light bulb (I said lumen which they largely do have, but they wanted watts). Stupid mistake still bugs me even though the score was meaningless.

[1differential]

I actually remember them half-joking about this - it's been years, but I would guess it's not a hard minimum

[enkid]

Officer vs enlisted has very different recruitment criteria.

[short_sells_poo]

Sorry, what is a MEPS and an ASVAB? I'm always mesmerized by the number of acronyms that ex military people throw around.

[least]

MEPS stands for "Military Entrance Processing Station" and it's where you go to do a bunch of checks to see if you're fit to serve. It's also often where things like the ASVAB (Armed Service Vocational Aptitude Battery) and DLAB (Defense Language Aptitude Battery), basically aptitude tests are held.

It's where you do testing, select your contract, swear in, leave for basic combat training or boot camp, and also do physical examinations, including some kind of odd ones, like duck walking across a room in your underwear with a bunch of other men.

[lockhouse]

MEPS = Military Entrance Processing Station ASVAB = Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery

MEPS is an initial processing station where the military makes a final determination that you are physically, morally, mentally, and legally able to serve in the military. The process includes things like physical exams, drug tests, and reviewing your records.

ASVAB is a standardized test developed by the military that helps determine what jobs you're eligible to do.

[colechristensen]

ASVAB is a standardized test like the ones you took in school or the SAT or whatever with subject matter appropriate for evaluating military recruits.

[thewildginger]

It's not really like the SAT at all. The SAT is pure academics.

>Appropriate for evaluating military recruits

Again, not clear if you're trying to be condescending. The ASVAB has logical reasoning portions (order the shapes based on labels of points), mechanical questions, I remember getting asked questions about force distribution of pulleys and tackle, but also questions like volume of a cone, basic trig, knights and knaves questions, what is the name of this screwdriver orientation, what's this engine piece called? ( Camshaft), and now there's even a computer science focused addition the Air Force uses.

It's a test that actually tells you about what you know and can understand, and is far more useful than an SAT or ACT exam.

[colechristensen]

> It's not really like the SAT at all. The SAT is pure academics.

I mean, it's a test that takes less than an afternoon where you answer questions by filling in bubbles and such. That's quite a lot like the SAT.

>The ASVAB has logical reasoning portions (order the shapes based on labels of points), mechanical questions, I remember getting asked questions about force distribution of pulleys and tackle, but also questions like volume of a cone, basic trig, knights and knaves questions, what is the name of this screwdriver orientation, what's this engine piece called? ( Camshaft), and now there's even a computer science focused addition the Air Force uses.

Is this not all "subject matter appropriate for evaluating military recruits" ?

You may be reading a bit much into what I wrote. My high school had everyone take it to fulfill a state requirement that we take so many standardized tests which gave schools the option of which ones to give.

>It's a test that actually tells you about what you know and can understand, and is far more useful than an SAT or ACT exam.

Being a bit condescending yourself here.

It's a standardized test appropriate for military recruits. For somebody who doesn't know was ASVAB means at all... this would seem a pretty good concise description.

[bmiller2]

Is 11/100 not the almost ideal marine infantryman score?

[bandrami]

Oddly USMC combat arms have some of the highest ASVAB scores going in. We're not dumb, just mean.

[Retric]

They care about those scores primarily because the army trains people for various jobs and it takes longer to train dumb people for extremely complex jobs especially when you include the possibility of failure.

However, even people scoring 1/100 is still someone that graduated high school so it’s not as incompetent as you might think. They just aren’t sending someone like that to flight school.

[jeffbee]

I don’t think you can fail the ASVAB? If you score 11 you will simply become a rifleman.

[weatherlight]

I got a score of 96 on my ASVAB and made the decision to pursue a career in Infantry as an MOS 11-B after completing OSUT. As a highlight, I had the opportunity to attend Airborne School, which was an incredible experience. At that time, when I was 20 years old, the Army offered a substantial $60,000 signing bonus, the highest among all branches (save the Navy). Although I did explore the possibility of joining the Navy, they turned me down due to my GED qualification.

Fast forward to today, at 39 years old, I can honestly say that despite some challenges with my lower back, I have absolutely no regrets about the path I chose.

[ryanchants]

99 ASVAB, 132 GT score. Went 0311(rifleman), and eventually 0313(LAV Crewman). High ASVAB scores in the infantry are more common than people think. My recruiter tried to push me to computer networking, but I had already done that in real life, and wanted to try something I couldn't do in the real world.

[throw2132490132]

> but I had already done that in real life, and wanted to try something I couldn't do in the real world.

Would you mind answering how old you were when you went in?

[ryanchants]

24.

[throw2132490132]

Thank you. It's the kind of thing I fantasize about as a very bored mid-late 20s dev who likes fitness and the outdoors, so datapoints like yours are always interesting.

[boppo1]

Would you recommend it to a young man, given the state of the military today? I'm old for the military (31) but was seriously considering it around 24-26. But I just couldn't get past report after report of the military happily doing obviously stupid/harmful stuff to its own, like burn pits.

[weatherlight]

It's complicated. When I joined, I was single, dirt poor, and it was an obvious way to climb out of poverty.

I'm not sure what your situation is, have you considered the National Guard? It's still a massive commitment, but it might just scratch that itch you have there. If you love it, its very easy to go active duty

[InvaderFizz]

Joining is a young man's game. I saw many 25-35 year olds at Basic Training suffer broken bones and dislocated joints. Many more than the 18 year olds.

As to recommending it, I do not. There can be greatly positive outcomes, but the risk of injury or death is too high for me to recommend to anyone. Unless it is your way of escaping poverty, which is the story for many veterans, the risk/reward isn't there.

I'll leave you with what I tell everyone who asks me in real life: Do I regret it? Sometimes. Would I do it again? Absolutely not. I saw too many of my friends die in a bankers oil war, or a politicians re-election strategy. Take your pick, they're all equally valid.

[jeffbee]

That sounds like a really amazing early life experience. I definitely do not side with people who denigrate military enlistment as beneath intelligent, skilled individuals, a set of people which included my parents at the time (early 1990s).

[InvaderFizz]

You can fail. You can't even enlist with a score of 11 without a waiver, and that would be a sight to behold for a score that low.

Strangely enough, the minimum score is significantly higher for GED holders[0]. The minimum Army score goes from 31 to 50.

0: https://uniontestprep.com/asvab/blog/minimum-asvab-afqt-scor...

[jeffbee]

TIL, then. I know abilities have a range, and some people have a bad day, but my personal impression of that test was that it would be impossible to fail it, as such.

[ke88y]

> failed MEPS not allowed in... poor ASVAB okay

It's the Army, not Harvard College.

Anyways, if my anecdotal experience interacting with the military is accurate, the main requirement for being an Officer is enjoying LOTR/super hero/Sparta movies. Being able to do pull-ups or string together coherent sentences are less important.

If you want to know what's actually valued in the military, look at the names of recent defense contract startups. That tells you everything you need to know.

[roarcher]

> That tells you everything you need to know.

Your entire comment is evidence of the contrary.