Assessment for OML

I'm wondering about the OML and the things one can control, like your PT score which appears to be about 13.5% of your score with three different test dates. Basically wondering how this actually is evaluated: Does a 300 give you maximum points or is there a sliding scale and/or some qualitative component as well. Is there any benefit for those exceeding the 300 point threshold?

paradoxer said:

I'm wondering about the OML and the things one can control, like your PT score which appears to be about 13.5% of your score with three different test dates. Basically wondering how this actually is evaluated: Does a 300 give you maximum points or is there a sliding scale and/or some qualitative component as well. Is there any benefit for those exceeding the 300 point threshold?

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I believe the Physical Fitness section of the OMS Score is 15 points. If you get a 300 that would get you the maximum points. I am not sure if you need a 300 to get the maximum, I'm sure Clarkson will clarify that.

Getting above a 300 will effect the cadets battalion OML in most battalions.

I have wondered the same thing. It is clear from the Accessions power point slides that 3.2 GPA is converted into 32 OMS points (with a +.1 for Engineering major and +.05 for STEM major). But how is the APFT scaled? Is 270 APFT then 270/300 * number of points available? So if 9.45 points are available for the LDAC administration of the APFT, and the cadet scores 270 at LDAC, is it 270/300 * 9.45, or 8.505 points?

I will have to look at my sons OMS Score sheet again, he left it at home with all his ROTC info. My son received 94.3 on his OMS. He had a 3.50 GPA, he received the ful 22.5 Battalion Points, he received 21.8 points for LDAC. If you subtract those points from 100 it left 15 points, which would be full points for the APFT. Now the thing is he had 300= for both battalion APFT's, at LDAC he was one of those with a very subjective grader, he got a 287. When you add up the scores it seems like he received the full 15 points for the Physical Fitness portion of the OMS.

So to be honest, I'm not sure just how they score everything.

Best advise, just do your best and be as close to 300 as you can. To be honest, I don't think my son ever even tried to estimate what his OMS Score might be, he just worked hard at everything he could control and let the scores work themselves out. As he put it there were a couple guys that came close to getting ulcers stressing about it, it wasn't worth the worry, just do the best you can.

The physical portion of the OMS is 15% of the total weighted average. 90% of this (13.5% of the total) comes from APFTs, specifically the (1) last APFTs of the MS3's (a) fall and (b) spring semesters and (2) the APFT at LDAC. The LDAC APFT has about three times the weight of the total of the two on-campus scores.

The remaining 10% of this (1.5% of the total) comes from sports (varsity, intramural, community).

Here is a link to the Purdue PowerPoint presentation on accessions. It is slightly out of date but highly informative.

www.purdue.edu/.../_f/.../accessions_briefing_11_apr_2011.pptx

By the way, since OMS is an acronym for Order of Merit Score, there is no need to refer to it as "the OMS score". Same with OML list. (I'm trying to break the habit myself). It reminds me of an announcer who used to make fun of the Department of Redundancy Department at his radio station.

Jcleppe said:

I believe the Physical Fitness section of the OMS Score is 15 points.

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close. Per the Accessions slide deck,

APFT at LDAC: 9.45 possible points
APFT Spring of MSIII year (on campus): 2.36 points
APFT Fall of MSIII year (on campus): 1.69 points.

for a grand total APFT possible points of: 13.5

In comparision to GPA of 40 possible points (or 40.5 for STEM, or 41 for Engineering), doesn't seem like much.

Jcleppe said:

Best advise, just do your best and be as close to 300 as you can.

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That is good advice. However, sometimes choices need to be made with the limited hours available in the day.

Let's suppose a cadet is at 270 on the APFT. To get to 300, this cadet would need to devote one extra hour per day (7 hours per week) to conditioning, beyond what they're already doing. What does the cadet earn with those 7 hours? If the OMS points are proportional as I suspect they are, then this cadet gains 1.35 OMS points by going from 270 to 300 on his/her 3 APFT test that are a part of the OML.

Is this a good use of those 7 hours per week? What if studying an extra hour per day, over the 3 years of college classes that are part of the OML, would raise the cadet's CGPA from 3.0 to 3.25? That's 2.5 OMS points for the same 7 weekly hours, which is almost twice as many additional OMS points vs. using those 7 hours for APFT training.

What if devoting those 7 hours per week to Battalion leadership activities would increase the cadet's OMS points awarded by the PMS from 14 to 19 out of the total possible of 20.25? That's 5 OMS points increase for the same 7 hours/wk. Again, 2x as much improvement vs. extra studying, and 4x as much improvement vs. conditioning.

There are not 21 extra hours available to most cadets beyond their current activity. A cadet doesn't have unlimited hours. A cadet must choose where to put the hours for improvement. Obviously every cadet will have a different and unique amount of hours needed to improve grades vs. APFT score vs. Battalion Leadership that lead to the PMS score. But each cadet needs to understand the rules of the OMS game, and where the biggest bang for the buck comes from in terms of extra hours devoted to improve one area vs. another vs. another. The scoring system is not a secret. Any rational cadet would want to know where his/her extra hours are going to result in the greatest improvement in OMS points. You cannot equally focus on every area... there just aren't enough hours in the day. Priorities must be established and choices made based on how many points improvement come from effort devoted in different scored areas. This isn't any different from a decathlete. Each athlete has to identify in which of the 10 events will an extra hour per day yield the biggest jump in points in a meet. If an athlete has plateaud in the 100 meter run, then maybe the pole vault is the area where he/she could gain the most points for that extra hour per day of training. Or the shot put. Or a combination of 30 extra minutes on high jump and 30 extra minutes on javelin. Or whatever. The point is that an extra hour of effort per day will yield vastly different levels of improvement in decathlon event points depending on the athlete's genetics, and the event.

dunninla said:

close. Per the Accessions slide deck,

APFT at LDAC: 9.45 possible points
APFT Spring of MSIII year (on campus): 2.36 points
APFT Fall of MSIII year (on campus): 1.69 points.

for a grand total APFT possible points of: 13.5

In comparision to GPA of 40 possible points (or 40.5 for STEM, or 41 for Engineering), doesn't seem like much.

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Your right, that's why I called it the Physical Fitness Section. EDelahanty filled in the remaining 1.5 points.

If a cadet wants to be in the top 15% they are going to have to find a way to fit those 3 hours a day into their schedule, picking and choosing what to work on isn't going to work well. A cadet can only manage their score so much. LDAC is very subjective and requires a little luck along with skill. It's hard to read the mind of a PMS to try and figure how they will score you. The only two things a cadet can really control is the GPA and APFT. Low marks in either of these will mean less opportunities in everything else. A low APFT could mean no Summer Training. A good balance will be the best.

Just as an example, the No.1 cadet in the battalion that graduated with my son received a S at LDAC, the cadet at the bottom of the Battalion OML received an E, Recondo, and Top 5 at LDAC, he caught a break with the TAC's. Like I said, do the best at what you can control, don't overthink everything, and try not to stress out to much.

The previous posters have it pretty much right. There are two things that you can 100% control, and that is your grades and your PT score. How much effort you want to put into each is entirely up to you.

As you saw above, the on-campus PT tests prior to LDAC are important, but don't carry much weight in the long run. You have to consider what is going to pay off more for you, and go after that. The PT test that really matters is LDAC, which you want to try to max if at all possible. Given how important GPA is, I would say pursue that during the school year, and between your school and LDAC, work out as hard as you can to try to get to 300.

I personally didn't do the greatest on PT (just below 280) and I still got the branch of choice with no ADSO and was a DMG. I didn't even get an E at camp.

Point being - do the best you can, and maximize areas that you know you can do well at. Obviously you should be concerned with PT, but it's not a game ender if you don't get 300. GPA is an absolute must have to be competitive, as is performance at LDAC. PT alone will not save you, but it's obviously good to get it as high as you can for those extra points.

To answer the original question, I'm pretty sure you cap out at 300. Just as on an Evaluation Report, extended scale is not reported. Max is max.
I personally think if you are micromanaging your time to figure out whether each hour is better spent studying or working out you are going to drive yourself crazy.

clarksonarmy said:

To answer the original question, I'm pretty sure you cap out at 300. Just as on an Evaluation Report, extended scale is not reported. Max is max.
I personally think if you are micromanaging your time to figure out whether each hour is better spent studying or working out you are going to drive yourself crazy.

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