This Episode is about The reason you need to score your best.

Transcript

Michael Gamonal: Hey, welcome back to the Podcast, guys. Today, I am talking to everyone about why you want a good score on the ASVAB. I’ve got about four bullet points here for some really good reasons for why you’re going to want to get the best possible score.

Most of the people listening probably have already tried to increase their score before, and even if you haven’t, there’s always a good reason to kind of do your best, right? This can be a little bit more motivation for why it’s important to have a really good ASVAB score.

Anyway, one of the best reasons is a bonus, right? One of the short-term gratification, one of the fastest ways that you get rewarded for hard work is you get a better bonus. And so, some of those bonuses aren’t really dependent on your ASVAB score, like a quick ship bonus, right? Quick ship bonus means you’re willing to run off the basic training or go to whatever training your branch has right away. As soon as you swear in, within a few weeks, you’re off to go to your training and you’re already a soldier. That’s one bonus that doesn’t necessarily require a better ASVAB score, but what happens is you can get a better MOS. Specific MOS’s qualify for different bonuses. I know, sometimes, it can be 88M or MP’s, truckers. Different things will give you different bonuses, and so the more you score, the more options you’re going to have to get the best possible bonus. And so, that’s a really good reason to score high so that you and somebody go into the military at the same time, but you come away with 10 grand and they go away with 5 grand, you’re going to feel like you did a lot better, because $5,000 is, of course, a lot of money and you can do a lot with that so those bonuses are great.

I know that to be an officer, for me, I needed a 110 GT. That’s a General Technical score. And so, when I got that, I was pretty far above it because my math skills are pretty good. Getting that 110 GT is something that I believe a lot of people are capable of. I don’t think that it’s out of reach for anyone, as long as you put in the effort and try to learn all of the information.

If you know how to singing any of three top songs or something like that, you can probably learn all the math that you need for the ASVAB. Most people I know have three favorite songs that they know all the words to, and so the same thing is true for all of the math formulas and stuff like that. Sometimes, it may feel like you can’t learn these things, but it’s just like anything. You can learn anything that you focus on long enough and that you spend enough time with. So, there’s that for the GT scores.

I know Army will give out up to 50,000. Navy will give out about 40,000, maybe up to 50,000. Air Force does about 15,000, and Marines do 2,000 to 8,000. So, there’s a lot of money to be made out there, a lot of bonuses for a good ASVAB score.

The bonus, that’s reason number one. Reason number two is the MOS. In the Army, we call them MOS, Military Occupational Specialty. I’m not sure about the other branches, but your MOS is going to be the job you do for the next six years. Some of the more attractive jobs for me would be in health care, right? So 68W, that’s a Combat Medic, those guys get a lot of health care training through the military. And even if you’re just an E-1 or an E-2, you’re not making a ton of money per month, but you’re gaining a ton of skills, right? I know 68Ws, they know how to draw blood, they know how to give shots. They know a lot of different things. So, picking a good career is going to vastly change your life.

Personally, I’ve had a lot of different careers in my time, and I know I’m most satisfied and most happy when I’m in alignment with what I want to do. So, if there’s something that you want to do, you should probably shoot for that MOS and getting the best score that you can is going to let you pick more MOSs.

And then, so, a good MOS for Navy would be Nukes because Navy does Nuclear Program. And so, I’ve had students who wanted to get a really good score so that they can be a little more involved with the nuclear warfare. They don’t just let anybody do that; you have to be pretty smart in order to qualify for that job. And then, of course, again, back to that bonus, so you get the quick cash, as well.

Finally, the confidence. So, I think that you walk different when you’re confident. The world seems like a completely different place when you’re confident. If you’ve ever done any competing and suffered a loss, you’ll notice the world seems smaller and the world seems a little more bleak, less colorful. But when you win something, you feel great, right? You feel way more confident. You feel like anything can be done. And so, I think getting a good score on the ASVAB has a lot to do with confidence.

Personally, when it comes to learning something like land nav or military history for Officer Candidate School, those sorts of things, knowing that I’m good on the ASVAB, knowing that I have a very good, you know, process for learning helps me to have a lot more confidence when I learn new things and so I feel that confidence, and that carries over into all aspects of my life.

And so, scoring well in the ASVAB is huge for confidence, and that’s why I put this bullet last because confidence really is, kind of, key, you know? If there is somebody that you like or somebody who’s like, “Wow. They’re so cool,” you’re usually smitten by their confidence, right? It’s usually the most impressive factor about them. And so, confidence actually has a lot to do with status and where you are in life, but true confidence is where you know that you’ve earned it, right? You have the competence to back it up. You have the intelligence behind all that that you believe, and so that confidence is key.

Same with like being a squad leader, platoon sergeant, or platoon leader, if you feel like you’re worse at math or not as smart in English as the people around you, you might not be as good of a leader because you don’t have the guts, right? You’re not going to be as likely to speak up for what you believe in or speak up for your soldiers, or even promote your soldiers or write awards for them because you don’t have confidence in how you write or how you speak. And so, that carries over. That confidence is going to carry over into your military career. That’s going to carry over into your personal life, as well. So, keep that confidence in mind. Try to score your best so that you come away, feeling like you can do anything.

Lastly, I put this, kind of, like, I guess, a footnote. You’re a better soldier if you’ve earned your accomplishments. And so, if you’ve struggled with the ASVAB and you’re thinking about going for a CAT IV waiver or something like that. I feel like this hobbles your confidence, right? I feel like you’ll spend a lot more time in the military if you’ve gotten a CAT IV, a little self-conscious about your math and English skills. Personally, I think that these are skills that are a lot easier to build than to get around.

I know for a fact like personally, the subject that I’ve avoided all my life is Chemistry. And so, I’ve never taken a Chemistry class. I’ve done everything I can to stay away from Chemistry because it’s intimidating for me. And so, I have a confidence issue around this Chemistry. Lucky for me, Chemistry doesn’t come up very often in my day-to-day life, but I would never… If there was a test where I had to do well in Chemistry, I would never seek out a way to get around it, a way to get a waiver because I’m special needs or something like that, because I fell like that would make me feel like I can never learn Chemistry. And where I am right now, I think I could learn if I really wanted to. And so, if I find a way around having to learn something, it just proves to myself that I’m not worthy, that I’ll never understand that and it’s way over my head. That would be damaging for my belief in myself.

And so, I have all that to say if you’re thinking about going for a CAT IV, try not to do so much research on getting a CAT IV and start just researching some fractions. Just check out how to do slope-intercept form. Figure out one thing that you’re good at. Maybe it’s exponents or scientific notation, start with the simple stuff and then just build up those skills and quit trying to legislate your way out of getting a good ASVAB score, because again, you may spend your whole career, feeling like you’re no good at these things, and that doesn’t help anybody.

So, that’s my little spiel about anti-CAT IV. I know some people do need it, some people use it, right? Waivers are in place because they help people. And so, if you need a waiver and that’s the only option you have and that’s how you got in, and you’re a great soldier, those situations do exist. I don’t want to demoralize you or make you feel bad about anything, but if you’re still self-conscious about your math and English skills, you know, maybe it’s time to try to pick those up. Just because you got a CAT IV doesn’t mean that you can’t turn around and learn.

And just so everybody knows, a CAT IV is a waiver to get out of taking the ASVAB or to get in with a lower score than necessary. Basically, it’s a waiver to say like, “Oh, this person didn’t score as well, but they’re still going to get in.” So anyway, that’s my spiel about CAT IV.

Finally, if you like this podcast, go ahead and like it, share it with somebody who needs the help, especially if you know any of those CAT IV soldiers out there who are trying to get the CAT IV. Let them know that like, “Hey, you can learn this stuff. It just takes a little bit of practice.” And then, I’m going to sign off by saying, “Do something today that either makes your or someone else’s life better.”

All right. Thanks so much, guys. I’d also really appreciate a review. If you have anything good to say about the show, if you think it’s helpful at all, please leave me a review anywhere that this Podcast showed up.

All right. Thanks, guys. Have a great day.

[END]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:44 — 12.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More