Correspondence Course Review

[shift_DAWG]

How many folks are awaiting the second acknowledgement email (the one where they tell you the points awarded) from your certificate submissions?

 

[N4Life]

Looking over the offered courses. I was surprise to see the difference in point’s values comparing designator to designator. For example, 13xx’s have 173 specific points, where 21xx/22xx’s (Medical Corps/Dental Corps) only have 26 specific points, and 111x’s (SWO) have 439 available points... That is almost 17x as many points as someone in medical.

Even the courses are odd, medical has only one course, while SWOs include six (6) Aerographer’s Mate courses, six (6) History of Chaplain courses, two (2) photography, and a Lithographer course? The only lithographer I met was at a squadron.

I was talking to a Supply friend, he looked over the offered courses and noted that he hasn’t dealt with the four offered courses since his first tour almost twenty years earlier in his career; but this is supposed to be career enhancing?

I’m sure that those in charge recognized all this when selecting courses.

 

[ChopChick]

I'm assuming everyone go this email today? Appears to be a little stale as we all knew this was coming ...but worth posting, I suppose.

Dear IRR Member,

Hmm...I didn't get any such email. I have this constant fear that I've been disenrolled from the IRR without any notification. This lack of correspondence isn't helping.

I did get a letter last month reminding me that I needed to request retirement or I will be discharged at 20 years (1 Jan 17). I mailed that request in the same day.

 

[ChopChick]

How many folks are awaiting the second acknowledgement email (the one where they tell you the points awarded) from your certificate submissions?

I sent some certs in about 10 days ago. I got the first receipt email, but I haven't received a second. My points request was not straightforward (also contained a requested reevaluation of some incorrectly awarded points from last year) so I'm not expecting a response right away.

 

[shift_DAWG]

21xx/22xx’s (Medical Corps/Dental Corps) only have 26 specific points

I believe medical are also eligible for CMEs, credited via BUMED, but that too might be only a SELRES thing. Not sure, I'm not medical type.

 

[Michael Stelig]

As you stated, the most important part is getting the 50 points to count as a good year. If you are SelRes, you will have a much easier time getting 130 inactive points (i.e., drills and AFTP's). Once you go IRR, it is certainly more difficult to get 130 points but it can be done - speaking of which I recently finished all 5 of the chaplain courses. I would suggest saving those as a last resort although all 5 of them together is worth 36 points - when combined with your 15 anniversary points is enough for good year.

For those starting their retirement planning, an O-4 retirement is roughly $6.19 per point (annual retirement), an O-5 is $7.40 per point and an O-6 is $9.25 per point.

Don't forget to get survivor's benefits (you will have that option once you have 20 qualifying years. Your wife and/or children will receive 55% of what your pension would be.)

Randy- Would like to know how you arrived at the 0-4 = $6.19 per point estimate? If all goes well I will hit 20 good years in April 2017 and I noticed that the Army HRC folks pulled down their once very handy online calculator. As far as I can tell the Navy lacks an online calculator. Thanks.

 

[Flash]

Randy- Would like to know how you arrived at the 0-4 = $6.19 per point estimate? If all goes well I will hit 20 good years in April 2017 and I noticed that the Army HRC folks pulled down their once very handy online calculator. As far as I can tell the Navy lacks an online calculator. Thanks.

Points/365 x 2.5 = % of retirement

Example: An O-5 with 21 years and 5000 points is looking at $2951.29 a month at current pay.

5000/365 x 2.5 = 34.25% of O-5 over 20 pay ($8617.20) which is $2951.29 (if I did my math right).

All you need is your points and your retired pay grade with the number of years and you are good. For some odd reason I have seen both 365 and 360 used as the number to divide the points by so I went with the more conservative and logical one.

 

[Michael Stelig]

Points/365 x 2.5 = % of retirement

Example: An O-5 with 21 years and 5000 points is looking at $2951.29 a month at current pay.

5000/365 x 2.5 = 34.25% of O-5 over 20 pay ($8617.20) which is $2951.29 (if I did my math right).

All you need is your points and your retired pay grade with the number of years and you are good. For some odd reason I have seen both 365 and 360 used as the number to divide the points by so I went with the more conservative and logical one.

Flash- much appreciated!

 

[ChopChick]

I'm assuming everyone go this email today? Appears to be a little stale as we all knew this was coming ...but worth posting, I suppose.

Dear IRR Member,

Hmm...I didn't get any such email. I have this constant fear that I've been disenrolled from the IRR without any notification. This lack of correspondence isn't helping.

My IRR email finally arrived yesterday. Still no word back from the points I submitted, though.

 

[Doris Ocheltree]

Can you share the TST 102 homework I am struggling with it.

I know this is a longshot, but do you still have the homework assignments for TST 102? I am struggling with it as well. I wish I had seen this post prior to taking this course.
Thanks.

 

[Doris Ocheltree]

It shouldn't be. They made it cumbersome through a Single-Login thing, but I can usually get it just fine after multiple clicks and links and stuff. It does appear to be down tonight though.

Something to note, you do not have to be a DOD contractor or in an acquisition billet to take these classes. Signing up for a course merely asks you for your company name and supervisor. A buddy of mine owns an LLC that was intended to be a defense contractor but he never did anything with it. I use his company and list him as my supervisor. (Though I was in an Acq Billet on active duty and I did this stuff for 6 years as a contractor before moving to my current, non-DOD job.)

Here's a list I made of the points awarded for each course. The "CLPs/Hours" column gives you an idea of how long the course is expected to take if you read and study every single slide. If you've been around DOD Acquisition before, you can probably simply pound the Next Slide button until you reach a test. I can knock out an 7 point course in a single weekend morning if I focus.

Code Course Title CLPs / hours Reserve Pts Notes
BCF 106 Fundamentals of Cost Analysis 37 9
SYS 101 Fundamentals of Systems Planning, Research, Development, and Engineering 35 9
SAM 101 Basic Software Acquisition Management 34 9
IRM 101 Basic Information Systems Acquisition 34 9
LOG 200 Intermediate Acquisition Logistics, Part A 32 8
BCF 220 Acquisition Business Management Concepts 27 7
LOG 206 Intermediate Systems Sustainment Management 27 7
LOG 101 Acquisition Logistics Fundamentals 27 7 seems long but isn't awful
BCF 103 Fundamentals of Business Financial Management 26 7
LOG 102 Fundamentals of System Sustainment Management' 25 6
ACQ 101 Fundamentals of Systems Acquisition Management 25 6
CON 200 Business Decisions for Contracting 25 6
CON 216 Legal Considerations in Contracting 23 6
LOG 103 Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (RAM) 22 6 Slow. Lots of small lessons per module. Large number of questions per module.
ACQ 120 Fundamentals of International Acquisition (FIAC) 21 5
PMT 251 Program Management Tools Course, Part I 20 5
RQM 110 Core Concepts for Requirements Management 19 5
LOG 235 Performance-Based Logistics 19 5
EVM 101 Fundamentals of Earned Value Management 18 5
LOG 204 Configuration Management 18 5
FE 201 Intermediate Facilities Engineering 18 4
CON 100 Shaping Smart Business Arrangements 16 4
CON 124 Contract Execution 13 3
PQM 101 Production, Quality, and Manufacturing Fundamentals 13 3
PQM 201A Intermediate Production, Quality, and Manufacturing, Part A 12 3
CON 121 Contract Planning 12 3
ACQ 130 Fundamentals of Technology Security/Transfer (FTS/T) 12 3
CON 127 Contract Management 10 3
CON 260A The Small Business Program, Part A 10 3
SYS 202 Intermediate Systems Planning, Research, Development, and Engineering, Part I 9 2
CON 237 Simplified Acquisition Procedures 6 2


Also, here are some courses I do not recommend (or recommend with caution)--
PQM 203 Preparation of Commercial Item Description for Engineering and Technical Personnel 6 0 No Pts!
PMT 257 Program Management Tools Course, Part II 43 0 No Pts!
PMT 352A Program Management Office Course, Part A 22 6 Prereq is PMT 257
TST 102 Fundamentals of Test and Evaluation 18 5 Homework!
ACQ 201A Intermediate Systems Acquisition, Part A 25 6 Unskippable crap

TST102 was a pretty good course content-wise but there were two homework assignments that had to be submitted to instructors. One of the assignments asked incorrect/illogical questions. I spent a lot of time on that homework. Granted, for 5 points it should have taken 20 hours and I spent maybe 8 hours total. But considering that I normally average about 2pts / hour for these courses I consider that a bum deal.

EDIT: I see the formatting of my table disappeared. If you can't make sense of it, let me know and I'll try again.

I know this is a longshot, but do you still have the homework assignments for TST 102? I am struggling with it. I only wish I had seen this post prior to registering to the course.
Thanks

 

[shift_DAWG]

I have seen both 365 and 360 used as the number to divide the points by so I went with the more conservative and logical one.

I can't quote the chapter-and-verse, but 360 is actually correct. Because at the 7,200 (20 x 360) point mark, a reservist qualifies for an immediate (active-duty style) requirement.

Edit: found ref (a) re: 360 vice 365 ... 10 U.S. Code § 12733

 

[Randy Daytona]

I can't quote the chapter-and-verse, but 360 is actually correct. Because at the 7,200 (20 x 360) point mark, a reservist qualifies for an immediate (active-duty style) requirement.

Edit: found ref (a) re: 360 vice 365 ... 10 U.S. Code § 12733

Not quite correct. As a long time collector of points, it is 360. As Flash said, it is not entirely logical - but the govt chose an easily divisible 360 instead of the technically accurate 365.24. 7,200 points is the financial equivalent of a 20 year active duty retirement but it does not give you an immediate retirement. You start getting into the difference between active points (on active duty) vs inactive points (drills, AFTP's, correspondence courses, etc) - the latter do not count towards getting you to sanctuary but do count in your overall retirement. Some aviation O-5's could hit 7,200 points - and I would wager the majority of aviation O-6's and flags fall into the 6,000 to 8,000 point range - but again, no one gets an active duty retirement until they get 20 years worth of active duty points (further detail - AT does not count towards that total of active duty points either.)

 

[snake020]

So are NKO courses no longer accepted?

 

[Flash]

I can't quote the chapter-and-verse, but 360 is actually correct. Because at the 7,200 (20 x 360) point mark, a reservist qualifies for an immediate (active-duty style) requirement.

Edit: found ref (a) re: 360 vice 365 ... 10 U.S. Code § 12733

Now I know, it is 360 vice 365. Thanks for the source!

Not quite correct. As a long time collector of points, it is 360. As Flash said, it is not entirely logical - but the govt chose an easily divisible 360 instead of the technically accurate 365.24....

And yes, Randy is right about the total points not counting up to regular retirement. My unit has had a few O-5/^'s that have got over 50% retirement but not an active one.