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

[clara kapinos]

I wanted to know is there any new forms out, because I just took the astb last week on thursday and I scored a 4/5/4 41. I studied everything from peterson MMF and MOCS, Barron, Atpatrick, and marine gouge. The mechanical was like nothing I seen on any gouge or book. The spatial was just outrageous, it had extreme angles on it. The only thing that seem consistent with everything I seen on this site and read in gouges was the supplement part. Also there were no dates, or any geometry in the math part. I'm just really at a lost on what to study, because I put in at least 5-8 hours a day for a month straight studying and got the score I did.

 

[cjd3]

I wanted to know is there any new forms out, because I just took the astb last week on thursday and I scored a 4/5/4 41. I studied everything from peterson MMF and MOCS, Barron, Atpatrick, and marine gouge. The mechanical was like nothing I seen on any gouge or book. The spatial was just outrageous, it had extreme angles on it. The only thing that seem consistent with everything I seen on this site and read in gouges was the supplement part. Also there were no dates, or any geometry in the math part. I'm just really at a lost on what to study, because I put in at least 5-8 hours a day for a month straight studying and got the score I did.

At the beginning of the exam it says the form number on the screen in a little drop box. If you didn't see which you had you might be able to contact your processor and ask them. I took it thursday as well, form 5. Studied peterson, atpatrick and marine gouge along with a bunch of online flash cards people linked and reading through too many posts on here. 8/8/7/64

Math was math, as expected, only two problems that took over 30 seconds so I'd say it was easier than practice. Practice practice practice. (Didn't have pizza question)

Mechanical learn how levers/pulleys/gears/incline planes all work, how engines work (combustion cycle, that valves open to let air in/exhaust out) and bernoulli's principle (applies to water through pipes, air over wings, propeller blade design producing thrust).

Reading comp might have hurt me but no idea how you'd practice for that one.

Spatial was harder than practice but essentially the same thing. I practiced until I was very fast so it wasn't too big of a deal. The angles of bank possible are level, banked (about 22.5 degrees) and extreme bank (45 degrees). Identify if plane is going land to sea, sea to land, along coast. A lot of the time it's a diagonal heading relative to the coast but you can still tell if heading in from or out toward sea. More land in view = pitched down, more sky = up, equal = level. Right side higher = right wing down. Use hand to model airplane and apply the necessary bank/rotation with it if that helps you.

Aviation read the FAA handbook. Front to back (free online, FAA website), good to know if going for aviation anyways. Take notes, pitot tube, red and green flashing lights, should be in there, FAA weight load ratio or something along those lines is a tricky one. Nautical stuff is pretty well covered in online gouge, I had no questions specific to a certain kind of ship, gunwhale, waterline, light on starboard side, aft is toward which direction, ect.

Supplement know aircraft types, A-10 warthog, bomber used to drop the nukes, amelia earhart, chuck yeager, flashcards and gouge covered most of this. Google/wikipedia additional info on aviation firsts, squadron designators and aircraft names-nicknames/purposes.

Math, Mech and Spatial practice until you are fast, make sure you understand it and aren't just memorizing. Aviation, Nautical and Supplement read a lot, take a lot of notes, go over the notes as many times as possible.

Good luck all!

 

[exNavyOffRec]

I wanted to know is there any new forms out, because I just took the astb last week on thursday and I scored a 4/5/4 41. I studied everything from peterson MMF and MOCS, Barron, Atpatrick, and marine gouge. The mechanical was like nothing I seen on any gouge or book. The spatial was just outrageous, it had extreme angles on it. The only thing that seem consistent with everything I seen on this site and read in gouges was the supplement part. Also there were no dates, or any geometry in the math part. I'm just really at a lost on what to study, because I put in at least 5-8 hours a day for a month straight studying and got the score I did.

There are 2 new versions, however a computer glitch is preventing them from being used at this time. There are 3 current versions out, have you taken all 3?

 

[clara kapinos]

There are 2 new versions, however a computer glitch is preventing them from being used at this time. There are 3 current versions out, have you taken all 3?

No, this was the first time I took the test.

 

[clara kapinos]

At the beginning of the exam it says the form number on the screen in a little drop box. If you didn't see which you had you might be able to contact your processor and ask them. I took it thursday as well, form 5. Studied peterson, atpatrick and marine gouge along with a bunch of online flash cards people linked and reading through too many posts on here. 8/8/7/64

Math was math, as expected, only two problems that took over 30 seconds so I'd say it was easier than practice. Practice practice practice. (Didn't have pizza question)

Mechanical learn how levers/pulleys/gears/incline planes all work, how engines work (combustion cycle, that valves open to let air in/exhaust out) and bernoulli's principle (applies to water through pipes, air over wings, propeller blade design producing thrust).

Reading comp might have hurt me but no idea how you'd practice for that one.

Spatial was harder than practice but essentially the same thing. I practiced until I was very fast so it wasn't too big of a deal. The angles of bank possible are level, banked (about 22.5 degrees) and extreme bank (45 degrees). Identify if plane is going land to sea, sea to land, along coast. A lot of the time it's a diagonal heading relative to the coast but you can still tell if heading in from or out toward sea. More land in view = pitched down, more sky = up, equal = level. Right side higher = right wing down. Use hand to model airplane and apply the necessary bank/rotation with it if that helps you.

Aviation read the FAA handbook. Front to back (free online, FAA website), good to know if going for aviation anyways. Take notes, pitot tube, red and green flashing lights, should be in there, FAA weight load ratio or something along those lines is a tricky one. Nautical stuff is pretty well covered in online gouge, I had no questions specific to a certain kind of ship, gunwhale, waterline, light on starboard side, aft is toward which direction, ect.

Supplement know aircraft types, A-10 warthog, bomber used to drop the nukes, amelia earhart, chuck yeager, flashcards and gouge covered most of this. Google/wikipedia additional info on aviation firsts, squadron designators and aircraft names-nicknames/purposes.

Math, Mech and Spatial practice until you are fast, make sure you understand it and aren't just memorizing. Aviation, Nautical and Supplement read a lot, take a lot of notes, go over the notes as many times as possible.

Good luck all!

Thank you for the advice, but The math was my fault because I panicked with the time. But the mechanical part had no pulleys or lever problems, and maybe 1 or 2 gear problems. The rest I never seen anything like them. For example, there was a box with all these arrows asking a question about which one will leave first, or something like that.

 

[Handozizle]

Hey all, I'm taking the ASTB for the second time tomorrow. I took my first one over a year ago without studying and didn't do that well. I had no intention of applying for aviation back then. I want to thank everyone on this great website for the information and gouge regarding the ASTB.

 

[Mr Spenz]

Took the ASTB today and got a 7/7/6/61. Seems competitive right? Thanks for the gouge on this forum helps a lot.

 

[RockinTheBit07]

I have taken the ASTB two times, both only the OAR because I was only going for SWO. Last time I took it I got a 43, even with studying a lot. I didnt get accepted to the last SWO board and am thinking of going for NFO and maybe SWO again. I am retaking the ASTB, the whole test, in a few weeks and hope to improve a lot. I have been using a lot of the information on this site, but the one thing I am still having issues with is timing. How have you all prepared for the time limits? Both times I have taken the test, the math section I didnt finish completely. Any suggestions?

 

[Mr Spenz]

Ya practice under timed conditions. I scored a 5/6/6/49 and improved to a 7/7/6/61

 

[cjd3]

Thank you for the advice, but The math was my fault because I panicked with the time. But the mechanical part had no pulleys or lever problems, and maybe 1 or 2 gear problems. The rest I never seen anything like them. For example, there was a box with all these arrows asking a question about which one will leave first, or something like that.

Ouch, yea I didn't have any boxes with arrows on mine. Maybe it was a tank question? I saw a couple practice ones asking which tanks would overflow and which valves you'd open/shut to get fluid to flow a certain way. Tanks were drawn as boxes and flow through pipes was indicated using arrows.

Electrical circuits are drawn using boxes with arrows as well but wouldn't ask which would leave first.

Ah well, hopefully this means that you got the worst test version out of the way first and will do awesome if you re-take it.

 

[cjd3]

I have taken the ASTB two times, both only the OAR because I was only going for SWO. Last time I took it I got a 43, even with studying a lot. I didnt get accepted to the last SWO board and am thinking of going for NFO and maybe SWO again. I am retaking the ASTB, the whole test, in a few weeks and hope to improve a lot. I have been using a lot of the information on this site, but the one thing I am still having issues with is timing. How have you all prepared for the time limits? Both times I have taken the test, the math section I didnt finish completely. Any suggestions?

I practiced until I could quickly figure out how to solve every practice problem type. Then worked on doing long division/multiplication by hand and brushed up on multiplication tables. Test day any problem I saw that would take me over 20-30 sec I skipped immediately. By the end I had skipped two and marked two for review. I had plenty of time leftover to take my time with those.

 

[Mr Spenz]

To be honest when it comes to the OAR section it's just an aptitude test so understanding the concepts is more important than worrying about the problems. As for the aviation section it's all knowledge based and can be improved on the most.

 

[RockinTheBit07]

Thanks for the responses, I need to work on my long division and times tables to be quicker. The mechanical comprehension is what worries me the most. Like said before, I studied hard for this section, but going in, it was like a foreign language. This is why I should have taken a physics class in high school, because now i'm trying to learn the basics in 3 weeks. When taking it on the computer, can you skip a question and go back? I could have sworn my processor told me I couldn't, so I panicked in the math section and tried to get every question right off the bat, which ended up costing me like 4 unanswered questions. MrSpenz-- Wow that was quite the improvement! When I re-took it and only bumped up two points....I was extremely disappointed.

 

[Scaevola]

Thanks for the responses, I need to work on my long division and times tables to be quicker. The mechanical comprehension is what worries me the most. Like said before, I studied hard for this section, but going in, it was like a foreign language. This is why I should have taken a physics class in high school, because now i'm trying to learn the basics in 3 weeks. When taking it on the computer, can you skip a question and go back? I could have sworn my processor told me I couldn't, so I panicked in the math section and tried to get every question right off the bat, which ended up costing me like 4 unanswered questions. MrSpenz-- Wow that was quite the improvement! When I re-took it and only bumped up two points....I was extremely disappointed.

Not sure if the on-screen instructions before the test have changed recently, but when I took the ASTB in February 2013 they made it very clear that you can skip around within each section as much as you want. It even gives you a chance to practice using the controls that let you navigate back to items you skipped. Skipped items are colored red at the bottom in the list of item numbers, and you can manually flag items for further review. You cannot skip back to a previous section, though - once you move on from math to reading, no chance to go back to math even if you wrap up reading early.

 

[Mr Spenz]

Thanks. Like I said learn the concepts and apply them to the mechanical section. Thank you I was pretty happy esp since I took it after a day at MEPS.