cchristoff89
New Member
Thanks for the input. And yes 57 is a great score, I got a 45 first time, 44 second time.
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1,001 questions about the ASTB (post your scores & ask your questions here!)
- Thread starter edato
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Thanks for the input. And yes 57 is a great score, I got a 45 first time, 44 second time.
dbutterfield
Member
I got a question about my eyesight, you mind giving me his contact info? I got my part 1 physical done and the optometrist, who was an AF doc, said that if I was commissioning for the AF, my astigmatism would disqualify me from fighters since it was 0.5 over the limit. I asked my recruiter if he knew what the requirements were or if he could find out, and he just said, "we'll just see what the board says"...
FormerRecruitingGuru
Making Recruiting Great Again
You can find the requirements yourself through the NAMI guide.
dbutterfield
Member
Thanks!
So if I'm reading this correctly from my DD2808, the second number in box 62 that says "S. -2.50" would DQ me from SNA?
StevenBlue18
Multi Life
I found the best study material was on this thread. They have some great study guides. As for the performance section I played first person shooter games inverted and added in two sets of headphones with two different devices for dichotic listening. Played call of duty on shipment was lots of action and was challenging with dichotic listening. For dichotic practice I used a text to voice app and recorded lines like “A2U1Z9F614”(male voice).Went from 4/5/5 to 6/8/7. Not a huge difference but good enough.
Scimitarze
Automated Member
Just got scheduled for next Tuesday at noon since he's the only test administrator that's available before the semester starts and is going on leave soon. Gives me about two weeks less than I would've hoped to finish studying, but hey what can you do?
bphelps95
New Member
Finished my second attempt yesterday and brought my score up to 44 from a 34. I know it isn't impressive by any means but I wouldn't have been able to pull up my score that much if it wasn't for all of the great gouges everyone has posted. I bought a GRE book and didn't find it to be all that helpful. The GRE books are good if you need a refresher in algebra. Barron's was extremely helpful for the mechanical section.
Hey guys,
Taking the OAR for the 2nd time tomorrow ! Ive been studying like crazy with the help of the study material that have been posted on here. My first time I received a 40 without studying. so hopefully this time around its better. Going for Crypto or SWO with a GPA of 3.02 Bachelor's in Information Technology .
Taking the OAR for the 2nd time tomorrow ! Ive been studying like crazy with the help of the study material that have been posted on here. My first time I received a 40 without studying. so hopefully this time around its better. Going for Crypto or SWO with a GPA of 3.02 Bachelor's in Information Technology .
FormerRecruitingGuru
Making Recruiting Great Again
I’d highly highly consider SWO more than CW since you barely make the GPA cut for it.
Yeah I'm going for SWO I know ill have a better chance of getting selected
rckmorty123
New Member
Hey Good luck! Let me know how it goes! I'm taking at Early Feb!
Don’t cut yourself down. That’s a 10 point jump. Congrats to you. I’m taking the oar again this Tuesday and aiming for that 10 point jump as well
Hey guys. I just took the test for the second time today. For my first attempt, I got a 53 5/5/6 after a week of studying. After another month of studying for my second attempt, I improved to a 58 7/7/8. I got much of my preparation advice from this thread, but I wanted to point out things I did that I haven't seen yet on this thread.
Math: A lot of people recommend Khan Academy. Khan Academy is good, but I mostly used the YouTube channel “The Organic Chemistry Tutor.” The guy explains things really well and provides excellent practice problems with his lessons. I specifically studied for:
Reading Comprehension: Read the passages aloud. It’ll help you stay awake.
ANIT: Flash cards. Below are the ones I used:
Comprehensive ANIT
Aviation history
Aircraft Crew/Shirt colors
US Navy Ratings
Naval Aircraft
I also looked up naval aircraft designation numbers on Wikipedia, and this for additional history
DISCLAIMER: I knew all of these flashcards and links (almost) perfectly, and I still only knew about 60-70% of the questions.
UAV: These flashcards. Whenever I saw the arrow pointing in a direction between two headings, I read it like this: NE, ES, SW, WN. The first letter was always the top left corner and the second letter was the top right. If you know these two, you can figure out the other two squares easily since it’s just the opposite side (example: opposite corner of north is south, opposite of west is east, etc.). I hope that made sense.
I didn’t really practice for the stick and throttle part of the test, but my recruiter gave me some good advice: don’t worry about being exactly on target. Just focus on staying behind and mimicking its movements. This took pressure off me and I ended up doing much better.
Everything else I did to prepare can be found on post 4462 and 4531. Just check out the entire thread, it has a bunch of good stuff.
Best of luck everyone!
Math: A lot of people recommend Khan Academy. Khan Academy is good, but I mostly used the YouTube channel “The Organic Chemistry Tutor.” The guy explains things really well and provides excellent practice problems with his lessons. I specifically studied for:
- logarithms (adding, subtracting, change of base formula)
- matrices (adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing)
- equations with fractional exponents and radicals (including multiplication with different indexes and radicals in the denominator)
- perfect numbers (6, 28, 496, 8128)
- system of equations
- finding the quantity of a series, finding the sum of that arithmetic series
Reading Comprehension: Read the passages aloud. It’ll help you stay awake.
ANIT: Flash cards. Below are the ones I used:
Comprehensive ANIT
Aviation history
Aircraft Crew/Shirt colors
US Navy Ratings
Naval Aircraft
I also looked up naval aircraft designation numbers on Wikipedia, and this for additional history
DISCLAIMER: I knew all of these flashcards and links (almost) perfectly, and I still only knew about 60-70% of the questions.
UAV: These flashcards. Whenever I saw the arrow pointing in a direction between two headings, I read it like this: NE, ES, SW, WN. The first letter was always the top left corner and the second letter was the top right. If you know these two, you can figure out the other two squares easily since it’s just the opposite side (example: opposite corner of north is south, opposite of west is east, etc.). I hope that made sense.
I didn’t really practice for the stick and throttle part of the test, but my recruiter gave me some good advice: don’t worry about being exactly on target. Just focus on staying behind and mimicking its movements. This took pressure off me and I ended up doing much better.
Everything else I did to prepare can be found on post 4462 and 4531. Just check out the entire thread, it has a bunch of good stuff.
Best of luck everyone!
Wiktoria
Member
Took the OAR for the first time today and scored 57. My recruiter was very happy with that score so I'm guessing I don't need to take it second time. To prepare for the test I only used the materials posted here ( I just went through and solved all the math and mechanics problems available in the study materials). The questions on the test weren't any harder than the ones in the books. I had a lot of probability questions and honestly i had to guess on many of them. The mechanical part really covered basic principles, barely had to calculate anything.
Next step will be MEPS. Unfortunately I have to wait until March due to a recent c-section
My background is: 3.07 GPA in Business Administration, several years of admin work experience and two years enlisted in the Air Force.
Next step will be MEPS. Unfortunately I have to wait until March due to a recent c-section
My background is: 3.07 GPA in Business Administration, several years of admin work experience and two years enlisted in the Air Force.
Scimitarze
Automated Member
Howdy guys, just got back home from taking my ASTB in Austin. Despite fighting off allergy attacks all day yesterday and this morning, on top of screwing up the UAV portion something fierce, I was able to get a 57 7/6/6 on the first shot. I can't emphasize enough how much the posts in this thread and on the forum helped, and hopefully can help others preparing for the test as well. For background, I'm an International Politics Major/German Minor, but was a Chemistry major in Freshmen year, so it was more of relearning the math instead of learning it from new. Cumulative GPA should end up around a 3.8 by the time I graduate next semester.
In general, I was extremely lucky to have the test admin have a separate room for OAR/ASTB testers. I spent this morning trying to frantically find my package of orange soft earplugs, but they were unfortunately relocated without my knowledge. Going off of other write ups, it seems that the testing rooms can vary greatly between locations and I would definitely bring a pair just in case. Secondly, all of the posters that say you will do worse when stressed/anxious are absolutely right, if you are a heavy coffee drinker like I am, I recommend what @wangj231 did and keep the pretest caffeine to a minimum. I was a tad groggier than usual, but I'm glad I didn't try to comp that with more caffeine as my heart had no problems getting up there during the UAV and PBM portions. Anyways, here's how the sections broke down for me:
Math:
Started with an easy multiply a mixed number by a fraction word problem, but was soon given a complicated multi-step test average problem that I had to go back and correct myself a few different times on. Later on, only had an easy log question and then back to the word problems. Some of these included a multi-leg Distance/Rate/Time problem, and another one was equalizing two company rates (I had to guess on this one). Other than that, some outliers included a question asking me which function graph would be symmetrical along the origin (I picked y=x^2, it's been way too long since pre-cal for me) and one asking me about an infinite fraction series and its sum of 1.
Honestly, I was pretty down doing this part since I made more than a few mistakes leading to me draining time, eventually running out of time before being rolled into the reading section.
Reading:
Being a polisci equivalent, I've spent the last few years digesting extremely dry material, so studying for this section wasn't a big priority for me. I will say though that reminding yourself not to make assumptions and to only use the information in the passage (either a two sentence snippet or a whole paragraph over Navy regs) will stop your mind from wandering and second guessing yourself. I got booted out with 3 minutes remaining in this section.
Mech:
Honestly, this section is either you know it or you don't. My first few questions were simple things you can find in the flashcards, but after those I started getting questions that for example would've required converting to raw newtons. No long formulas and wordplay though, which kind of put me at ease (there was a resistance Q where it had me calculate the voltage giving me current and resistance though). I got kicked out of here with around 3 minutes left.
ANIT:
Another "you know it or you don't" section, so don't spend time dwelling on a question that you are trying to break down really hard. Reading the FAA handbook really helped me for this section and I can't recommend it enough since it breaks down concepts that might appear in this section. However, there was also a lot that I didn't know, even from going through the multiple guides found here. One example was asking me which war LtCmdr. Iforgothisname had his "extensive and highly complicated" dogfight in. One question over transponder codes was also on there, as well as a question about what would be affected if the pitot tube was blocked. I was booted out again with around 3 minutes to spare.
Personality:
This part will suck plain and simple. The only good thing about this is that the ASTB told me to stop being a pushover after throwing "Nobody listens to what you say" and "You are forgotten about in large groups" at over and over for more times than I can count.
UAV:
Went into this confident and came out of it feeling unsure and somewhat disappointed in myself. If you have test anxiety, it will come out on this part. I got really good at practicing the flashcards without the compass trick and decided to go ahead without it. Needless to say, I should've done it anyways. As stated above and all over this thread, this is a major portion of your performance scores, but I'm honestly surprised I was able to slide out a 6/6 on my SNA/SNFO scores with as many mistakes I made and how slow I sometimes was. I think it's also good to know that the test version and flashcard versions are a bit different in looks. The flashcards on here are less "noisy" and simple, while the test version has some shitty tent and polygon parking lots that looked like they were ripped from the files of a Sega Saturn game. To make things even more fun, you get shown your time it took to answer the question right or wrong, which can feed into some anxiety. With that being said: STAY CALM ON THIS PART. The most mistakes I made were when I was freaking out and started panicking. If I were to do it again (which I might) I would definitely take my time (not too much though) and confirm my visualizations with the compass trick.
PBM:
I'm not going to lie, other than the first dichotic listening part, I actually enjoyed myself and had fun on this part. For the listening, once again staying calm is key and I also recommend leaning as it reminded myself which side I was supposed to be listening for after a string. Also, I kept repeating "Odd Even" in my head while fingering the controls to make sure that I wouldn't forget which side is which. After the listening, you go into chasing the plane up and down with the throttle stick. There was a HUGE deadzone in my throttle that I can only assume is part of the test, as when I calibrated the throttle before the PBM, it was nice and snappy. A trick I used is to always keep moving the throttle in little increments in and out of the dead zone. The little plane that you're chasing too is a snappy little asshole so don't be afraid to really go for it sometimes, which is also seen in the joystick exercise next as well. The joystick had a deadzone, but not one nearly as bad as the throttle. Even though the last time I picked up a flight simulator was 10 years ago, my time bumming around arcades seemed to help me "get it" faster when it came to inverted controls. Putting them together was a shitshow, but a fun shitshow. With listening added, my order of priority was:
1. Listening
2. 2D Plane
3. 1D Plane, focusing mostly on listening and 2D, only catching the 1D Plane in my peripheral, since the color scheme is green, red, and yellow on solid black, which is pretty easy on the eyes. Coming finally to emergency situations, I didn't have to do this with listening, so I actually found it easier than the section before. I wrote down the procedures in big letters and positioned the scratch paper upright so I could look at it without turning my head. My dials were on the throttle stick (Saitek X52 btw), but I don't know if the stick and throttle can vary between testing centers. With fire and engine, it's either all the way up or all the way down, so I just spun the dials until they stopped moving and hit the clutch. Prop has you do 50% one dial and the other dial set to full, but the yellow middle margin is pretty forgiving so I wouldn't worry about accidentally overshooting the dial. However, be sure to "wake up" your dials. My first emergency had my dials already in the right spot so I had to move them down and up again to make the computer realize that I had it right, so make sure the lights on the gauges are lighting up before you hit the clutch.
All in all while I didn't get the best score and will probably have to retake it in the future, I'm pretty happy with my first shot. Here's some drive links below that I got from previous users in this thread that I mainly studied:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qHP7UgdlcG_8MWka5XnTuNGl4Q-hqL3b?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zCfQ7iTsFBRKJzH8shh2gs7SK15cv2sM?usp=sharing
Now off to get a beer and google the right person to shoot laser beams into my eyes.
In general, I was extremely lucky to have the test admin have a separate room for OAR/ASTB testers. I spent this morning trying to frantically find my package of orange soft earplugs, but they were unfortunately relocated without my knowledge. Going off of other write ups, it seems that the testing rooms can vary greatly between locations and I would definitely bring a pair just in case. Secondly, all of the posters that say you will do worse when stressed/anxious are absolutely right, if you are a heavy coffee drinker like I am, I recommend what @wangj231 did and keep the pretest caffeine to a minimum. I was a tad groggier than usual, but I'm glad I didn't try to comp that with more caffeine as my heart had no problems getting up there during the UAV and PBM portions. Anyways, here's how the sections broke down for me:
Math:
Started with an easy multiply a mixed number by a fraction word problem, but was soon given a complicated multi-step test average problem that I had to go back and correct myself a few different times on. Later on, only had an easy log question and then back to the word problems. Some of these included a multi-leg Distance/Rate/Time problem, and another one was equalizing two company rates (I had to guess on this one). Other than that, some outliers included a question asking me which function graph would be symmetrical along the origin (I picked y=x^2, it's been way too long since pre-cal for me) and one asking me about an infinite fraction series and its sum of 1.
Honestly, I was pretty down doing this part since I made more than a few mistakes leading to me draining time, eventually running out of time before being rolled into the reading section.
Reading:
Being a polisci equivalent, I've spent the last few years digesting extremely dry material, so studying for this section wasn't a big priority for me. I will say though that reminding yourself not to make assumptions and to only use the information in the passage (either a two sentence snippet or a whole paragraph over Navy regs) will stop your mind from wandering and second guessing yourself. I got booted out with 3 minutes remaining in this section.
Mech:
Honestly, this section is either you know it or you don't. My first few questions were simple things you can find in the flashcards, but after those I started getting questions that for example would've required converting to raw newtons. No long formulas and wordplay though, which kind of put me at ease (there was a resistance Q where it had me calculate the voltage giving me current and resistance though). I got kicked out of here with around 3 minutes left.
ANIT:
Another "you know it or you don't" section, so don't spend time dwelling on a question that you are trying to break down really hard. Reading the FAA handbook really helped me for this section and I can't recommend it enough since it breaks down concepts that might appear in this section. However, there was also a lot that I didn't know, even from going through the multiple guides found here. One example was asking me which war LtCmdr. Iforgothisname had his "extensive and highly complicated" dogfight in. One question over transponder codes was also on there, as well as a question about what would be affected if the pitot tube was blocked. I was booted out again with around 3 minutes to spare.
Personality:
This part will suck plain and simple. The only good thing about this is that the ASTB told me to stop being a pushover after throwing "Nobody listens to what you say" and "You are forgotten about in large groups" at over and over for more times than I can count.
UAV:
Went into this confident and came out of it feeling unsure and somewhat disappointed in myself. If you have test anxiety, it will come out on this part. I got really good at practicing the flashcards without the compass trick and decided to go ahead without it. Needless to say, I should've done it anyways. As stated above and all over this thread, this is a major portion of your performance scores, but I'm honestly surprised I was able to slide out a 6/6 on my SNA/SNFO scores with as many mistakes I made and how slow I sometimes was. I think it's also good to know that the test version and flashcard versions are a bit different in looks. The flashcards on here are less "noisy" and simple, while the test version has some shitty tent and polygon parking lots that looked like they were ripped from the files of a Sega Saturn game. To make things even more fun, you get shown your time it took to answer the question right or wrong, which can feed into some anxiety. With that being said: STAY CALM ON THIS PART. The most mistakes I made were when I was freaking out and started panicking. If I were to do it again (which I might) I would definitely take my time (not too much though) and confirm my visualizations with the compass trick.
PBM:
I'm not going to lie, other than the first dichotic listening part, I actually enjoyed myself and had fun on this part. For the listening, once again staying calm is key and I also recommend leaning as it reminded myself which side I was supposed to be listening for after a string. Also, I kept repeating "Odd Even" in my head while fingering the controls to make sure that I wouldn't forget which side is which. After the listening, you go into chasing the plane up and down with the throttle stick. There was a HUGE deadzone in my throttle that I can only assume is part of the test, as when I calibrated the throttle before the PBM, it was nice and snappy. A trick I used is to always keep moving the throttle in little increments in and out of the dead zone. The little plane that you're chasing too is a snappy little asshole so don't be afraid to really go for it sometimes, which is also seen in the joystick exercise next as well. The joystick had a deadzone, but not one nearly as bad as the throttle. Even though the last time I picked up a flight simulator was 10 years ago, my time bumming around arcades seemed to help me "get it" faster when it came to inverted controls. Putting them together was a shitshow, but a fun shitshow. With listening added, my order of priority was:
1. Listening
2. 2D Plane
3. 1D Plane, focusing mostly on listening and 2D, only catching the 1D Plane in my peripheral, since the color scheme is green, red, and yellow on solid black, which is pretty easy on the eyes. Coming finally to emergency situations, I didn't have to do this with listening, so I actually found it easier than the section before. I wrote down the procedures in big letters and positioned the scratch paper upright so I could look at it without turning my head. My dials were on the throttle stick (Saitek X52 btw), but I don't know if the stick and throttle can vary between testing centers. With fire and engine, it's either all the way up or all the way down, so I just spun the dials until they stopped moving and hit the clutch. Prop has you do 50% one dial and the other dial set to full, but the yellow middle margin is pretty forgiving so I wouldn't worry about accidentally overshooting the dial. However, be sure to "wake up" your dials. My first emergency had my dials already in the right spot so I had to move them down and up again to make the computer realize that I had it right, so make sure the lights on the gauges are lighting up before you hit the clutch.
All in all while I didn't get the best score and will probably have to retake it in the future, I'm pretty happy with my first shot. Here's some drive links below that I got from previous users in this thread that I mainly studied:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qHP7UgdlcG_8MWka5XnTuNGl4Q-hqL3b?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1zCfQ7iTsFBRKJzH8shh2gs7SK15cv2sM?usp=sharing
Now off to get a beer and google the right person to shoot laser beams into my eyes.
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