This week, I went to my E-5 board. I am glad it is over.
Out of the dozens, if not hundreds of pieces of advice here are the ones that worked for me.
1. Learn the Creed of the NCO early and say it every day at the position of attention. Say it out loud and say it thinking of the next line in the middle of the sentence you are in. That way, when board members get up and make remarks intended to throw you off, you won’t notice or be flustered (like I was in the mock board). In the real board, I was told you could hear me down the hall. I nailed it.
2. Get your NCOs to run a mock board. By far the biggest performance enhancement tool for me, a mock board will help you polish your presentation, get feedback and practice. They should make the mock board many times worse than any real board including people walking around.
3. Print out the ArmyStudyGuide.com PDF. They were asking me questions from it verbatim and in order. You will kill half a tree, but you can also bequeath it to one of your Soldiers. If there was a Kinkos near Fort Polk, I would have paid to get it bound. Bring it everywhere and have people quiz you as you answer in board format (rank, repeat question, give answer).
4. Come up with mnemonics to help remember the 30+ AR, FM and DA-PAM numbers mentioned in the ArmyStudyGuide. For example, BRM or Basic Rifle Marksmanship (FM 3-22.9): BRM has 3 letters; you can practice with a 22; or your 9. Another example, Drill and Ceremonies (FM 3-21.5): C in Ceremonies is the 3rd letter of the alphabet; you have 21 gun salutes; and the Taps playing device in the bugle works half the time or .5 of the time at funerals.
5. When you don’t know an answer, if you know the manual, you can say, “Sergeant Major, while I don’t know what the ACS symbol represents, I can find the answer in AR 608-1.” I used it in conjunction with the old standard, “Sergeant Major, as soon as I find out what the third paragraph of the Code of Conduct is, I’ll report back to you immediately.”
