The Pentagon has said that the military is planning to let people use calculators on their entrance exams. This is a timed test that assesses academic skills and decides if a person is qualified for any job.

According to Military.com, a recent modification to the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, or ASVAB, could stop a big drop in hiring. Some people think that the drop is because young Americans aren’t doing well enough on the entrance test to get in.

This change brings the ASVAB up to date with how tests have changed and grown in the last ten years. Most math classes as well as college entrance tests, like the SAT and ACT, are currently using calculators.

An official at the Pentagon said, “We have taken a systematic approach, which will help us figure out how to include calculators in the future.”

The Navy, Army, and Air Force have not been able to hire as many people as they thought they should have in the last two years. The Marines and the Space Force are less likely to have trouble finding people to join.

Defense One said that the Army just started the second part of its advertising effort. This is because the Army is still having trouble finding enough people to join. Christine Wormuth, who is Secretary of the Army, said that this is the “most difficult time to recruit in years.”

Last year, the Army fell short of its goal of getting 60,000 new soldiers by 25%. Wormuth added that it is expected to fall short of its target of 65,000 new members this year.

Military.com says there are numerous reasons why the number of soldiers seems to be going down, but the main reason is that young Americans between the ages of 17 and 24 are getting turned away because they don’t do well on the military’s test.

When computers will be permitted on the ASVAB is not known. The ASVAB has been the same for many years. This is the main topic of discussion inside the Pentagon.

But if calculators are being utilized politicians might say that the Pentagon has lowered its standards to meet a goal. Some Republican politicians have said that the services have become “woke” because of some of their recent policies.

The class of 2022 did the worst on the ACT test in the last 30 years. The average grade was 19.8 out of a potential 36, according to The Post Millennial. Less than 25% of people who took the ACT did well enough on all four subject-area standards, which are minimum requirements that show how ready someone is for college.

Nearly half of the people who took the test did not meet even one standard in English, math, reading, or science.

COVID-19 could have had something to do with it, but the CEO of the ACT, Janet Godwin, stated in a 2022 statement that “these declines aren’t just a result of the pandemic.”

“They are more proof of long-term problems in the system that the pandemic made worse.”