ASVAB Scores

[pawsplay]

Since the ASVAB is designed as a screening instrument, it produces results that are statistically reliable but not necessarily meaningful in a real-world sense. In other words, they want to identify, say, the 5% of recruits who would be best at task X, rather than how good at task X any one recruit would be. Since the ASVAB is not used to screen anyone out, normally, there is really no thresholds for any given ability.

[sjolly75]

Originally Posted by pawsplay

Since the ASVAB is not used to screen anyone out, normally, there is really no thresholds for any given ability.

The overall score is a screenable attribute - not sure what the minimum scores are these days (and they are different for different services), but you are correct for the individual line scores.

Steve

[Dragondog]

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

I still don't see what your plan actually is or why you need this level of detail! Let's say that you had a set of numbers like you are looking for - what then? And if you really DO need these numbers for a game, remember that you only need results from one test or year, not a rule that covers EVERY test.

The plan was to use them in template creation, but without the data I can’t say how exactly it would have influenced the templates.

I figured that having the data from several tests would take care of what I believed would be a small variation from one test to another and therefore cover a larger group of test takers. Having the data from only one test would be an approximation of that, but the larger group would give me a more accurate starting point.

Originally Posted by sjolly75

Dragondog,

I'm a Navy Chief Petty Officer (Nuclear trained) with over 18 years time in service. I've served as a recruiter (about 8 years ago), and was wondering why you want to (what it seems to me) to correlate ASVAB to stats. Are you trying to ensure they meet "minimum requirements" to be a part of that unit?

Honestly, since the ASVAB consists of several different sections, running from Verbal Expression (VE) and Math Knowledge (MK), both kind of like sections on an SAT test, to General Science (GS) and Mechanical Comprehension (MC), which are more helpful to determine strengths in various areas - it is probably easier to just have them create the characters and ensure they meet certain minimums in the various attributes.

Hopefully that helps a little, and if you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask!

Steve

Stephen C. Jolly
EMC(SW), USN

I wanted the data to figure out what to include in the templates.

[sjard]

Originally Posted by Dragondog

The plan was to use them in template creation, but without the data I can’t say how exactly it would have influenced the templates.

I figured that having the data from several tests would take care of what I believed would be a small variation from one test to another and therefore cover a larger group of test takers. Having the data from only one test would be an approximation of that, but the larger group would give me a more accurate starting point.



I wanted the data to figure out what to include in the templates.

Again, the problem with this is that there isn't much point. It is an aptitude test of general education questions for the most part. You may as well look at SATs or ACTs for the same information.

As far as I am aware, the ASVAB servers two purposes. One is spelled out in the very name Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. That is, what vocational aptitudes you have - what jobs the military offers you would be best suited for. The second is to weed out those people who absolutely cannot score high enough to get in.

Once more, the only real way I can think of to compare it to anything in gaming is how D&D used to have you roll your stats first, in order, no moving them around, and then checking to see which, if any, class you qualified for.

Other than that, all I can think of would be to create several campaign specific talent packets for specific jobs and have the characters pick one of those.

So, to reiterate the ASVAB has two jobs:

1) Minimum entrance qualifier.
2) To create a list of jobs that the person taking the test is best suited for.

Note on 2). Even if you qualify for something better than infantry, if all they need is infantry that's where they'll put you.

[Dragondog]

Originally Posted by sjard

Once more, the only real way I can think of to compare it to anything in gaming is how D&D used to have you roll your stats first, in order, no moving them around, and then checking to see which, if any, class you qualified for.

Obviously I don't agree with you.

[sjolly75]

Originally Posted by Dragondog

Working on some military templates for my campaign world, I've been looking at the ASVAB test. Are there any statistics for the percentage of correct answers test takers usually get for each subtest and what ASVAB score that gives them?

Dragondog,

Unfortunately, I just don't think the data you're looking for is available. The individual sections don't have the same max score, and the overall ASVAB is only based on the four basic math and verbal sections.

Good luck on your campaign world though, and I'd love to hear what your campaign is going to be about!

Steve

[Dragondog]

Originally Posted by sjolly75

Dragondog,

Unfortunately, I just don't think the data you're looking for is available. The individual sections don't have the same max score, and the overall ASVAB is only based on the four basic math and verbal sections.

Good luck on your campaign world though, and I'd love to hear what your campaign is going to be about!

Steve

That has become clear to me Steve. As part of my research I have taken two full ASVAB practice tests at military.com/ASVAB so I know what they look like.

My campaign worlds, I have two, are alternate earth settings and I was working on some military templates for them. Though I think that my next campaign will be Monster Hunters.