What's a Good Score on the Asvab?

As I help citizen study for the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test many ask me what would report a good score on the Asvab or what the "high score" is on the test. What constitutes a good score easily depends on each private test taker but, in my opinion, the actual broad score matters very small and concentrating on it can hurt you more than help you.

Here's why.

The purpose of the Asvab is not to part your intelligence. The purpose is to part your train-ability and, as the name of the test suggests, your aptitude in inescapable subject areas. Your military training is essentially one big technical school designed to prepare you to perform a inescapable job. So, it should come as no surprise that the military is very concerned in having recruits make it through whatever training they get and become efficient members of the armed forces.

That's what the Asvab test is designed to part - your potential to be successfully trained for a inescapable job. Not your intelligence, education, or test taking abilities. By analyzing the Asvab test results of past recruits and their subsequent train-ability in a variety of job types, each military subject has come up with their own minimum score measures for all of their jobs or job types.

Called "line scores", these minimum scores are calculated by adding inescapable Asvab subtest scores together and, after getting a good enough score on the Afqt part of the Asvab to enlist (usually 30-40), it's these line scores that decide for which training you'll be eligible. So, a good score on the Asvab is whatever mixture of subtest scores add up to you earning training in the military job of your choice.

As for high scores, technically the Asvab high score is 99 on each subtest but, as many military veterans will tell you, if you need a 60 on a test and get a 99 then you studied too much! That 99 score may impress your recruiter and your parents but it doesn't mean much after you enlist.

The key to getting your own personal good score on the Asvab is to know which subtests make up the line score that qualifies you for the job training you want and to consolidate your study on just those subtests (in addition to the four subtests that make up the Afqt score). If you're going after a clerical job it makes no discrepancy what you get on the Electronics or Mechanical subtests so don't worry about them! As long as you get the line score you need it naturally doesn't matter what you get on unrelated areas of the test.