CFA Anxiety

CelticUSMMA

5-Year Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2012
Messages
1
I am preparing to take my CFA and I am stressing out a bit (specifically the pull-ups). What are some acceptable scores for the events?

Pull-ups:
Push-ups:
Sit-ups:
Shuttle Run:
1mile:

Thank you
 
advice

:smile: best advice is to practice.... even practice that basketball throw. The biggest mistake kids make is thinking "oh yah, I can do this" without practicing all of the events... go to the school gym or the Y and have a couple of run throughs of the ENTIRE testing. That should help. :thumb: Also, you can get a pull up bar and it goes above your doorway... that will allow you to practice and improve.:wink:
Best of luck to you. :biggrin: And I'm sorry, I can't remember how many "reps" DS did- I believe he looked at what the sheet said and aimed to do a little better in each category. In all honesty, on his final testing, I think he did do better in all of the categories (except 1- where he fell a little short- probably was the pull ups). that's okayyyyy.... just practice, do your best, and get it turned in ASAP.:thumb:
 
Last edited:
I am preparing to take my CFA and I am stressing out a bit (specifically the pull-ups). What are some acceptable scores for the events? ...

CelticUSMMA: I doubt you will get the answer to your question; generally USMMA Admissions will not give that information out. That said in the past what they have and will do is if you send in your results and call them and talk to them, "suggest" you retake the CFA if any of your individual scores des not meet the minimum.

My suggestion is that rather than stress out over it, you practice for a while, especially the basketball throw - it's a lot tougher than it sounds, especially for athletes who have much more leg stregnth than upper body strength. Take the test as soon as possible, send them in and then call and ask either the admissions assistant or officer you talk to to look specifically at your file's CFA and let you know if you need to work to improve it. As far as I know, at least through the last admission cycle it was basically handled as a pass/fail item for your admission review relative to recieving an LOA.

Of course as has been noted the bar for an LOA has risen each of the past ~5 or 6 years so that could have changed but one thing for sure if you diligently build your admissions file and when you think it's complete, at least in the past, with patience and through polite telephone calls and/or emails to your admissions officer, USMMA admissions has always to my personal knowledge responded and never steered anyone wrong.

Best of luck!
 
Just have to add, if aooga's kid had it to do over again now, he would max every category out. That kid has become a beast! Oh wait, they do have to keep doing it don't they?
 
working out-

:wink:
Just have to add, if aooga's kid had it to do over again now, he would max every category out. That kid has become a beast! Oh wait, they do have to keep doing it don't they?

Ha ha :cool:Lynpar-- and yep, I'm sure all the "post INDOC" DS's and DD's would def do "better" on any CFA should they have to retake those skills! :)wink:ahem) My DS owes his workin' out craze to Army Opps... a kid will do just about anything to get to jump out of helicopters! :thumb: Add in working out now with the Seal Team on his ship~~pretty awesome sea trip!
(although he's not fighting 25 ft waves like some other kid I know!:eek:)
 
Just for the record - 25+ foot waves are pretty cool to watch on the bidge - you really don't get too sick or tired of it for the first 20 hours.

But once you get to 30+ hours and they start making sleep difficult for the second day in a row, like in big typhoons in the South China Sea, they get really old, really fast. Gives you a real disdain for the words from a TV weatherman that a storm/hurricane, etc. is "passing safely out to sea" for the rest of your life.... :redface:
 
35-40 yesterday and we got a video from the bridge. Pretty cool. He said his chair would roll back five feet while trying to send the message!
And you can hear things being tossed about in the background!
 
Just for the record - 25+ foot waves are pretty cool to watch on the bidge - you really don't get too sick or tired of it for the first 20 hours.

But once you get to 30+ hours and they start making sleep difficult for the second day in a row, like in big typhoons in the South China Sea, they get really old, really fast. Gives you a real disdain for the words from a TV weatherman that a storm/hurricane, etc. is "passing safely out to sea" for the rest of your life.... :redface:

We hit 25+ footers my first day out as a 1/c cadet, after spending 2 years on land...

And then to top off my lack of sea legs, to sleep in forward berthing on a 210' cutter.... I have to say I found it fairly uncomfortable. :biggrin:
 
Just for the record - 25+ foot waves are pretty cool to watch on the bidge - you really don't get too sick or tired of it for the first 20 hours.

But once you get to 30+ hours and they start making sleep difficult for the second day in a row, like in big typhoons in the South China Sea, they get really old, really fast. Gives you a real disdain for the words from a TV weatherman that a storm/hurricane, etc. is "passing safely out to sea" for the rest of your life.... :redface:

Yup. 30 foot seas on an ocean tug aren't the most peaceful experience, either. Having an SL-7 on the string as a sea anchor, uh, I mean tow, means that you will be in it for a bit. I never got sick.

Long stretches of bad weather just made me real cranky. Okay, crankier. The motion would stir up the sediment in the fuel and plug filters so they needed constant attention. Other levels would shift and put out false alarms. Making rounds became a real balancing act in a very tight engine room. Of course it was in that kind of weather that the towing gear out back would fail. Had to be fixed. NOW. . . I earned my pay in that kind of weather. On a tug, we called it job security. Anyone could do the job in fair seas. Few were crazy enough to do it in rough weather.

In weather like that, I always have my life jacket at the ready. Under one side of the mattress to wedge me against the bulkhead so that I could sleep without getting tossed out on deck. Not the recommended usage, kids. . . . .

Oh, and to comment about that "passing safely out to sea" comment, remember Skylab? It made its reentry back in July of 79. I remember hearing the shortwave radio broadcasts that it will most likely make a safe splash somewhere in the Pacific. Wait a minute, I was in the Pacific . . . .how safe is that?
 
Back
Top