Research for Armed Forces Qualification Test

This paper presents and applies a methodology for estimating the cost of recruiting individuals with alternative distributions of Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) scores. The methodology takes account of the key institutional features of the recruiting process, including recruiter time allocation and procedural guidelines. The method is used to estimate the costs of different recruit-aptitude distributions, using data on applicants and accessions for all of the services.

The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) is administered in high schools and post-secondary schools as part of DoD's Student Testing Program. Norms for 11th and higher grades are based on a national sample tested in 1980 as part of the Profile of American Youth Study. Tenth grade norms use a nonrandom sample collected in 1984 by the Military Entrance Processing Command. With the introduction of Forms 18 and 19, scores will be reported on three composites and ten subtests. The objective of this research memorandum is to present norms for these scores.

Two forms, each containing 35 verbal and 30 mathematics items, have been developed for a new Enlistment Screening Test (EST) to predict Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) scores of military applicants. These forms were constructed in two stages from items in discontinued versions of the Defense Department's test batteries. The first stage was to develop overlength forms from the available item pool. This research memorandum describes the second stage: constructing final forms by selecting items from the overlength forms. Item selection was based on the correlation of the item with AFQT, in a subsample of applicants with AFQT percentiles between 21 and 65. For each EST form, the AFQT score was predicted from the total score on the final EST items. The results were used to calculate expectancy tables which, for any given EST score, provide probabilities of exceeding the specified AFQT cutoffs. These probabilities are reported in tables.

This paper analyzes whether recent changes in the definition of the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) have reduced the supply of eligible Marine Corps applicants, and whether composites other than General Technical (GT) can increase eligibility rates appreciably.