CFA Score

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MamaBear4

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My son attended SLE last week and absolutely is committed to attending WP for the class of 2021. He received his CFA score tonight. What is considered a competitive score?

He was down with a groin injury for 6 weeks before SLE. He had no asterisks on any event although his mile time wasn't his best. He did well on the basketball throw but is a shot/discus thrower with huge hands. :)


I am thinking he should take the assessment again when he is healthy to increase his score.

Anyone know the range of competitive scores?

Thanks!

Angela
 
During the SLE Parents Briefing, the Admissions Officer made it very clear that (1) the CFA is 10% of the WCS and (2) a passing score is a passing score. So a "competitive score" is passing, which your DS did. He clearly stated that if you passed, you don't have to take it again.

You won't get more points on your WCS if you get better a CFA score. You're better off spending your time and efforts improving your grades or your standardized test score which will have a bigger impact on your WCS.
 
I have to disagree with Padre101. My son went to SLE last year and was not feeling his best the morning of the CFA but passed although he was extremely disappointed with his scores. He trained all summer and emailed his RC to ask for a retest which was granted. He then retook in September and maxed 3-4 events. This process is so competitive that any edge you can get or improvement you can make might be the difference.
 
It's all relative, and depends on the rest of the application. If a kid is extra stellar in accademics and leadership, with a 35 ACT, ranked second in his/her class, captain of two varsity sports with 8 varsity letters, and President of student council, then average scores are not going to hurt you. But if I was a candidate I would want no worse than the posted average in any excercise, and hope to max in at least several.

I will also suggest that candidates take the CFA relatively early in the process, so that an injury doesn't jeopardize the test. It happened to my son, and right when he was in prime shape, but before he took the CFA, he had a collision in soccer and hurt his clavicle. Couldn't train, and he had to wait a long time before he could do the CFA, and even then he wasn't at his best. He did well but would have done better.

And the CFA does matter too. It is a great to have a complete and well rounded application package, and a solid CFA is a part of that.

The CFA is another thing that can be practiced and worked on. Just doing as many reps as you can do every day, and then running every day will radically improve your scores, and the BB throw can be increased by a ton with practice. The shuttle run was the hardest thing for my son to improve, but he did.
 
RedDragon said:
I have to disagree with Padre101. My son went to SLE last year and was not feeling his best the morning of the CFA but passed although he was extremely disappointed with his scores. He trained all summer and emailed his RC to ask for a retest which was granted. He then retook in September and maxed 3-4 events. This process is so competitive that any edge you can get or improvement you can make might be the difference.
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Trust me, when the Admissions officer said that, I was shocked and it went against what I thought and what I learned in this forum.

Reddragon, you are not disagreeing with what I said, you are disagreeing with what a representative from West Point Admissions Office said while at West Point in front of an auditorium full of SLE parents. A couple of parents even questioned him on what he said. But he was adamant. If you pass, you are done.

Don't get me wrong, my DS will continually train because if he knows if he is accepted he must be in the best shape of his life to get through CBT.
 
According to the Rand report about admissions, if you can get a CFA score above a 650 you max out another part with 800 points. So if you can get there I think it can be helpful...but if you can't then it would seem a passing score is a passing score. I wish I could find out how it scored though. DS got score above 600 at SLE last week but did better at USNA this week so I wonder if it will be enough to push him over 650. And I don't think USNA sends a nice email with the score :/
 
Sam2018 said:
According to the Rand report about admissions, if you can get a CFA score above a 650 you max out another part with 800 points. So if you can get there I think it can be helpful...but if you can't then it would seem a passing score is a passing score. I wish I could find out how it scored though. DS got score above 600 at SLE last week but did better at USNA this week so I wonder if it will be enough to push him over 650. And I don't think USNA sends a nice email with the score :/
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My DS is in the same situation. He said he just found out that he scored a 645 using the West Point Standard during SLE's CFA. In terms of raw numbers, he did better at NASS's CFA where he maxed 4 events instead of just two.

I also believe each SA uses a different scoring system. There is no way to know what it will take to raise his score and by how much.
 
Thanks for the replies. I will share this information with him.

His mile time pulled his score down. He was unable to train for close to 6 weeks before SLE. He is now back to getting conditioned for football. He didn't want to go to SLE with restrictions so he scaled back on shot/discus and participated in few events since he would miss the state meet due to SLE anyway.

My son is all state football so I think he would max the athletic portion without the 650. What does an athletic rating of 1 or 2 mean in the sport he was all state in? He's been all state for 2 years along with the district honors and being the Captain this year. I am unclear what the rating of 1 or 2 means.

Thanks for the info about the Rand report. I bookmarked it for future reference.
 
Unfortunately, athletic accolades won't help the CFA score. Varsity sports and other sports participation, count under the leadership portion of the candidate score . CFA is all alone, and assesses overall fitness. My son is a three sport varsity athlete who won all district and all conference first team honors in multiple sports, and frankly is one of the strongest and fittest kids in the area, but that didn't help in the CFA. And the CFA is hard to do. The bb throw is nothing like these athletes have ever done, unless they have maybe thrown javelin in track. It's hard to master. And my son struggled a bit with the shuttle run. He is over 6' tall, and broad shoulders, and frankly, although he is a fast runner, he wasn't as quick as we expected going back and forth. He did better than average , but that was his worst event. And doing all these events in a 40 minute period is a killer. The mile can be hard after everything else. I must say though, my son came within only a couple seconds of maxing the mile, which was better than he had ever done in practice. He had a big crowd of classmates cheering him on at the track. It was awesome.

All I am saying is that even for great athletes, the cfa is a challenge. Don't take it for granted.
 
Just to clarify, I was asking what the 1-2 level meant in the Rand report for points in the 30 % for leadership comprised of 10 % athletics, 10% EC and 10% teacher recs. He did well on the CFA but not over 650. I understand his 3 Varsity sports and awards won't help with CFA but will in the leadership area.

My son is 6' 3.5 with broad shoulders also. The shuttle run and bb throw were his strongest events. He passed the CFA with no areas at risk but he wondered about retaking it.
 
Where can the scores from SLE be found? Are they in the portal or are they coming via email? Has everyone who received their scores passed? Would anyone be willing to share passing stats?
 
FLIPPER@622 said:
Where can the scores from SLE be found? Are they in the portal or are they coming via email? Has everyone who received their scores passed? Would anyone be willing to share passing stats?
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DS received a direct email from the Admissions Office yesterday. Nothing on the portal yet.

They only tell you your raw score, whether an event is at "risk" (probably meaning you failed the event) and your overall composite grade. They don't give you a grade for each event.

My DS had no events at risk. I believe his scores were:

Basketball throw: 72 feet
Pullups: 17
Shuttlerun: 8 sec
Situps: 95
Pushups:75
Run: 5:58

DS told me that his SLE squad mates texted each other their scores and that 3 people had at risk scores. Most scores were in the 500's and were passing.
 
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Padre101 said:
DS received a direct email from the Admissions Office yesterday. Nothing on the portal yet.

They only tell you your raw score, whether an event is at "risk" (probably meaning you failed the event) and your overall composite grade. They don't give you a grade for each event.

My DS had no events at risk:

Basketball throw: 72
Pullups: 17
Shuttlerun: 8 sec
Situps: 95
Pushups:75
Run: 5:58

DS told me that his SLE squad mates texted each other their scores and that 3 people had at risk scores. Most scores were in the 500's and were passing.
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Those are great scores. Good job.
 
Padre101 said:
DS received a direct email from the Admissions Office yesterday. Nothing on the portal yet.
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Does every SLE attendees get the CFA email and where would you find the results on the portal ?
 
I would imagine everyone will get an email with their results. It went to my son's email but not mine.
 
Padre101 said:
DS received a direct email from the Admissions Office yesterday. Nothing on the portal yet.

They only tell you your raw score, whether an event is at "risk" (probably meaning you failed the event) and your overall composite grade. They don't give you a grade for each event.

My DS had no events at risk. I believe his scores were:

Basketball throw: 72 feet
Pullups: 17
Shuttlerun: 8 sec
Situps: 95
Pushups:75
Run: 5:58

DS told me that his SLE squad mates texted each other their scores and that 3 people had at risk scores. Most scores were in the 500's and were passing.
Click to expand...
Wow ! Great Scores! Your DS really Rocked it! He (and you) should be very proud!
 
tex2021 said:
Does every SLE attendees get the CFA email and where would you find the results on the portal ?
Click to expand...

Tex, each candidate should receive an email. There were 500 attendees during Session 1, so they're probably still tabulating the scores and sending the messages one by one. Nothing on the portal yet.
 
FLIPPER@622 said:
Wow ! Great Scores! Your DS really Rocked it! He (and you) should be very proud!
Click to expand...

The guy who won the SLE CFA award had more incredible scores. Almost superhuman.

Though no one maxed all the events apparently.
 
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I attended SLE week 1. I received my CFA scores by email yesterday. I have no areas at risk (middle of the road I assume on most). I did not max any areas out.

While I was at SLE, I met with the 2 coaches that are recruiting me and both of them had viewed my CFA scores already and both of them said I passed so do not put additional time into continued training for the CFA. Keep up the physical training but they said a pass is a pass in the CFA.

I just looked at my portal and there is nothing CFA related on there yet.
 
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