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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Mothers of Marines-to-be...
My 18yo son took his ASVAB yesterday and scored a 65. His dad is so proud and happy at how great his score is and that he can do any job in the marines he wants to do. He said the highest score he could have got is a 91 - does that sound right? If so, then with 50 being the lowest (i think), then 65 isn't that great.
www.military.com is not an easy site to gather all the education/information I'm trying to obtain from this. His dad has seen/spoke to the recruiter, I have not yet. Is that a good site, is there a better site, until I talk to the recruiter, I want to *be in the know* about as much as I can........can you ladies help me help myself?
~thanks xoxoxo
Re: Mothers of Marines-to-be...
I don't know too much about the Marines, but I believe the highest score you can receive on the ASVAB is 99. I would also suggest to go to every meeting with the recruiter to be able to ask the questions you have.
Best of luck to your son.
First off good luck to your son!
Secondly the best score you can get is a 99. But I'm not sure how they work out which scores allow you to "pick" what you want to do. I know my BIL scored a 96 and had his choice of jobs, DH scored a 91 and also had his pick of jobs.
Make sure when you go to the recruiter you have your questions written down so you don't forget to ask anything you really want answers to.
GL!
Do you know what his GT score was? It should be listed on the paperwork. A 65 is not a great score at all. The minimum score to get into most branches is a 60. If I were you, I would encourage him to wait the alloted time and take the test again. He needs to look at his weak areas and study them. There are several study guides you can get from the library or book stores. As a 17 yr old girl, I scored an 89. I was an average student. I waited until I was 25 to join. I had only 2 yrs of college under my belt. I scored an 83 that time but had a GT score of 120.
The GT score is what really determines what you can do. Most desirable jobs (as far as the Army is concerned. I'm not sure about the MC) require a minimum of a 110. You have to score a 100 to be infantry and a few other jobs, excluding SF or Spec Ops. Below that are truck drivers, cooks and a few other jobs.
Like one poster said, I encourage you to be at every meeting with the recruiter. If this is something your son really wants to do, awesome. Just make sure he goes about it the right way. It doesn't sound like that is happening right now.
The sister services use different formulas to come up with their scores. The MC's scoring confuses the heck out of me.
http://www.military.com/ASVAB/0,,ASVAB_MOS_USMC.html
This doesn't really make much sense to me because it looks like it focuses on the component (line) score, which we do in the AF, but I think the MC uses an overall score. For example, when I did my ASVAB (in 2003, so it might be outdated) I had four line scores, General, Mechanical, Electrical, Administrative. Those scores determined which AFSCs I qualified for. Although those scores were out of 99, a score over 65 was enough to qualify for most jobs.
That probably doesn't help much. I know Stan is a wiz at this stuff. She'll be on in a couple hours.
The Marine Corps also uses the line scores (like the GT score) to determine which job(s) one qualifies for.
I'm actually not that well versed in this because due to my SAT scores, I do not have to take the ASVAB.
OP, I think your son and both of you should talk to the recruiter about what sort of job he wants and what his scores will qualify him for. A lot of kids think infantry is where they want to be, but I truly suggest that he think really hard about how many years he wants to give the Marine Corps, because if it's not 20, he should give A LOT of thought to retaking the test so that he can qualify for more jobs that might give him some post Marine Corps job experience. Motor T is one that I believe he could currently qualify for (depending on his GT score) that would provide that. And it's important for him to contract for a job, otherwise he could end up doing something he hates.
Marine Parents dot com may help you more. There is a forum area there to chat with other parents in your situation.
Ditto the others about your son studying & retaking the test.
Ditto the others about retaking the test. And I'm guessing that was just his practice test? I know from when my H was recruiting that generally people did a little better on the official test as compared to the practice.
I only really know Navy scoring, but the highest was a 99, and you needed to get a minimum of a 50 to be considered for anything. If you wanted to go Nuke you needed at least a 90. So I'm sure he will be able to qualify for jobs, but he likely won't have his pick of jobs like your H thinks.
Has your son talked to recruiters with any other branches? When my DH enlisted, he wanted to go into the Air Force, but they weren't able to offer any jobs he was interested in (and he had a really high ASVAB score). He talked with Navy and Army recruiters. The Army offered him the best options, so that's what he went with. He's now been in for 16+ years.
Good luck to your son.