the defense language aptitude battery (dlab) is a test used by the united states department of defense to test an individual's potential for learning a foreign language and thus determining who may pursue training as a military linguist. it consists of 126 multiple-choice questions and the test is scored out of a possible 164 points. the test is composed of five audio sections and one visual section. as of 2009, the test is completely web-based. the test does not attempt to gauge a person's fluency in a given language, but rather to determine their ability to learn a language. the test will give the service member examples of what a selection of words or what a portion of a word means, then asks the test taker to create a specific word from the samples given.