Hopefuly, I don't repeat to many of the previous answers. I just quickly skimmed through the thread.
For all rates you will automatically advance to the next pay grade up to E-3 as long as you have enough "Time in Rate (TIR)".
E-1 to E-2 is 9 Months.
E-2 to E-3 is 9 Months.
After 6 months of being an E-3 you are eligible to take the next "advancement exam". There are only two "exam cycles" in a year. One in March and the other in September. So even if you reach 6 months TIR, you may have to wait for the next exam cycle. Also, I was lucky and only had 4 TIR when the exams came around and I was close enough that they allowed me to take the exam.
Now here's the fun part. You might score perfectly on the exam, but not advance. This is called Pass but did Not Advance (PNA) and will give you more points toward the next exam cycle.
Why can you score perfectly, but not advance? Well there are several factors that go toward your "Final Multiple" that determines who advances. First is the exam score. Second is your evaluation score. Third is your Award points. Fourth is your education points.
Your evaluation score is determined by several factors including work performance, military bearing, command involvement, and community service.
Award points are for certain awards you are given.
http://usmilitary.about.com/library/...promotion3.htm
I believe education points are determined by what college degree you currently hold.
Now, the final bit of information. Only a certain percentage of test takers are eligible to advance per cycle. As the saying goes, you don't want too many Chiefs and not enough Indians.
So let's say 100 people took the advancement exam. 50 people got a passing score, but the "advancement quota" for their rate was only 20%. 20 people would advance. The other 30 who passed the exam, but didn't advance would receive PNA points. And the other 50 would receive nothing from the exam. In another 6 months the 70 people would be able to try again.
I hope that helps and isn't overly complicated to understand.
You can follow this page for updated information about quotas and who advanced:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Navy-...r/213190711299
As you can see only 15% of HMs were eligible to advance to E-4:
http://www.navy.mil/ah_online/docume...s_Cycle220.pdf