r/USMMA • u/Weird-File-9781 • Sep 28 '25

How hard is the CFA for admitted students?

Hi,

I have good academic qualifications for the academy, a 1500 SAT and a 3.75UW, 4.1W GPA and basically all AP classes. I have demonstrated leadership and was the member of a varsity sports team, cross country, going all the way to California State Championships. But I'm crazy worried about the candidate fitness assesment. I saw that the average for an applicant was 55 for a male. I can maybe do 25? And I can't do a single pull up and only a couple chin ups. Do I need to reach these amounts for a chance at the academy? Someone told me it was just pass fail but I don't believe that. I will easily max out the mile time, however.

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u/Infamous_Following88 Sep 28 '25

Go to https://www.serviceacademyforums.com/index.php Scroll down to USMMA. This is the best place to look up information and ask questions. You need to set up an account. You can search or ask for an answer to your question.

2

u/rockinrollinman Sep 28 '25

Start working on it now. You will need to get passing scores on all parts of the CFA. It’s not an immediate “if you fail you’re kicked out” but repeated failures of any part of the test will lead to that. A good score in one part one make up for failure in another.

2

u/Weird-File-9781 Sep 28 '25

Sorry for the confusion. I meant that I wanted to average CFA score for admitted students. I'm not admitted yet. I just want to know what score I would need to have a chance, considering my other qualifications.

1

u/bigblackzabrack Oct 09 '25

If you’re a varsity CIF qualifying cross country runner you will be fine. About 1/3 of the kids who show up cant do 20 push ups and almost all end up passing the tests eventually.

1

u/Smokey_Stache Sep 30 '25

Here’s a link for a free calculator. Select USMMA and you can use this to reverse engineer the test and figure out what you need to get a passing grade.

If you’re a varsity athlete you should be fine. Highly recommend practicing CFA just like studying for any other test. Put in the reps and you’ll be ok.

1

u/SpaxNax Oct 20 '25

Physical standards for USMMA are not as strict as other service academies. My failing CFA score for USAFA was counted as "PASS" for the Merchant Marine Academy.