My Candidate Fitness Assessment Success

Last Tuesday (Sept. 1), I completed an impressive 16 pull ups, threw a basketball 88 feet from my knees, ran a 7.2 second shuttle run, cranked out 82 pushups and 96 sit ups, and ran a 6:41 minute mile, all in only 30 minutes. This was my third time taking the Candidate Fitness Assessment (CFA) for West Point, which has been my goal for my undergraduate engineering degree and commissioning source since I was a young child. I reached the maximum scores on several of the events last Tuesday, just falling short of a perfect 100 point score. Fortunately, the lack of sleep due to a 3:00 a.m. dorm fire alarm and an 8:00 a.m. Chemistry Lab did not slow me down as I had feared. My adrenalin was pumping, and I was going to pull this off.

I am extremely pleased with my most recent CFA scores, and quite relieved. I would have preferred another month to train, but with the possibility of the Swine Flu hitting campus and getting sick and loosing the conditioning I had worked so hard for all summer, I decided that the sooner I took the CFA, the better. New to college, acclimating to a different schedule, and lacking sleep, I had not imagined that I would be able to do as well as I had done this past week.

My first CFA was not so satisfying. Almost a year ago, I took the test for the first time at my local high school, not doing as well as I had anticipated. I had trained for that test and had been confident that I would be able to score well on the pushups, sit ups, and the shuttle run; however, I was not as confident about the remaining events, especially the mile run. I had never been much of a runner, always competing in sports reliant on upper body strength, such as shot put and discus, and power lifting. That day, I struggled through the mile, the last event of the assessment. Already exhausted from the previous five events and pushing myself hard, I tried to keep a pace but poor conditions outside made breathing difficult and half way through the run, began to lose speed. I only managed an 8:30 minute mile, 30 seconds short of the passing score. My tester submitted my scores on-line and I went home that day discouraged, my dream lost. Imagine my shock when I received a letter from the West Point Admissions Board not much later saying that they were going to allow me to retake the CFA. Because my overall average score was so high due to the other tests, the Admissions Board wanted to give me a second chance! This is almost unheard of. My high school A.P. Physics teacher, a West Point graduate, said as much. I consulted my school’s track coaches and teachers who had experience running for suggestions and trained hard for one month, and then retook the assessment. Several of my scores improved some with this added training, but most importantly, I ran a 7:13 minute mile. The people I had consulted said that shaving that much time off of my run in so short a time was excellent improvement. It had also been my best mile time until last Tuesday.

West Point expects that the officers it produces be top notch leaders in order to gain the respect of their men; therefore, three components are examined for admission, and they are: leadership, academics, and fitness. On a trip last November to meet with a West Point Admissions Officer, I was told that I way exceeded the leadership requirements and that my academics were strong. Because I had officially passed the CFA at this point, I thought everything was fine. For athletes, the CFA is extremely important and weighs the most in a candidate’s file, more so than leadership and academics. For all candidates, it is the initial test to make sure that one will be able to keep up with the physical rigors of the Academy. Most all candidates are required to have participated in sports throughout their high school career even if they were not star athletes, which is where I fell, and their overall athletic score is almost solely based on the candidate’s CFA score. One thing I heard from the start and then repeatedly throughout the application process was to “Score well on the CFA; Start practicing now.” This message is prominent on the West Point web site, and was repeated at college fairs where USMA representatives were present, and stressed by the elected officials’ academy nomination representatives. Obviously, not passing the CFA the first try last year had hurt my overall candidate score. It looked hopeful that I would receive an Appointment this past spring, and I was one of the later candidates to be rejected for the class of 2013. Knowing that I am beginning the reapplication process with such a good set of scores is inspiring.

Meeting a rigorous set of fitness standards for admission is only the beginning of what will be expected of me should I receive an appointment to West Point this year. Every 6 months, cadets take the Army Physical Fitness Test (more commonly referred to as the APFT), which consists of pushups, sit ups, and a 2 mile run. The APFT is also given to Army personnel every 12 months. If a cadet or a member of the Army is not able to pass the APFT, there are consequences. If a cadet does not pass these tests, he/she is given three attempts, each attempt after the first weighing heavily on their Military Point Average (MPA), the “GPA” for military achievement. If a passing score is not met after the third attempt, they are dismissed from the Academy. Army personnel can be relieved of duty and essentially removed from service if they do not meet APFT requirements. Fitness is compulsory in the Army and has become an important part of my life as well, just like academics and service to the community.

While a student at Virginia Tech, I plan on staying active in athletics by participating in a couple of student organization sports, which should enhance my own fitness regimen. I will soon begin training with the boxing team and will also be training in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), another student organization here at Tech. I will remain fit and anticipate that through discipline and active sports participation throughout the year, passing fitness tests will become routine. General Douglas MacArthur, when he was Superintendent at West Point, started the rigorous athletic program because he believed that officers needed to be physically fit. He said about fitness through the West Point intramural program, that “On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seed that on other days and other fields will bear the fruits of victory.”