Frontline ForgeStart training

AFOQT · Its own composite

Situational Judgment

Situational Judgment is the AFOQT subtest in which you read a situation from a junior officer's work and judge which of five actions is the most effective and which is the least effective.

Situations
25
Items
50 (two judgments per situation)
Time
35 minutes
Answer options
5 actions
Composites
Situational Judgment

Screens of the trainer

The subtest

Measures

The subtest measures judgment and decision-making in the interpersonal situations junior officers meet at work. The situations are based on real ones met by junior officers, and they call on six competencies: integrity and professionalism, leadership, resource management, communication, innovation and mentoring.

It feeds its own Situational Judgment composite, which no other subtest feeds. It counts toward none of the Pilot, CSO, ABM, Academic Aptitude, Verbal or Quantitative composites.

Format

The subtest has 25 situations in 35 minutes, two judgments each, for 50 items.

Scoring

Answers are scored against the consensus judgment of experienced officers. Two of the five actions can be keyed as equally effective.

Each judgment scores from −1 to +1.

Item types

A situation, five actions

A situation is a paragraph of four to six sentences on an interpersonal problem a junior officer meets at work. Five actions follow, one sentence each, and the same five serve both judgments.

Free practice test

AFOQT practice test 165 questions · 11 subtests

  1. Scenario 1 of 5

    You have just taken over a flight of twelve people. Your predecessor let three senior members set their own shifts, which left the other nine covering the least popular hours. Nobody has filed a complaint, but two of the nine have asked you when the schedule will be rebuilt. Your flight chief tells you the arrangement has held for two years, that the flight works well, and that nothing in the three members' duties requires those particular hours.

    1. Tell the two members who asked that the shift split was set before you arrived
    2. Have the flight chief post a rebuilt shift schedule without discussing it first
    3. Build a fairer rotation with your flight chief and explain the reasoning to the flight
    4. Ask each member how the current shift split affects them before you change anything
    5. Ask the three senior members whether they would give up their pick of shifts
    Show the answer

    Most effective: Build a fairer rotation with your flight chief and explain the reasoning to the flight

    Least effective: Tell the two members who asked that the shift split was set before you arrived

    Rebuilding the rotation with the flight chief, then explaining it to the flight, fixes the split with the person who knows the workload.

    Telling the two who asked that the split predates you dodges a schedule that is now yours to set.

    Asking each member first comes close, and costs only a few days.

  2. Scenario 2 of 5

    You are a captain. A second lieutenant who took over a flight three weeks ago shows you a list of five changes that he drew up over the weekend and wants to announce on Monday, from a new duty roster to a new way of running the morning brief. Each is reasonable taken alone. His flight chief, a senior master sergeant, has run the flight for two years. He asks what you think.

    1. Wish him luck with Monday, as a flight teaches a new lieutenant faster than a captain can
    2. Have him pick the one change that matters most, settle it with his flight chief, and hold the rest
    3. Tell him about your own first month in command, and leave him to draw the conclusion
    4. Send him to his flight chief with the list before Monday, and hear afterward what he learned
    5. Mark the two changes on the list that seem safest to you, and advise him to drop the rest
    Show the answer

    Most effective: Have him pick the one change that matters most, settle it with his flight chief, and hold the rest

    Least effective: Wish him luck with Monday, as a flight teaches a new lieutenant faster than a captain can

    Having him pick one change and settle it with his flight chief leaves the choice his and teaches him a pace.

    Wishing him luck lets a foreseeable mistake fall on his flight and on his standing with his flight chief.

    Sending him to his flight chief with the whole list comes close, but leaves the pace unanswered.

  3. Scenario 3 of 5

    At four in the afternoon the flight commander next door asks you for four of your airmen tonight, to finish preparing his shop for an inspection at seven tomorrow morning. The need is real, and his flight cannot do it alone. Your people have had a long week, and your flight chief tells you that they have earned their evening. Nothing in your flight's own work suffers if four people go tonight, and tomorrow is a full day for your flight as well.

    1. Give the four the flight chief picks a Friday afternoon off next week, and send them over tonight
    2. Ask the flight chief to call for volunteers, and send whoever comes forward tonight, whether four or fewer
    3. Send four airmen chosen by the flight chief, and give the four of them tomorrow morning off
    4. Order four airmen over tonight, chosen by the flight chief, and tell them that they will understand why
    5. Tell the flight commander next door that your people have earned their evening and have a full day tomorrow
    Show the answer

    Most effective: Give the four the flight chief picks a Friday afternoon off next week, and send them over tonight

    Least effective: Tell the flight commander next door that your people have earned their evening and have a full day tomorrow

    Sending the four tonight with a Friday afternoon off next week meets the need in full and pays them on a day the flight can afford.

    Refusing turns down a real need when your own work can spare four people tonight.

    A morning off tomorrow pays them too, but takes it out of a full day.

  4. Scenario 4 of 5

    On Monday you told your flight chief to have the shop ready for the group commander's visit on Friday. On Thursday afternoon you walk through the shop: it is clean and tidy, and none of the equipment you meant to show is set up. The flight chief understood ready as tidy. Setting up the equipment takes a full evening's work, and the shift ends in two hours.

    1. Take two airmen and set up the equipment yourself this evening, and tell the flight chief what the visit needed
    2. Tell the flight chief that your order was unclear, say what tomorrow needs, and work out with him what can be done tonight
    3. Tell the flight chief exactly what tomorrow needs, and that he should have asked what ready meant
    4. Tell the flight chief that you should have been clearer on Monday, and ask what the shop can still set up by tomorrow
    5. Tell your commander tonight that the shop will not be as planned, as the flight chief took ready to mean tidy and nothing more
    Show the answer

    Most effective: Tell the flight chief that your order was unclear, say what tomorrow needs, and work out with him what can be done tonight

    Least effective: Tell your commander tonight that the shop will not be as planned, as the flight chief took ready to mean tidy and nothing more

    Owning the unclear order, saying what the visit needs and planning tonight with the flight chief keeps him in the fix.

    Telling your commander that the flight chief misread you passes your own unclear order up as his mistake, before anyone has tried to fix it.

    Owning the gap and asking what can still be set up comes close, but never says what the visit needs.

  5. Scenario 5 of 5

    At the group staff meeting this morning, your commander told the group commander that your flight's maintenance backlog was cleared. It is not: about thirty jobs remain, and they will take until Friday. Last week he said that he expected it cleared by now, and you did not tell him that it had slipped. The group commander noted the news and moved on. The meeting is still going.

    1. Ask to correct the figure in the meeting yourself, in one sentence, before it ends
    2. Tell your commander after the meeting what remains and why he did not know, and ask how he wants the group told
    3. Clear the backlog by Friday as planned, then tell your commander that it took a few days longer than he announced to the group
    4. Send your commander the remaining count and the Friday date before the meeting ends, with an apology for the late update
    5. Clear the backlog first and let the matter rest, with the statement true again before anyone acts on it
    Show the answer

    Most effective: Send your commander the remaining count and the Friday date before the meeting ends, with an apology for the late update

    Least effective: Clear the backlog first and let the matter rest, with the statement true again before anyone acts on it

    A message before the meeting ends gives your commander the true count and your part in it while he can still correct the record himself.

    Clearing the backlog and saying nothing means he never learns that he misled the group.

    Telling him right after the meeting owns the lapse as fully, but lets the statement stand through the rest of it.

Start training

The Frontline Forge trainer

  • The full ranking

    In Training mode, after each situation, the trainer ranks the five actions from best to worst, marks your two picks with their points and explains the ranking. The clock stops until you move on.

  • The real format

    Test mode runs 25 situations in 35 minutes, the count and time of the real subtest, and scores each judgment by the rank of the action you picked, from −1 to +1. The five situations above come from the trainer, and each Test draws 25 of its 200 situations across the six competencies.

  • Ranked against other test-takers

    Each score is ranked against the scores of other test-takers. The Statistics page plots the ranking of every attempt, so you see whether you are beating more test-takers than before.

Train on every subtest.
Know your rank.

Start training
See pricing