What can I do to help my promotion to E-5?

First do your job and gain the respect of your NCOs and Peers. On the academic side, you need correspondence, college credits, good PT, Weapons, and awards. The correspondence, college credits are the biggest differentiating factor to move you past your peers as so many don't bother to do them and the rest will usually take care of itself by just doing your job.

Nothing worth while should be easy, true? So no matter what steps you take, do yourself a favor & make sure you do your best at it. Then no matter how life turns out you know you did your best. The other members have given you some great ideas and if you look at the information given to other in your situation, "It's the same for all of you trying to make E-5", & we want to see you make it as well, good luck, we know you can do it!

Good score on the APFT (250 or better) seek Challenging assignments and work on a degree above a high school diploma, if you haven't already done so. Finally, talk to your rater and ask him or her what you need to get a good evaluation.

College credits are worth a lot of points. I suggest going to school.

A lot of folks already gave great advice, so I will just add one more. Awards, specifically volunteer somewhere. Track your volunteer hours and then have your leadership put you in for the volunteer award. It is one of the very few awards that you have complete control over.

My advice is to go to schools. "Well funding is an issue." Of course it is, and I don't mean air assault, but there are a great many *local* opportunities that are low budget. A few I can think of are CLS(combat lifesaving), SINCGARS(radio proficiency), and weapon or vehicle NET courses. They usually aren't too tough to get, but the most important thing is that your NCOs (particularly your readiness NCO) know you want to get promoted. That way, the more information and opportunities that come into the unit, the more they are directed towards future NCOs like yourself. You have a LOT of time (at least a year) to do whatever you can, so get to the range, work out, and look for opportunities to educate yourself.

Check your Cutoff points to see where it's at. If it's trending high then you have time, if not then start busting your butt and you may see it sooner than you thought you would! You'll need to see what points you do have and what you are lacking. Use the PPW (Promotion Points Worksheet) and that will give you a good idea on what you need.

Marksmanship, PT score, being involved with your unit not during drill.

expanding knowledge in military training as well as correspondence courses. requested advancements for Sargent tasking, armorer, motor pool, field sanitation. i am not certain, but when i exited there as a considered interest of field deployment experience points to be portioned as credited promotion points as well. so more than drill time or activation time, they would be looking for 6 month physical combat theater experiences as well. obviously, board practices are a must as well. in all honesty, your NCO's should have been working with you at promotion to E4 to start your line to E5. where the best advise any can give you, is to correspond with your detachment and squad Sargent's.

Show your unit that you can be a good nco, do some volunteer work with your unit.