JULY 17, 2017, PENSACOLA, Fla. (NNS) – The January 2018 Navy-wide E7 advancement cycle (Cycle 238) testing date for active duty and full time support Sailors who are advancement eligible to the paygrade of E7 was recently announced in Naval Administrative Message (NAVADMIN) 175/17, released July 14.
Each Navy advancement examination consists of 25 professional military knowledge and 150 job-specific rating technical questions. The Navy-wide examination date is January 18 for USN and Full Time Support (FTS) Sailors eligible to advance to chief petty officer, as well as E6s who are required to take the E7 exam for the limited duty officer program.
“Bibliographies (BIBs) for the E7 January exam are available for download on My Navy Portal and the Navy COOL website,” said Master Chief Electronics Technician James Berhalter, command master chief of the Naval Education and Training Professional Development Center (NETPDC). “The E7 advancement process differs from the E4-E6 process in that the final multiple score (FMS) consists of only two elements that are used to rank order eligible E6s: the exam score and performance mark average (PMA).”
Participation in the January exam is only a part of the advancement process for E7. The top 60 percent, ranked by FMS, in each rating get to compete for advancement against peers and have their record sent to the E7 selection boards.
Selection board eligibility results are normally released in mid-March on the Navy Enlisted Advancement System (NEAS) website.
During Advancement Examination Readiness Reviews held at NETPDC, visiting E7-E9 fleet subject matter experts in each enlisted rating ensure all examination questions can be linked to current references and publications. As rating subject matter experts (SME) select questions for the examination, an examination bibliography is developed for that specific cycle’s exam, based on the source references used to formulate questions on the exam. The Navy Advancement Center (NAC) updates bibliography information as fleet instructions and manuals change, and it is recommended that candidates check their bibliography a few times prior to the exam administration date to make sure they have the most recent BIBs.
“Bibliographies and their listed references should be a critical part of each Sailor’s exam preparation program,” added Berhalter. “When the Cycle 238 exams were created, each test question was tied to a specific reference, and the bibliography is a compilation of all references used to create that specific exam. With that in mind, I would recommend Sailors use only the official Navy bibliography sources for studying their references.”
To download the bibliographies and an exam-specific topic list for the upcoming cycle, go to the Navy Advancement Center’s Web portal at http://www.nko.navy.mil/group/navy-advancement-center/bibliographies, the Navy Credentialing Opportunities Online (COOL) website at http://www.cool.navy.mil/usn under the credentials tab, or My Navy Portal at http://www.mnp.navy.mil/group/navy-advancement-center/bibliographies.
Specific information on exam eligibility, clearance requirements and evaluation date requirements are detailed in NAVADMIN 175/17 and on the NEAS website. The NEAS website also enables education services officers (ESO) to verify and correct the list of eligible candidates for their command, and confirm examination ordering information.
E7 exam profile sheets provide candidates with information on how well they did on each topic area, and detail individual FMS totals, as well as minimum selection board cut requirements.
By Ed Barker, Naval Education and Training Professional Development Center Public Affairs