How the real sitting runs
You sit the AFOQT at a Pearson VUE test centre with a voucher from your recruiter or test control officer. After check-in and a tutorial come Verbal Analogies, Arithmetic Reasoning, Word Knowledge, Math Knowledge, Reading Comprehension and the Situational Judgment Test, then a 15-minute break, then the Self-Description Inventory, Physical Science, Table Reading, Instrument Comprehension, Block Counting and Aviation Information.
Each subtest has its own clock, and you cannot carry spare minutes from one to the next. The speeded subtests come late in the day, after the 45-minute inventory, which is when many candidates find their attention slipping.
Results arrive in two to three business days as six composite percentiles: Verbal, Quantitative, Academic Aptitude, Pilot, Combat Systems Officer and Air Battle Manager.
How to use a full practice test
Take one early to find your weak subtests, and one or two close to test day:
- Sit it in one go, at a desk, with a pencil and scratch paper and no calculator, as on the day.
- Start each subtest at once. Every subtest is timed separately, so time spent between them is the only rest you get.
- After the sitting, look at the composites you need, not the overall total: Verbal and Quantitative for any commission, and Pilot, CSO or ABM for a rated job.
- Put your next week of practice into the single subtests behind your weakest composite, then sit the full battery again.
Tips for test day
- Answer every question in every subtest. There is no penalty, and Pearson VUE says each question must be answered to receive results.
- Use the break to eat and reset; Table Reading, Instrument Comprehension and Block Counting come after it and need full attention.
- Do not dwell on a subtest that went badly. The next one has its own clock, and your score is a set of composites, not one number.
- You have two attempts, or three with a waiver, at least 90 days apart, and your best score on each composite counts. Sit the real test when your practice composites are where you need them.
The full AFOQT battery on CogniPrep
Our full battery gives you the ten ability subtests in the real order: 260 questions and 2 hours 3 minutes of testing, each subtest on its own clock with its own instruction screen, and an optional 15-minute break after Reading Comprehension. We leave out the Situational Judgment Test and the Self-Description Inventory, which have no published key. You can stop between subtests and pick up again within 24 hours. At the end you get all six composites as raw totals, the number right out of the questions behind each, the composite to work on next, and a comparison with other CogniPrep users on Academic Aptitude. None of these is an AFOQT percentile.