Exam Myth - Lots of Questions are Thrown Out and Not Included in the Exam Score

[Tony]

Each Navy-wide advancement exam (NWAE) has 175 questions, covering topics and subtopics that align with the rating's occupational standards. Before standard scores are calculated, a process is run to verify answer keys and review questions for bias. This process ensures that questions don't have two possible answers, or that a reference update hasn't changed the possible answers for a related question. 

Questions flagged for potential bias are reviewed by a panel at the Navy Advancement Center. On rare occasions, a question is removed from scoring for one of those reasons. Typically, for all 83 ratings, only a few questions are deleted and not scored during an advancement cycle. For the majority of the ratings, all 175 questions are scored. Check your profile sheet and total up the topic areas, you'll see that the total is probably 175 and that no questions were removed from scoring.