IPPT tips, how do you actually pass (and hit the incentive money)?

Been through many reservist IPPTs from a desk-job body, here's the efficient approach for the 3 stations (push-ups, sit-ups, 2.4km run). Given limited time, prioritise by ROI: 1) the 2.4km run carries the most points and improves fastest with 6-8 weeks of interval training, do intervals (e.g. run-walk, then continuous) 2-3x a week, this alone moves you up a tier, 2) push-ups and sit-ups respond quickly, grease-the-groove daily (small sets throughout the day), 3) practice the actual test format once before, pacing matters. To hit the higher incentive tier you usually need to score well across all three, not just pass, so don't neglect the run. Book your IPPT early in the window so you have retries if needed. Verify the current scoring tiers and incentive amounts on the official NS portal, they update the payouts.

Run intervals, that's the genuine cheat code for the 2.4km, and I say this as a fellow desk-bound body that had gone soft after ORD. Roughly six weeks of interval running just twice a week, alternating hard efforts with recovery jogs, took me from barely scraping a pass on the run to a near-top score on that station, and because the run carries so many points, improving it moved my whole IPPT result up. The run is simply where the easiest points are for the time invested, far more efficient than grinding endless push-ups. For the push-ups and sit-ups, you don't need dedicated gym sessions, just do daily sets at home, a few sets morning and night, and they climb steadily on their own. Prioritise the run in your limited training time and you get the biggest bang for your effort.

Book your IPPT early in your window, this is the tactical tip people ignore and then regret, because if you attempt it early and flunk or fall just short of the tier you wanted, you've left yourself time for free retries within the same window, whereas if you leave it to the last week and it goes badly, you're stuck with no room to recover. I always go in for one 'real' attempt with plenty of buffer left, treat it as a diagnostic, see where I actually stand, then retrain the weak station and retry. Also, if your unit offers the preparatory or remedial training sessions, use them, they're structured and free coaching. Don't gamble everything on a single last-minute shot, give yourself the safety net of retries by starting early in the window.

Grease the groove for the push-ups and sit-ups, meaning small, submaximal sets spread many times through the day rather than one killer session that leaves you too sore to train again for days, this approach builds the muscular endurance those stations need far more effectively for busy people, do a set when you wake, a set at lunch, a set before bed, and the numbers climb steadily without eating your time. And crucially, practise the exact test format at least once before the real thing so the pacing and the sequence aren't a shock on the day, knowing how hard to push on each station matters. To lock in the higher incentive tier, confirm the current tier cut-offs and the actual incentive sums on the official NS portal, because they've adjusted both the scoring and the payout amounts, so train to the real target, not an outdated one.