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AFQT scores are the primary measure of recruit potential. Figure 2.7 indicates the percentage of NPS recruits who
scored at or above the 50th percentile (Categories I-IIIA) since FY 1973. Numerical data are in Appendix D, Table D-12
. The drop in Category I-IIIA recruits after FY 1976 was due primarily to the miscalibration of the ASVAB.(27)
In 1976, when new versions of the ASVAB were introduced, an error in calibrating the score scales made the new versions "easier" than the old versions (i.e., applicants received test scores higher than their actual ability). In 1980, an independent study of the calibration was made and the test was correctly calibrated. Then, Congress added legal provisions stipulating that no more than 20 percent of accessions could be in Category IV and that such accessions had to be high school diploma graduates.
(28) However, as previously stated, the FY 1997-2001 Defense Planning
Guidance decreases this limit even further, allowing no more than 4 percent of recruits to come from Category IV.
Figure 2.7.
Percentage of NPS accessions in AFQT categories I-IIIA, FYs 1973-1997.
Figure 2.7 shows FY 1977 as the low point and FY 1992 as the high point in accessing recruits in Categories I to IIIA.(29) In FY 1977, 34 percent of accessions scored in the top half of the AFQT distribution. Only 13 percent of Blacks, 19 percent of Hispanics, and
20 percent of "Others" scored in Categories I-IIIA.
Fifteen years later, in FY 1992, the majority of minority accessions achieved scores in the I-IIIA range (Blacks - 56 percent,
Hispanics - 67 percent, "Others" - 67 percent). Hispanics have shown the most marked increase, with a 48-percentage-point gain in Category I to IIIA accessions from FY 1977 to FY 1992.
A graphic view of the trend in the AFQT performance of accessions is provided in Figure
2.8. The figure clearly indicates the increase in AFQT scores of accessions from FY 1981 through 1992. The more significant gains were in Categories I to IIIA, where the
percentages increased year by year from 47 percent of accessions in FY 1981 to 75 percent of accessions in FY 1992. Conversely, there has been a steady decline in the
percentage of Category IIIB accessions. Most dramatic has been the decrease in accessions who score in Category IV -- from 33 percent of accessions in FY 1979 to less
than one percent since FY 1991. There has been a slight decline in the percentage of accessions in Categories I to IIIA in the last five years, from 75 percent in FY 1992 to 68 percent in FY 1997.
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Figure 2.8. Percentage of NPS accessions in AFQT categories I-IV, FYs 1973-1997.
The percentages of FY 1997 active duty NPS accessions in each AFQT category are shown in Table 2.8. The percentage of recruits in Categories I and II was higher than for
their civilian counterparts (male - 41 versus 39 percent; female - 38 versus 33 percent). Category III accessions greatly exceeded civilian group proportions (males - 58 versus 30
percent; females - 62 versus 37 percent), while the percentage of recruits in Category IV was much lower than in the civilian population (males - 1 percent versus 20 percent;
females - less than 1 percent versus 22 percent). The low percentage of Category IV recruits is, in part, a result of DoD limiting the percentage of recruits from this group to 4
percent, with the Services setting their limits even lower. Ten percent of civilian males and 9 percent of civilian females scored in Category V, while DoD allows no recruits from this category.
| Table 2.8. AFQT Scores of FY 1997 Active Component NPS Accessions, by
Gender and Service (Percent) |
| AFQT Category1 |
Army |
Navy |
Marine
Corps |
Air
Force |
DoD |
| MALES |
| I |
4.3 |
5.1 |
3.3 |
5.8 |
4.6 |
| II |
33.3 |
36.9 |
33.7 |
46.1 |
36.1 |
| IIIA |
28.8 |
23.9 |
27.1 |
29.0 |
27.2 |
| IIIB |
31.2 |
34.1 |
35.4 |
18.9 |
31.1 |
| IV |
2.4 |
* |
0.4 |
0.2 |
1.0 |
| V |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
| Total |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
| FEMALES |
| I |
2.8 |
3.1 |
2.4 |
3.4 |
3.0 |
| II |
33.7 |
33.8 |
34.3 |
38.8 |
35.1 |
| IIIA |
37.7 |
31.2 |
34.0 |
32.4 |
34.7 |
| IIIB |
25.4 |
31.9 |
29.0 |
25.4 |
27.0 |
| IV |
0.4 |
0.0 |
0.2 |
0.1 |
0.2 |
| V |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
0.0 |
| Total |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
100.0 |
Columns may not add to total due to rounding.
* Less than one-tenth of one percent.
1 Service data from OASD(FMP)(MPP)/Accession Policy are "cleaned" by the Services for official submission. Data presented in this table may
differ slightly from the data shown in appendix tables that are taken from DMDC's USMEPCOM Edit File.
Also see Appendix Tables B-5 (AFQT by Service and Gender) and B-6
(AFQT by Service and Race/Ethnicity).
Source: Service data from OASD(FMP)(MPP)/Accession Policy -- submitted in accordance with DoD Instruction 7730.56. The 1980 civilian comparison group
distribution for the total population (males and females) is 7 percent in Category I, 28 percent in Category II, 15 percent in Category IIIA, 19 percent in Category IIIB, 21 percent in Category IV, and 10
percent in Category V. Civilian data from Profile of American Youth (Washington, DC: Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense [Manpower, Reserve Affairs, and Logistics], March 1982). |
Sixty-nine percent of recruits scored at or above the 50th percentile on the AFQT
(Categories I-IIIA). Air Force recruits scored higher than those of the other three Services. Seventy-nine percent of Air Force recruits scored in Categories I-IIIA,
compared to 68 percent of Army, 66 percent of Navy, and 65 percent of Marine Corps recruits.Go to High Quality
- See two documents: Sims, W.H. and Truss, A.R., A Reexamination of the Normalization of Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) Forms 6, 7, 6E, and 7E
(Alexandria, VA: Center for Naval Analyses, September 1980); and Laurence, J.H. and Ramsberger, P.F., Low-Aptitude Men in the Military: Who Profits, Who Pays? (New York: Praeger, 1991).
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- 10 U.S.C. 520.
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- Data from Defense Manpower Data Center.
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