So today was the big day and I'll forewarn you that it didn't have a happy ending.
This morning I woke up at 0600, got my self dressed, fed, and ready to go by 0615. I stretched, downed a 16oz. glass of cranberry juice and hit the road around 0630. I was to meet Ssgt. Hunter at the recruiters office at 0700. I got there about 20 minutes early, so I walked around the strip center while burning some time. After about 15 or 20 minutes Sgt. bruce (my actual recruiter) shows up. So I greeted him, said good morning, yada yada yada. Sgt. Bruce ended up taking me to the local Army Reserves base by the airport to take my ASVAB. So we get there and there's this huge line of about 50+ people. While I'm standing there I'm observing all of these people who were also waiting. Some were wanna be gangsta's, some were nerd's, some were just Joe Shmoes. I was a Joe Shmoe, hahaha. So i ended up getting to go a head of everybody else because i was one of only 3 Marine Corps poolee's there to take the test.
I'll just go a head and skip the boring stuff at the beginning and get straight to the test its self.
There are two things that I will warn you about the test.
A) Do NOT stress over it. Trust me, when your done you'll laugh that you were even worried about it.
B) The test is insanely easily. All of the practice test's and full length tests that I took in prep before the real test were ten times harder then the actual test.
The biggest thing that I was worried about was time. I was freaking out because I'm the worlds worst at math and here we are only getting roughly 1 minute give or take to complete each math question. However, once i started i tried to keep a quick pace but I really tried to solve the problem thoroughly before moving on. In fact, I finished the section with around 5 minutes to spare which gave me plenty of time to go back and review my answers and to make corrections where needed. The other segments went like a breeze. The only one that I can say that gave me the hardest time was the Mechanical test and the Electrical test. Both of those subjects I know nothing about. BUT, there were a handful of questions that I did know, and using that organ called a brain and some good ole logic I think I did pretty well.
The entire time it took from the time I left me house to the time I arrive back at my house was around 8.5 hours total. It was extremely boring but it wasn't excruciating.
Now for the fun part......................NOT!
After waiting for what seemed like 30 minutes outside for Sgt. Bruce to recieve the results he finally came out, with results in hand. I could tell by the look on his face that it wasn't good. So I inquired how bad the damage was. He said not good. So he handed me the paper and as I'm looking around frantically for my score he points to an double digit humber under my name.
04
Yep, you read correctly. That's no typo. it read "04" as my score. Now keep in mind that this is based off of a 99 point score. At this point the blood drained from my face, my ears got hot, and I began to frantically think of what the hell happened for me to score a ZERO FOUR out of NINE NINE. So we make our way to the car. He's informing me that I have a lot of studying to do, HAHAHAHAHA. Studying, STUDYING!!! If you score a 04 on an ASVAB you need to go all the way back to kindergarten. Your border line retarded if you actually score a 04 on the ASVAB. So as we're leaving the parking lot I remembered the test admin saying before we even started to make sure our info at the top of the page ie. full name/ssn/and other test info was correct or else we could only score a few points. So I mentioned it to him. He said what test book did you have, I told him 25b, he said are you sure, i said 90% sure. So he says "SHIT", whips the car around in the intersection and off we go back to the base. So we're back at the base and he has me wait out side, telling me that he's going to go plead my case with the test admin.
About 15 minutes later he's beckons me in. He says the test admin has one question for me. So i greet the test admin, Bob (who's a great guy) and he asks me what book did I have. I said 25b, he said good you got that right, so he showed me my form and sure enough I did. He said do you remember what color the book was, I said yes brown. So he looks through his books and says Light brown or Dark brown. I said Dark Brown, and he says AHA! He hands me the book and on the front of the book in big bold white letters it says 25a.
25a!!!!
Not "b" but "a". Which means the computer used the answers for test "b" to grade answers for test "a". There was the problem. I put the wrong letter beside 25. I have no idea how I messed that up but I did and I have no excuse. I just wasn't paying attention to such a miniscule thing that I messed up. He said that since its electronic its permanent immediately. In shock I just sat back and looked at the book. I looked at my recruiter and apologized for wasting his time, thanked the Test admin for being so gracious in even attempting to help me and left the building.
One screw up and I failed. One tiny little hickup and it was over. Now I have to wait 30 days before I can retake the test. All is not lost but I learned a VERY valuable lesson today. Never underestimate the tiny miniscule things in life, for those tiny bricks are what hold the bigger bricks up and if one falls out of the wall the rest of the wall crumbles. I can retake the ASVAB come November 8th. I will be there yet again to take the test.
For the rest of the day I was extremely discouraged and depressed and mad and frusterated and and number of other things. Not towards my recruiters or towards the Test admin but towards myself. I was extremely embarrassed by this because this is not what I am. I'm not the person who misses the tiny things. In fact I'm pretty anal about the specifics. when it comes to anything, I have to understand it through and through. I have trained myself to be this way so that things like this don't happed when it really counts ie. on the front line, taking orders, etc. I was immensely mad at myself for failing at something that i pride myself at being damn near perfect at.
So I spent the rest of my day berating myself mentally about my mistake. I was pretty down afterwards. I sat for a good while just staring at the floor wondering how I goofed up like that. Later on that night as I was getting in the shower I looked in the mirror at myself. I took a good hard look and in doing so I realized that I am not the type of person who thinks of giving up when I'v been knocked to the floor. I'm not the type who walks around whining about my problems, trying to get sympathy from people to maybe help me feel good. That is not me and nor was I about to start. From that point forward I accepted the fact that whats done is done. I have learned a hard lesson today but I'm a better person because of it. So I made a pact with myself that from now on i would start riding my bike to the office (5.5 miles one way) instead of driving just to prove my dedication not only to my family, friends, and recruiters but to myself that what you want in life is worth fighting for with all your might. Never back down and never give up
Hopefully you who are considering joining the military can take this as a lesson as well. Even those of you who happen to find your way to my blog can benefit from other peoples mistakes. i have lived my life that way so that I wouldn't make the same mistakes, but be careful. For in doing so you'll lose sight of your own footing and soon you'll trip. You just have to decide to either pick yourself up and dust yourself off, or lay there and cry for help.
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No training today since it was a crazy day.
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Diet:
Breakfast: Protein bar
Lunch: Beef Stew
Dinner: Ham with pineapple, wild rice, corn, and bread
5 Comments
Wow what a day that was, being nervous the day of your test and then finding out you bombed it! But hey, a score of 4 on a test you have no clue about and didn't even look over the material, that's pretty good. :P
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Well I can say that if it wasn't for the mess up on the form, i would have scored in the 90's. I felt very comfortable with the test and had minimal problems with the questions so I feel confident that I would have placed at least a 90 if not better.
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10/8/2008 06:47:17 pm
lol NEVER call a marine a soldier thats an insult.... dont ever let anyone call you a soldier.. it was in good mind thow so....
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Hahaha, ya i should have caught him on that. I remember the first time i made that mistake. I didn't know any better but after I had my ass chewed for 10 minutes I knew a lot more.
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mamaspice
10/9/2008 07:11:16 am
Take a deep breath, shake it off and get ready for Nov.
Reply
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Justin Davis
I am a proud American who loves his country. I'm a family man, a fighter, a protector, a brother, a son, and a soon to be Marine. Archives
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______________ "The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions" - Leonardo Da Vinci |