But I was surprised to hear him tell me so few passed. Sad really.
It's really not that surprising to see many of the new cadets fail their first APFT. The main reason for failure is not doing the Push Ups and Sit Ups to Army regulation. Every year during the application process you see applicants list on this board that they did 65 or 70 push ups and sit ups in one minute, so they figure they'll have no problem passing the APFT, those that have been around a while on this board just smile when reading their posts. Reality hits hard when they take their first APFT and they hear the grader yelling out the count....1,2,3,3,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,5,5,5, they just repeat the number until they see one that is to regulation, it get really hard when they have to do twice the number just to get a passing grade.
This usually takes care of itself quickly for most of the cadets, but there are always some that never pass and end up losing their scholarship.
Congratulations to your son for passing the test so soon.