CoDecoy
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1,001 questions about the ASTB (post your scores & ask your questions here!)
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Do you have a class date?
Dan2321
Member
Oct 14!
chinky187
Cbass
My test score got worse. 44-4-5-4 to 41-3-5-3. This will basically be my experience and what NOT to do for the exam. Honestly, I went in extremely nervous. More so than the last time I took this test. My over all tip is to not be nervous because they will not ask you anything that you cannot solve.
I am a physical therapy major and graduated with a 2.82 GPA. I have a pretty goo background of math and physics so that made me confident, but I have always been a bad test taker and my scores show that.
MATH: A grab bag of questions.
1. 4^-2 easy
2. What is the chance of getting a 2 or more on a dice or a heart from a deck of cards. I didn’t really understand the question. I still don’t but if any of you can help I would greatly appreciate it. I don’t remember the answers, so I am not sure that the answer I have in front of me is correct. Seems easy
3. A (69 sideways) B=A-B-AB and A (69 symbol sideways)5=6 solve for A. This really pissed me off because I have never seen that symbol before unless I didn’t see it correctly. Help me with this please ☹ hard because I didn’t know what the symbol meant.
4 consecutive discounts: original price was 30,000 but he got 20% off then an additional 25% off. What did he pay for it? Easy
5. there was a geometry problem that had a triangle with a line sticking out of it with (3x-1) and (2x-15) in the inner part of the triangle and 4x on the outside of the triangle representing the outside angle, solve for X. Easy but I ran out of time before I could finish it AND I had this same problem the first time I took this test 8 months ago.
6. (-4)-[(-2)(-3){(3)(4)-(8)}]-(-3)(-8) I am pretty sure I got this wrong because I underestimated it haha the “{ }” symbol threw me off haha
OVERALL: There were a lot of fractional D=RT, probability, and basic algebra. I have taken more intense math and the only reason I did worse this time was because I wasn’t prepared for these basic concepts under timed constraints. I took the entire time. Overall, I give myself 5/10
READING:
I cannot stress to you enough how badly I did in this section. I have always had a hard time reading and it shows. I get lost and blank out half way through this dry reading. Be comfortable reading and digesting information. Read in your spare time to lower your fatigue levels for this section. I honestly think I answered only 2 questions correct in this section because text got very small. I answered about 15 questions and took the entire time. Overall, I easily give myself a 1/10
MECHANICAL:
This is an easy portion to study for.
I had a question about buoyancy and specific gravity.
Mechanical advantage: which position do you put the fulcrum to get the highest lift
There was one that showed a hot air balloon increasing in altitude and asked what is happening to the volume of air.
There was a small calculation problem F=MA
If you compress a spring, what type of energy is it? The answers were weird
If you roll a rock to the top of a hill, what is the type of energy it has at the top of the hill?
There was one that showed a tube of different radii and asked if the speed of fluid is faster in the smaller radius than the bigger radius. Just understand pressure and velocity.
I had a pully problem that was kind of difficult to describe. A weight being help with 4 pullies and asked what for you need to raise it. Answers were fractions so it kind of threw me off? I’ll need to investigate this.
I got circuit problem which made me kind of happy however, I forgot it.
Venturi effect. What it is I think?
Tension on a rope
At which point of a roller coaster does it have the most kinetic energy
I remember a question on
One question that showed 3 balloons. 1 was a big oval, 1 was a small circle, one was a big circle. All of them were headed toward the earths atmosphere, which one had a greater pressure on it. I honestly didn’t understand if it meant from the inside to out or outside to in.
Oh! There was a question about what happens when you pull a control rod from a nuclear reactor. The neutron flux increases, decreases, etc. overall, I think I did 7/10.
P.S. I remember a question on a ball being thrown up and a ball thrown down, which has more kinetic energy? I forgot.
AVIATION/NAUTICAL:
I did the best in this section IMO.
I had a question on the VASI
I had a question about colored shirts (I forgot which one).
What does the pitot tube measure?
What is a CVBG? Easy
What is the purpose of the flaps that come out of the deck of an aircraft….? Easy
What is bulkhead?
I think I remember a question saying “where do you eat on a ship” got excited how easy it was going
there was a question describing something that sounded like a cowling, but the answers were strut, pylon, and 2 other random answers. I think it was this question that I saw on the study sheet you can find on here “post for mounting things underneath the wing?”
there are 2 different air spaces in the US, what are they?
What controls pitch?
I swear I saw the question on Iraqi freedom, but the answers were none that I saw on the air warriors study material. All in all, I think I did 7/10.
This test is easy to study for with the help of air warriors and the study posted on here!!! Utilize the study guide!!!!
JOYSTICK AND DICHOTIC LISTENING:
Okay, I got a little trigger happy and clicked through the instructions thinking I already knew what to do, WRONG!!!!!! I forgot which target ear was even and which was odd. I didn’t get one number correct. Essentially a zero for this part. Take your time.
COMPASS TRICK WITH A TWIST!
Okay, so you have all heard of the compass trick, right? Well I did a little variation that got me to select the correct parking lot in 1.3-2.5 seconds. I missed one.
1. Create your compass. N, S, E, W, NE, SE, SW, NW, ETC.
2. Puncture a hole with your pencil so that you are holding it with the face of the paper facing towards you. It should be your hand, pencil, paper, then your face.
3. Rotate it to the direction your heading is and make the appropriate parking lot choice.
Honestly, this made it so easy.
THROTTLE PORTION:
Super easy and I think I did superb. Track your target in the y axis with a horrible throttle stick. Easy.
JOYSTICK PORTION:
For this portion, I practiced by switching my mouse y axis so it inverted it. Up is down and down is up. You’re taking a 3d simulation to a 2d simulation which is why the y axis is inverted. This, I think, helped me so much! Such good practice.
JOSTICK AND THROTTLE and dichotic listening:
I thought it was super easy. Play fortnite and you will have a good grasp on the multitasking that needs to be done to do well.
FINAL EMERGENCIES:
Write them down and get familiar with them and the direction of the knob that you will be moving. TAKE YOUR TIME! Don’t rush it.
Overall test: 4/10 with those scores ☹
I am a physical therapy major and graduated with a 2.82 GPA. I have a pretty goo background of math and physics so that made me confident, but I have always been a bad test taker and my scores show that.
MATH: A grab bag of questions.
1. 4^-2 easy
2. What is the chance of getting a 2 or more on a dice or a heart from a deck of cards. I didn’t really understand the question. I still don’t but if any of you can help I would greatly appreciate it. I don’t remember the answers, so I am not sure that the answer I have in front of me is correct. Seems easy
3. A (69 sideways) B=A-B-AB and A (69 symbol sideways)5=6 solve for A. This really pissed me off because I have never seen that symbol before unless I didn’t see it correctly. Help me with this please ☹ hard because I didn’t know what the symbol meant.
4 consecutive discounts: original price was 30,000 but he got 20% off then an additional 25% off. What did he pay for it? Easy
5. there was a geometry problem that had a triangle with a line sticking out of it with (3x-1) and (2x-15) in the inner part of the triangle and 4x on the outside of the triangle representing the outside angle, solve for X. Easy but I ran out of time before I could finish it AND I had this same problem the first time I took this test 8 months ago.
6. (-4)-[(-2)(-3){(3)(4)-(8)}]-(-3)(-8) I am pretty sure I got this wrong because I underestimated it haha the “{ }” symbol threw me off haha
OVERALL: There were a lot of fractional D=RT, probability, and basic algebra. I have taken more intense math and the only reason I did worse this time was because I wasn’t prepared for these basic concepts under timed constraints. I took the entire time. Overall, I give myself 5/10
READING:
I cannot stress to you enough how badly I did in this section. I have always had a hard time reading and it shows. I get lost and blank out half way through this dry reading. Be comfortable reading and digesting information. Read in your spare time to lower your fatigue levels for this section. I honestly think I answered only 2 questions correct in this section because text got very small. I answered about 15 questions and took the entire time. Overall, I easily give myself a 1/10
MECHANICAL:
This is an easy portion to study for.
I had a question about buoyancy and specific gravity.
Mechanical advantage: which position do you put the fulcrum to get the highest lift
There was one that showed a hot air balloon increasing in altitude and asked what is happening to the volume of air.
There was a small calculation problem F=MA
If you compress a spring, what type of energy is it? The answers were weird
If you roll a rock to the top of a hill, what is the type of energy it has at the top of the hill?
There was one that showed a tube of different radii and asked if the speed of fluid is faster in the smaller radius than the bigger radius. Just understand pressure and velocity.
I had a pully problem that was kind of difficult to describe. A weight being help with 4 pullies and asked what for you need to raise it. Answers were fractions so it kind of threw me off? I’ll need to investigate this.
I got circuit problem which made me kind of happy however, I forgot it.
Venturi effect. What it is I think?
Tension on a rope
At which point of a roller coaster does it have the most kinetic energy
I remember a question on
One question that showed 3 balloons. 1 was a big oval, 1 was a small circle, one was a big circle. All of them were headed toward the earths atmosphere, which one had a greater pressure on it. I honestly didn’t understand if it meant from the inside to out or outside to in.
Oh! There was a question about what happens when you pull a control rod from a nuclear reactor. The neutron flux increases, decreases, etc. overall, I think I did 7/10.
P.S. I remember a question on a ball being thrown up and a ball thrown down, which has more kinetic energy? I forgot.
AVIATION/NAUTICAL:
I did the best in this section IMO.
I had a question on the VASI
I had a question about colored shirts (I forgot which one).
What does the pitot tube measure?
What is a CVBG? Easy
What is the purpose of the flaps that come out of the deck of an aircraft….? Easy
What is bulkhead?
I think I remember a question saying “where do you eat on a ship” got excited how easy it was going
there was a question describing something that sounded like a cowling, but the answers were strut, pylon, and 2 other random answers. I think it was this question that I saw on the study sheet you can find on here “post for mounting things underneath the wing?”
there are 2 different air spaces in the US, what are they?
What controls pitch?
I swear I saw the question on Iraqi freedom, but the answers were none that I saw on the air warriors study material. All in all, I think I did 7/10.
This test is easy to study for with the help of air warriors and the study posted on here!!! Utilize the study guide!!!!
JOYSTICK AND DICHOTIC LISTENING:
Okay, I got a little trigger happy and clicked through the instructions thinking I already knew what to do, WRONG!!!!!! I forgot which target ear was even and which was odd. I didn’t get one number correct. Essentially a zero for this part. Take your time.
COMPASS TRICK WITH A TWIST!
Okay, so you have all heard of the compass trick, right? Well I did a little variation that got me to select the correct parking lot in 1.3-2.5 seconds. I missed one.
1. Create your compass. N, S, E, W, NE, SE, SW, NW, ETC.
2. Puncture a hole with your pencil so that you are holding it with the face of the paper facing towards you. It should be your hand, pencil, paper, then your face.
3. Rotate it to the direction your heading is and make the appropriate parking lot choice.
Honestly, this made it so easy.
THROTTLE PORTION:
Super easy and I think I did superb. Track your target in the y axis with a horrible throttle stick. Easy.
JOYSTICK PORTION:
For this portion, I practiced by switching my mouse y axis so it inverted it. Up is down and down is up. You’re taking a 3d simulation to a 2d simulation which is why the y axis is inverted. This, I think, helped me so much! Such good practice.
JOSTICK AND THROTTLE and dichotic listening:
I thought it was super easy. Play fortnite and you will have a good grasp on the multitasking that needs to be done to do well.
FINAL EMERGENCIES:
Write them down and get familiar with them and the direction of the knob that you will be moving. TAKE YOUR TIME! Don’t rush it.
Overall test: 4/10 with those scores ☹
Unless I'm missing something, the probability of rolling a 2+ on a standard die is 5/6 (6 total options, only one number you're trying to avoid) and the probability of pulling a heart from a deck of cards is 1/4 (the deck is evenly divided into 4 suits).
I had this same question and posted about it back on page 266. Have a look there and see if it helps you.
chinky187
Cbass
Just took the ASTB-E and thought I would post on here as it helped me a ton.
Score: 7/8/6 56
Background Info:
I am a sophomore at a service academy majoring in Aerospace Engineering. I have a 3.4 (roughly) GPA and I am a private pilot with about 178 hours. I will be selecting SNA.
Studying and Resources:
I didn't get to study as much as I would have liked to simply due to the nature of my school. However, I was still able to get solid studying time in mostly for the math and mechanical comprehension sections. I probably studied a net of 2 hours a day for about two weeks. I found that the study material made by people on this forum was more helpful than some of the books. I ranked my study materials below:
1. Study Material found on this forum
2. Barrons Military Flight Aptitude Tests: This book is great for walking you through a lot of the concepts and also has many good practice tests. However, I found a lot of the math questions were harder than in the book. It is worth the buy.
3. Master the Military Flight Aptitude Test: Not the best book by any means, but it did have some good questions if that what you are looking for.
My school also put on various ASTB review sessions which outlined the structure of the test and some example problems. This forum is a better equivalent to this. I think I probably read through 100-150 pages.
The Exam:
I had the exam in the afternoon after a heavy load of engineering classes. I tried to get as much rest as possible, taking about two naps throughout the day. I drank a lot of water and ate a sizable amount for breakfast and lunch which I think helped.
MST: I ran out of time on this section and probably did the worst on it. There were plenty of algebra questions, fractions, lots of averages, and one log and matrix problem. The averages were the toughest by far. Much harder than anything in the test preparation material which made me feel uncomfortable and not confident at all. This probably hurt my score the most.
"Josh scores a 75, 60, and 94, on the first 3 exams. If his 4th exam is 10/9 of the average of the first three, what does he have to score on the next two in order to average a 85 on exams."
"A war starts in the year x^2 and ends in the year (x+1)^2. If the total length of the war is 29 years, what year did the war start.
RCT: I felt like I did better than I thought on this exam, but I am still not sure. I read the passages multiple times and then went to the answers. Obvious incorrect statements I threw out before going back to read the passage to decide on the answer that was closest.
MCT: The questions here were very similar to the study material on this website as well as Barrons study book. You can easily study pretty much everything you need on this section: everything is out there. I made my money here. I had 3 ideal gas law problems, pulleys, force, no gears, and no circuits. Overall pretty easy.
ANIT: Anything I say here is probably not helpful as I have flight experience and I am an Aero major. I started out with an AoA question, to a question about some aerodynamic properties of ailerons and elevators, to questions about the AIM and things only private pilots would know. So I knew I was doing well here. Only questions I had regarding nautical stuff was "What is the lowest deck on a ship called / What is the highest deck called." This section probably lasted 5 minutes max.
NATFI: I just answered these honestly. I heard that trying to fabricate your answers can dig you a hole. If I couldn't decide between two questions I generally picked what made me seem more of an extrovert or a leader. I think they may just be looking for consistency here.
PBM: During the practice I just decided to use the compass trick as I was not consistent without it. I missed one question averaging around 2-3 seconds each.
I was able to practice this a little bit before taking it by using a simulator made in matlab that is on this forum. However, I did have to modify the simulator to correct the y axis inversion. Overall, this probably did not help much at all. Maybe it just got me used to the controls. Putting everything together with the listening was hard, but just try your best. I would recommend not pausing to take a breath nor anything alike. Just keep going, keep trying and you should come out of it well.
Summary: This forum was the biggest help in figuring out what to expect. Go in confident about your studying and you should do well. I am content with my scores and will keep them. However, if I had to take it again, I would say that my first experience taking it would be the most help in doing better the second time around.
Score: 7/8/6 56
Background Info:
I am a sophomore at a service academy majoring in Aerospace Engineering. I have a 3.4 (roughly) GPA and I am a private pilot with about 178 hours. I will be selecting SNA.
Studying and Resources:
I didn't get to study as much as I would have liked to simply due to the nature of my school. However, I was still able to get solid studying time in mostly for the math and mechanical comprehension sections. I probably studied a net of 2 hours a day for about two weeks. I found that the study material made by people on this forum was more helpful than some of the books. I ranked my study materials below:
1. Study Material found on this forum
2. Barrons Military Flight Aptitude Tests: This book is great for walking you through a lot of the concepts and also has many good practice tests. However, I found a lot of the math questions were harder than in the book. It is worth the buy.
3. Master the Military Flight Aptitude Test: Not the best book by any means, but it did have some good questions if that what you are looking for.
My school also put on various ASTB review sessions which outlined the structure of the test and some example problems. This forum is a better equivalent to this. I think I probably read through 100-150 pages.
The Exam:
I had the exam in the afternoon after a heavy load of engineering classes. I tried to get as much rest as possible, taking about two naps throughout the day. I drank a lot of water and ate a sizable amount for breakfast and lunch which I think helped.
MST: I ran out of time on this section and probably did the worst on it. There were plenty of algebra questions, fractions, lots of averages, and one log and matrix problem. The averages were the toughest by far. Much harder than anything in the test preparation material which made me feel uncomfortable and not confident at all. This probably hurt my score the most.
"Josh scores a 75, 60, and 94, on the first 3 exams. If his 4th exam is 10/9 of the average of the first three, what does he have to score on the next two in order to average a 85 on exams."
"A war starts in the year x^2 and ends in the year (x+1)^2. If the total length of the war is 29 years, what year did the war start.
RCT: I felt like I did better than I thought on this exam, but I am still not sure. I read the passages multiple times and then went to the answers. Obvious incorrect statements I threw out before going back to read the passage to decide on the answer that was closest.
MCT: The questions here were very similar to the study material on this website as well as Barrons study book. You can easily study pretty much everything you need on this section: everything is out there. I made my money here. I had 3 ideal gas law problems, pulleys, force, no gears, and no circuits. Overall pretty easy.
ANIT: Anything I say here is probably not helpful as I have flight experience and I am an Aero major. I started out with an AoA question, to a question about some aerodynamic properties of ailerons and elevators, to questions about the AIM and things only private pilots would know. So I knew I was doing well here. Only questions I had regarding nautical stuff was "What is the lowest deck on a ship called / What is the highest deck called." This section probably lasted 5 minutes max.
NATFI: I just answered these honestly. I heard that trying to fabricate your answers can dig you a hole. If I couldn't decide between two questions I generally picked what made me seem more of an extrovert or a leader. I think they may just be looking for consistency here.
PBM: During the practice I just decided to use the compass trick as I was not consistent without it. I missed one question averaging around 2-3 seconds each.
I was able to practice this a little bit before taking it by using a simulator made in matlab that is on this forum. However, I did have to modify the simulator to correct the y axis inversion. Overall, this probably did not help much at all. Maybe it just got me used to the controls. Putting everything together with the listening was hard, but just try your best. I would recommend not pausing to take a breath nor anything alike. Just keep going, keep trying and you should come out of it well.
Summary: This forum was the biggest help in figuring out what to expect. Go in confident about your studying and you should do well. I am content with my scores and will keep them. However, if I had to take it again, I would say that my first experience taking it would be the most help in doing better the second time around.
wnader
Member
i think the best way to do the war problem is to understand that the difference between the start date and end date is 29, so (x+1)^2 -x^2=29? involves foiling and stuff but the answer should be 14. im not entirely sure though
I actually did not know exactly how to do this problem as I never have seen it before. But answers were in the hundreds. So I was assuming you square 14 to get 196 as the y value. This was one of the answers so I went with it. I think this is right because in (x+1)^2=y, x^2=y the y value represents the year. So subtracting final year - starting year as you have described would give you 14 for x. 14 doesn't mean much unless you get the y value (year) associated with the starting year function (x^2) -> (14^2)=196
zhenya.goncharov
Member
Hi Air Warriors Community,
A quick post to thank everyone who put study guides on this thread and who took the time to detail their experience!
Two sentences about me. I am a naturalized US citizen, originally from Ukraine (speak Ukrainian and Russian fluently). I am 27 years old. Worked 4 years at Bank of America in technology, and 6 months ago moved to Wells Fargo where I work as a Financial Consultant in the Treasury Department. I got my bachelor from Hampden-Sydney College in Mathematical Economics (3.5 GPA), and now I am 1 semester away from getting my masters in Data Science (4.0 GPA). I want to go into the Navy as an INTEL Officer.
OAR prep experience was stressful. Collecting materials from books and different threads was not that easy. Spent weekends and weeknights studying, memorizing, reading and taking practice tests. I won't go into the details of what I studied because so many people already talked about it earlier, but I do want to mention that about 60-70% of the questions on the OAR I saw for the first time! Believe me I looked through all the books and all different study guides. So mostly had to use the concepts that I've learned and think through each problem logically, and then at the end of the day choosing the most reasonable answer. I guessed on some, not going to lie.
A month ago I took the OAR for the first time (two weeks of studying) and got a score of 44. I rushed because I thought that I had to answer all 30-35 questions in math, 25-30 question in paragraph comprehension and 15-20 in mechanical. That's not the case. It's all about getting questions right even if it takes 3 or 4 min).
I took the OAR this morning, felt like I didn't do well, spent 6-7 min on a math problem which I ended up guessing on anyways (gosh that was stressful). Prayed a lot during the OAR and truly believe that God helped me through this process. Ran out of time on ALL sections and ended up with a score of 56.
Curious to hear what this community thinks my chances of being selected are (considering my background (languages, Data Science masters degree, work experience), but not the strongest OAR result).
I am going to go with this score with the hope that my background, references and statement of purpose for joining will make up for it. Super determined to get commissioned as an officer. Please let me know if I can be of any assistance to anyone. Ill upload some materials which I used to study (a collection from what other people in this community put together, very generous). At the moment, I do not know where to direct you to study for questions that I saw for the first time. I may spend some time looking around the web and posting another post with example questions which I saw.
Again, thank you everyone for the collaborative help and I hope that you do well on the OAR/ASTB as well.
Thanks,
Z
A quick post to thank everyone who put study guides on this thread and who took the time to detail their experience!
Two sentences about me. I am a naturalized US citizen, originally from Ukraine (speak Ukrainian and Russian fluently). I am 27 years old. Worked 4 years at Bank of America in technology, and 6 months ago moved to Wells Fargo where I work as a Financial Consultant in the Treasury Department. I got my bachelor from Hampden-Sydney College in Mathematical Economics (3.5 GPA), and now I am 1 semester away from getting my masters in Data Science (4.0 GPA). I want to go into the Navy as an INTEL Officer.
OAR prep experience was stressful. Collecting materials from books and different threads was not that easy. Spent weekends and weeknights studying, memorizing, reading and taking practice tests. I won't go into the details of what I studied because so many people already talked about it earlier, but I do want to mention that about 60-70% of the questions on the OAR I saw for the first time! Believe me I looked through all the books and all different study guides. So mostly had to use the concepts that I've learned and think through each problem logically, and then at the end of the day choosing the most reasonable answer. I guessed on some, not going to lie.
A month ago I took the OAR for the first time (two weeks of studying) and got a score of 44. I rushed because I thought that I had to answer all 30-35 questions in math, 25-30 question in paragraph comprehension and 15-20 in mechanical. That's not the case. It's all about getting questions right even if it takes 3 or 4 min).
I took the OAR this morning, felt like I didn't do well, spent 6-7 min on a math problem which I ended up guessing on anyways (gosh that was stressful). Prayed a lot during the OAR and truly believe that God helped me through this process. Ran out of time on ALL sections and ended up with a score of 56.
Curious to hear what this community thinks my chances of being selected are (considering my background (languages, Data Science masters degree, work experience), but not the strongest OAR result).
I am going to go with this score with the hope that my background, references and statement of purpose for joining will make up for it. Super determined to get commissioned as an officer. Please let me know if I can be of any assistance to anyone. Ill upload some materials which I used to study (a collection from what other people in this community put together, very generous). At the moment, I do not know where to direct you to study for questions that I saw for the first time. I may spend some time looking around the web and posting another post with example questions which I saw.
Again, thank you everyone for the collaborative help and I hope that you do well on the OAR/ASTB as well.
Thanks,
Z
Last edited:
zhenya.goncharov
Member
A few more attachments...
Quick question regarding LORs. I have three LORs so far. 2 Vice Admirals (yes, I know them personally) and 1 from a Cabinet Secretary (also yes, I know him personally). I’m working on getting my scores up from my previous OAR. If I score within the high 40s low 50s, how well will my LORs carry me? I also am prior experience with multiple leadership roles inside and outside the military.
Are you going for aviation? If so, the LORs don't carry much at all. My recruiter didn't have me do any.
I am not going aviation. PAO, SUPPO, SWO are my top 3
jboliver08
Well-Known Member
Why is that? Did he explain it to you at all? I'm currently in Pensacola as an instructor. Will be submitting my package in December and was actually curious about the LOR's. I've heard mixed feelings about them. I'll be submitting for NFO.
He didn't really explain it to me, but from what I've gathered, the ASTB scores and GPA are really what makes or breaks you. Those numbers get put into a calculator to see if you're competitive or not. The other stuff in your application is just fluff, at least for aviation. For other communities, though, LORs are definitely needed. Just depends on the community I guess.