Hey guys. While in Iraq, I attended every soldier of the month board held, all having a week or less notice (yes..I know). One of them, I found out upon arriving at the board, that my unit had me studying the wrong guide, so I more or less winged that one. I've gone very well at all the boards, and am usually complimented on my composure, and tact, however- I am now going to the E5 promotion board.

My question is, for those of you who have attended both, what is your opinion of the level of difficulty for both? From what I've heard, the Soldier boards are more difficult, however, it seems to me it'd be the opposite. I just wanted some input. I am for the most part reasonably confident, but I still have some last minute prep to complete in the next week. I feel the pressure is on, because my NCO throughout Iraq has recently placed me as the team chief for our section, so I don't want to be "that" guy who does horribly.

I work well under stress so maybe that will help?

I went to both Soldier of the Quarter and Promotion board (attended the promotion board first) and let me tell you in that unit the Soldier of the Quarter board were harded than the promotion boards...but its not all the same everywhere.

I take it you win your boards? I've been to quite a few SOM/SOY and even gave SGT Morales a shot. I had my 5 board back in 03 so it may have changed a bit but the promotion is significantly easier then a SOY board. What you said makes cense, you would think a 5 board would be made more difficult due to the possible repercussions. However, an SOY is made to judge and separate the best soldier there. A promotion board is set up to simply evaluate soldiers one at a time, there is no competition or need to thin out the heard. Think of it as the board members are there FOR you, not to interrogate you. (besides, how else can an E-4 force 4 1SG’s and a CSM to sit in a small room all day short of a court marshal)

Know the NCO creed. (I was not asked it during the board so I used the first sentence as my parting comment during my salute, my 1SG told me that earned me several extra points.)

Know leadership, study the whole section of army study guide and read 6-22.

Confidence, competence, with just a touch of ballsiness will get you there.

Good luck!

Thank you for the input both TransAm95NCO, and armysarge72.

Actually, in Iraq I was runner-up for every board I attended. The issue? At the time, I was a 249 gunner. I never qualified once in Iraq- only before. Due to this, I was always losing points towards the competition having no weapon qualification. The BN CSM said that I took the board easily, however, there was one other soldier who wasn't as strong on the board, but had a recent weapons qual- he got it. Not too bad really, I guess. It got frustrating, since my unit knew I wouldn't win due to no weapons qual, but kept sending me. I was kind of disappointed the other soldier's didn't get a chance to attend during our tour..it was a good experience.

I know the NCO Creed pretty well, have the Army song, division song, bio, and soldier's creed memorized word for word so far..although I'm running over it all to make sure it's all perfect, because as you know, when you get stressed, you forget stuff easily.

I know the leadership portion somewhat. I've mostly focused on M16/M249, Land Nav, First Aid, Army Programs, Physical Training, UCMJ, and Security/Intel. I still haven't received an MOI, so I'm kind of trying to pick the sections I had to face in Iraq and adjust fire as needed. I will definitely print out leadership after typing this though.

I can't wait till this stuff is over. I'm going to go crazy before it's all done! Thanks again.

quote:

Originally posted by Mrock444:
Hey guys. While in Iraq, I attended every soldier of the month board held, all having a week or less notice (yes..I know). One of them, I found out upon arriving at the board, that my unit had me studying the wrong guide, so I more or less winged that one. I've gone very well at all the boards, and am usually complimented on my composure, and tact, however- I am now going to the E5 promotion board.

My question is, for those of you who have attended both, what is your opinion of the level of difficulty for both? From what I've heard, the Soldier boards are more difficult, however, it seems to me it'd be the opposite. I just wanted some input. I am for the most part reasonably confident, but I still have some last minute prep to complete in the next week. I feel the pressure is on, because my NCO throughout Iraq has recently placed me as the team chief for our section, so I don't want to be "that" guy who does horribly.

I work well under stress so maybe that will help?

Dude...chill. You will do just fine.

You have had good practice with your SOM Boards and even been complimented by the board members.

Just go in there and do the damn thing Sergeant!

Make sure you receive your LOI before attending. Remember that most of the 1SGs will just print off a few questions of the subject their testing you on. They'll usually have 5-7 questions. So if you answer 3 off the bat, they'll usually tell the CSM that they have nothing else to ask, and so the next 1SG is in line for questions. Now if you mess up a few, they'll continue to drill you. I scored a 147/150 on my promotion board, and screwed up the NBC section poorly. Best advice that I can personally give is study each section once a week, know the creeds / songs, show confidence, and don't be intimidated by the rank in the room. You're there to prove that you can handle the pressure, and leadership of an E-5 so act like it. If you don't understand a question asked, ask them to re-phrase it. Usually a word in the question will trigger off what you've read and studied for hours.

When I went to the NCO of the quarter board here, they gave me 9 days notice. It was a 2 day event with the first day having to do CTT and a written test and the second actually doing the board. Needless to say I smoked the competition by over 200 points and won by scoring 1138/1200.

I would have to say that the SOM/SOQ boards are a lot harder then actual promotion boards. I went to the E-6 board and scored a 146/150 with only studying for 2 days. My CSM wouldn't even let us sit down until we recited the NCO creed, the soldier's creed, sang the army and division songs. Once that was done, it was a cake walk.

Just look at it as another SOM board. Go in there like you own the place, be confident, sound off, and come out of there being promotable.

I'd like to extend a sincere "thank you" to everyone's who has offered advice, it's definitely helped. Oddly enough, I am looking forward to this. I know my Section SGT, and 1SG have been looking forward to sending me (I'll be the first one to attend any sort of promotion board since return from Iraq), so I definitely have to do em' proud.

"Go in there like you own the place, be confident, sound off, know your shit, and come out of there being promotable."