-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
1,001 questions about the ASTB (post your scores & ask your questions here!)
- Thread starter edato
- Start date
MambaJamba1124
Winging it!!
Hey guys I take my ASTB December 2nd! What did some of you do to keep calm a couple days before thes test? (besides studying)
LawlessNavyman
New Member
So I took form 5 of the test on Monday. I got a 6/7/6 54. Talking to the recruiter he said he would be optimistic with those scores. He saying that they would like to see people with 7's across the board and 50+ OAR but it's still a decent score. Form 5 was fairly easy I thought. I'll break down some of the stuff I saw and how the study guides helped
Math- I thought it was much easier than the Barron's study guide. Had about 3-4 word problems and everything was quite easy to figure out. This section I was most nervous about because I was just not that strong with it all.
Reading- I didn't really study much for this section because it's kind of hard to study for this one. It was fairly difficult in my opinion. I could usually narrow it down to 2-3 out of 4 of them.
Mechanical- this section was my next most difficult section. I had a lot of questions about weight balancing on a fulcrum and also a couple about MA. This was more difficult than the Barron's and atricks study guide.
Spatial- Holy crap. This was far more difficult than the ones they give you in all the books. The pictures they give you and the angles of bank that the planes were at was more extreme and some didn't make sense. I was scoring 100 everytime on the practices and I felt like I was confident but this section kind of threw me.
ANIT- this was pretty easy. I have my air warfare wings in the navy and this helped. I had many questions about flight instruments and what they did. Also about flight control surfaces. Also had one that ask where does a pilot feel the least amount of Gs in a loop. I have seen that question before but I couldn't remember for the life of me. The study guides and books prepare you well for this section
Supplemental- this was about 60-70% aviation nautical again, no math, no reading, and couple mechanical physics questions. In hear I also had questions about clouds and some weather stuff. Also about navigation aids. Like RMI and ADF, ADB and also VASI.
This post if for all the help I got from everyone on here. I know these test are going to be absolete in a week but it may help later. Good luck to everyone. If this helps anyone then I have done my job and helped to pay it forward. Good luck and hope to see some of you on the other side
Math- I thought it was much easier than the Barron's study guide. Had about 3-4 word problems and everything was quite easy to figure out. This section I was most nervous about because I was just not that strong with it all.
Reading- I didn't really study much for this section because it's kind of hard to study for this one. It was fairly difficult in my opinion. I could usually narrow it down to 2-3 out of 4 of them.
Mechanical- this section was my next most difficult section. I had a lot of questions about weight balancing on a fulcrum and also a couple about MA. This was more difficult than the Barron's and atricks study guide.
Spatial- Holy crap. This was far more difficult than the ones they give you in all the books. The pictures they give you and the angles of bank that the planes were at was more extreme and some didn't make sense. I was scoring 100 everytime on the practices and I felt like I was confident but this section kind of threw me.
ANIT- this was pretty easy. I have my air warfare wings in the navy and this helped. I had many questions about flight instruments and what they did. Also about flight control surfaces. Also had one that ask where does a pilot feel the least amount of Gs in a loop. I have seen that question before but I couldn't remember for the life of me. The study guides and books prepare you well for this section
Supplemental- this was about 60-70% aviation nautical again, no math, no reading, and couple mechanical physics questions. In hear I also had questions about clouds and some weather stuff. Also about navigation aids. Like RMI and ADF, ADB and also VASI.
This post if for all the help I got from everyone on here. I know these test are going to be absolete in a week but it may help later. Good luck to everyone. If this helps anyone then I have done my job and helped to pay it forward. Good luck and hope to see some of you on the other side
Great to see a fellow 'tweety' shooting for career improvement. There are a number of experienced, winged priors here on AW, willing to answer questions, and offering mentoring if asked. We take great pride in the successes of today's priors.
Okay, so your ASTB is not quite the 7s you wanted, but it is competitive. Plus if you don't get your BS until next Sep, you can chance a retake. How totally competitive depends mainly on your GPA, and the remainder of your package.
Good onya for passing on your gouge. Helping each other out, is an attitude that will pay dividends from supporting each other in the application /waiting period, in OCS, ant the entire flight training program (and beyond). Good luck in you quest!
BzB, prior ET2 (SS)
MAS ERAU '89
MambaJamba1124
Winging it!!
I'm glad you posted this! I have been studying very hard using the Arco and Barron's, and very happy to hear about the math section, but a little disappointed to hear about the spatial subtlest.( I too have been getting 100% on the subtlest in the books) Thank you so much for passing on your experience it has calmed my nerves for when I take mine( 12/2/2013 -_- ) I wish you the best of luck!
mike23!
Member
Thanks for the good info, theres a few other members here who had mentioned different things about versions 3 and 4 so it gives a good base of what to look at for the three test forms.
Definitely some good info to know. Ive been studying the Barron and Arco books as well. Glad to hear that the math was not that bad compared to the books. I take my test on the 5th and I will post up my thoughts afterwards. Even though on the 9th the new version rolls out but I'm sure the math and the other sections will be pretty similar to what they are now.
Hi, I'm currently enlisted and have a degree in Political Science (3.56), applying for Pilot/NFO/SWO.
I studied for a good 2 months and took the ASTB form 4 last week and received a 6/6/5 49. I am not happy with the 5 or the 49. The math, though very simple compared to the study material, is what killed me as I caught myself stumped on some of the easiest questions....consequently running out of time for that portion. I think maybe I was just psyched out beforehand. There was a simple distance problem that I couldn't wrap my mind around! Still kicking myself. I marked 3 to go back to and left about 6 unanswered. Please do not make the same mistake I made.
For those concerned about the math, I had at least 3 problems dealing with exponents. One problem dealing with the average of 4 grades. Rate problems. One "what is next in this sequence.." problem. Just easy, easy stuff that the arco guides, self made study guides and proprof flashcards all address. I'll try and edit this post with more examples as I remember them. Don't psyche yourself out like I did and spend hours looking through GMAT books at Barnes and Noble. Remember these questions are designed to be done in roughly 50 seconds.
Reading comprehension was pretty rough after the math debacle. Just try and read carefully, some of these questions were tricky. It's difficult to prepare for this section. I had about 5 minutes remaining though.
The mechanical is essentially common sense stuff, I only had one problem with pulleys and none with with gears which was a little disappointing. Nothing memorable here to address, just a few here and there that I had to guess on. Again, the study materials will suffice. Keep in mind that you only have 15 minutes for this section. I was very conscious of this after the math section.
Spacial apperception was a little out there. The pictures themselves resemble that of the one's in atrickplay's guide (the layout). The angles however were indeed a little crazy like previously mentioned. I think I had a total of 3 questions that were strictly left/right bank, descending/ascending, out to sea/to land. The rest were more like left/right bank (to a degree), ascending/descending, diagonally (to what degree), parallel to the shore land on my left/land on my right.
Naval/Aviation I breezed through pretty quickly, simple stuff here. Green/Red flashing lights, what is side is the red light on for a vessel, pitch, roll, yaw, rudder, elevator, which aircraft would is designed to strike ground targets, how many apollo missions total. High altitude fluffy clouds. One thing caught me off guard however, and this popped twice (supplemental as well). Something about a dial and what it points to. The answer choices were 3 letter acronyms that I can't seem to remember.
Supplemental was all aviation/nautical. Had a few repeats. Again easy stuff after the gouge and cards.
I want to mention a great app on the iphone called "Studyblue". This is a flashcard app with a great amount of student made flashcards. Download the app, search for ASTB and a list of of cards will pop up. There is a 300 card set consisting of atrickplay's material and there are numerous math sets that contain questions from all study sources....flip through them for time. There are also a great deal of sets with Naval/Aviation knowledge along with mechanical. Just about everything.
I am probably going to submit my first package with these scores as I wait and see how the new ASTB-E is. My testing facility already had the joysticks in the box ready to go, but the administrator mentioned that he would be surprised if the new format actually goes live on the 9th. We will see.
I hope this helped. Good luck.
I studied for a good 2 months and took the ASTB form 4 last week and received a 6/6/5 49. I am not happy with the 5 or the 49. The math, though very simple compared to the study material, is what killed me as I caught myself stumped on some of the easiest questions....consequently running out of time for that portion. I think maybe I was just psyched out beforehand. There was a simple distance problem that I couldn't wrap my mind around! Still kicking myself. I marked 3 to go back to and left about 6 unanswered. Please do not make the same mistake I made.
For those concerned about the math, I had at least 3 problems dealing with exponents. One problem dealing with the average of 4 grades. Rate problems. One "what is next in this sequence.." problem. Just easy, easy stuff that the arco guides, self made study guides and proprof flashcards all address. I'll try and edit this post with more examples as I remember them. Don't psyche yourself out like I did and spend hours looking through GMAT books at Barnes and Noble. Remember these questions are designed to be done in roughly 50 seconds.
Reading comprehension was pretty rough after the math debacle. Just try and read carefully, some of these questions were tricky. It's difficult to prepare for this section. I had about 5 minutes remaining though.
The mechanical is essentially common sense stuff, I only had one problem with pulleys and none with with gears which was a little disappointing. Nothing memorable here to address, just a few here and there that I had to guess on. Again, the study materials will suffice. Keep in mind that you only have 15 minutes for this section. I was very conscious of this after the math section.
Spacial apperception was a little out there. The pictures themselves resemble that of the one's in atrickplay's guide (the layout). The angles however were indeed a little crazy like previously mentioned. I think I had a total of 3 questions that were strictly left/right bank, descending/ascending, out to sea/to land. The rest were more like left/right bank (to a degree), ascending/descending, diagonally (to what degree), parallel to the shore land on my left/land on my right.
Naval/Aviation I breezed through pretty quickly, simple stuff here. Green/Red flashing lights, what is side is the red light on for a vessel, pitch, roll, yaw, rudder, elevator, which aircraft would is designed to strike ground targets, how many apollo missions total. High altitude fluffy clouds. One thing caught me off guard however, and this popped twice (supplemental as well). Something about a dial and what it points to. The answer choices were 3 letter acronyms that I can't seem to remember.
Supplemental was all aviation/nautical. Had a few repeats. Again easy stuff after the gouge and cards.
I want to mention a great app on the iphone called "Studyblue". This is a flashcard app with a great amount of student made flashcards. Download the app, search for ASTB and a list of of cards will pop up. There is a 300 card set consisting of atrickplay's material and there are numerous math sets that contain questions from all study sources....flip through them for time. There are also a great deal of sets with Naval/Aviation knowledge along with mechanical. Just about everything.
I am probably going to submit my first package with these scores as I wait and see how the new ASTB-E is. My testing facility already had the joysticks in the box ready to go, but the administrator mentioned that he would be surprised if the new format actually goes live on the 9th. We will see.
I hope this helped. Good luck.
exNavyOffRec
Well-Known Member
If you will be happy with SWO then submit if you heart is set on SNA then you should think about retaking, you scores and GPA set you up much better for SWO at this point.
Might just be your testing facility isn't on the ball, the NRD I came from has already prepared all but one computer for the new test, joysticks out, connected and tested.
MambaJamba1124
Winging it!!
Today at 10:00 am I took the ASTB, form 5.
I am happy to announce I scored the following:
PFAR: 7
FOFAR: 7
AQR: 5 (an ok score
)
OAR: 49
I will be posting some tips here in about an 30 minutes - 1 hour. I know the new version comes out on December 9th, but for the few stragglers like me who haven't taken the test yet, I want to provide some tips on certain sections!
I am happy to announce I scored the following:
PFAR: 7
FOFAR: 7
AQR: 5 (an ok score
)OAR: 49
I will be posting some tips here in about an 30 minutes - 1 hour. I know the new version comes out on December 9th, but for the few stragglers like me who haven't taken the test yet, I want to provide some tips on certain sections!
MambaJamba1124
Winging it!!
I recently took form 5 and can only speak for form 5
As previously stated the math section was and is easier than any of the study books! A good tip to remember is, if you have to guess, remember these problems are supposed to be done in 50 seconds or less so it is a good strategy to pick an answer that ends in 0,2,or 5 if and only if you have to make an educated guess! Use Arco and Barron's and time yourself for each section multiple times.
The mechanical section was common sense stuff. On this form you don't need to know classes of levers, don't need to learn how to read a micrometer, but you should definitely work on pulleys! The Barron's and arco book both helped me prepare for this part of the test pretty well.
Spatial- as stated before there is some pretty weird angles but they all make sense! Practice the Barron's and Arco sections, but definitely look at apatricks study guide because that is exactly how they look. Usually the ones that had weird angles there were two that were similar, but one was different usually going inland/ or going out to sea. Usually subtle differences in the extreme angles.
Aviation/nautical information- this section was pretty much apatricks study guide so study it! You don't need to know the Apollo mission and space stuff. They do ask about Chuck Yeager ( He goes by his full first name on the test) , and Amelia Earhart. They ask about parasite drag . The test asks about clouds too! To do well in this section like I stated before study apatricks guide!
The aviation supplemental subttest was the aviation/ nautical over again! Apatricks guide will suffice.
The reading comprehension was pretty easy just watch your time!
As previously stated the math section was and is easier than any of the study books! A good tip to remember is, if you have to guess, remember these problems are supposed to be done in 50 seconds or less so it is a good strategy to pick an answer that ends in 0,2,or 5 if and only if you have to make an educated guess! Use Arco and Barron's and time yourself for each section multiple times.
The mechanical section was common sense stuff. On this form you don't need to know classes of levers, don't need to learn how to read a micrometer, but you should definitely work on pulleys! The Barron's and arco book both helped me prepare for this part of the test pretty well.
Spatial- as stated before there is some pretty weird angles but they all make sense! Practice the Barron's and Arco sections, but definitely look at apatricks study guide because that is exactly how they look. Usually the ones that had weird angles there were two that were similar, but one was different usually going inland/ or going out to sea. Usually subtle differences in the extreme angles.
Aviation/nautical information- this section was pretty much apatricks study guide so study it! You don't need to know the Apollo mission and space stuff. They do ask about Chuck Yeager ( He goes by his full first name on the test) , and Amelia Earhart. They ask about parasite drag . The test asks about clouds too! To do well in this section like I stated before study apatricks guide!
The aviation supplemental subttest was the aviation/ nautical over again! Apatricks guide will suffice.
The reading comprehension was pretty easy just watch your time!
KNSnowy
Member
I did the exact same thing
I even thought that part of the test was designed to psych you out, because there were 2-3 interruptions when I took the Math portion so I was like "Okay, high-stress simulation!" 
No sense beating yourself up bro. Your 6s are good. Good luck if you retake!
agentw
New Member
Hello all,
I took the ASTB this morning, with no idea what form it was, but it wasn't too bad. Ended up with a 7/7/6 and a 61 OAR. I'm looking into Intel as my first choice, then SNFO/SNA/SWO all pretty equal as my next choices.
Main issues I had with the test was that I ran out of time with the Math, leaving several questions unanswered. This was due to a combination of problems I wasn't familiar with, as well as not paying enough attention to the clock. Don't forget the clock. Reading and Mechanical questions were mostly easy. The most issues I ran into was in the aviation supplement with questions about lights on the tower, and what do they mean, along with some acronym filled questions. Any flight experience would probably help out with that as well. Studied with the Officer Candidate Tests for Dummies book and various links found around the forum.
I don't know how helpful this is anymore, with a new version coming out that includes a joystick (which sounds ever more exciting than it is now)? But, for the next week or so, good luck!
I took the ASTB this morning, with no idea what form it was, but it wasn't too bad. Ended up with a 7/7/6 and a 61 OAR. I'm looking into Intel as my first choice, then SNFO/SNA/SWO all pretty equal as my next choices.
Main issues I had with the test was that I ran out of time with the Math, leaving several questions unanswered. This was due to a combination of problems I wasn't familiar with, as well as not paying enough attention to the clock. Don't forget the clock. Reading and Mechanical questions were mostly easy. The most issues I ran into was in the aviation supplement with questions about lights on the tower, and what do they mean, along with some acronym filled questions. Any flight experience would probably help out with that as well. Studied with the Officer Candidate Tests for Dummies book and various links found around the forum.
I don't know how helpful this is anymore, with a new version coming out that includes a joystick (which sounds ever more exciting than it is now)? But, for the next week or so, good luck!
mike23!
Member
I took the ASTB this morning and didnt do too well at all, especially for the pilot program. My scores 5/6/5 45. For some reason the mechanical and supplemental gave me problems. So I suppose I will be taking the newer version in February so I can have some more time to study.
I had form 3 and the math seemed pretty easy, I had to guess on about 5 problems due to running out of time.
Reading comp wasn't too bad, I kept having to read the passage two times or so because I was losing focus a little.
The mechanical was common sense stuff that I was overthinking way too much.
Spatial wasn't too bad. I was getting 100% on all the practice exams on this section but on the actual test some of the banks was a little sketchy.
Aviation and nautical was easy, a lot of shipboard questions that the Barrons covered.
Supplemental got me. A few of the questions was things i had remembered reading about but for the life of me I could not recall the sprecifics.
Im sure this info probably doesnt really help anyone out too much, especially with the new format being realeased but I thought i would still give a little insight on my experience.
I had form 3 and the math seemed pretty easy, I had to guess on about 5 problems due to running out of time.
Reading comp wasn't too bad, I kept having to read the passage two times or so because I was losing focus a little.
The mechanical was common sense stuff that I was overthinking way too much.
Spatial wasn't too bad. I was getting 100% on all the practice exams on this section but on the actual test some of the banks was a little sketchy.
Aviation and nautical was easy, a lot of shipboard questions that the Barrons covered.
Supplemental got me. A few of the questions was things i had remembered reading about but for the life of me I could not recall the sprecifics.
Im sure this info probably doesnt really help anyone out too much, especially with the new format being realeased but I thought i would still give a little insight on my experience.
Last edited:
