Most fail the first time they take the test? DS hockey player never failed anything physical but having said that the MOST comment has piqued my curiosity. Why do they fail? Help us all out on this one.
I'm sure Carksonarmy will chime in on this as well, but I can give you a perspective my son told us.
Most applicants took the PFT for the physical test, they had a coach or PE instructor administer the test.
They would run a 7:00 plus mile and figure if they just double that for 2 miles they will pass the run portion of the AFPT. They don't realize that you can't just double your time, you have to run the second mile at the same pace, a pace that probably wore them out just doing the first mile.
They do 40 to 50 push ups in one minute and figure they are set given that they will have 2 minutes. What they don't realize is that the coach or PE instructor counted every push up regardless of form. When they take the AFPT and start the push ups and hear the Seargent saying 1,2,3,4,4,4,4,4, it means they are not doing the push up correctly and they are not getting them counted. They are very picky on form, don't do it right and it won't be counted. My son said that when they were giving AFPT tests to the freshman at the beginning of the year, a lot of them were bragging about how many push ups they did on the PFT, some said 70 plus in one Minute. They found out quick that doing them with the correct form is very hard, he said most of them failed the first time.
Sit ups were not as much of an issue, except they do watch form and if you don't slap your back on the ground each time they do not count. The sit ups for the PFT are easier.
My son took the AFPT the week before he started his senior year in high school at his #1 choice school, just to get an idea of how hard it would be, he scored 247, he does have a brother that is a MS3 at the school so he knew the regulations which helped him train the right way.
You can check with your local recruiting station, there may be someone there that will test your son from time to time to make sure he is doing everything correct.
The last big tip....RUN...Then RUN some more. Try and do road runs of 3 to 4 miles at least 5 days a week. This will get him ready for the 2 mile run and get closer to the max points given for 13:00 min.