Where our test rules come from

Nobody in uniform reviews these pages, and no recruiter supplied a figure. The services own the tests and decide every rule; we read their publications and report them. When your recruiter, detachment or test administrator tells you something different, their word applies to your case.

The buttons that lead to phone study apps are the site's only commercial element. They sit on the test pages and the home page; the guides, tables and practice questions are open without an account.

• ASVAB: officialasvab.com, the program's own site (test format, AFQT, retests, PiCAT), plus the enlistment pages of goarmy.com, airforce.com, marines.com, navy.com, gocoastguard.com and spaceforce.com for branch minimums.
• AFOQT: the Air Force Personnel Center's Form T pamphlet and FAQ, and Pearson VUE, which delivers the computer version.
• TBAS and PCSM: AFPC's PCSM program pages and the Air Force Reserve's flying-training guidebook.
• ASTB-E and OAR: the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute's ASTB pages and FAQ, read through dated archive copies when the live site refuses automated visits, and Navy program authorizations for the minimums.
• SIFT: the Army's SIFT FAQ and the Army Aviation Branch pages at Fort Rucker.

Every table row cites its document, and the last column dates our most recent comparison with it.

Some owners publish two versions of the same rule. We print both and say who says what, instead of picking one:

• AFOQT length: Pearson VUE and AFPC's 2015 pamphlet give different question totals (AFOQT test-day facts).
• PCSM flying hours: AFPC's FAQ caps them at 60 h, its PCSM home page at 41+ h (PCSM score).
• SIFT retest: the SIFT FAQ says from the 181st day, the Aviation Branch cadet page (Fort Rucker) after 45 days (SIFT test-day facts).

Where a service publishes no number at all, as with the Navy's and Space Force's AFQT floors, the table says so rather than borrowing a figure from another prep site.

Old test forms stay online for years. The current AFOQT is Form T, in use since August 1, 2014, yet a 2009 scan of the Form S practice booklet is still hosted on an official site and still copied into study lists. The Navy battery has the same problem. The ASTB-E has no Spatial Apperception Test and no fixed item counts; the 2005 Marine Corps overview (forms 3–5, paper, 31-day and 91-day retests) still circulates and is outdated. Pages here are written against the current form and say so when a subtest you may have read about no longer exists.

The questions are written for practice, not copied from any real test form. Before publication a second reader solves each one blind, with the key hidden, and a question goes live only when that answer matches and the explanation holds up for every option, right and wrong.

Subtests built on pictures, such as Instrument Comprehension or Hidden Figures, get a format guide rather than a quiz: a picture puzzle retold in words would train the wrong skill.