My son just enlisted for ET. He scored ok on asvab and fortunatly had his list of jobs when at MEPs and his first pick of ET was open. He is a bright kid but lacks great math skills and has never shown great study skills or great determination at excelling at school. He is smart enough to turn it on when he has to but gets easily distracted. My big fear is that he has picked a rate that is over his head. He struggles in math and I have been reading alot about the ET rate and it seems to be alot of math formula etc. I found some basic electrical classes i can send him to to prep him and I also found what looks like the Modules he will see in ATT and "A" school to go over while he waits for boot camp in october. Sorry this is so long but im very nervous and I have heard about the pace of school work, review boards and flunking out- anybody have any recent info on actual ATT time and "A" school time at school and its difficulty level.
Replies
I think that the inconsistency in time has to do with the split between ATT and A-school, and where you start counting. That and it seems that they are constantly tweaking the length of both schools. But for my son it was 11 weeks in ATT and 19 weeks in ET school, with a couple of weeks before each school of waiting. Since he just graduated, I would assume that it should be similar for your son.
Just keep in mind with any courses you might send your son to, there is the way that the world does something and then there is the Navy way to do something! The basics should be the same, but I would shy away from anything advanced.
I will certainly send along your thanks. Please do the same from me to your son.
My son is settling into Virginia Beach getting ready for another 200+ days of C school! Then on to the fleet. Perhaps our sons will meet one day?
First, Terry, welcome to the family! We are all here to help each other in whatever ways we can!
Now about your son, he sounds a lot like my Son-in-law who just graduated ET A-school. He too was not great at math, or fond of school. And he did struggle, though mostly at ATT, but made it through!
The biggest thing that helped him was the after school study program that they run; I forget the name. There you can get some one-on-one attention from the instructors. Which my son found VERY helpful in actually understanding what was being 'taught' to him in the computer based modules.
This program is optional, unless you have either fallen too far behind or have started failing tests. But, based on my son's experience, I would highly recommend getting into this study program as soon as his class starts.
As to ATT and A-school; my son had 11 weeks of ATT followed by 19 weeks of ET school. And he did report the difficulty level as fairly high. With most of that difficulty in the early weeks of ATT. Later he did say that the most difficult part was getting used to cramming so much information into his brain in one week to keep up. But once he got good study habits ingrained into himself, that it became much easier.
I would suggest that building studying skill is perhaps the most valuable thing that your son could work on before going to boot. Online courses would probably be the best format, as the Navy uses Computer Based Training now. So being familiar with that format is a big plus. But practice taking meaningful notes from online lectures or instructions, practice creating flash cards and Mnemonics to remember items with, and do as many online tests as possible. All of these should help once he gets to school.
I hope this helps both you and your son.