First class petty officers competing for chief fail their advancement exams at a higher clip than those taking the E-4, E-5 and E-6 exams.
The failure rate among test takers has climbed for the past three years, according to The advancement data provided by the Center for Personal and Navy Education and Training Professional Development Center also showed a disturbing trend that has seen a climb in E-7 exam failures over the past three years.
Three years ago, of the 29,423 who sat for the exam in January of 2012, 523 failed their tests, a failure rate of 1.8 percent. In 2013, the number of test takers dropped by just under 2,000 to 27,767, but failures more than doubled in number — to 1,164, spiking the failure rate to and failure rate to 4.2 percent.
That rise upward trend in failures continued in 2014. Even though the number of eligible first classes sitting for the exam again dropped, by nearly 1,000, failures increased by 32 to 1,196 — a failure rate of 4.5 percent.
By comparison, only 0.6 percent of test takers failed the E-4 test on average in the previous two cycles. And the failure rates for E-5 and E-6 tests, 2.3 and 2.6 percent respectively, are much lower than that for the chief's exam. A look at the last two petty officer cycles, shows an average of just 0.55 percent of those testing for E-4 failing. At E-5 the failure rate increases to 2.3 percent while E-6's come in at a 2.6 percent fail rate.
"It's my beliefve that a large number of first classes don't take studying for the chief's exam as seriously as they should," said Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (AW/NAC) Mike Stevens. "What many don't realize is that the test has a 50 percent voice in your total score and can make or break a sailor's chances for making chief."
Stevens says it's the command's responsibility to leadership to not only encourage sailors to study for their exam and to offer — regardless of the level, but also to provide command-sanctioned rating-specific study opportunities, such as group study led by members of the chief's mess.
Mark D. Faram is a former reporter for Navy Times. He was a senior writer covering personnel, cultural and historical issues. A nine-year active duty Navy veteran, Faram served from 1978 to 1987 as a Navy Diver and photographer.
