Disqualifying CFA scores
- Thread starter Grizztop1
- Start date
| EXERCISE | MEN AVG | WOMEN AVG |
|---|---|---|
| Basketball Throw | 69' | 42' |
| Pull-ups | 12 | 2 |
| Flexed Arm Hang (women) | –N/A | 31 sec |
| Shuttle Run | 8.1 sec | 9.4 sec |
| Modified Sit-ups (crunches) | 81 | 78 |
| Push-ups | 62 | 41 |
| One-mile Run | 6:29 | 7:30 |
Just google cfa minimums or averages, and try to be over average for each one if you can.
Hey man, how's it going? You will probably hear this a lot but don't worry about meeting the minimums and just do your best. The better the score the more likely your chance to get in so just do your best on everything. As for improving, It depends a lot on how advanced of an athlete you are. Because you're asking about minimums I'm going to assume you're more towards the bottom. I would ask other athletes at your school and your gym teacher and seek other online resources. As for me I did a Murph challenge every week along with 3 days of strength and conditioning and ran 4 days including the Murph.
Not necessarily, the CFA is just considered as a pass or fail. Obviously the better you do the more likely you are to pass the CFA, but admissions has told me that they only look at CFA mainly on pass/fail, and in reality it's only about 5% of your application.
OP, I don’t want to go and tell you that you shouldn’t do your best. Trust me, you want to not have to worry about this when the time comes. But I went to the SS and the admissions officer there showed me the minimums, I don’t exactly remember but they aren’t anywhere near the averages. So don’t stress out too much if that’s a hindering factor.
I failed my first one but passed my retake. Do you think they will factor that into their consideration of my application? I did extremely well on my retake and alright on the first one, failed because of a low mile time.
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You've already asked this and been answered. New scores take the place of old scores.
blinkus
usna '28 😁😁
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You're a sophomore, class of 26? You got more a little less then two years to "prepare" for your CFA. I was morbidly obese, around 280 pounds @ 6'1 with a BF % of 40-50% (Barely being able to 5 push ups, let alone pull-ups and a mile run after). I was at risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, and had a condition for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease Feburary of last year. In around 11 months time, (I took my CFA's mid December sorry guys... don't do this!!) I've dropped my weight down to 195, BF down to a less bad % of 19-21 (Can't get the stubborn fat out) and "aced" my CFA. Meanwhile, I was a walk-on to a very competitive varsity football team at my HS, and became starter in under a few weeks. Originally meant to play O-Line for my size, talked to coach about my goals and aspirations, worked hard enough to be switched over to a defensive linemen.
Basically what I want to say, you got 2 years to prepare for the best possible freaking application ever. I was in a time constraint and I was able to get it done. I believe that you can too, what matters is how badly you want it and what you're willing to do to get it! If you haven't, read David Goggins "Can't Hurt Me" and "Never Finished". Those were the two books that pushed me a lot when I felt like quitting and giving up on my dreams of becoming a Marine Aviator/Officer.
Time never stops running. It's the greatest worker any boss wants. No holidays, no breaks, no nothing. It's constantly working and won't stop. Do your best now. Study hard, work hard, stay out of trouble, and you'll achieve anything.
- blinkus
Basically what I want to say, you got 2 years to prepare for the best possible freaking application ever. I was in a time constraint and I was able to get it done. I believe that you can too, what matters is how badly you want it and what you're willing to do to get it! If you haven't, read David Goggins "Can't Hurt Me" and "Never Finished". Those were the two books that pushed me a lot when I felt like quitting and giving up on my dreams of becoming a Marine Aviator/Officer.
Time never stops running. It's the greatest worker any boss wants. No holidays, no breaks, no nothing. It's constantly working and won't stop. Do your best now. Study hard, work hard, stay out of trouble, and you'll achieve anything.
- blinkus
I paid $10 to access a CFA score calculator online (do a search to find it). You can enter scores by event and see where you fall in terms of percentile, total score, at risk vs pass etc. You could use that as a guidepost, but I believe each SA may have their own standards. The site the calculator is on has the following minimum scores (for males) for a pass with 456 points at the 15th percentile (which is obviously not killing it.) BB throw 56', Pullup 7, shuttle 9.5, situps 65, push ups 45, one mile 7:39.
Definitely practice the exercises in the required sequence/format a few times.
Definitely practice the exercises in the required sequence/format a few times.
A passing score with 552 points and a 51% percentile rank looks like this: BB throw 67, pullup 9, shuttle 9.1, situp 72, pushup 54, run 6:42. If you spend the $10 and get the calculator, you can enter your own scores and see where you should focus. I thought it was a good investment for peace of mind.
You can see how little difference there is from a low passing score to a mid-range passing score. I think I read somewhere that a below minimum score in one area can be ok if your other scores are strong, but two below passing or weak scores might doom you. I trained and trained, and I couldn't get my pushups past the mid-forties, but I was nominated to West Point.
You can see how little difference there is from a low passing score to a mid-range passing score. I think I read somewhere that a below minimum score in one area can be ok if your other scores are strong, but two below passing or weak scores might doom you. I trained and trained, and I couldn't get my pushups past the mid-forties, but I was nominated to West Point.
snarfly
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I'd spend some time working on your pacing and timing for the mile run. XC runners have a very different pacing and can struggle with shorter distances like the mile, so spend some time trying different pacing, rhythm, etc to find what works for you.
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Make sure that you actually do some practice runs of the whole CFA. Practicing each event separately is fine, but you also need to figure out how you do with all the events in order. The exertion of the first events can heavily influence your mile time if you aren’t prepared.
Very true. In my experience, having 5 events before then run honestly helped me perform better on the run. I like to think of it as my cardiovascular system being “primed” for the run. Doing high heart rate activities beforehand as opposed to going from rest to 100% effort definitely made a difference when practicing. It allows your body to elevate its energy production beforehand. Just make sure you get a good nights rest, great hydration, and a lot of carbs the night before taking your test so you can perform optimally Grizztop1.
FortuneMaterial
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Just hit the gym bud, it's really not that hard. I wouldn't train for it I would instead be able to bench 225 by the time you get here otherwise you will be seen as inferior to your classmates in the gym
Not good advice at all for obvious reasons. The other advice on here is good though.
Below I attached a good video on preparing for the CFA. It gives unofficial minimums but obviously aim for at least average in each event :
I agree with almost everything the video says except he says long runs are not important for the mile run because the event is more like an all out sprint for 1 mile, which is correct. However, I still see a lot of value in having a good cardiovascular base and experience running slower longer runs. I know you said your mile time was 5:20 which is amazing but I wanted to say it for others if they read this post. Also for the basketball throw make sure to practice it a lot. It is almost all form, I had to practice for a long time as I could only throw it 40 foot to begin with but thankfully ended around 64 feet on the test.
You didn’t ask so I won’t bore you with advice on what worked for training with me but if you want advice you can PM me. My sophomore year I was 40 pounds under weight and couldn’t do a single push up. My scores are not stellar by any means, but I feel for my starting point I made good progress and will make even more before R-day!
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