On July 1st, 2004, the Department of Defense updated the scores for the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude and Battery test. All civilians wanting to enroll in any branch of the Armed Services must take this test before they are allowed to enlist. The ASVAB uses several short tests to determine what job is a good fit for each soldier. Electrical knowledge, engineering and grammar are only a few things on this test.

Look at the old ASVAB scores. Find your overall score, along with the scores of the smaller tests. The smaller tests make up the total percentage scored on the ASVAB. The percentile you scored in has only changed slightly. The previous requirement for the Armed Forces Qualification Test was 66 but in 2004 was changed to 65. Minimum Arithmetic Reasoning percentages have stayed the same. A full list of test scores and categories can be located on the U.S. Coast Guard website.

Find the Armed Forces Qualification Test scores that you received. The AFQT is really the test that matters when converting old scores to new standards. This test determines a potential soldier's trainability.

Add the number from your paragraph-comprehension score to your word-knowledge score. The total of these two numbers is your Verbal Expression score. This number will be converted to a scaled score between 20 and 62. If you scored a 15 on the word-knowledge test and a 30 on the paragraph-comprehension test, the total scaled score would be 45, or 45%.

Calculate the score using this formula: 2VE + AR + MK = raw AFQT score. Double the score from the Verbal Expression test and add it to the Arithmetic Reasoning score and the Mathematical Knowledge score to find your overall AFQT score. Comparison of that score with those of all the others taking the test indicates what percentile you fall into. A score between 0 and 9 is a category V, which means you're considered not trainable and ineligible to join the military. A score between 31 and 49 is considered average.