I was one of those who did the test this morning at Cartier Square. Was it easy, yes. Was it more challenging than the Expres, yes. Was it harder than a BFT, hell yes. This is an assessment to determine if a member can meet universality of service. That is why there is a single standard for each exercise, that you cannot exceed, that is defensible under human rights legislation. If someone is in good shape they will find this test easy, but that is true of any test that has an absolute standard, and an open ended one.
The test provides an assessment that is around 70% accurate when predicting if a member will meet universality of service. Now before howls go up saying that 70% isn't good enough, we've been using a test that was around 50% effective for last 30 years, and the army in particular has been using a test that provides no comprehensive relationship to common military tasks. With that in mind we have done pretty well in a pretty rough war.
To address some points posted in the last day regarding this-
-Applicability to Navy, Army, Air Force:
All the exercises are directly correlated to those tasks that are assessed to meet universality of service. In other word, all elements have agreed that these tasks may be required of any military member, regardless of uniform colour. The main complainer seems to be the Navy who don't think they have to run and negotiate obstacles. Regardless of your own personal experience being on board ship, your admirals have said this is something a sailor has to be able to do.
The fact that it uses a pepper potting like motion to assess this is simply because it is only an assessment, a predictor, of actual task. I know when I have pepper potted I have not lifted both hands off the ground to make sure I was unsupported, but I did it for this test, as it part of the protocol. This does not make it an army centric test, rather it is a test of speed and agility.
-Overall test exercises:
As stated above the four exercises serve to act as a predictor of if a member can pass the universality of service tests. The universality of service tests are individual tasks, they are not assessed back to back. Therefore single exercises were developed that could encompass several UoS tasks. If you can pass one of the exercises, that serves to act as predictor for several tasks basically.
-Administration of the test:
Future PLQ graduates will be able to administer the test. If a particular environment decides to keep using PSP to administer the test that is a military decision. The test is designed to be flexible. For example the weight on the sandbag drag is varied depending on the floor surface. This ensure a level assessment criteria. If a particular environment decides to self-administer I just hope that they have some form of maintain testing standards.
For GnyHwy, you can throw yourself down however you want and get up any way you want. The only requirement is that your foot touches the 10m marks and that your shoulders are behind it when you are down. I saw some people touching the line and then stepping back. I just touched the line and threw myself down and back when I dropped. Just remember this is not a test of pepper potting, it is a test to see if you are fast and agile enough to meet universality of service.
Finally, the test was fun. It is kinetic, can be competitive, provides opportunity to encourage each other, makes you break a sweat, and if you pay attention to the science behind it relevant. For these reasons alone it is head and shoulders above other tests.
