CAT-ASVAB - Understanding The Computer Adaptive Test For Joining the Military
If you're considering a career with the United States Armed Services, then you will have to go through a rigorous application process.
This includes taking the academic test called the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery or ASVAB exam.
In this article, I will explain specifically the CAT ASVAB exam style.
CAT stands for Computer Adaptive Test and this is the form of the ASVAB that is given to potential recruits when they go to a MEPS or military entrance processing station.
This is a very exciting form of the ASVAB exam, given the way that it's set up.
The "adaptive" in CAT implies that the exam is not simply a static one.
It's not that you sit down and answer a set of predetermined questions but instead the exam will constantly be adapting to your answering style.
As you're taking the exam, you will be given a question that is of medium difficulty.
If you get the question correct, the following question will be more difficult.
If you get this question correct, the following question will be even more difficult.
As you are going through the exam, every answer you get correct will cause you to receive a more difficult question afterwards.
However, if you get a question incorrect, then the following question will be slightly easier.
And so this assumes that as you go through the exam getting some questions correct, some questions incorrect, the test will constantly adapt to your testing style so that you are given questions that are fair to you and that you have the relative ability to answer.
Some recruits however find this concept daunting and they are afraid that if they get the question correct and keep getting more and more difficult questions, the questions will get so overwhelmingly difficult that they will fail not because they don't know the material but simply because the questions given were too difficult.
However, this is not the case because first of all, as mentioned above, if you get a question incorrect, the following question will be easier giving you a chance to answer correctly and the score is also adaptive.
It is not that you get X number correct and this means your score is a direct reflection of that number.
Instead the more difficult the question you answered correctly, the higher your raw score for that question.
The easier the question you get, the lower the score for that question.
So if you answer a fewer number of difficult questions correct compared to a larger number of easier questions, you will likely get a higher score because you answered questions that are worth many more points.
This includes taking the academic test called the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery or ASVAB exam.
In this article, I will explain specifically the CAT ASVAB exam style.
CAT stands for Computer Adaptive Test and this is the form of the ASVAB that is given to potential recruits when they go to a MEPS or military entrance processing station.
This is a very exciting form of the ASVAB exam, given the way that it's set up.
The "adaptive" in CAT implies that the exam is not simply a static one.
It's not that you sit down and answer a set of predetermined questions but instead the exam will constantly be adapting to your answering style.
As you're taking the exam, you will be given a question that is of medium difficulty.
If you get the question correct, the following question will be more difficult.
If you get this question correct, the following question will be even more difficult.
As you are going through the exam, every answer you get correct will cause you to receive a more difficult question afterwards.
However, if you get a question incorrect, then the following question will be slightly easier.
And so this assumes that as you go through the exam getting some questions correct, some questions incorrect, the test will constantly adapt to your testing style so that you are given questions that are fair to you and that you have the relative ability to answer.
Some recruits however find this concept daunting and they are afraid that if they get the question correct and keep getting more and more difficult questions, the questions will get so overwhelmingly difficult that they will fail not because they don't know the material but simply because the questions given were too difficult.
However, this is not the case because first of all, as mentioned above, if you get a question incorrect, the following question will be easier giving you a chance to answer correctly and the score is also adaptive.
It is not that you get X number correct and this means your score is a direct reflection of that number.
Instead the more difficult the question you answered correctly, the higher your raw score for that question.
The easier the question you get, the lower the score for that question.
So if you answer a fewer number of difficult questions correct compared to a larger number of easier questions, you will likely get a higher score because you answered questions that are worth many more points.
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