Navy Jobs by ASVAB Score: Rating Requirements Explained

Sums of standard scores, not percentiles

Every ASVAB subtest comes back as a standard score on a scale where 50 is average and 10 points is 1 standard deviation. The Navy adds those numbers and does nothing more to them. The Army weights its composites and the Marine Corps rescales its line scores to a mean of 100; the guide to line scores compares all the Services. Note 9 of the Navy rating list says its requirements are "based on PAY 97", the 1997 youth sample the standard-score scale is built on.

Four average scores add to 200, so Aviation Electronics Technician at 217 asks for an average of about 54 across VE, AR, MK and MC. Two average scores add to 100, which puts Logistics Specialist at VE+AR of 92 below the middle and Explosive Ordnance Disposal at 109 a little above it. The AFQT is a percentile; these sums are not.

What the Navy says about the AFQT

The Requirements to Join page on navy.com asks enlisted applicants for "a qualifying score" on the ASVAB and a high school diploma or GED. It gives no minimum AFQT for either credential, says that "some specific jobs also require minimum scores" and sends questions about a low score to a recruiter. The Prepare to Join page adds that the overall score and the individual line scores both decide eligibility for specific enlisted careers.

No Navy AFQT minimum had appeared when this site last checked its branch data on 29 September 2026, so this page prints none. Ask your recruiter which standard applies to your diploma, GED or college credits. The minimum scores by branch page shows the Services that do publish a number. If your AFQT is the obstacle, the AFQT improvement plan covers the 4 subtests behind it.

ASVAB minimums for each rating

The navy.com career pages describe each job but do not print its ASVAB line. The Navy publishes those minimums in a rating list kept alongside MILPERSMAN 1306-618, the article on rating entry requirements. The table uses the edition dated 1 October 2026, the one linked from the MyNavy HR Career Waypoints page in October 2026. MyNavy HR has posted at least 9 editions since April 2024, so check the date on the list your recruiter works from.

Each number is a minimum: your sum must equal or exceed it. "Or" separates routes, and you need only one. "And" joins conditions within a route, and you must meet all of them. Where a rating has routes that rely on scores outside the 10 ASVAB subtests, the table says more routes exist instead of spelling them out. The new-accession routes into CTT, CWT and IT add the Cyber Test, which the guide to the ASVAB Cyber Test explains.

The Navy also sets temporary scores, which expire unless a new memo extends them. The August 2025 list, for example, showed Aviation Electronics Technician at 210 in its temporary column against a standing 217. On 1 October 2026 the Navy returned Machinist's Mate, Master-at-Arms, the IT ratings and several programs to their permanent scores. The October 2026 list keeps one temporary column, for Special Warfare Boat Operator, through 31 December 2026.

Cyber Warfare Technician is the open case. Its 239 minimums arrived as temporary scores on 1 October 2025 and were set to lapse on 30 September 2026, yet the October 2026 edition still prints them and logs no extension. Ask which figure is in force on your MEPS date.

The ASVAB is one column of many. The same list sets vision, color perception, hearing, security clearance, citizenship and obligated service requirements for each rating, and Cryptologic Technician Interpretive uses a Defense Language Aptitude Battery score in 2 of its 3 routes. The navy.com Requirements to Join page says enlisted applicants face no physical fitness requirement before joining, except for Navy Special Operations careers.

Nuclear Field ratings and the NAPT

The Nuclear Field program covers 3 ratings, Electrician's Mate (Nuclear), Electronics Technician (Nuclear) and Machinist's Mate (Nuclear), and they share one standard. You need GS+AR+MK+EI of 252 with AR+MK+MC+VE of at least 235, or the reverse: AR+MK+MC+VE of 252 with GS+AR+MK+EI of at least 235. The list allows no waivers on these test scores. It also requires a high school diploma (a GED is not accepted), at least 1 year of algebra with a grade of C or better, and 72 months of obligated service.

The second route uses the NAPT, a supplementary Navy test that MILPERSMAN 1306-502 spells out as the Navy Advanced Placement Test. One of the 2 nuclear composites plus your NAPT score must total 290 or more, that composite must be at least 225, and the NAPT score must be at least 50. With an AR+MK+MC+VE of 231, you would need a NAPT of 59. This standard moves too: the Navy changed it on 1 June 2025 after a run of temporary changes.

The scores buy entry to a long pipeline. The Nuke Smart page on navy.com describes 6 months of "A" School in Charleston, South Carolina, 6 months at Naval Nuclear Power School, and 6 months of prototype training at a Nuclear Power Training Unit in Charleston or Ballston Spa, New York. The Electronics Technician (Nuclear) page adds U.S. citizenship and eligibility for a security clearance.

Choosing your rating at MEPS

Navy.com describes MEPS as the place where "you'll take your ASVAB and select your job." The Navy's How You Can Join brochure lays out the day: check-in, medical exams, then the job counselor interview, which it calls the classifier interview. Your ASVAB scores, the forms from the recruiting office and your physical results go into that conversation, which the brochure says usually takes under 30 minutes. The test day guide covers the part before it.

The job list you see is narrower than the rating table. MILPERSMAN 1306-618 requires classifiers to use the Navy Recruiting Classification System, which works with Career Waypoints to list the ratings for which you are qualified and "a classification opportunity exists." A rating you meet on paper but that has no open training seat does not appear. The brochure states that a classifier can guarantee a specific job in writing.

Waiting for a rating versus shipping sooner

Once you pick a rating, the classifier works out the month you start active duty and the day training begins. The brochure warns that high-demand jobs can mean waiting for an opening. In the meantime you sit in the Delayed Entry Program, which it says can run from a few months to a full year, with your school seat held.

If the date for the rating you want is too far out, you can wait for it, take a different rating from your list with an earlier date, or enlist without a rating through the Professional Apprentice Career Track (PACT). Ask for the ship date on every option before you sign.

PACT takes you in as an undesignated Seaman (AR+VE of 90), Airman (AR+AS+MK+VE of 173) or Fireman (AR+MK+MC+VE of 193, or AR+AS+MK+VE of 188). Under MILPERSMAN 1306-618, your command career counselor later applies for a permanent rating on your behalf through the PACT Marketplace during its application cycles. You give up a guaranteed rating now for a competition later.

Scores can still change after you enlist. MILPERSMAN 1306-618 points Sailors who fall short of a rating to the Armed Forces Classification Test, the in-service version of the ASVAB. The same article caps ASVAB waivers at 6 points on a 2-score combination, 9 on a 3-score combination and 12 on a 4-score combination, with none on a single-score minimum. Plan to meet the minimum outright.

Worked example

Suppose your sheet reads GS 55, AR 58, WK 56, PC 54, MK 60, EI 52, AS 48, MC 57 and AO 53. Those WK and PC scores produce a VE of 56. Here is how that profile compares with 8 of the minimums above.

This applicant qualifies for ratings in aviation, medicine, electronics, construction and cryptology, but misses Cyber Warfare Technician by 6 points and the Nuclear Field by more. Every rating in the big table uses AR or MK in at least one route, so a few points there move many lines at once. Three more points on MK would clear the 239 for Cyber Warfare Technician, because AR+2MK+GS counts MK twice.

The line score calculator runs this arithmetic for your own scores. Treat its result as a check. The classifier's list, built from the current standards and current openings, is the final word.

Sources

• Navy Personnel Command (MyNavy HR), 1306-618 Rating List with C-WAY and CNRC ECM notes, edition updated 1 October 2026 (revision log through 1 October 2026), linked from the C-WAY page. ASVAB test score columns, the Warrior Challenge temporary score column, notes 9 and 10, the Nuclear, Warrior Challenge and PACT pages, and the change history. Checked against the 21 April 2026 and 19 August 2025 editions.
• MILPERSMAN 1306-618, Class "A" School and Rating Entry Requirements, CH-92, 14 July 2025, paragraphs 1, 2b, 3l (note), 4a and 4c.
• MILPERSMAN 1306-502, Qualifications for Assignment to Nuclear Propulsion Program Schools, CH-19, 14 June 2007, the subparagraph on scores.
• Navy Recruiting Command, navy.com, Requirements to Join page, ASVAB and job selection sections, read October 2026.
• Navy Recruiting Command, navy.com, Prepare to Join page (ASVAB section) and Working With a Recruiter page, read October 2026.
• Navy Recruiting Command, navy.com, Nuke Smart page (training section) and Electronics Technician (Nuclear) career page (qualifications), read October 2026.
• Navy Recruiting Command, United States Navy: How You Can Join brochure (form 011-0128, revision 03/21), October 2021 file formerly posted on navy.com, read from the Internet Archive copy. Sections on Navy jobs, MEPS, finding a job and the Delayed Entry Program.
• Official ASVAB program (officialasvab.com), Applicant FAQs, answers on composite scores, retest waiting periods and the 2-year score validity.