At the end of the PT test yesterday, our numbers have changed again:
We had 6 failures - most for the pushups. Of those 6, 4 are allowed a retest (they were very close to their requirements, missing it by 1 or 2) and 2 were recommended by the Platoon Commander to be released from the platoon. They have a progress review board hearing where the OC will decide their fate. They were warned back on week 1 what might happen if they were not up to standard, given personal training plans to get them up to standard, etc. To note, these applicants thought they were above the minimum standards.
I actually improved on my old scores: 32 to 41 pushups, 38 to 41 situps, and hand grip on each hand about 5 points. I admit to bowing out on the beep score early, wanted to save energy for the later portions of the test. Stayed the same at 10.5. A friend of mine pushed himself til 11.5 but did much worse on his hand grip later, so it really is a trade off.
I managed to get exemption status, which I had missed the first time around. Pretty happy about that.
In the final stretch here at BMOQ - most of the "recruit" portions are done and we've been focusing more on the "leadership" portions - more classroom stuff and mentally engaging processes as opposed to learning drill and military knowledge. Our days are shorter out of our rooms, but we have much more in terms of homework learning and practicing battle procedure and studying for exams. This will take us up to the Christmas break - coming back is right back into recruit-ish stuff - two weeks in the field, both of which are tests on our leadership ability (applying battle procedure and leading sections in the field).
Most of us are counting down the days til Christmas at this point - only a couple of more tests before Dec 15th!
Not sure if anyone is still following this thread, but figured an update never hurts.
Out of our original 54 we are now down to 47 at the end of week 8. The reasons were pretty varied - vr's fitness etc. We have our re-do of the express test coming up and will likely lose a few more - they let you continue if you fail one of the strength tests in week one, but not week 9.
You really do get used to the routine - 8 hours of sleep on the weekends feels like 11, 6 hours feels like 8 and 4 hours is just never fun (grins). We're mostly a combat arms platoon, so as expected we loved our time out in Farnham doing basic fieldwork. The staff have subtly shifted from yelling at us for all the things we do wrong to more of a coaching role - if we deserve it the yelling continues, but all in all they are more pleasant, etc. We've been lucky that most of the staff are also combat arms and they've taken a liking to us - we've been told they are adding elements which usually occur on CAP to better prepare us for that.
I'll try and put up more details over Xmas as typing on this phone is tedious. Feel free to toss any questions my way regarding basic
