Amid recruiting shortfalls, the U.S. military is planning a policy change that would make it easier for applicants to qualify for service.
Military applicants taking the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery could soon be allowed to use calculators to help them pass the timed test, which measures aptitude and helps determine the positions in the military one is qualified for.
"We are taking a systematic approach, which will assess the impact of calculator use, and we are developing a way forward for calculator inclusion," a Pentagon official told Military.com.
The change in the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, or ASVAB, could help relieve an ongoing recruiting slump, which is attributed to many young Americans not scoring high enough to qualify for enlistment. It would also put the ASVAB on par with how test-taking has evolved in the past decade, with calculators being widely used in math classes and on college entrance exams such as the ACT and SAT. [...]
The [recruiting] shortfalls are due to an amalgamation of issues -- but at the forefront is a shrinking pool of qualified young Americans, 17- to 24-year-olds, who are eligible to enlist. Many of those applicants are being turned away due to poor performance on the military's aptitude exam.
Last year, the Army launched its Future Soldier Preparatory Course, a two-track camp for applicants who came just shy of the service's standards for academic performance or body fat.
There, soldiers have 90 days to come into compliance. The Army can graduate about 12,000 soldiers from that course into basic training, making up much of the recruiting deficit it saw last year with enlistees who otherwise wouldn't have qualified for service.
The academic track -- applicants who struggle to hit education standards necessary for entrance -- makes up the lion's share of that course. (Military.com)
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When the use of calculators for the test will be allowed remains to be seen, but already, the move is facing backlash for being yet another example of the "dumbing down" of the military.
Lower scores on the ASVAB test come at a time when the average ACT score fell in 2022 to its lowest levels in 30 years.
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