Physical Readiness Test Results Across Four Years At A Military Academy

Physical readiness is a requirement at all Military academies in the United States. At the US Naval Academy, the physical readiness test (PRT) is administered twice per year for a total of eight tests over the career of a midshipmen. For the PRT, midshipmen are required to perform cadence push ups for up to 2 minutes on a 2 second up-down cadence, hold a plank for up to 4 minutes and 20 seconds, and complete a 1.5-mile run. Each category has a minimum requirement for females and males in order the pass the PRT. Failure results in being placed in remedial training and repeated failure can result in separation from the academy. By far, the 1.5-mile run is the most challenging and most likely place that a midshipman will fail. The minimum passing time on the run for females is 12 minutes and 40 seconds and for males is 10 minutes and 30 seconds. Understanding how scores on the run change over the course of a midshipmen’s career can allow for a better understanding of where targeted training is needed to keep the midshipmen on course. PURPOSE: To evaluate run times on the PRT across the four years midshipmen attend the Naval Academy. METHODS: PRT run times were retrieved from the class of 2023 for the eight PRT tests that were conducted. RESULTS: Female midshipmen (n = 272) recorded scores of 10:57 +/- 1:02; 11:03 +/- 1:08; 11:12 +/- 1:18; 11:13 +/- 1:24; 11:16 +/- 1:23; 11:18 +/- 1:38; 11:19 +/- 1:52; & 11:21 +/- 1:36 while male midshipmen (n = 771) recorded scores of 9:06 +/- 0:50; 9:12 +/- 0:43; 9:22 +/- 1:03; 9:23 +/- 1:26; 9:24 +/- 1:11; 9:20 +/- 0:51; 9:26 +/- 1:06; & 9:31 +/- 1:00 across their four years. Repeated measures one-way ANOVA for females and males found significant differences across the PRT run for female F (7) = 5.76, p < 0.01 and male F (7) = 13.76, p < 0.01. Visual inspection of the means suggests that run scores increased over the four years for both females and males. CONCLUSSION: PRT run times for both females and males changed significantly over the course of their four-year career at the Naval Academy. It is possible that as the academic, leadership, and military workload increases from the first year at the academy to the fourth, midshipmen do not focus as much on training as they did during the first year. It is also possible that midshipmen determine the effort required to pass the test and do not work harder than necessary.