The Pentagon is considering allowing recruits to use calculators on the military entrance exam that determines what jobs, if any, they are eligible to take on.
This potential change as to how the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, or ASVAB, is administered could impact the ongoing bleak recruiting outlook for most service branches, though it's unclear when this decision could be announced.
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"The Department is carefully considering the use of calculators for the ASVAB. We are taking a systematic approach, which will assess the impact of calculator use, and we are developing a way forward for calculator inclusion based on best practices in test development and psychometric theory," a defense official confirmed to the Washington Examiner on Monday.
There are some hopeful recruits who do not score high enough to qualify for enlistment, according to Military.com, which first reported the Pentagon's consideration of permitting the use of calculators.
The Army, Navy, and Air Force are expected to fall short of their recruitment goals for the year, while the Marine Corps and Space Force have not felt the same recruitment challenges to the same extent because they are much smaller. There are a number of contributing factors to the recruiting woes the military is experiencing as it tries to convince Generation Z, current 18-24 year-olds, to enlist.
A Pentagon study from last year revealed that 77% of young Americans would not qualify for military service without a waiver due to being overweight, drug use, or having mental and physical health concerns, while the 23% of young adults who would be eligible is lower than in previous year, according to Pentagon data.
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Service branches have also relaxed certain appearance standards, while giving those applicants who fail a drug test or fail to qualify on the aptitude test extra opportunities to correct it, increased bonuses among other changes to incentivize enlistment. Last year, the Army launched its Future Soldier Preparatory Course, which is a second chance for recruits who were just short of the service's standards for academic performance or body fat.
To date, the Army has graduated 9,216 students from the Future Soldier Preparatory Course into basic training, 7,045 went through the academic track and 2,171 who passed the fitness course. During the academic portion, students raised their military exam scores an average of 18.5 points, according to Military.com.
How would YOU do in the ASVAB entrance exam? Test yourself with some sample questions HERE.