Any advice on how to max out promotion points?

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 10:58:58 -0400

I have a few questions regarding maxing out promotion points. I've been working on my correspondence courses and I wanna say I'm close to maxing those out. My first question would be, are there any courses I can do online that count towards civilian education? And are there any courses out there that I can do online that count towards resident training? Any help is appreciated. Thank you!

Response by MAJ Rene De La Rosa made Apr 3 at 2016 11:12 AM

MAJ Rene De La Rosa — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 11:12:17 -0400

Look at AMEDD correspondence. There is a plethora of points there; that is how I maxed out mine back in the day. Do well on your weapons qualification as well.

Response by SSG Dan Willmont made Apr 3 at 2016 11:54 AM

SSG Dan Willmont — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 11:54:15 -0400

In order to get credit for a residence course you must physically go and sit in the class room, hence the name. Rather than find army courses that might count for civilian education, I recommend actually enrolling in college. You are going to need some sort of actual college transcript to get credit for civilian education regardless. Whether or not an online course will count depends upon the college that you choose to attend. Obviously to max weapons you need to score 40/40 and PT you'll need to get a 300. When the time comes for BLC you will need to get Honor grad to earn those 40 points, or commandant's list to earn 20 points. Awards are going to be the hard place to max, you will need to volunteer a lot to earn the MOVSM and start competing in a lot of boards, if you win at high enough levels you can get AAMs or ARCOMs.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 3 at 2016 12:12 PM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 12:12:56 -0400

JKO, ATRRS, SOM/Q/Y competitions, college, certifications. Also, as a 25U, I recommend you spend some time learning your craft via LandWarNet and IT Skillport courses.
http://golivelively.com/2015/04/05/ppw/

PPW

Just as every Soldier should check her/his ERB regularly, Enlisted Soldiers up to the ranks of SGT should check the PPW (Promotion Point Worksheet) for accuracy. I won’t blab nearly as much a…

Response by Capt Tom Brown made Apr 3 at 2016 1:08 PM

Capt Tom Brown — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 13:08:39 -0400

You deserve at least 50 initiative points for asking this question here on RP. Best wishes to you.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 3 at 2016 3:19 PM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 15:19:38 -0400

I admire your passion and drive to promote but I often see this as a hindrance in many new soldiers. To often we just want rank and money. In the military they show you the path to promotion but so often we try to outpace the Army. Promoting too quick is bad. We have found this to be the case during the height of GWOT. As a PV2 your major focus should be on the mastery of your MOS and/or developing yourself in your MOS. For infantry this would be going to school such as Ranger or other infantry schools that make you a better soldier and develop you as a leader. I don't know enough about signal to know what schools that are out there to develop you in your MOS but they should be the focus right now. I have seen far too many soldiers promote too quick and were horrible leaders. They were smart and knew a lot but they never studied how to lead. I am not trying to discourage you but I don't want to see you go down this path.

Response by SSG Warren Swan made Apr 3 at 2016 4:08 PM

SSG Warren Swan — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 16:08:16 -0400

The responses below are SPOT ON. BUT, and this IS important. You NEED to know your job. You will go to the SOM boards and no they won't ask you about it, even when you hit the actual promotion boards, they won't ask you about it. They WILL see your counseling packet, and you could be shit hot, PT Studette, can quote regs forward and backwards, look like the model Soldier, and the counseling packet states that your peers are running circles around you in job competency. If you slack on that, you'll be looking at a possible new career choice out of uniform. BALANCE your desire to be promoted with your desire to do your job. You can make SFC tomorrow, and those crap details will still be there, the long days just got longer, and folks will look to you to lead. You can't lead if all you know the book definition of leadership. You don't know your job if a PVT asks you how to plug in a monitor and you have no clue, and don't know where to look.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 3 at 2016 8:27 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 20:27:45 -0400

For civilian education points....look into CLEP or DANTES tests and your education center. They give you college credits.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 4 at 2016 3:22 AM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 03:22:07 -0400

SGT Private RallyPoint Member If you speak another language, take the dlpt, is worth some points too

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 19 at 2016 5:40 AM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 05:40:20 -0400

still need to get points up? go on skillport and do the Microsoft courses. can also do the DL courses on JKO, had I think 70 points at the beginning of the month and now at 140 or something and still rising. I waited too long to get my correspondence courses done, should've been done by now but hope that helps.