January 2019 E-7 Advancement Cycle Announced

[Tony]

PENSACOLA, Fla. (NNS) -- The January 2019 Navy-wide enlisted examination (Cycle 242) testing date for active-duty and full-time support Sailors who are advancement eligible to the pay grade of E-7 was announced in Naval Administrative Message (NAVADMIN) 214/18, Aug. 31.

The Navywide examination date is Jan. 17 for active-duty and full-time support (FTS) Sailors eligible to advance to chief petty officer, as well as E-6s who are required to take the E-7 exam for the limited duty officer program.

"Bibliographies (BIBs) for the E-7 January exam are updated and available for download on My Navy Portal and the Navy COOL website," said Master Chief Electronics Technician, Nuclear Power Gregory Prichard, command master chief of the Naval Education and Training Professional Development Center (NETPDC). “The E-7 advancement process differs from the E-4 to E-6 process in that the final multiple score (FMS) consists of only two elements that are used to rank order eligible E-6s; the exam score and performance mark average (PMA). So, being prepared for the exam is essential.”

Participation in the January exam is only a part of the advancement process for E-7. The top 60 percent, ranked by FMS, in each rating get to compete for advancement against peers and have their records sent to the E-7 selection boards.

Selection Board Eligibility results are normally released in mid-March on the Navy Enlisted Advancement System (NEAS) website. 

During Advancement Examination Readiness Reviews at NETPDC, visiting E-7 to E-9 fleet subject matter experts (SMEs) in each enlisted rating ensure all examination questions can be linked to current references and publications. As rating SMEs select questions for the examination, an examination bibliography is developed for that specific cycle’s exam, based on the source references used to formulate questions on the exam.  The Navy Advancement Center (NAC) updates bibliography information as fleet instructions and manuals change, and it is recommended that candidates check their bibliographies a few times prior to the exam administration date to make sure they have the most recent BIBs.

“Bibliographies and their listed references should be a critical part of each Sailor's exam preparation program,” added Prichard. “When the Cycle 242 exams were created, each test question was tied to a specific reference, and the bibliography is a compilation listing of all references used to create that specific exam. With that in mind, I would recommend Sailors use only the official Navy bibliography sources for studying their references."

To download the bibliographies and an exam-specific topic list for the upcoming cycle, go to the Navy Advancement Center’s My Navy Portal  bibliography page:  https://www.mnp.navy.mil/group/navy-advancement-center/bibliographies or the Navy Credentialing Opportunities Online (Navy COOL) website:  http://www.cool.navy.mil/usn, under the Find & Select Related Credentials, Enlisted tab.

This will be the last active-duty E-7 Navy advancement examination that will consists of 25 professional military knowledge (PMK) and 150 job-specific rating technical questions. The 2020 E-7 exam will not include PMK questions, as announced in NAVADMIN 085/18. As part of Sailor 2025 and rating modernization efforts, a PMK eligibility exam was created to provide greater emphasis on PMK and to separate it from examinations on rating knowledge.

Specific information on exam eligibility, clearance requirements and evaluation date requirements are detailed in NAVADMIN 214/18 and in BUPERSINST 1430.16. 

The NEAS website is available for education services officers to verify and correct the list of eligible candidates for their command, and confirm examination ordering information.  The NEAS Web address is https://prod-neas.ncdc.navy.mil/ .

E-7 exam profile sheets provide candidates with information on how well they did on each topic area, and detail individual FMS totals as well as minimum selection board cut requirements. Individual Sailors may view/download their profile sheets at https://prod-neas.ncdc.navy.mil/NEASRpts/Individual.aspx .