One thing I have not seen mentioned is that when I was there a few years ago, the practice was that you were tested during the initial week. There were, if I recall correctly, three things that could happen:
1. Fail to meet the standard so badly that you were sent to warrior platoon;
2. Fail to meet the standard, but only to a certain extent (for example, I think 9 push ups was the threshold). You were allowed to continue training with the platoon, and would be retested in week 8 (for BMOQ). It was expected that after an additional 8 weeks of training you would be able to meet the EXPRES standard. If you weren't able to, you were sent back to warrior platoon; or
3. Meet the standard.
It could be that this individual is in scenario #2, and is getting 9 or 10 push ups and being pushed forward with training, only to not meet the standard of 19 in the later test. That said, I *recall* if you were on the warrior platoon you had to meet the EXPRES standard before being loaded onto a course. This could have changed of course.
I've never had a problem getting push ups counted because I always bounced my chest off the ground to be safe, but the PSP are pretty inconsistent from what I've observed. I even had one PSP tell me to stop hitting my chest off the ground because it would constitute a "stop" and that would be it for me. And then again, maybe I'm biased because I've always had a bit of a gripe about some B. Kinesiology student who's never done a day of forced labour telling me about how to be physically fit for life in the Infantry.
Safe to say, all this hassel and griping could be saved if they just tested prior to enrolling. I know I know, radical thinking...