Senior airmen selected for promotion to staff sergeant will be able to take their tests sooner this year. Air Force personnel officials decided to move the test-date window up – to April 1-May 16, instead of May 1-June 15. The move will ensure that as many as 10,000 selectees for promotion to E-5 will not face the pending enlisted retention board first. Roughly 36,000 E-4s will be eligible to test for staff sergeant this spring.