July 2, 1997 - Mid-Cycle Testing

970702 - Today we had the Mid-Cycle Testing. It was very tough. 20 people in our platoon failed and we don't know which 20. I'm very worried that I'm one of the 20. Half of me is convinced that I got more than 20 wrong and the other half is convinced I got more than 80 right. Who knows, though. The way things have been going lately, I probably did fail. If I did fail, I'll have to retake the test on Fri. and if I fail again, I get moved to a different platoon. I will probably have to go home, though, since I'm a 92-day reservist. How embarrassing to get sent home because you're not smart enough to be a Marine! I can't wait to sleep tonight just so I can get my mind off of this issue. At any rate, 58 days left...

Mid-cycle testing was the first real assessment in boot camp. By that I mean that it was the first test where failing meant stopping training. If we lost in pugil sticks (which I did), we would still be able to continue. If we failed miserably at Initial Drill (which we did), we could still continue on, albeit with significantly dirtier cammies and boots. But failing mid-cycle testing meant that you could not continue in training. It was a big deal.

The mid-cycle test consisted of 100 multiple choice questions. To pass, you needed to achieve a score of 80% or better. It's possible that my post about knowledge left you thinking that it was very easy: just learn the mnemonic devices and you were good to go. Unfortunately, the "ditties" as we called them only covered a small fraction of what we were supposed to know. There was no device for memorizing the battle in World War I that earned the Marines the name of "Devil Dog" (Belleau Wood). There was no ditty for memorizing the names of the two Marines to earn two congressional medals of honor (Dan Dailey and Smedley Butler). There was no ditty for memorizing the name of the "Grand Old Man" of the Marine Corps, so named because he was in the Marines longer than anyone else in history (Archibald Henderson); or for knowing that Col. Chester "Chesty" Puller earned 5 Navy Crosses. Not to mention all of the First Aid information we were required to know (which I would list here, but, as you might remember, I slept through those classes). There was a great deal of information to know, and evidently, our platoon knew very little of it.

The actual test is, understandably, kept secret. Success in boot camp is so high stakes that Drill Instructors would definitely be tempted to just give the questions and answers to recruits in order to make sure they pass. Because of this, prior to the test, each recruit in my platoon was assigned two questions. We were to memorize those two questions and the four answers given, and report the information back to the Drill Instructors after the test. That way, the Drill Instructors could use the information for the next platoon they had. During the test, memorizing those questions and answers was at least as stressful as the test itself, especially since one of my questions had to do with First Aid, a.k.a. Nap Time.

By the end of the day, between taking the test, memorizing and reporting the questions and answers back to the DIs, and then finding out that nearly 1/3 of our platoon failed, I was mentally exhausted and completely dejected.

Side note: I do love the arrogance (or honesty?) in my journal though. There's a common myth that Marines aren't very smart. They're often referred to as "bullet catchers" because they just get sent in first and then the smart ones come in later. This is complete garbage. Marines go in first because they, we, are superior. No one starts anything, meals, battles, wine at a wedding, with the worst. Nonetheless, I still brought with me the stigma of Marines being thought of as intellectually inferior. And so, despite how discouraged and sure I had failed I was, I still threw in the fact that I thought I was smarter than most recruits. Or at least, I had thought it until this day...