Your Military
Move over, ASVAB? Marines seek better way to predict troop success
By Hope Hodge Seck
Jul 14, 2026, 03:08 PM
"How did someone like me who barely passed the ASVAB test end up here?" Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Carlos Ruiz said during a senior enlisted leaders forum last week. (Lance Cpl. James Stanfield/Marine Corps)
The Marine Corps is engaged in a multi-year pilot program to determine whether the standardized test the military has used since 1968 might be swapped out for a more holistic way to capture troops’ experiences and abilities.
In a senior enlisted leaders forum hosted last week by Military Officers Association of America, Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Carlos Ruiz discussed the pilot and the Corps’ hopes of getting away from the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, which is administered prior to enlistment and determines what jobs troops are eligible for.
“Is the ASVAB … score the only indicator of success? We say it’s not,” Ruiz said.
He added that the Marine Corps had “almost seven years’ worth of data” assessing the comparative value of another test, the Tailored Adaptive Personality Assessment System, or TAPAS. When young people come in to take the ASVAB at a military entrance processing station, he said, they can stay seated and take the TAPAS.
“What are the traits, the characteristics of a young person that make them more likely to succeed in the Marine Corps?” Ruiz said, adding these can include performance in high school, sports experience, family background, place of origin.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2026/07/14/move-over-asvab-marines-seek-better-way-to-predict-troop-success/
