Is it better to max out the Physical Fitness Test from the start, or to relax and first get a lower score, just to gradually get the max score later?

For the USMC, you definitely want to max out early. The first few ranks your promotion is based on a raw score that your physical fitness test factors into. More points = faster promotion.

Once you're high enough rank your evaluations are part of a larger, rigid system that doesn't give officers a lot of freedom. Basically, you do have to show improvement or do more each evaluation period to justify better scores (because you don't want to just get the same score).

This is all not to say that a Marine who gets a 300 (max) on every PFT is still going to most likely have great evaluations anyway, regardless of not improving. Just that, you do get rewarded for improving once you reach Sgt, but not so much for the ranks below that.

/r/Militaryfaq Thread