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In my 18+ plus years, this question has plagued me. Ever since basic training, when you are waiting for your turn to do the push up or sit up event, you are waiting in line for your grader, but are told to gave away from whomever is being graded at the time. While this practice has lessened of late, i still see it from time to time. Can anyone explain to me the purpose of this? And if in fact there is a regulation or FM paragraph that covers this? I've looked but haven't found anything. Thanks in advance.
Posted in these groups: 
NCO Academy
APFT
NCO Academy APFT
Posted 8 y ago
Responses: 21
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Always seemed more effective to turn toward the folks executing the exercise. That way you have the ability to motivate one another.
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I thought this was very strange when I went to Army OCS, after quite a few years as an enlisted Marine. In the Marine Corps we watch the whole thing and encourage each other. One effect of the Army method, which I don't know if it's intended or not, is that if the grader screws you over, it's your word against his because no one witnessed it.
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CW4 John Beebe, BS, DML
Sir,
You nailed it! This question has plagued me for my 30 year career. I only have seen this in a school environment and it usually was accompanied by some of us turning around anyway to watch. We saw very inaccurate and poor grading from graders that were questionable. Some of the PT maniacs were failing the test and others that could not pass were barely passing. "Transparency?"
You nailed it! This question has plagued me for my 30 year career. I only have seen this in a school environment and it usually was accompanied by some of us turning around anyway to watch. We saw very inaccurate and poor grading from graders that were questionable. Some of the PT maniacs were failing the test and others that could not pass were barely passing. "Transparency?"
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CPT (Join to see)
Chief, I agree with you. I did 75-80 pushups once and the grader counted 39 of them (my bare minimum to pass at the time), and he acted like he was doing me a favor to give me the 39. Nothing I could do about it.
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SGT (Join to see)
It also shields the grader and the SM from being seen when the grader allows push ups that shouldn't be counted because of nepotism and other crap. I've seen some really bad push ups being allowed.
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Once upon a time it was not like that. Soldiers were actually encouraged turn the other way and encourage their struggling peers. But like MAJ Carl Ballinger commented, political correctness has taken over the PT test.
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