Research for Personnel Classificatio

This report describes the construction of a new score scale for the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). The ASVAB was administered to a nationally representative sample of young adults in the fall of 1980. The test scores for this sample were used to construct the new score scale, called the 1980 ASVAB score scale. On 1 October 1984, the 1980 score scale replaced the World War II scale, used by the Department of Defense (DoD) since 1950. The new score scale provides nationally representative test norms that enable DoD personnel and manpower managers to compare the aptitudes of military recruits with those of the potential supply of recruits in the civilian youth population.