What is the AFOQT?

The Air Force Officer Qualification Test (AFOQT) is the Air Force’s standardized test for officers, similar to the ACT/SAT, or GRE/GMAT.  It is easy to become overwhelmed by this test because little is really known about it.  They publish study guides and books to help people prepare for and pass the test, but many of the reviews that you see detail how the guides and books missed the mark when compared to the actual test.  All of that said, I don’t think this test is that important.  After taking the test myself, becoming an officer, and helping hundreds of people follow in my footsteps, it is my belief that a person’s AFOQT scores are a terrible indicator of whether or not they will be selected.  As of this date, the minimums outlined in the AFI are Quantitative 10/Verbal 15.  I know someone who scored Quantitative 11, Verbal 25, Academic Aptitude 15, and is now a highly effective 13S Space Operations Officer.

Regardless of the correlated or perceived importance of this test, I believe it does help your application to achieve the highest possible scores.  The question of how to prepare for the test has been addressed in some of my other posts and can be further addressed by the Facebook Forum, so the purpose of this post is to provide you with general information about the test itself.

The test is created by the Air Force, probably some random office within the Air Force Personnel Center.  Here is the official web site for the test.  There are tons of really good resources at the site, but the document I am going to discuss is the “AFOQT Information Pamphlet.”

I consider this document the official source of information for the test, so it is definitely worth the read.  The document gives a brief introduction of the test, provides a summary of what was updated with the latest revision, and provides a general description of each of the scored areas of the test.

As of the publication of this post the AFOQT is divided into 12 subtests:

1. Verbal Analogies
2. Arithmetic Reasoning
3. Word Knowledge
4. Math Knowledge
5. Reading Comprehension
6. Situational Judgment Test
7. Self-Description Inventory
8. Physical Science
9. Table Reading
10. Instrument Comprehension
11. Block Counting
12. Aviation Information

How well you score on each subtest is applied to one or more score category.  The score categories listed in the guide are as follows:

• Pilot
• Combat Systems Operator (CSO)
• Air Battle Manager (ABM)
• Academic Aptitude
• Verbal
• Quantitative
• Situational Judgment

Here is a table in the guide which tells you which tests apply to which scores.  The only thing I’m not sure about is it means if a subtest has no corresponding measured score.  I’m not sure if you skip that subtest altogether, or if you take the subtest but it doesn’t mean anything.  Leave a comment if you know and I’ll amend this post.

Here is the schedule of the testing day.

Scores

After they score the tests they upload the scores and you can download them from the web site.  Here is an example of what the score sheets look like.  This is from one of my “Examples” posts; a selectee from the 16OT03 board.

Page 6

Page 7

Summary

To summarize, you show up on testing day and you take all of the subtests in accordance with the above schedule.  Once you are done, they send the results in and a few weeks later you can check your scores online.  As long as you meet the minimums you are good to apply for OTS.

The one thing I will point out is that the test seemed extremely rushed to me, so when you prepare be sure you use a timer and try to simulate the actual test lengths.  I think out of all of the subtests I took for mine, I only completed one before the time elapsed.

There are a lot of pre-tests and additional information on the AFPC web site.  Good luck and let me know if you have any questions or comments!