Brookings Study on Officer Test Scores

[Il Duce]

Thought this study was very surprising and interesting: Understanding the steady and troubling decline in the average intelligence of Marine Corps officers

The authors studied USMC officer tests scores on the GCT (which is what they use vs the ASVAB the Army uses) from 1980 to 2014 and found a significant decline in the average test scores over the period.

The results were really surprising to me and I would wonder what a similar study would show about Army officers and the ASVAB. In general I have been very impressed with the quality of Marine officers I have encountered. Likewise test scores shouldn't be seen as the end-all of intelligence measures but still - a trend worth examining.

I'd be interested in the thoughts of any Marines who have noticed any trends in either direction among officers. Also, I should add by the study's metrics the quality of enlisted personnel has significantly increased.

 

[RackMaster]

So Officer's are now SMRT and Enlisted are SMRTRer? :-"

 

[Ooh-Rah]

Hey! Thank for posting this! <hit sarcasm horn>

Gee, I wonder which direction this thread will go :-"

 

[DA SWO]

Those tests measure what you know, they don't measure your ability to learn.
Two different metrics.

 

[Teufel]

Muscles Are Required Intelligence Not Essential?

 

[Il Duce]

@DA SWO I think the services would disagree. The ASVAB and GCT are utilized by the services at significant cost and effort and they are given extreme weight when determining a recruit or servicemember's potential and eligibility.

I think these types of metrics are useful in the aggregate - but less so on an individual basis. Similar to generational analysis they produce useful metrics in overall trends (i.e. millennials live with parents longer, GEN X is less religious, etc.) but break down when applied to an individual.

I would think excellent training and technology could make up for some deltas in unit performance but overall I think this trend of lower scores is troubling. It seems to indicate the standards for entry into the officer corps and the ability of the officer corps to attract the 'best and brightest' is in decline. In a shrinking service I would think the consequences would be even more impactful. If such a significant trend is apparent in the USMC I would imagine it's even more so in the Army. To my knowledge the USMC commissioning process is much more rigorous than the Army - as befits a smaller service. I'll be interested to see if the authors do more research on the subject.