The Navy has launched a website designed to give sailors individualized information on their advancement status, including study tips on how to boost their chances to move up.

Called the Advancement Dashboard, it’s currently available online only to sailors eyeing advancement to pay grades E-4 through E-6. Officials promise that a version helping senior enlisted sailors make E-7 and above will arrive soon, but they haven’t listed a deadline for when it will become available.

"The Advancement Dashboard provides a centralized location with the authoritative data so sailors know their personal information is correct and the reference materials used to study for the exams are up-to-date and reliable,” said Vice Adm. Bob Burke, the Navy’s top uniformed personnel officer, in a Friday press release and message announcing the new online tool.

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In the release, officials the “dynamic, user-friendly, web-based dashboard” that’s located on the MyNavy Portal" promises to provide personnel a “detailed personal view of their eligibility status for advancement” while also housing a reference library to help sailors understand and study for their next exam.

For now, however, to visit the new site sailors still need a computer set up to take a common access card.

The online version available now features a calculator that helps to eliminate errors in computing a Final Multiple Score that determines whether a sailor moves up or not. It includes performance marks, points for longevity and credit for passing previous tests, military awards and educational attainment.

The dashboard also should provide sailors with the Navy’s rules for advancement and tell personnel if they meet all the requirements. There also will be a list of study plans and the latest reference materials available to each sailor, based on rating and pay grade.

The new system arrives too late to have much influence over the March exam cycle but officials expect to beef up the online version by the fall, adding features to the dashboard to automate the Enlisted Advancement Worksheet that sailors must fill out, verify and sign before taking their tests.

If the online version is correct, sailors can print it out and hand it in. If there are errors, sailors will see what they are and use a notification system to alert officials that help is needed to fix them.

Officials also predict that by the fall sailors will be able to take and pass the new Professional Military Knowledge Eligibility Exam, which will become a new requirement for advancement.

About Mark D. Faram

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.

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