IST: AFOQT score and Regulations on RLO IST

[ATX51]

Fellas,

I am an interservice transfer from the Army, already a qualified H60 driver, post command, 3 tours, etc.

I did not do well on my AFOQT, I thought I had studied to an appropriate level, quite frankly the math portion surprised me a little more than I was prepared for and I embarrassingly, I choked in the ambush and I scored a whopping 5 in quantitative.

Scores:

Pilot: 78  Nav: 62  ACAD AP: 25  Verbal: 64    Q: 5

 I am pretty embarrassed to talk about this, but humility in failure is important and I have learned a very hard lesson these past few days. So I am going to set up a retest, and go forth and study my ass off and be ready to get after and improve for the next time.

 

My question from the regulation standpoint is:   Since I am already a commissioned officer,  do the minimum scores required to commission into the Air Force even matter?  and for that matter do they matter for UPT, as I already surpassed the minimums for pilot/nav required to go to UPT??

after some introspection I walked into this unprepared for the math sections,  which overall I am sure brought my other scores down significantly.

 

 

 

 

 

[Dustoff!]

Dang that’s a damn good question. But first some detail, are u going active to active?

You would need to look at a couple documents. Check out AFIs 36-2005&2105 I believe your answer lies there.

 

Like u said tho... scores are still a discriminating factor for competition.

If u search a little there is a breakdown of each AFOQT category & what sections affect each. I used that as a guide to max the pilot & Nav sections. I had 5 days to study so I focused my time/energy to those. It did show on my Q score, b/c I had not prepared for a subsection as it didn’t affect Pilot/Nav.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Baseops Network mobile app

 

[Uptapplicant2019]

I just retook the afoqt as an active duty officer to increase my pilot score for my upt app and I asked jokingly if I scored below the commissioning standard if they would take my rank away and make me an airman. He just laughed and said they wouldn't do that. 

To my understanding the quantitative isn't a huge emphasis item for upt applications, it's more about the pilot afoqt score and your pcsm. 

[pilot]

Hey bro, here’s a bunch of words...may be applicable may not.  When you say you are an IST, are you in the process of doing an IST or are you just an army guy applying to air guard/reserve units (or worse, active duty)? Might be semantics, but all of the former army guys who have gone air guard/reserve, at least the ones I know, have all had to “get out” and get back in...in other words the IST process was not applicable. We applied, got hired, coordinated getting out of the army (if not out already), went thru the admin hurdles before getting gained, then swore in and got gained by the ANG/AFR. I had a break in service so I couldn’t do an IST. But my bro’s who tried to go the IST route couldn’t, had to work with army HRC and their gaining unit/AFRC to line up an ETS date with a gain date the following day to avoid a break in service. It isn’t a clean IST so to speak, where one day you’re army then magically the next you’re AF. It can play out that way if the sep/gain date are back to back, but that takes some luck and coordination. I’ve heard of AD to AD ISTs but don’t know any personally. Might be semantics, but iirc an IST has different rules/processes than a regular off the street AFR/ANG accession, which is probably the route you’d come in. Not sure where you are in the process but thought it was at least worth mentioning FYSA. Also, other than former army dudes here, I don’t think anyone knows what RLO or post command means.

I had heard that if you don’t go to UPT, in other words if you stay helo only in the ANG/AFR coming from the army, you didn’t need to take the afoqt. But I have a bro, same boat you are in, got hired by an ANG helo unit, and he had to take the afoqt (after he had already been “hired”) as an administrative requirement. This makes it seem that passing the min AFOQT scores is required, but I’m just making an assumption...just doesn’t make sense they’d make an army O3 H60 Pilot take an AFOQT after already being hired if there was no minimum score required, especially since he wasn’t going to UPT. But who knows. I just throw that out as a datapoint. I have never heard of rated USN/USMC guys going to the ANG/AFR having to take the AFOQT (caveat: I’ve never asked), which seems like a similar situation to the army helo-to-af helo scenario I mentioned. I’ve read all applicable AFIs (I think) and it looks like they are written (with regards to the AFOQT) to address all normal sources of commissioning, but not written to address direct hires/prior officers, and certainly not prior rated officers. I do know that at several points in the application process and accession process (AFRC), I had to send my afoqt/pcsm scores to my hiring unit and to my recruiter. My recruiter asked for them several times (guess he forgot I sent them, over, and over), indicating they are in fact used and looked at during the accessions process, not just in the application process. 

With all that said, if you don’t meet the bare mins on the AFOQT, it may affect your hireability. I know some people from my FC1 group (all guard/res) who had been hired with very low scores on some sections (teens/20s), but whose pilot/nav scores were ok. I think units are more concerned with the person, not test scores. But having at least the minimum scores is probably required, if not by AFI by anyone doing hiring for a unit. So hopefully your next go round will have better results. Wish I could help with afoqt/quant specifics, but I’m not the right guy to help with that. Good luck. Hope it works out. 

[ATX51]

Hey thanks fellas I really appreciate the input,

 

Shockingly, I heard back from a unit soon as updated my package and they invited me for an interview.  I am tempering my expectations because of my scores, but regardless, I am still going to take the exam again.   I was unprepared for the math sections and It reflected. 

 

Hope to report good things in the future!

 

[ATX51]

Was selected as an alternate and requested to increase scores and re-apply.

 

Really great experience! 

[Sit On Acorns]

I highly recommend kahnacademy for math. Start at lower levels they have on there and it has an algorithm that determines your level of competency and will move you forward faster/slower as needed to make sure you understand the concepts. I used it with good results, plus it's free.