DLAB Question

[Jesse]

My recruter (for the USMC) called me tonight, and said he was contacted by a Gunnery Sgt. who told him that they would lke me to concider changing my MOS (currently MP) to DLAB. All I can find is that this is a test, he didn't know anything about it (he didn't know anything about it until he was asked to talk to me about it), so I told him I'd look for some information on the 'net. Can anyone tell me anything about it? The sooner the better as I ship to PI in less than a month, yikes.

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When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is not our friend.

-Jesse Foust

[This message has been edited by Jesse (edited 11-06-2001).]

[DIRSUP KORLING]

er...the DLAB is the Defense Language Aptitude Battery which, as it name implies, is a test that measures your language learning ability. I work with some Marine voice intercept guys and they all swear up and down they wish they had went interrogator/CI instead of VI. Just so you know....

As far as a MOS called DLAB you would be better off posting this on USMCNET. Call your recruiter back and tell him to get you more info. That's his job....

mario

[Rooster]

Ok the Dlab is a test that you take to judge your ability to learn a forein language. Depending on how high you score you mat be sent to DLI (Defense Language Institute) or other lang. school to learn a language ranging from Spanish to Arabic. Its up to you if you want take the mos or not its a pretty good job you will have to qualify for some clearance and pass the lang. to actually get the mos but all the marines i have talked to that are at DLI seem to like it so its up to you to be a linguist or not.
I study Arabic there and I love it. Your choice.

[Sapper12B]

When I went to Army basic training in 1986, I was pulled in the reception station and told to sit at a table and put headphones on. I listened to male and female voices speak in a totally unintelligable language, then as a phrase ended, I was told to make a selection as to what I thought the phrase meant. After about an hour of this, the test ended and I went back to my business. Days later, I was told that I had taken the DLAB test and that if I passed it, I could change my MOS to linguist. Never heard another word after that. Guess I didn't pass!

[Bro]

The highest score possible on a DLAB is 150. But that's virtually impossible, similar to a 1600 on the SAT's. However, if you want to be eligible for ALL languages, you'll need to score above 100 (preferably 105), especially to get those difficult but high-speed languages like Arabic, Chinese, Korean, and Russian. There are four categories of languages taught at DLI, with Cat. IV's being the most challenging (all four of which were stated earlier). So unless you want to be stuck with Thai or Turkish or *gasp* Spanish, you'll want to do well.
How do you do well on the DLAB? Beats me. I walked out of the test thinking I had flunked it. So just do your best and see how it goes. If nothing comes up, you can always go do the MP thing.
Good luck and Godspeed.

-Bro

[Sir Moose]

Sorry for bringing up an old thread, but I gotta get my numbers someplace.

I also got pulled in reception to take the DLAB ('96) and I passed it with flying colors (upper 120s if I remember correctly) and nobody came looking for me to try and get me to change my MOS. Maybe if I'd been in some grunt MOS they would've, I dunno. I think 96B was critically short most of the time that I was in, so it may not have been a possibility.