The ACFT Score Chart: Everything You Need to Know About the Army’s Fitness Standard
If you’ve ever wondered what it actually takes to pass the Army’s fitness test — or if you’ve been searching for that score chart and found yourself drowning in PDFs and military jargon — you’ve come to the right place.
The Army Combat Fitness Test, known as the ACFT, has had a wild ride. From its first pilot runs in 2019, through years of controversy and constant changes, all the way to a formal replacement in June 2025. Understanding the score chart isn’t just about memorising numbers. It’s about understanding what the Army values, what soldiers go through, and why a fitness test became one of the most debated topics in modern military history.
Let’s walk through all of it together, simply and clearly.
Key Facts
| Detail | Information |
| ACFT official name | Army Combat Fitness Test |
| Active as test of record | October 2022 – May 31, 2025 |
| Replaced by | Beginning on June 1, 2025, the Army Fitness Test (AFT) |
| Number of ACFT events | 6 events |
| AFT events (current) | 5 events (Standing Power Throw removed) |
| Points per event | 0–100 |
| ACFT maximum total score | 600 points |
| AFT maximum total score | 500 points |
| Minimum per event (both tests) | 60 points |
| ACFT minimum total to pass | 360 (6 events × 60) |
| AFT general standard | 300 total + 60 per event |
| AFT combat MOS standard | 350 total + 60 per event (sex-neutral) |
| Scoring type | Age-normed and sex-normed (general); age-normed, sex-neutral (combat) |
| What “black standard” meant in ACFT | Highest performance tier — elite physical fitness |
| What “gold standard” meant in ACFT | Mid-tier — for moderately demanding roles |
| When AFT combat standards take effect | Jan 1, 2026 (active duty); Jun 2026 (Reserve/National Guard) |
| Replaced test | Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT), used 1980–2020 |
What Came Before: The Old Test That Lasted 40 Years
To understand the ACFT and its score chart, you have to go back and look at what it replaced.
For four decades, the Army tested soldiers with something called the Army Physical Fitness Test — the APFT. Three events. Two minutes of push-ups. Two minutes of sit-ups. A two-mile run. That was it. Scoring was adjusted based on your age and sex.
In some ways, the APFT was brilliant in its simplicity. You could do it anywhere. No equipment needed. Every unit from a tiny base in the middle of nowhere to a major installation could run the test the same morning with zero setup time.
But by the time the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had been grinding on for years, a serious problem showed up in the data. Soldiers were getting hurt at alarming rates — not from enemy fire, but from their own bodies breaking down. Musculoskeletal injuries were among the leading reasons for medical evacuations from the battlefield. Back injuries. Knee injuries. Joint problems from carrying heavy loads in harsh terrain.
The APFT, it turned out, barely tested any of that. You could run a fast two-mile and bang out solid push-ups while still having the functional strength of someone who’d never lifted a ruck in their life. The test measured endurance but left strength, power, agility, and balance mostly untouched.
In 2012, Army leadership made a covert decision to make a change.
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How the ACFT Was Born — And Why It Was So Different
What followed was years of research, study, and experimentation. The Army talked to physiologists. They looked at what actual combat tasks physically demanded. Dragging a wounded soldier to cover. Lifting heavy equipment. Sprinting across open ground. These were real things that happened in real wars.
By 2019, they had something new. The Army Combat Fitness Test was unveiled and piloted across 63 units.
It had six events, each one chosen deliberately to test something the old test had missed. Every event was scored on a 0-to-100 scale, giving a maximum total score of 600 points. You needed at least 60 points in each individual event to pass — no exceptions. One event below 60 and the whole test was a fail, regardless of how well you did on the other five.
The six original ACFT events were:
Three-Rep Max Deadlift (MDL) — Using a 60-pound hex bar loaded with additional weight, soldiers performed three maximum deadlift repetitions. This tested raw posterior-chain strength. The ability to lift heavy things — which in real life might be equipment, a wounded colleague, or a resupply crate.
Standing Power Throw (SPT) — Soldiers hurled a 10-pound medicine ball backward over their heads as far as possible. It measured explosive power — the kind you need in a burst sprint or when throwing your body into action quickly. Soldiers used to refer to this as “the yeet” on occasion, which is sort of cute.
Hand-Release Push-Up (HRP) — A modified push-up where at the bottom of each repetition, soldiers lifted their hands completely off the ground before pushing back up. This removed the ability to bounce and made each rep a full-reset effort. It tested upper body muscular endurance more honestly than a standard push-up.
Sprint-Drag-Carry (SDC) — The most complex event. A 250-meter sequence involving sprints, dragging a 90-pound sled backward, carrying two 40-pound kettlebells, a side shuffle, and another sprint. Fast. Timed. Exhausting. It mimicked the kind of multidirectional, high-intensity effort that combat situations actually require.
Plank (PLK) — The final core stability event. Hold a plank for as long as you can, up to a maximum time. This replaced an earlier event called the Leg Tuck, which required soldiers to hang from a bar and pull their knees up repeatedly. The Leg Tuck had high failure rates, particularly among women, and was dropped in 2021.
Two-Mile Run (2MR) — The one event carried over from the old APFT. Cardiovascular endurance remains non-negotiable for soldiers. The scoring standards changed around it, but the event itself stayed.
Reading the Score Chart: How the Numbers Actually Work
This is where people get confused, so let’s take it step by step.
The ACFT score chart isn’t one single table. It’s actually a collection of tables — one for each event — broken down by age band and sex. A 19-year-old male and a 45-year-old female completing the exact same deadlift weight will receive different point scores because the expectations are adjusted for physiological differences and age-related changes in peak performance.
Your age band matters. The Army groups soldiers roughly in five-year increments — 17-21, 22-26, 27-31, 32-36, and so on up through older age ranges. The older you are, slightly different numbers earn you the same score.
Here’s how the points flow in practical terms for a young male soldier (17-21) on the deadlift:
- The minimum 60 points required a lift of around 140 pounds
- Maximum points (100) required lifting around 340 pounds
- Everything in between mapped out on a sliding scale
For a young female soldier of the same age:
- The minimum 60 points required around 120 pounds
- Maximum points required around 230 pounds
Every event has its own similar sliding scale. The sprint-drag-carry is timed — the faster you complete it, the higher your points. The plank is held — the longer you hold it, the higher your points. The run is also timed — faster earns more.
One thing that matters enormously: the test doesn’t average your events. There is no “well I crushed the deadlift so maybe my poor run balances out” scenario. Each event must reach 60 points independently. Think of it as six separate pass/fail gates you have to walk through, plus an overall total requirement on top of that.
The Black and Gold Tiers: What They Meant for Soldiers
Within the ACFT, passing at 60 per event wasn’t the whole picture. There were performance tiers that connected directly to career implications.
The Gold standard was the threshold required for soldiers in moderately physically demanding jobs. This was not particularly high, but it was above the absolute minimum of 60. For most support-role soldiers, hitting gold was the relevant goal.
The Black standard was the highest tier — genuinely elite physical performance. Soldiers in the most demanding combat roles were expected to reach this level. Scoring above 500 total points was generally considered impressive. A perfect 600 was extraordinary and received attention when it happened.
These tiers weren’t just about pride. They connected to promotion points and career advancement. The Army uses fitness scores as one piece of the puzzle when evaluating soldiers for advancement. A soldier who consistently performs at the black level is signaling something meaningful about their physical commitment.
The Controversy That Nearly Ended the Test
The ACFT had a serious problem from day one. When it was first piloted with gender-neutral standards — meaning men and women were held to identical scoring thresholds — the failure rates were alarming.
In early testing in 2019, around 84% of female soldiers failed. Even in the best-performing military occupational specialties, nearly one in three women didn’t pass.
This sparked a fierce national debate. Some argued the test was doing exactly what it was designed to do — establishing objective physical standards regardless of who you were. Others pointed out that the study used to design the test had included very few women and that requiring all soldiers to meet standards calibrated primarily around male performance data wasn’t truly objective.
The leg tuck event was particularly controversial. It required hanging from a bar and pulling your knees up repeatedly — a movement that women statistically struggled with more than men, partly due to differences in upper body relative to bodyweight strength ratios.
Congress stepped in. A RAND Corporation study was commissioned. Lawmakers debated returning to the old APFT entirely. Some senators pushed legislation to require gender-neutral standards only in combat jobs. Others pushed to scrap the whole thing.
The Army ultimately chose a middle path. The leg tuck was replaced with the plank. Gender-normed and age-normed scoring was officially adopted, replacing the single gender-neutral standard. Women and men would now be judged against curves built from their own demographic data — similar to how the old APFT had worked.
It was a messy process. But it produced a test that more soldiers could actually pass while still being significantly more demanding and combat-relevant than the old push-up/sit-up/run model.
What Changed in June 2025: The Birth of the AFT
On June 1, 2025, the ACFT was officially renamed and restructured into the Army Fitness Test — the AFT.
The most visible change was the removal of the Standing Power Throw. Studies had shown it had the highest injury risk of all the events and that a soldier’s height and throwing technique influenced the score more than actual explosive power. The Army couldn’t scientifically validate it as a clean measure of what it was supposed to measure. So it went.
The AFT now has five events: the deadlift, hand-release push-up, sprint-drag-carry, plank, and two-mile run. Maximum score dropped from 600 to 500.
The other major change involved combat military occupational specialties. Starting January 1, 2026, soldiers in 21 specific combat MOSes — infantry, special forces, armor, artillery, cavalry, and several others — must pass a sex-neutral standard. Men and women in those roles face identical scoring thresholds, adjusted only for age.
For all other soldiers, the general standard continues with sex-normed and age-normed scoring: 60 points per event and a 300 total minimum.
It’s worth knowing that ACFT scores recorded before May 31, 2025 stayed valid for promotion considerations until September 30, 2025, giving soldiers a transition window.
The Greater Implications: Why This Exam Is Important Beyond Fitness
A fitness test might sound like an internal Army matter. But the ACFT touched something much larger.
The debate about gender-neutral standards went to the heart of questions about women in combat roles. It touched questions about what fairness actually means — does fairness mean identical standards, or does it mean standards calibrated to what bodies can reasonably achieve? These are genuinely hard questions and reasonable people disagree.
There’s also the career reality. Failing the ACFT wasn’t just an embarrassment. It could prevent promotion. It could mean additional training requirements. Fail twice in a row and a soldier faced potential separation from the Army entirely. For a soldier who had served for years, built a life, and planned a military retirement, that was an enormous personal stake.
On the positive side, the test did something the old APFT never really managed. It got soldiers thinking about functional strength, not just how fast they could run. Soldiers started training with hex bars. Deadlift technique became a conversation in unit gyms. The culture of fitness in the Army genuinely shifted toward something more complete.
Whether the final version — the AFT — gets the balance right is something time and data will reveal.
How Soldiers Actually Prepare for the Test
Knowing the score chart is one thing. Training for it is another conversation.
The events reward different physical qualities, which means preparation has to be varied. A soldier who only runs will struggle with the deadlift. A soldier who only lifts heavy things will suffer through the sprint-drag-carry and the two-mile.
Successful preparation tends to involve heavy compound lifting — deadlifts, hip hinge work, carries — alongside interval running and sprint training. The sprint-drag-carry is a unique exercise that is practically indispensable when done with a sled and kettlebells at test weight and distance.
The plank, deceptively simple, requires consistent core training. Soldiers who haven’t specifically trained it sometimes find their time plateaus. Progressive plank holds — gradually extending duration over weeks — are the standard approach.
The hand-release push-up rewards muscular endurance, which responds well to volume training: multiple sets of moderate reps throughout the week, consistently, over months.
A score of 500 or above is generally considered impressive. A perfect 600 on the ACFT — or a perfect 500 on the AFT going forward — represents true peak military fitness.
Honest Reflections on a Test That Changed a Culture
Looking back on the ACFT’s short but turbulent life, something stands out. The Army set out to build a better test and ended up in a nationwide argument about gender, fairness, and what fitness really means in combat.
That argument was uncomfortable. But it probably needed to happen. For too long, the push-up-and-run model let the Army avoid asking harder questions about functional strength and real combat readiness.
The 2025 AFT is not flawless. No test of human physical fitness ever is. But it’s more honest about what it’s trying to measure. And for the 21 combat MOSes now facing sex-neutral standards, there’s a clear signal: the Army believes certain jobs carry physical demands that don’t adjust for biology.
Whether that produces the best outcome for soldiers and mission effectiveness is something the coming years of data will show. What’s clear is that physical fitness in the Army will never go back to just two minutes of push-ups and a jog.
Those days are genuinely gone.
FAQs
1. What is the ACFT and is it still the current Army fitness test?
The ACFT — Army Combat Fitness Test — ran as the official fitness test of record from October 2022 through May 31, 2025. As of June 1, 2025, it was replaced by the Army Fitness Test (AFT). They’re similar in structure but the AFT drops the Standing Power Throw and adjusts some scoring.
2. What were the six events on the ACFT?
Three-Rep Max Deadlift, Standing Power Throw, Hand-Release Push-Up, Sprint-Drag-Carry, Plank, and Two-Mile Run. Each was scored 0–100, giving a maximum total of 600 points.
3. What is the minimum passing score on the ACFT?
You needed at least 60 points in every single event, and a total of at least 360 out of 600. But failing even one event — even with a total above 360 — means you failed the whole test.
4. How does the AFT scoring differ from the ACFT?
The AFT has five events (Standing Power Throw removed), so the maximum is 500 points. The general minimum is now 300 total with 60 per event. Combat MOS soldiers need 350 total with 60 per event under a sex-neutral scoring standard.
5. What does “sex-neutral scoring” mean in the AFT?
For the 21 combat military occupational specialties, men and women are scored on the same table — the same performance requirements apply regardless of sex. The table is still age-normed, meaning requirements adjust slightly as soldiers get older.
6. What happened to the leg tuck event?
The Leg Tuck was part of the original ACFT but was replaced by the Plank in 2021. It had high failure rates — particularly among women — and was considered harder to perform safely and consistently across diverse body types.
7. Why was the Standing Power Throw removed for the AFT?
Two reasons. First, injury risk — it had the highest injury rate of any event. Second, the Army couldn’t scientifically confirm that height and technique weren’t influencing the score more than actual explosive power. It stopped being a clean measurement.
8. Can you fail one event and still pass the test overall?
No. This is one of the most important rules. Every event must reach 60 points independently. A very high score on five events cannot compensate for a failing score on the sixth. All gates must be cleared.
9. What is a good ACFT score?
A total of 500 or above (out of 600) is widely considered a strong, impressive performance. A perfect 600 is exceptional. For the AFT, 400+ out of 500 is similarly impressive.
10. How do age and sex affect the score chart?
Performance standards are adjusted based on age band and sex (for general standard soldiers). Older soldiers face slightly adjusted thresholds that account for natural changes in peak performance. This is why a 45-year-old and a 20-year-old doing the same lift receive different point scores.
11. What happens if a soldier fails the test?
Failing triggers additional support, extra training, and the opportunity to retest. Failing two consecutive recorded tests can lead to administrative action — including potential separation from the Army. The Army has stated no administrative action for AFT failures until January 1, 2026, during the transition period.
12. Are ACFT scores used for promotions?
Yes. ACFT and AFT scores factor into promotion points for enlisted soldiers. Higher scores on the test translate to more promotion points, which can meaningfully affect career progression and advancement timelines.
13. Where can I find the official current AFT scoring chart?
The official Army Fitness Test Scoring Scales PDF effective June 1, 2025, is available through army.mil. Look for the official AFT overview from the Army and the scoring tables PDF linked there. That document is the authoritative source for current standards.
14. Did the ACFT controversy affect female soldiers’ careers?
Yes, it created real anxiety. Early versions with gender-neutral scoring produced 84% failure rates among women during pilot testing. The Army’s eventual adoption of age- and sex-normed scoring addressed many of those concerns, but the years of debate created uncertainty that affected morale, training focus, and career planning for many soldiers.
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