Advancement from E1-E3 is automatic provided you do not screw up for some reason. If you come in as E1 you have to wait 9 months and then you automatically put on E2, then wait another 9 months and you put on E3 and then wait another 6 months and you can put on E4. Now the catch between E3 and E4 is that you take an advancement exam and the exam plus your evaluations, award points, PNA points, education points, time in rate, etc all get calculated into a Final Multiple. Say the final multiple is 120.3 points for E4 then you have to at least score 120.3 between all of the factors I stated. An 80 is the highest score you can get on the exam but is extremely hard. The other caveat is that you only have to wait 6 months to put on E4. So say you take the March exam, results will not come out until sometime in June roughly and you put the rank on shortly after that. If you put on E3 in December or January then you would be eligible to take the exam because you would not put the rank on until June or July anyways. Advancement as a corpsman is very tough though, I can attest to that. I am a 4 year E3 because advancement is so hard.
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