The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery is the standardized test that the United States Military gives to every person who wants to join the military. It has been around since the early 1960’s and it features 9 different tests. Tests include Assembling Objects, Auto and Shop Information, Mechanical Comprehension, Electronic Information, Paragraph Comprehension, Arithmetic Reasoning, Word Knowledge and Mathematics Knowledge. The Department of Defense eliminated Coding Speed and numerical operations and added assembling objects in the year 2002. The ASVAB gives two basic sources of information: What jobs a person is qualified for, and whether or not a person qualifies for military service. Understanding how the Military uses the ASVAB test and how can be a bit difficult. There are three different versions of the military ASVAB test; results from any of the three different versions can be used for military recruitment purposes. The three versions can include:
High School Version- This is the version that used to be called Form 18 and 19. Its paper based and it is the ASVAB test that is often given to juniors and seniors in High school by the Department of Education and The Department of Defense. Each year nearly 14,000 high schools across the country administers this test and the scores are used by school counselors and students to help identify which subjects and strengths the student has. It still can be used to recruit with by the military but that is not the main focus of this particular version of the ASVAB.
CAT ASVAB- This is the version, which is computerized and is also called computer Form 20-22 ASVAB. It is given by computer and it can lead to improved scores for some people who do better on computer driven tests. Many people who have taken both types of tests claim that they do better on the computer version than on the regular ASVAB test. As a person answers one question on the test the computer selects the next question to be administered. Only on the computer version are the test questions variable, if a person gets a question right the computer selects a more difficult question that has more points, if they get one wrong then the next question is a bit easier. While this seems unfair it has been proven as an effective testing method for taking the ASVAB.
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ASVAB On Paper- The paper version of the ASVAB is used for military recruiting, and is the paper version Form 20-22. Not many people still take the paper ASVAB but it does still exist and it is viable for testing and recruiting purposes.
