Skillport Tips & Promotion Points
The fastest way to earn military education promotion points for your SGT or SSG board.
Skillport (now part of ALMS) can be your fastest path to earning up to 78 promotion points for SGT and 84 for SSG in the Military Education category — and many courses also carry college credit, so you're essentially getting rewarded twice for the same work.
The tips below aren't about cheating — they're about completing courses as efficiently as possible. This site will never provide Skillport answers; that crosses the line. What follows is smart test-taking strategy.
5 Tips to Get Through Courses Fast
- 1
Skip straight to the course test.
After enrolling in a course, instead of clicking "Begin Course," click "Take Course Test." This bypasses the full course content and lets you attempt the final exam immediately — no sitting through slides and clicking "Next."
- 2
Pass the overall test, then knock out the sub-courses.
Once you pass the overall course test with a 70% or higher, you still need to go back and pass each sub-course test at 70% for the completion to populate on your PPW. Don't skip this step or your points won't count.
- 3
Track your answers as you go.
While taking the test, take pictures, notes, or screenshots of the answers you selected. If you fail to hit 70%, you can retake as many times as needed. On your next attempt, keep the answers you were confident in and change only the ones you guessed on. Most Soldiers pass within two or three attempts using this method.
- 4
If the test is too hard, run through the course and note the questions.
The questions asked during the course content are usually the same ones on the final test. Click through the slides, write down or screenshot every question you see, and use those notes on the test.
- 5
Focus on the highest-value, easiest courses first.
Not all courses are equal. Prioritize courses listed in minutes (not hours) — those are the fastest to complete. See the recommended list below.
Recommended Courses
These courses offer the best combination of ease of completion, point value, and potential college credit:
- Microsoft Desktop Certification
- Six Sigma
- Role of the NCO
- Courses that pertain to your MOS (these will also help you at the SFC level and above)
Know a course worth a great amount of points or college credit? Email us at [email protected] and we'll add it to the list.
How the Points System Works
You can earn a total of 78 points (SGT) or 84 points (SSG) through online courses — Skillport, JKO, ALMS, and correspondence courses combined. This is the fastest and easiest category to max out.
After maxing online courses, additional military education points come from completing resident courses. Those are worth roughly 1 point per 5 hours of course time, certified on a DA Form 87.
A 5-hour course that would normally take all day can often be completed in 10–15 minutes using the test-first method above.
The Army adjusts point values regularly to incentivize completion of specific courses. For example, when WLC completion rates dropped, the Army increased the point value for WLC graduation significantly. Stay current on what the Army is emphasizing — those are the courses worth prioritizing.
The bottom line: volunteer for extra duties, complete online courses, and take every opportunity to earn points. That's the message the Army sends with the promotion system — and the Soldiers who act on it are the ones who make the cut.