Week 8 was another great week of training. The beginning of the week was dedicated to fast rope practice. We practiced both slick and combat load fast roping during the day, and then at night. Don't let go of the rope and you'll be fine. We had our swim evaluation in which you're in full kit, acus, and boots. You get pushed backward into the deep end of the pool and are required to shed your armor and rubber duck, and then swim 15m. This was an easy evolution for those who know how to swim, but a fairly high stress evolution for the guys who didn't know how. If you don't know how to swim my advice is to get with a Ranger buddy (who can swim) and go to the pool a couple times on the weekends before the test. It wasn't a critical event for us, but it very well could be for future classes. The last two days are graduation practice and cleaning.
We took our graded RPAT. Most guys were under the 40 minute standard, with the fastest time in our class right around 26 minutes. We also had our graded RAW assessment. The RAW consists of broad jump max, deadlift 3rm, pullup max, pushup to metronome, heel clap max, agility sprints, and the 300m shuttle sprint. Neither the RAW or RPAT are critical, they just give you a baseline of your fitness. Your goal should be to show improvement everytime you take one of these tests.
