DBM
Well-Known Member
Yeah like elariosa said, your PFAR and LPSS should have been included. Hopefully you don't have to retake it because that would suck. I remember the test crashing a couple of times when I took it
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1,001 questions about the ASTB (post your scores & ask your questions here!)
- Thread starter edato
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exNavyOffRec
Well-Known Member
Your recruiter will contact the person at the testing center to get the full score generated.
Kimoabonika
New Member
Do you think the Combo stick and throttle on the ASTB prep would also work as well? or would you recommend Jantzen's only
Background bear
Well-Known Member
Not sure if by combo you're referring to something specifically or just simply the combination of stick and throttle. you can map your stick to function as the mouse and throttle up or back to function like the up/down keys associated with the vertical tracking on the jantzen sim. Similar to what Cole. said, doing this and also layering the app's dichotic listening helped me a ton (scored 8/8/7). I didn't buy the tbas prep app but i have taken it years ago and the uav section functions the same. there are a couple really good youtube videos for methods to conceptualize it if you're really struggling. i found the terrain harder than uav, but terrain was easier on the actual test IIRC. I felt the ASTB prep app was plenty help overall
Kimoabonika
New Member
Appreciate the response. Yeah, by combo I meant stick and throttle together.
I have an X52, and what I’m really trying to figure out is which setup you think translates best to the actual ASTB. Would you recommend using the Jantzen sim with the stick mapped as the mouse and throttle mapped to the up/down keys, or mainly using the ASTB Prep app with the X52?
Also, when you layered in dichotic listening, were you doing that while running both stick and throttle at the same time?
Background bear
Well-Known Member
I was not able to map the X52 to the app at the time so i can't speak to that. but mapping it to the jantzen sim worked well for me mapping the stick to the mouse and throttle to i think W/S or whatever keys did "up" and "down" on the vert tracker.
Yes i was doing both. Since I couldn't actually click anything on the app with the stick and throttle mapped to my computer, i'd just click a button on either that wasn't mapped to anything to simulate like I was responding. This was, of course, done in conjunction with actual dedicated dichotic listening. I'd basically do lots of rounds of just stick, just throttle, both, just listening, and then stick throttle and listening. same concept with emergency procedures. helps get reps in, and the test runs similarly.
Yes i was doing both. Since I couldn't actually click anything on the app with the stick and throttle mapped to my computer, i'd just click a button on either that wasn't mapped to anything to simulate like I was responding. This was, of course, done in conjunction with actual dedicated dichotic listening. I'd basically do lots of rounds of just stick, just throttle, both, just listening, and then stick throttle and listening. same concept with emergency procedures. helps get reps in, and the test runs similarly.
Was the terrain identification portion still on the exam? I was supposed to take it this week but the software gave us issues so I had to reschedule.
PeakBagger
SNA BDCP Applicant
It was not, I'll do a whole gouge bit once I get my PFAR back but in order it was the ANIT, NATFI, UAV, DLT, then throttle, then joystick, then throttle + joystick, then throttle + joystick + DLT, then throttle + joystick + emergencies.
My exam crashed multiple times throughout the OAR and then crashed twice during the NATFI so I feel you.
bailey8756
Well-Known Member
He helped me mostly with ‘thinking like a pilot’ and taught me some really helpful mental tools to use on the exam. He’s also a great source of knowledge on the ANIT portion. It was worth it to me to get the coach to make myself that much better on the test.
PeakBagger
SNA BDCP Applicant
Alright this morning they had me redo the two sections of the PFAR that didn't load properly last time. I scored a 64 9/9/9 and a 65 on the LPSS, though I'm not sure what the LPSS actually does. What follows will be advice that I hope might help out people looking to take the exam in the future, I know all the different gouge posts on here did a lot for me. For reference I am a senior in mechanical engineering and am currently studying for the PPL's written exam via Sporty's, I studied for this exam 1 OAR section per day for about 1 hour a day.
Math: I started off using the OAR tutoring app (the one with the container ship and setting sun) and working my way through all of the math and mechanical tests before finishing up with the various final practice tests. The OAR prediction exam is pretty useless as it won't tell you what you got wrong, it'll typically be about 10 points higher than your actual OAR but you should only do it maybe once or twice. I only saw 2 math questions out of the couple hundred here that came up on my OAR but I'd still call it very useful. My problems were largely about geometry, inline shapes, if you double the volume what is the ratio of new side lengths to old side lengths, and then a ton of probability questions which I am utterly atrocious at. I was only asked two exponent simplification problems. After you finish up the OAR app I'd recommend you try out the ASTB prep app for a bit before finishing up that last week of studying with the OAR study guide website found here. I started studying on July 4th and took the exam in the first week of September. I was asked maybe 11-13 questions, I felt like I had failed so just push through no matter how you think you're doing.
Reading: None of the apps are useful for preparing for this, I did not finish all of the questions as I took far too much time thinking about it early on. Out of everything I've seen the OAR tutoring app is probably your best option, but remember it will give you essays whereas the OAR will only give you like 1 to maybe 2 paragraphs per question. Just assume that the answer is never an absolute statement.
Mechanical: I did not finish all of these problems in time, don't spend more than 45 seconds to 1 minute on them. With that in mind I think I got most of these right, they were honestly the only fun part of the OAR. The OAR tutoring app was by far the best app for these, I saw multiple of the same questions on the OAR itself and if you start averaging 90-100s on the app you will likely do well on this. The ASTB prep app was good ish, and if you have it I'd still recommend doing it every so often. The majority of the questions were conceptual so I'd just flick through problems when having a beer with friends, no need to think too hard about them.
ANIT: A ton of fun, the ASTB prep app, CRAM flashcards (which I thankfully moved over into Anki), and just general studying for the PPL written meant that I easily cleared through this. While I thought I had failed the OAR, I felt very confident on the ASTB. I'd flick through 20 of the astb prep cards during random parts of my day, I did a set of these at least 1x every day.
NATFI: Boring, exam crashed multiple times so I had to redo this entire section twice. Try to sound like you're a leader and the resurrection of leeroy jenkins.
UAV: The ASTB prep app is a God send for this, try to do it on your phone or something initially to build up confidence and to have easy access, I started doing this on June 1 about 4x a day. I averaged a 3-4 second time initially with a 75% accuracy, within the first week I got it down to 2 seconds. By the week before the exam I was starting to average 100% accuracy at a 0.88 second average on my phone. When I did it on my mac I averaged a 1.18 second at 100%, get used to using the mouse. You can crank these out on the toilet, in the bar, anywhere, do it, it is the easiest 9 of your life. Do not use headphones on the exam for this, the audio is far too slow. Instead I want you to point at the direction it's telling you (it tells you on the bottom of your screen) and then say out loud if the movement from your travel direction to your goal direction along the compass/circle is counter clock wise or clockwise. If it is clockwise, the building will be one on the negative/left hand side of the screen. If CCW then it'll be a building on the right hand/positive side. This is far quicker than drawing out a compass and a lot less risky then trying to guess if it is to your left or right, I averaged a 1.5-1.6 second on the exam and did not get any of them wrong.
PBM: I used the TBAS Study Pro app on steam and an X-52 throttle/joystick. Your DLT buttons will be the clutch (bottom blue throttle button) and throttle trigger. Your reset button will be the clutch, you will turn the two twisty knobs for the emergencies. The sensitivity is out of your control and not worth figuring out, just pick a sensitivity that feels good to you. I started on June 1 or something like that for this as well, did like 2 months at Easy, and then did medium, before then doing the PBM section of the naval assessment 2x a day. The exam will start off on an easy speed before getting harder, the DLT audio is very poor, it will likely only get to medium-hard difficulty, doing the hard runs on the TBAS study pro app meant that the PBM was incredibly easy for me. I have attached a spreadsheet of my scores here for you guys. For anyone who can't access it, my high score on the PBM section was 80 and I averaged around a 78. Don't waste your time on the UAV/terrain ID section of the exam on this software. One quick edit, for the DLT, whenever it tells you to focus on a new side, quickly saying something like "Right Right Right" out loud can help your brain make that switch to the other ear.
If you have any questions just ask. Your score on this is largely correlated to how much work you're willing to put in, if you study over a longer period then you can do a lot less studying each day. Good luck!
Math: I started off using the OAR tutoring app (the one with the container ship and setting sun) and working my way through all of the math and mechanical tests before finishing up with the various final practice tests. The OAR prediction exam is pretty useless as it won't tell you what you got wrong, it'll typically be about 10 points higher than your actual OAR but you should only do it maybe once or twice. I only saw 2 math questions out of the couple hundred here that came up on my OAR but I'd still call it very useful. My problems were largely about geometry, inline shapes, if you double the volume what is the ratio of new side lengths to old side lengths, and then a ton of probability questions which I am utterly atrocious at. I was only asked two exponent simplification problems. After you finish up the OAR app I'd recommend you try out the ASTB prep app for a bit before finishing up that last week of studying with the OAR study guide website found here. I started studying on July 4th and took the exam in the first week of September. I was asked maybe 11-13 questions, I felt like I had failed so just push through no matter how you think you're doing.
Reading: None of the apps are useful for preparing for this, I did not finish all of the questions as I took far too much time thinking about it early on. Out of everything I've seen the OAR tutoring app is probably your best option, but remember it will give you essays whereas the OAR will only give you like 1 to maybe 2 paragraphs per question. Just assume that the answer is never an absolute statement.
Mechanical: I did not finish all of these problems in time, don't spend more than 45 seconds to 1 minute on them. With that in mind I think I got most of these right, they were honestly the only fun part of the OAR. The OAR tutoring app was by far the best app for these, I saw multiple of the same questions on the OAR itself and if you start averaging 90-100s on the app you will likely do well on this. The ASTB prep app was good ish, and if you have it I'd still recommend doing it every so often. The majority of the questions were conceptual so I'd just flick through problems when having a beer with friends, no need to think too hard about them.
ANIT: A ton of fun, the ASTB prep app, CRAM flashcards (which I thankfully moved over into Anki), and just general studying for the PPL written meant that I easily cleared through this. While I thought I had failed the OAR, I felt very confident on the ASTB. I'd flick through 20 of the astb prep cards during random parts of my day, I did a set of these at least 1x every day.
NATFI: Boring, exam crashed multiple times so I had to redo this entire section twice. Try to sound like you're a leader and the resurrection of leeroy jenkins.
UAV: The ASTB prep app is a God send for this, try to do it on your phone or something initially to build up confidence and to have easy access, I started doing this on June 1 about 4x a day. I averaged a 3-4 second time initially with a 75% accuracy, within the first week I got it down to 2 seconds. By the week before the exam I was starting to average 100% accuracy at a 0.88 second average on my phone. When I did it on my mac I averaged a 1.18 second at 100%, get used to using the mouse. You can crank these out on the toilet, in the bar, anywhere, do it, it is the easiest 9 of your life. Do not use headphones on the exam for this, the audio is far too slow. Instead I want you to point at the direction it's telling you (it tells you on the bottom of your screen) and then say out loud if the movement from your travel direction to your goal direction along the compass/circle is counter clock wise or clockwise. If it is clockwise, the building will be one on the negative/left hand side of the screen. If CCW then it'll be a building on the right hand/positive side. This is far quicker than drawing out a compass and a lot less risky then trying to guess if it is to your left or right, I averaged a 1.5-1.6 second on the exam and did not get any of them wrong.
PBM: I used the TBAS Study Pro app on steam and an X-52 throttle/joystick. Your DLT buttons will be the clutch (bottom blue throttle button) and throttle trigger. Your reset button will be the clutch, you will turn the two twisty knobs for the emergencies. The sensitivity is out of your control and not worth figuring out, just pick a sensitivity that feels good to you. I started on June 1 or something like that for this as well, did like 2 months at Easy, and then did medium, before then doing the PBM section of the naval assessment 2x a day. The exam will start off on an easy speed before getting harder, the DLT audio is very poor, it will likely only get to medium-hard difficulty, doing the hard runs on the TBAS study pro app meant that the PBM was incredibly easy for me. I have attached a spreadsheet of my scores here for you guys. For anyone who can't access it, my high score on the PBM section was 80 and I averaged around a 78. Don't waste your time on the UAV/terrain ID section of the exam on this software. One quick edit, for the DLT, whenever it tells you to focus on a new side, quickly saying something like "Right Right Right" out loud can help your brain make that switch to the other ear.
If you have any questions just ask. Your score on this is largely correlated to how much work you're willing to put in, if you study over a longer period then you can do a lot less studying each day. Good luck!