Relating the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery to Marine job performance

• Main Author: Schaffer, Robert J.
• Other Authors: R.R. Read.
• Language: en_US
• Published: Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School 2013
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10945/32277

Operations Research === This thesis develops a method to reconfirm the relationship between an individual's Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) scores and his performance at his initial course of instruction in the Marine Corps. Validity coefficients are developed to ensure that the ASVAB correctly predicts success at these initial training courses. Once the ASVAB is shown to correctly predict success at Marine Corps courses, the thesis concentrates on two statistical methods to explore the classification of youths into Marine jobs. The first method, discriminant analysis, is used as a check of the current classification process. Next, a tree based regression method is used to evaluate if further employment of ASVAB scores can more appropriately place trainees into Marine Corps jobs. These methods ultimately afford the Marine Corps an opportunity to use existing information to enhance the successful classification of young Marines into appropriate courses, thereby increasing their chances of successfully completing their initial training.