What is the AFQT?

AFQT Score

The most important aspect of the ASVAB, according to the official ASVAB site, is the four different tests that make up the Armed Forces Qualification Test or AFQT for short. This AFQT score is essentially your ASVAB score.

Well, what are they you might ask?

These tests are arithmetic reasoning, mathematics knowledge, paragraph comprehension, and word knowledge.

The scores on these four tests are then combined to come up with a score. Most branches of the military require that the score be at least 31 to be qualified for service.

The higher a person scores, the better their chances are of becoming basically mentally qualified. Of course, a person shouldn’t strive for the bare minimum but should try and excel.

Now here’s a tidbit.

The paragraph comprehension and word knowledge tests are counted twice for the AFQT score. The better recruits score on the paragraph comprehension and word knowledge tests, the better their scores on the AFQT. So it’s important to focus on these sections when studying.

An interesting piece of info taken from the Official ASVAB site:

AFQT scores are reported as percentiles between 1-99. An AFQT percentile score indicates the percentage of examinees in a reference group that scored at or below that particular score. For current AFQT scores, the reference group is a sample of 18 to 23 year old youth who took the ASVAB as part of a national norming study conducted in 1997. Thus, an AFQT score of 90 indicates that the examinee scored as well as or better than 90% of the nationally-representative sample of 18 to 23 year old youth. An AFQT score of 50 indicates that the examinee scored as well as or better than 50% of the nationally-representative sample.

So basically, you are being compared to a group of 18-23 year olds that took the test back in 1997!

That’s crazy!

Now what?

In closing, be sure to take your time on the ASVAB when you encounter General Science, Word Knowledge, Arithmetic Reasoning and Paragraph Comprehension.  If you take your time and answer as many of these questions correctly, you should see your score improve.

Seems easy, right?

Be sure to hit up some of our links in those sections to take some practice tests so you feel more comfortable.

Focus on getting used to the type of questions these different sections have.