Questions on the forces

PlatinumFX · 4 Dec 2007 at 14:53

Im pretty unhappy with my career at the moment. The direction I am taking just doesn't motivate me. I need some clear direction and to have instilled in me some self-discipline. I will be 23 in March.

I have identified the forces as being able to offer me such options. I have good A levels and am part way through a degree. I believe I would be able to join as an officer for some positions, assuming I met other criteria (mental, physical ect).
I dont know which service I want to join but I am leaning away from the Navy (I just dont want to be couped up on a ship). I am tempted towards the Royal Marines but I would need to know what my career prospects are after my minimum service term if I didnt want to turn it into my final career.

It is important for me to know that if I leave at 25 or 45 - I have some options for me.

I will definetly speak to a forces career adviser soon but I have some wider questions on the topics of morality and general forces life.

Politics, rights and wrongs aside; how do you people in the forces, training for it or considering it, find peace within your self knowing you might die, or have to kill anouther? Do you believe in the politics and thus there is no issue as such for you on making those sacrifices? Do you simply try not to think about it - is it just your day job? Please tell me and try not to be led by my perspective.

Please do not turn this into a politics thread on the morality of war / foriegn interventions ect. I consider the current world situation as both very wrong but very complex. To summise in a sentence; I feel we have to make the best of it. Thats not to say I dont think mistakes have, are and will continue to be made.

PlatinumFX · 4 Dec 2007 at 15:03

Commissioned, an officer. I have edited my first post to include that vital piece of information I over looked... :rolleyes:

PlatinumFX · 4 Dec 2007 at 15:18

Thank you Ghosteh. I took the Pathfinder questionnaire and came out as a red.

PlatinumFX · 4 Dec 2007 at 18:42

Whats holding you back platypus?

PlatinumFX · 4 Dec 2007 at 23:43

Does any one know of any forums for military staff? So that I might read their discussions and get a deeper insight into forces life.

PlatinumFX · 5 Dec 2007 at 20:39

Thank you for those. Bump for advice relating to my original post.

PlatinumFX · 6 Dec 2007 at 11:25

Thank you jaydee, thats was very insightful. Am I correct to believe your an RAF Pilot?

G'waan Cobra, you know you want to. Scratch that itch.

PlatinumFX · 7 Dec 2007 at 00:25

Well I have narrowed it down to applying to train as a Royal Marine Officer or as a Royal Navy Pilot or Warfare officer. I would be particularly interested in the latter, for opportunities to work in communications and intelligence.

PlatinumFX · 9 Dec 2007 at 23:14

A slight U-turn, but I am applying to train as a Royal Marines Officer. Again any forces people, particularly marines who can offer me some insight into forces life; step forward please.

PlatinumFX · 16 Jan 2008 at 23:10

Samtheman1k said:
You do realise that the Royal MARINES are part of the Navy? (The clue is in the name lol).

Of course I know that!

Zefan said:
What sort of feedback have you received thus far in to your application? What sort of grades did you achieve at A-Level? I'm looking for as much information as I can get on this at the moment, any experiences you've had with the application process so far will be greatly appreciated.

I thought it better to reply to that question here rather than divert the flow of stinkys thread.

Its early days yet. I have a test tommorow morning at the Exeter Armed Forces Careers Office (AFCO). Its a test on my logical, english, mathematical and mechanical reasoning.

My a level grades were:

Computing (Comp Sci) - D. I was on track for an A/B but my college messed my timetable up and I had a third of the tuition I should have had. I just couldn't make it up.
AVCE Double Award Business Studies - BC. This counts as two alevels.

Academically, I meet the requirements for becoming an officer. I even have half a degree not that its directly relevant to being a Marine.

A good resource a friend recommended to me is http://www.how2become.co.uk/royalmarines.htm. I purchased that pack and it has some helpful stuff. Well worth the modest fee. Note though that the site doesn't render properly in Firefox if thats a factor to you.

PlatinumFX · 17 Jan 2008 at 20:31

I received my results within half an hour of the ending of the test. While I did well enough in most sections and as an overall score to join as an officer, my maths let me down and unfortunately I have to work on that and re-take the test in 6 months. I have no excuses, I should have prepared my maths better as I knew it was my weakest area.

The consequences however have little bearing on my plans. I performed well enough to join the Royal Marine Reserve which was the initial part of my strategy all along given I can't start in the RM full time until September 2009. That is, assuming I pass all stages of the application process.

What is your experience with the forces Stringy?

PlatinumFX · 17 Jan 2008 at 20:38

Zefan said:
Thanks for that information, very helpful so far.

I understand that they only recruit 60 officers each year, has having not A/B grades been an obstacle for you at the minute? Basically what I wnat to know is do they simply accept you for suitability training if you have 2 A-levels, no matter what their grades? I have 2 D's and a couple of AS grades, and it'd be nice to know whether its worth even bothering to apply now or go on to get a degree (in first year now).

Your welcome. Im going to update this thread regularly over the course of my application to help others gain insight into the process.

Whilst there is a UCAS point minimum, your personality, motivations and competencies will really be of most significance in the degree of success you have in your applications.

Zefan said:
I know they'll be able to tell me more at the careers office, but I don't want to look like a complete idiot

Ha that's not the way too look at it. Its never too late to come across a fool!

By the way Zefan, I was a UWE student. Up till December when I arranged to be withdrawn so that I may follow my calling.

What are you studying there?

PlatinumFX · 18 Jan 2008 at 20:27

All sections of the paper ramp up from quite easy to very hard (all subjective to my own experience, ability level and thus interpretations). Also factor in the time limit, and the test truely allows the most able of people to excel.

Regarding the maths section, I reached about half way through the sections to the intermediate questions and it was here I started to struggle. Given the time preassure, I was skipping a few questions such as 60 X 67. Now if I had revised my maths better, I would have brought with me to the test the mental tools to quickly dispatch such levels of question.

For the maths, here is a few points to consider:

- Learn your times tables for multiples up to 200 ish. 9 X 13 type sums will quickly emerge as components of the problem when you break down the question in front of you.
- Related to the above, knowing what multiplies with what to make 88 quickly saves you time so that you can focus your brain on more complex aspects of the problem. Too often I wasted time figuring out mostly by trial and error what these lesser solutions are.

- I didn't have a problem with this but many might. Adding 3 digit numbers to 4 digit numbers should be a quick and straightforward way of earning yourself marks. Problems like 4289 + 334 made appearences a few times either as questions in themselves or components in more complex questions. Similarly, mental deductions questions along the lines of 5086 - 637 appeared. The techniques taught at GCSE and earlier level maths should help you to quickly dispatch these problems. The crucial factor (besides being correct!) is doing it quickly. Every second counts.

- There were a few questions which at vary levels of complexity, presented some information from which it is required you extract the relevant data and perform the necessary interpretations of their use and subsequent maths on. Example:

The test said:
There are 6 submarines and 19 ships on active service at this time. Submarines are crewed by 13 officers and 70 ratings. Ships have 20 officers and 115 ratings.

How many naval personal are on active service at this time?

I had just such a question in my test. Note that the simplification that all boats and all ships have the same complement number and composition I have presented is exactly how it was in my paper, but obviously this is really a test on understanding and using information and need not reflect reality.

- Division, including that giving answers with decimal points; was present. As above, learn the techniques and mental tricks for solving these.

- Number sequences. 1 3 7 13 ...
+2, +4, +6. The next in the sequence is 21 becausing you will be adding 8. These were common too. Some of the sequences were more complex in two ways. A) the changes in the sequence might be -x +y and B) the question may be presented as 47 ... 34 29 25. Both easily adapted to, especially with the benefit of forewarning of their presence.

- There will be algebraic expressions of varying complexity to solve or answer a question in relation to. At their most basic, I noted one to require you to demonstrate an understanding of the principles of algebra by completing a expression. 4t - 2y = 8t - ... . Among the multiple choice answers, you would seek to select for example C) 4y. I hope I got that correct! Because thats as far as my comfort with algebra goes. There will be other more complex problems to solve. I won't go into these as I dont fully remember them and wouldn't dare attempt to solve them in front of essentially, an audience!

Thats covers all the areas of questions I can recall.

You'll have to decide where your own ability is based on how you fare in tests you place yourself in. I would recommend allowing atleast a month to prepare if you haven't touched this stuff since GCSE like I had not.

PlatinumFX · 8 Feb 2008 at 22:18

Anouther lesson I have learned quickly.

Start behaving like a soldier/serviceman/service woman from the start. Even at the careers office, I was spoken to in very direct terms, being given specific instructions that I was expected to follow immediately without questions. Trust in what they say and do exactly what they tell you to.

Its important that you can get your head around this concept as it governs the way the forces operate.

I attended a presentation on the Royal Marine Reserve at Lympstone Commando (handily only 5 miles from my home town) in Devon and my contact with the security personal over seeing my entry to the base was very formal once I got past greeting the civilian guard and the armed men manning the main entrance to the facility. I wasn't asked for it, but I brought my passport just in case.

PlatinumFX · 8 Feb 2008 at 22:39

Bare in mind that officers training starts in September each year. Two principle reasons:

A) When I applied in early December, I had missed the deadline for the September 2008 intake. The only possiblity of being on it were if a space on the course emerged as a result of some one else dropping out.

B) I am not physically ready. I haven't a particularly strong upper body yet but I have also been held back by being hit by a car in late September. Its only in the last month or so that I have been able to walk properly and undertake some running/distance walking to work 3 months of inertia induced flab off. I got a new road bike last sunday and will be cycling to work everyday! Its only 13 miles total, but combinded with some increasing distances over the weekend, my immediate target is to lose the stone or so of weight I gained when I couldn't so much as walk unaided for 3 months.