Boards can smell an inflated bullet
Everybody has read the bullet that swings for the fence and lands nowhere. Every adjective turned up to eleven, "consistently" doing the work that a number should be doing, "enduring impact" attached to a task that ended when the task ended.
The people reading these have read thousands of them. Heat is not evidence, and a bullet that reaches past what its facts support reads weaker than the honest version of the same bullet, not stronger. The tell is always the same: the tier markers the regulation asks for are missing, and intensity got substituted in.
This checks for exactly that. Paste the bullet, see which tier its text supports, and find out before somebody senior does.
The 3-11a markers in plain English
DA PAM 623-3 paragraph 3-11a defines the tiers, and it is more specific than most people remember.
- Met (3-11a(2)). Achieves and maintains the standard. Succeeds by taking appropriate initiative. Results have a positive impact. The regulation calls this normal, typically demonstrated by the majority of NCOs of the same grade. Met is not an insult, it is the standard.
- Exceeded (3-11a(3)). Performs above the standard. Often takes disciplined initiative. Results have an immediate impact. Not common, typically the upper third.
- Far Exceeded (3-11a(4)). Performs extraordinarily above the standard. Consistently, not often. Leadership enables the Soldiers and the unit to far surpass standards. Results have an immediate impact and an enduring effect that outlasts the rating period. The best of the upper third.
The discriminator the regulation draws itself is that last one: Exceeded is immediate impact, Far Exceeded is immediate impact and an enduring effect. There is no unit-size test anywhere in it. A brigade-level task is not automatically a higher tier than a squad-level one.
The grader applies those definitions and nothing else, and it cites the paragraph it applied.
Grade your own before your rater does
The useful moment for this is before you send the bullet up, not after it comes back. If the text lands a tier below what you were going for, you get told what the next tier up would need to see in the writing: the number that is not there, the effect that is claimed but not described, the multiplier that has not been shown.
Then you go find out whether that evidence actually exists. Sometimes it does and the bullet just never said it, which is a writing problem you can fix in a minute. Sometimes it does not, and the honest tier was the right tier all along.
It grades. It does not rewrite.
The grader will not hand you a better sentence, on purpose. Reading a rewrite teaches you nothing about why the original fell short, and a tool that fixes your bullet the moment it criticizes it is really just a generator wearing a costume.
So this one explains and stops. When you do want it written, the free NCOER bullet generator writes it from your facts, at the tier your facts support, and refuses when they do not support the tier you asked for.
What it can and cannot see
It reads the bullet text. That is the whole input. It does not know the rating period, the Soldier, the duty description, what else is on the form, or what your rater has watched all year. A bullet can describe genuinely outstanding performance and still not say the things a higher tier is defined by, and that is a finding about the writing, not about the Soldier.
Your rater weighs all of it, and the rater owns the call. Use this to check your writing, not to argue a box check.
The format check is measured, not guessed
Length, line wrap, the lowercase "o " prefix, and the past-tense opener are computed from your text directly, not by asking an AI to count characters. The Part IV comment box prints roughly seventy characters a line and holds two lines, so 140 characters including the prefix is the ceiling. Those checks show up whether or not the doctrine read is available.
The other free tools
- Free NCOER bullet generator, for the "o " bullet format.
- Free OER bullet generator, for narrative comments on the DA Form 67-10 series.
- Free Army award generator, for AAM, ARCOM, and MSM recommendations.
- Free DA 4856 counseling generator, for the counseling narrative.
Questions
Is this an official grade?
No. It reads the bullet text alone against the DA PAM 623-3 paragraph 3-11a tier definitions and reports what that text supports. Your rater weighs the whole rating period, scope, and context, and the rater owns the call. Treat this as a check on your writing, not a verdict on the Soldier.
Will it rewrite my bullet for me?
No, and that is deliberate. The grader tells you which tier the text supports and what evidence the next tier up would need to see. It never hands you replacement wording. If you want the bullet written, the free NCOER bullet generator does that.
What are the tier markers it checks?
The ones the regulation writes down. Met is appropriate initiative with positive impact, the level typical of the majority of NCOs of the same grade. Exceeded adds disciplined initiative with immediate impact, the upper third. Far Exceeded adds an enduring effect beyond the rating period and a leadership multiplier that lifts the Soldiers and the unit.
Should I paste a real bullet?
Take the names out first. Real bullets carry names, unit identifiers, and operational detail, and none of that is needed to check the writing. Replace the name with a rank or an initial. What you type is processed to produce the result and is not stored on our servers.
Is this an official Army product?
No. BulletForge is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the U.S. Army or the Department of Defense. It is a private writing tool.
Grade one above, free. To write the whole evaluation and export it, create a free account.