DLAB is horrendous, this guide is quite helpful but it’s just a beast in and of itself. If you don’t score high enough you can retest in 6 months but it’s up to the recruiter as to if they allow you to wait that long. My DEP had a person waiting to retest so it is possible. When I went through (obviously pre plague) we found out our language week 6. You make a list like week 2 of your “top 5” languages which “they match to needs of the Air Force” but most of us think it just goes into a shred box.
Don't join the army. Wait 6 months, study this DLAB book and retake the DLAB. If you don't get over a 110 after studying this book, you'd probably have a difficult time studying as a linguist anyways.
2 things just in case you didn't know:
- Study this book religiously before you take the DLAB. I studied it and got a 114—you need a 110 to pass. It's pretty much the only study guide out there worth a damn.
- You don't get told your language until the end of Boot Camp, so if you're doing this for a specific language (like I am), it's a risk. I'm set to leave w/ the CTI rate in August but I'm still not sure if I'm gonna do it, because if I get assigned something like Persian it's gonna throw off my career goals quite a bit.
I would really appreciate if you could send some study guides my way! Might as well start studying just for fun while I’m getting ready for MEPS! Someone showed me this and I was planning on buying that today to get started. Have you heard of it before?
Oh nice! In California, 4n0x1 Aerospace medical isn’t on the green side unfortunately :(.
The book I used is by Robert J Cunnings. https://www.amazon.com/Official-DLAB-Training-Manual-Practice-ebook/dp/B00HUC6RT4/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Robert+J.+Cunnings&qid=1603549794&refinements=p_n_condition-type%3A6461716011&sr=8-1 Knowing the rules & memorizing them beforehand definitely helped! Good luck on your test btw
https://www.amazon.com/Official-DLAB-Training-Manual-Practice-ebook/dp/B00HUC6RT4
I highly recommend memorizing the rules beforehand as the test is timed. On one portion, the timer ran out before I could answer the last two questions despite me memorizing the rules. >.< Good luck too!!
I just took the DLAB less than a month ago and made relatively high. I used this book off of Amazon, and I would say it helped me out a good bit. It’s $9.99 and gives a very accurate practice test that’s more or less just like the DLAB layout.
After I passed the test and medical, my liaison at MEPS had me list only the two linguist jobs on my sheet because it was more or less a guarantee I would get one of the two since demand is high. I luckily got airborne because I really wanted to be air crew! From my recent experience, if you want to be a linguist and pass the DLAB and medical qualifications, you will get it.
I used this book off of Amazon, and it helped me out a lot. Ended up making a 140.
The Official DLAB Training Manual: Study Guide and Practice Test: The Best Tips and Tricks to Raising Your DLAB Score https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HUC6RT4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_krUqFbYFQ8DDJ
This has helped me loads. Has all the information you’ll need for the DLAB. But if you’re serious about being a linguist, I’d study grammar very seriously, just so you’re well prepared for the DLI.
I just took it this week and got a 114. Just "studied" for a couple of hours the day before the test. I say "studied" but it's really mostly just getting familiar with the test, since you can't really study for it. I read this manual which was actually really helpful, goes over everything on the test, tips, etc.
As for the ASVAB there’s numerous guides that are helpful. DLAB this is the only one I’ve found that is really worth anything. Nothing can really prepare you for the test but this will at least help you understand the format and way the “puzzles” work.
I took the DLAB in late 2017 and I got a 136 even though the pretest I took at my recruiters said I only had an 83% chance of “passing”.
I used “The Official DLAB Training Manual”
https://www.amazon.com/Official-DLAB-Training-Manual-Practice-ebook/dp/B00HUC6RT4
It has some practice and a lot of info on how the test is set up.
Don’t listen to people who tell you it’s “impossible” to study for. It’s a very strange test and walking in cold isn’t a good idea.
You should have a good grasp of English grammar and be comfortable listening and remembering what was said. The test will involve a made up language but quite a bit of it is based on Esperanto (a constructed auxiliary language). The test will give you rules that will then disappear and you must remember them. There is a text portion and listening portion (in which even the 4 answers will be spoken and you must remember them) and a visual portion too at the end that still eludes me.
There’s also some discrepancy about what constitutes a good score. There’s some leadership at DLI recently trying to prove that a high GT score is a better predictor of success there than a high DLAB score.
Technically speaking you only need a 95 I believe to able to take a Cat I language at DLI but I never met anyone at DLI with lower than a 106 and I watched people with scores in the 120s fail out of their languages so you need to be honest with yourself about your language learning abilities.
You also have to realize that being sent to DLI means you will be in a training environment for a VERY long time and though Navy seems to have more fun there than Army, training environments are absolutely soul-sucking. Pretty much everyone else you go to boot with will be living it up in their units while you’re treated like a child because you picked a harder job. Not trying to scare you; just something to think about.
I took the practice test at the back of the "Official" DLAB Training Manual, and scored a 70%.
The front of the book claims that the test is scored with logs, not on raw score, and that getting 42/60 doesn't mean anything without knowing which questions I got right/wrong and the value of those questions.
Can anyone point me to a resource that helps break down the value of each section? I assume that the earlier, and easier, questions in each section are worth less than the later, harder questions, but without exact numbers that only gives me a vague projection as to how I would perform on the actual test.
Of course the actual test doesn't let me read and re-read my options and the rules as many times as I need to, so it's unreasonable to assume my score is representative of my actual performance. But I'm curious.
In case it means anything to anyone: I bombed the Visuals (last) section, and the first section; all of the translation/grammar rule application sections (P2, 3, 4, and 5) I only missed one to three questions.
If you're American and she has any potential interest in military service, they have some of the best language training in the world.
I just took it last week, got a 107. This book is basically the test.DLAB book Lmk if you have questions
Use this study guide. I got a 108 the first time and a 118 the second time. That study guide was a lifesaver.