BSA Rank Advancement Requirements
The requirements listed below reflect the content of the BSA publication Boy Scout Requirements 2004, and include all changes to rank advancement requirements as of January 1, 2004.
Go directly to any rank using the links below, or those following each list of requirements.
Joining Requirements
Tenderfoot
| Second Class
| First Class
Star
| Life
| Eagle
1. Meet age requirements. Be a boy who has
completed the fifth grade or is 11 years old, or has earned the Arrow
of Light Award and is under 18 years old.
2. Complete a Boy Scout application and health history signed by your parent or guardian.
3, Find a Scout troop near your home.
4. Repeat the Pledge of Allegiance.
5. Demonstrate the Scout sign, salute, and handshake.
6. Demonstrate tying the square knot (a joining knot).
7. Understand and agree to live by the Scout Oath or Promise, Law, motto, and slogan, and the Outdoor Code.
8. Describe the Scout badge.
9. Complete the pamphlet exercises. With your parent or guardian, complete the exercises in the pamphlet How to Protect Your Children from Child Abuse: A Parent's Guide.
10. Participate in a Scoutmaster conference.
Turn in your Boy Scout application and health history form signed by
your parent or guardian, then participate in a Scoutmaster conference.
Joining Requirements
Tenderfoot
| Second Class
| First Class
Star
| Life
| Eagle
1. Present yourself to your leader,
properly dressed, before going on an overnight camping trip. Show the
camping gear you will use. Show the right way to pack and carry it.
2. Spend at least one night on a patrol or troop campout. Sleep in a tent you have helped pitch.
3. On the campout, assist in preparing
and cooking one of your patrol's meals. Tell why it is important for
each patrol member to share in meal preparation and cleanup, and
explain the importance of eating together.
4a. Demonstrate how to whip and fuse the ends of a rope.
4b. Demonstrate you know how to tie the following knots and tell what their uses are: two half hitches and the tautline hitch.
5. Explain the rules of safe hiking, both
on the highway and crosscountry, during the day and at night. Explain
what to do if you are lost.
6. Demonstrate how to display, raise, lower, and fold the American flag.
7. Repeat from memory and explain in your own words the Scout Oath, Law, motto and slogan.
8. Know your patrol name, give the patrol yell, and describe your patrol flag.
9. Explain why we use the buddy system in Scouting.
10a. Record your best in the following tests:
10b. Show improvement in the activities listed in requirement 10a after practicing for 30 days.
11. Identify local poisonous plants; tell how to treat for exposure to them.
12a. Demonstrate the Heimlich maneuver and tell when it is used.
12b. Show first aid for the following:
13. Demonstrate Scout spirit by living the Scout Oath (Promise) and Scout Law in your everyday life.
14. Participate in a Scoutmaster conference.
15. Complete your board of review.
Joining Requirements
Tenderfoot
| Second Class
| First Class
Star
| Life
| Eagle
1a. Demonstrate how a compass works and how to orient a map. Explain what map symbols mean.
1b. Using a compass and a map together,
take a 5-mile hike (or 10 miles by bike) approved by your adult leader
and your parent or guardian.
2a. Since joining, have participated in
five separate troop/patrol activities (other than troop/patrol
meetings), two of which included camping overnight.
2b. On one of these campouts, select your patrol site and sleep in a tent that you pitched.
2c. On one campout, demonstrate proper
care, sharpening, and use of the knife, saw, and ax, and describe when
they should be used.
2d. Use the tools listed in requirement 2c to prepare tinder, kindling, and fuel for a cooking fire.
2e. Discuss when it is appropriate to use a cooking fire and a lightweight stove. Discuss the safety procedures for using both.
2f. Demonstrate how to light a fire and a lightweight stove.
2g. On one campout, plan and cook over
an open fire one hot breakfast or lunch for yourself, selecting foods
from the food pyramid. Explain the importance of good nutrition. Tell
how to transport, store, and prepare the foods you selected.
3. Participate in a flag ceremony for your school, religious institution, charted organization, community, or troop activity.
4. Participate in an approved (minimum of one hour) service project.
5. Identify or show evidence of at least
ten kinds of wild animals (birds, mammals, reptiles, fish, mollusks)
found in your community.
6a. Show what to do for "hurry" cases of stopped breathing, serious bleeding, and internal poisoning.
6b. Prepare a personal first aid kit to take with you on a hike.
6c. Demonstrate first aid for the following:
7a. Tell what precautions must be taken for a safe swim.
7b. Demonstrate your ability to jump
feetfirst into water over your head in depth, level off and swim 25
feet on the surface, stop, turn sharply, resume swimming, then return
to your starting place.
7c. Demonstrate water rescue methods by
reaching with your arm or leg, by reaching with a suitable object, and
by throwing lines and objects. Explain why swimming rescues should not
be attempted when a reaching or throwing rescue is possible, and
explain why and how a rescue swimmer should avoid contact with the
victim.
8. Participate in a school, community,
or troop program on the dangers of using drugs, alcohol, and tobacco
and other practices that could be harmful to your health. Discuss your
participation in the program with your family.
9. Demonstrate Scout spirit by living the Scout Oath (Promise) and Scout Law in your everyday life.
10. Participate in a Scoutmaster conference.
11. Complete your board of review.
Joining Requirements
Tenderfoot
| Second Class
| First Class
Star
| Life
| Eagle
1. Demonstrate how to find directions during the day and at night without using a compass.
2. Using a compass, complete an
orienteering course that covers at least one mile and requires
measuring the height and/or width of designated items (tree, tower,
canyon, ditch, etc.).
3. Since joining, have participated in
ten separate troop/patrol activities (other than troop/patrol
meetings), three of which included camping overnight.
4a. Help plan a patrol menu for one
campout that includes at least one breakfast, one lunch, and one
dinner, and that requires cooking at least two of the meals. Tell how
the menu includes the foods from the food pyramid and meets nutritional
needs.
4b. Using the menu planned in requirement
4a, make a list showing the cost and food amounts needed to feed three
or more boys and secure the ingredients.
4c. Tell which pans, utensils, and other gear will be needed to cook and serve these meals.
4d. Explain the procedures to follow in
the safe handling and storage of the fresh meats, dairy products, eggs,
vegetables, and other perishable food products. Tell how to properly
dispose of camp garbage, cans, plastic containers, and other rubbish.
4e. One one campout, serve as your
patrol's cook. Supervise your assistant(s) in using a stove or building
a cooking fire. Prepare the breakfast, lunch, and dinner planned in
requirement 4a. Lead your patrol in saying grace at the meals and
supervise cleanup.
5. Visit and discuss with a selected
individual approved by your leader (elected official, judge, attorney,
civil servant, principal, teacher) your Constitutional rights and
obligations as a U.S. citizen.
6. Identify or show evidence of at least ten kinds of native plants found in your community.
7a. Discuss when you should and should not use lashings.
7b. Demonstrate tying the timber hitch
and clove hitch and their use in square, shear, and diagonal lashings
by joining two or more poles or staves together.
7c. Use lashing to make a useful camp gadget.
8a. Demonstrate tying the bowline knot and describe several ways it can be used.
8b. Demonstrate bandages for a sprained ankle and for injuries on the head, the upper arm, and the collarbone.
8c. Show how to transport by yourself, and with one other person, a person:
8d. Tell the five most common signs of a heart attack. Explain the steps (procedures) in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
9a. Tell what precautions must be taken for a safe trip afloat.
9b. Successfully complete the BSA swimmer test.
9c. With a helper and a practice victim,
show a line rescue both as tender and as rescuer. (The practice victim
should be approximately 30 feet from short in deep water.)
10. Demonstrate Scout spirit by living the Scout Oath (Promise) and Scout Law in your everyday life.
11. Participate in a Scoutmaster conference.
12. Complete your board of review.
Joining Requirements
Tenderfoot
| Second Class
| First Class
Star
| Life
| Eagle
1. Be active in your troop and patrol for at least four months as a First Class Scout.
2. Demonstrate Scout spirit by living the Scout Oath (Promise) and Scout Law in your everyday life.
3. Earn six merit badges, including any four from the required list for Eagle.
4. While a First Class Scout, take part in
service projects totaling at least six hours of work. These projects
must be approved by your Scoutmaster.
5. While a First Class Scout, serve actively
for four months in one or more of the following positions of
responsibility (or carry out a Scoutmaster-assigned leadership project
to help the troop):
- Boy Scout troop. Patrol leader,
assistant senior patrol leader, senior patrol leader, troop guide,
Order of the Arrow troop representative, den chief, scribe, librarian,
historian, quartermaster, bugler, junior assistant Scoutmaster,
chaplain aide, or instructor.
- Varsity Scout team. Captain,
cocaptain, program manager, squad leader, team secretary, Order of the
Arrow team representative, librarian, historian, quartermaster,
chaplain aide, instructor, or den chief.
6. Take part in a Scoutmaster conference.
7. Complete your board of review.
Joining Requirements
Tenderfoot
| Second Class
| First Class
Star
| Life
| Eagle
1. Be active in your troop and patrol for at least six months as a Star Scout.
2. Demonstrate Scout spirit by living the Scout Oath (Promise) and Scout Law in your everyday life.
3. Earn five more merit badges (so that you have 11 in all), including any three more from the required list for Eagle.
4. While a Star Scout, take part in service
projects totaling at least six hours of work. These projects must be
approved by your Scoutmaster.
5. While a Star Scout, serve actively for six
months in one or more of the positions of responsibility listed in
requirement 5 for Star Scout (or carry out a Scoutmaster-assigned
leadership project to help the troop).
6. Take part in a Scoutmaster conference.
7. Complete your board of review.
Joining Requirements
Tenderfoot
| Second Class
| First Class
Star
| Life
| Eagle
1. Be active in your troop and patrol for at least six months as a Life Scout.
2. Demonstrate Scout spirit by living the Scout Oath (Promise) and Scout Law in your everyday life.
3. Earn a total of 21 merit badges (10 more than you already have), including the following:
4. While a Life Scout, serve actively for a period of six months in one or more of the following positions of responsibility:
- Boy Scout troop. Patrol leader,
assistant senior patrol leader, senior patrol leader, troop guide,
Order of the Arrow troop representative, den chief, scribe, librarian,
historian, quartermaster, bugler, junior assistant Scoutmaster,
chaplain aide, or instructor.
- Varsity Scout team. Captain,
cocaptain, program manager, squad leader, team secretary, Order of the
Arrow team representative, librarian, historian, quartermaster,
chaplain aide, instructor, or den chief.
5. While a Life Scout, plan, develop, and give
leadership to others in a service project helpful to any religious
institution, any school, or your community. (The project should benefit
an organization other than Boy Scouting.) The project idea must be
approved by the organization benefiting from the effort, your
Scoutmaster and troop committee, and the council or district before you
start. You must use the Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook, BSA publication No. 18-927D, in meeting this requirement.
6. Take part in a Scoutmaster conference.
7. Successfully complete an Eagle Scout board of review.
Joining Requirements
Tenderfoot
| Second Class
| First Class
Star
| Life
| Eagle