1,001 questions about the ASTB (post your scores & ask your questions here!)

[AskingForIt138]

I took the ASTB on October 10 and got a 45 4/4/5. Now, this is going to sound like I'm trying to not own up to my scores, but something really weird happened during the math portion. It kicked me out after only 7 questions with about 45 minutes left. I went to my proctor to fix it, but the testing center in Pensacola had been evacuated due to the hurricane so there was nothing we could do. However, the pilot scores were all me! That was hard! However, to be honest, being kicked out of my math threw me off and an active duty lady came in the room where I was taking the test and made coffee! Definitely unprofessional and I made sure to mention this to my recruiter. So please bring earplugs, just in case those at the testing center are disrespectful! I'm taking the ASTB again next week and much more confident that a fluke like that will not happen again. I also have been disqualified for piloting due to my eyesight so the only score I care about is the OAR, because I'm applying for SWO. With my 3.64 GPA and a presumed OAR score of over 50, I feel confident about my chances. Good luck everyone!

 

[hossaq]

I took my ASTB mid-August. I was already MEPS cleared at that point and put in my packet for November '18 board about a week after my ASTB.
ASTB: 64 8/7/9
GPA: 3.1 Chemical Engineering graduating 2019 August (at a school known to deflate GPA heavily)
About 2 weeks after putting in the packet, my recruiter called me that I was selected to auto selection. I haven't gotten a final decision or any update at all since then. My recruiter isn't even returning my calls. Should I be worried? With graduation so close, I really want to sort this out. Any help or input is much appreciated. Thanks!!!

P.S. cross-posted

 

[Meyerkord]

I took my ASTB mid-August. I was already MEPS cleared at that point and put in my packet for November '18 board about a week after my ASTB.
ASTB: 64 8/7/9
GPA: 3.1 Chemical Engineering graduating 2019 August (at a school known to deflate GPA heavily)
About 2 weeks after putting in the packet, my recruiter called me that I was selected to auto selection. I haven't gotten a final decision or any update at all since then. My recruiter isn't even returning my calls. Should I be worried? With graduation so close, I really want to sort this out. Any help or input is much appreciated. Thanks!!!

P.S. cross-posted

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you'll get a FINSEL until you graduate or are close to your graduation date. Not really much you can do right now if you already have a PROREC-Y and haven't graduated yet.

 

[FormerRecruitingGuru]

I took my ASTB mid-August. I was already MEPS cleared at that point and put in my packet for November '18 board about a week after my ASTB.
ASTB: 64 8/7/9
GPA: 3.1 Chemical Engineering graduating 2019 August (at a school known to deflate GPA heavily)
About 2 weeks after putting in the packet, my recruiter called me that I was selected to auto selection. I haven't gotten a final decision or any update at all since then. My recruiter isn't even returning my calls. Should I be worried? With graduation so close, I really want to sort this out. Any help or input is much appreciated. Thanks!!!

P.S. cross-posted

You won’t your final select letter until you graduate and your final transcripts are submitted.

 

[dedehansalik]

Took my first pass at the ASTB a few days ago. Scored a 50 6/7/7. I'm a little disappointed, but I leave for a 3-month internship abroad before my 90 days are up and the recruiter said my 3.96 GPA gives me a good shot at NFO/SWO, so I don't currently plan on retaking and am going to shoot for the February board.

Math: I didn't see any logs or calc problems, which made me nervous because I know the test is supposed to be adaptive. I had a bunch of stuff involving fractions, cube roots, and successive discounts. It kicked me out with 20 minutes left, so either I sucked badly enough or did well enough that it decided it had enough info.

Reading: Weirder than AP Lang was in high school, and I hated AP Lang. Which answer is more correct than the other three correct answers? Which answer is least wrong out of the other three wrong answers? Lots of passages with Navy terminology probably designed to be confusing/boring. A few passages about science phenomena and one random literature excerpt. This one also kicked me out early.

Mechanical: This was the section I was probably the most disappointed with, because I studied a lot and thought I was going to do okay. Yet I barely saw any of the concepts from the gouges I used, and I ended up guessing more than I wanted to. A few questions I remember were how many newtons of force were needed to pull a weight up using a pulley system, d1*w1=d2*w2, and the mathematical equation for power.

ANIT: More questions on history than anything else. This is probably why this area was a 6 for me, because history was my weakest area. Which of these planes were used in this operation, etc. A few questions on which parts of the plane control which movements (What movement does the rudder control? Answer: Yawing).

UAV: Definitely use these flashcards. The trick is to draw out a diagram of the parking lot on a piece of scrap paper and label them A,B,C, and D like the flashcards do. For each question, rotate the diagram so that the 'A' parking lot is pointed in the same direction as your heading. N,S,E,W stays the same. The parking lot on the actual test doesn't have the lots labeled, so after figuring out which letter was correct on my diagram I correlated it with where that letter would be on the actual parking lot. I can explain that more if it doesn't make sense to anyone. My average time was about 3 seconds to respond.

NATFI: Someone on here said it before, but I'll say it again: You don't take the NATFI. The NATFI takes you.

PBM: Holy balls. I had never touched a joystick or throttle in my life before the day of the test, so I'm shocked that my score here was decent. Listening, tracking with the throttle and tracking with the joystick were okay, though I got confused as to which way was up/down. Tracking both at once felt like a shit show; tracking both at once and listening felt like death itself. I was the definition of winging it a good 90% of the time. Definitely write down the emergency procedures, even if you end up not using them. I wasn't positive on one of the situations and I'm glad I had a copy of the instructions to glance at. I pulled all three off without dying.

At the very least this is one huge hurdle out of the way. I'm going to focus on the rest of my packet now and hope for the best. Thank you to everyone who took the time to put these gouges together!!

 

[RandyNewman]

Hey all, I'm sure this has been covered in this forum at some point but I'm having trouble with the satellite image UAV questions. For the flashcards that everyone uses, there's a satellite image, and a red dot with a yellow triangle coming off of it. I'm not entirely sure how I'm supposed to get my heading from that ? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Meyerkord]

Hey all, I'm sure this has been covered in this forum at some point but I'm having trouble with the satellite image UAV questions. For the flashcards that everyone uses, there's a satellite image, and a red dot with a yellow triangle coming off of it. I'm not entirely sure how I'm supposed to get my heading from that ? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Basically, whichever way the arrow is pointing needs to be your new "north", then use whatever direction it's asking for to find the right parking lot.

 

[jacksonbus]

Took my first OAR and got a 45 with no study time. Studying 3-4hrs a day for the past month and taking my next one in the beginning of December. My goal is definitely mid-50s. My background is a 3.0 gpa in Business and Finance, and going for supply. Plenty of material on this site has helped and I'll keep y'all updated for sure, good luck to everyone that's applying!

 

[jboliver08]

Does anyone have an idea on which sections weigh the most for NFO? I know that they all play a factor into the final score, but I'm curious on which sections weigh more in particular. This question may have been asked before, but for some reason I can't come across it and I'm taking my test for the third time on Monday.

 

[Meyerkord]

Does anyone have an idea on which sections weigh the most for NFO? I know that they all play a factor into the final score, but I'm curious on which sections weigh more in particular. This question may have been asked before, but for some reason I can't come across it and I'm taking my test for the third time on Monday.

Looks like Math.

Per https://www.usnavy.vt.edu/documents/astboverview.pdf:

The following general guidance is offered to assist examinees in preparing for an ASTB test or retest.

• Academic Qualifications Rating (AQR): This score is affected by performance on all subtests, but the strongest influence is made by the Math Skills Test.
• Pilot Flight Aptitude Rating (PFAR): This score is affected by performance on all subtests, but the greatest contribution is made by the Aviation & Nautical Info and Spatial Apperception Tests.
• Flight Officer Flight Aptitude Rating (FOFAR): This score is affected by performance on all subtests, but the strongest influence is made by the Math Skills Test.
• Officer Aptitude Rating (OAR): This score is affected by performance on the first three subtests, Math Skills, Reading Comprehension, and Mechanical Comprehension.

 

[prestonaz]

What is this abomination... I can't even begin to understand what you were attempting to do.
Why did you arbitrarily set up the supplement as X-20 and why is the angle 4X, what even is X to begin with? What?
You are looking for an angle that is 20 degrees less than 4 times its supplement. This angle, let's call it X, is 20 LESS than 4 TIMES the supplement
So, X = 4Y-20, where Y is the supplement. We know X and Y have to add up to 180 because they are supplements so Y=180-X.
And so we substitute this in for Y in our first equation so we can have everything in terms. of X. X = 4(180-X) - 20.
If we simplify this we get that X = 140 and Y, the supplementary angle, is 40. Cool, they add up to 180.
We know this is correct because X, the angle that we are looking for, is 20 less than 4 times its supplement, 40. (40 times 4 equals 160 minus 20 equals 140, X!!!)

You're rude

 

[johnferry]

Hey guys. I found some good video links that go over multiplying matrices, fractional exponents, and finding the sum for an arithmetic series. These kinds of questions really caught me off guard when I first took the test a couple days ago:


*HOW TO MULTIPLY MATRICIES*:

*HOW TO ADD/SUBTRACT FRANCTION EXPONENTS*:

*FINDING SUM FOR ARITHMATIC SERIES *:

 

[smk007]

Hi Everyone! Took my first ASTB earlier today and got a 54 6/7/6. I am pretty happy with my scores, granted that I felt, while doing the test, the scores would've been worse. But now looking back on it feel I could have done better. Go figure. Little background, I am a female, 22 years old and a former college athlete. My priority is applying for Pilot/NFO and would also love to try for Intel, but given my BS in Business Admin with a 3.0 GPA, it is not likely (Trust me, I am realistic and not getting my hopes up). I studied for about 6 weeks, averaging 2-3 hrs a day probably. My recruiter was excited with my scores for Pilot, and encouraged me to even try for the February board, however, this means my application package would need to be finished by December 10th. I have decided to wait for the next board though, in order to get a competitive package put together and not to rush.
Anyways, I want to thank everyone on this thread for their contributions. All of the gouge on this thread had been very helpful in preparing me for what content to expect and lots of helpful tips when it came to the hands on portion. I would like to pass on what I got from the test and any tips I have or what I used to prepare...

MATH:
This section wasn't too difficult for me, but I am biased. I've always had a thing for math and enjoy it. I did not get any log questions. Couple probability questions, exponents, fractions, basic algebra and word problems. Here are some from what I remember: -ex1- 32^3/5 -ex2- sq root 3 + sq root 27 -ex3- Probability of drawing a heart card from deck and rolling a 2 or higher on die -ex4- War started in year x^2 and ended year (x+1)^2, and lasted 29 years. What year did the war END? -ex5- 2/9 of harvest is apples, 4/9 is oranges, how many more oranges need to be planted to equal 2.5 tons of the harvest?-- There was also a problem with a box that had a cylinder in it. Find the ratio of the area of the box to the leftover space outside the cylinder. Other than that there was solving for x, multiplying fractions, some division and a few long "complex" problems involving multiplication/adding with [ and } brackets. I got kicked at the very end I believe. Run through a few practice worksheets, and the study guides posted here on this thread.
READING:
Like everyone has said, very dry. It can drag on but just try to stay focused and pay attention to what the paragraph is saying. It helped me to eliminate the wrong answers then reread the information over again. The wording will get tricky, but the correct answer is ONLY what is from what is provided. Ran out of time here I think.
MECHANICAL:
This section wasn't too challenging, but I had two years of AP Physics in high school so the concepts were not new to me. Most of it is common sense, but be careful to understand the concepts cause some questions can be tricky. I used the Barron's Mech Comp Book to refresh my memory, as well as the Barron's Military Flight Aptitude Book. The comprehensive study guide posted a few pages back also helped as well. Some questions I remember: - If brick and feather are dropped from the same height, and the same time, which will hit the ground first? -Which graph represents the velocity/time relationship when shooting an arrow into the air? Answer choices showed vel on y-axis and time on x-axis.
-Something about an AC Generator and how it works or something? answer choices had coil in a magnetic cylinder, something else or chemical reaction between electric nodes (?) Sorry, can't remember exactly. -a pulley with force on one end (shown with longer string) and on other side was a 5kg wt. Which side had more tension. -formula for power -1500kg car moving at 18 m/s hits stationary 4000kg truck, which exerts greatest force. - weight formula (finding weight of object on mars given mass and velocity) -angular velocity took up about 3 questions so know what that is- energy transfer- had a couple spring and centripetal force questions. No gears, electric currents, batteries or levers.
NATFI:
Wow. Frustrating to say the least! Haha. There will be plenty that you probably feel you aren't like or would never do. Just select the one that you instinctively lean towards. Don't overthink it.
ANIT:
I was nervous for this portion, as I don't have much aviation/nautical background other than flying a Cessna for an hour intro flight and going to a couple air shows when I was little. The gouge on this thread helped me a bunch as well as the books I mentioned. I had read through some sections of the Pilot Handbook as well to get a more in depth idea of the concepts. Again from what I remember: -what does the beam measure on the ship? -draft of the ship? -first dive bomber?
-first combat jet? -couple questions on wing vortices (what causes them) -what causes plan to "lean" -VASI provides visual of what? -what is a bulkhead? -lowest deck on the ship -which type of wing flap is NOT a flap? -which type of helicopter is an MH-## (don't remember the number) -CVBG (relating to size) -How much fuel should aircraft have? Destination + ## minutes -VFR with ## compass heading -No questions on weather, airports, lights, or jerseys. I got kicked from this section I believe.
UAV:
Going into this portion I was a little nervous, and I worked myself up over it. It was not too bad. I didn't plan on using the compass trick because when practicing it was easier to mentally flip the compass. But I actually ended up using it. I missed 2 I think, and averaged between 1-3 sec and maybe two with 4 sec. Overall, practicing the flashcards posted here helped getting the rhythm down and to get a visual of the test. (yellow arrow w/ red target)
DICHOTIC LISTENING:
This section was pretty easy. My headphones worked really well and were really loud. I also noticed and I'm not sure if it's the same voice for everyone, but the left and right ear voice were different tones. It helped me in recognizing the numbers in the correct target ear. Left clutch button for odd numbers and right trigger on control stick for even numbers. I may have missed 2 here, and that was because I zoned out at one point. So pay attention the WHOLE time, unlike me. Leaning to the target ear also helped.
PBM:
Well. Everything I read was true about this part. Very overwhelming! The vertical tracking wasn't tooooo bad, but the throttle is difficult to get adjusted to. The further up/down it goes, the quicker it moves. The control stick was hard to adjust to, specifically the inverted axis. I would suggest practicing video games, if you play them, with the inverted controls to get used to that feel. I had grown up playing video games and currently play XBOX, but I don't feel that type of controller helped at all as far as the type of control used for this portion. If you have a flight simulator, more power to you! Anyways, all three portions put together was an absolute mess. I worked up a sweat! Haha the only advice I can give is do your best, and have fun with it. Laugh, relax, and track as best you can. The listening is the easiest part, so try to nail that part of it. The emergency portion was easy, DEFINITELY write the emergency procedures down and place them in front of you for reference. Make sure your dial settings are set to the middle before you start. And don't forget to press the clutch button after each procedure.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I wanted to be thorough since these posts helped me out a TON. I am hoping this can at least be helpful to some. For reference and studying, I used the Barron's books, bought the ARCO but didn't use it much, and the Pilot Handbook was great, but can be overloaded for the test. However, I would suggest reading the sections mentioned anyways, if you have the time. Other than that, what helped the most was the gouge from this thread, as well as the study guides and flashcards. Just study, and then study more. Feel free to message me if you have any questions or comments, I'd love to help out or gain some new advice/knowledge!

Thanks again to everyone!! Best of luck to all taking the ASTB/OAR, and to those in application processes!!!

 

[bramirez44]

Hey guys, i'm going to keep this as short as I can. I took my ASTB-E for the first time yesterday (2018/11/16) and scored 53/6/8/7. I am going to apply for Pilot/NFO. I studied for about a month and a half. My job allowed me to study while I had down time which helped a lot. I thought I'd do a little better on the OAR portion but it is what it is. I'm happy with that for my first time around. I used the Barron's military flight aptitude test book and gouge from this forum to study. I can't thank you all enough for the information provided on this page! My recruiter is pretty confident he can get me in as a pilot for the Feb boards. I know it depends on who I'm up against and the rest of my package but I'm ready for whatever happens!

I'm not going to go through each section in much detail but I'll try my best.

MATH:
It was definitely harder than the math problems in the Barrons book. I didn't make it to log's or matrices but I could definitely tell when I got an answer right and the difficulty increased. KEEP PRACTICING. That's all I can say. Do as many math problems as you can get your hands on before the test.

Reading:
Pretty straight forward. I think this section is what redeemed my OAR score. Just read the passage as fast as you can while retaining the information and use process of elimination. The passage is the whole world. Don't assume anything. If it's not stated in the passage, it's not true.

Mechanical:
This section was fun. My BA is in Media Production but have extensive knowledge on mechanics and how things work. This section has the potential to give some pretty difficult questions but I think the questions in the Barrons book are a little harder if not the same as the test.

NATFI:
At times I felt like I was answering every single question wrong! Like the test says, even if one is SLIGHTLY more true, pick that one. Example was something like,
A) I sometimes get angry when stressed.
B) I rarely proofread my work before turning it in.
These have absolutely nothing to do with each other but you have to pick one! lol

ANIT:
Read as much as you can and try to retain as much information as possible before the test. Know everything you can possible think of about the navy and aviation. As much as I studied, there were still questions in there that I had no idea how to answer. Only a couple questions on there were fact's that the Barrons book had. The rest that I knew I found out about on this forum (I read almost every page) and watching documentaries on youtube and reading navy books.

UAV:
Use the notecards provided on the forum and watch the video on how to use the cheat sheet compass. I got 2 wrong and averaged about 2-3 seconds per answer. The notecards with the satellite view is more accurate with what you'll find on the test. Something that surprised me was the voice in the headphones asked you to pick the north, south, east, west, parking lot instead of reading everything on screen like the notecards. Does that make sense? Sorry if it doesn't!

DICHOTIC LISTENING:
This part was pretty easy for me. View smk007's post above mine for good tips and tricks.

PBM:
Everyone pretty much hit the nail on the head when describing this section. The first time i had to use the joystick, i bet if it gave me a grade i would have gotten 10% it's nothing like flying a simulator. I probably spent a good 20-30 hours within my two-ish months of studying using a simulator and I still felt like a child learning to use a crayon... Your left hand (throttle hand) is focused on a 2d airplane on the left of the screen while your right hand is focused on a DIFFERENT 2d airplane bouncing around randomly on the rest of the screen. Doing them by themselves isn't TERRIBLE but put them together and all hell breaks loose haha. Oddly enough though, once they added in the dichotic listening and had to manage both airplanes at the same time, I did pretty well. Weird how that works.

If you're still reading this post, thank you! And thank you to EVERYONE who has posted on this forum. I will keep you all posted on what the boards look like for me in February and hope I meet some of you at OCS one day! Best of luck to everyone here!

 

[StevenBlue18]

Does anyone have an idea on which sections weigh the most for NFO? I know that they all play a factor into the final score, but I'm curious on which sections weigh more in particular. This question may have been asked before, but for some reason I can't come across it and I'm taking my test for the third time on Monday.

OAR,AQR, and PFAR if I recall correctly. Just use search bar that’s a useful tool on here.