Hey, all, here's my two cents.
I took the ASTB on 11/26/18, the Monday after Thanksgiving, at 1000. Scores were
68 8/7/8. Applying for NFO.
Background
I'm a double major in Sociology and Mathematics finishing up my last couple quarters at university. I currently have a 3.14 cumulative GPA, but will hopefully finish off my schooling around a 3.3, or higher (I am retaking a class I tanked). My university grinds us pretty hard, so I'm used to tests. I have no prior flight experience, simulated or otherwise.
Studying
I studied for about two weeks using
this study book off of Amazon and reviewed it for about a week before my exam, focusing primarily on the aviation, nautical, and mechanical sections as I felt confident with the math and writing sections from my university background. I carefully read the sections on the
PBM so that I understood what would be asked of me during that phase of the testing. I really liked this book as it was relatively inexpensive, covered a good breadth of material at a reasonable depth, and, most importantly, it explained how each scored section was weighted. According to my book, your
AQR and
FOFAR scores are heavily influenced by how well you perform on the
MST, which was what mattered to me.
Additionally, I reviewed some online flash cards for the parking lot piece of the
PBM, but I cannot seem to find the link right now. Will update if I find it, though it was definitely floating around in one of the stickied threads.
Test Day
I had average sleep that night and I don't think I drank any coffee as I did not want to be jittery. I had a light breakfast and brought a few snacks with me (KIND bars). I arrived at my recruiting station early, so I spent about 15 minutes lightly reviewing the aviation and nautical sections. This helped immensely, but more on that later.
MST (Math Skills Test)
I saw a range of questions here including probability (dice), basic fractions, quadratic equations, systems of linear equations, a few word problems including rates (think two mechanics each fix a different number of cars per unit time, blah blah...), and some shitty exponents (numbers raised to fractional powers).
The computer ended the exam before my time elapsed, so I assumed it had gathered enough on me.
RCT (Reading Comprehension Test)
Almost every reading piece I received was some kind of Navy document, most likely taken from briefs, memos, and training manuals. Holy shit were those entries
dry. The questions asked were everything from straightforward to four versions of essentially the same sentence with its words in a different order to subtly change the meaning.
I sat this section for the full amount of time and I honestly questioned my ability to read and extract information at the end of it as sometimes the system would lag heavily when I submitted an answer and I'm wondering, "Did I fuck that one up? Is it wondering how dumb I am?"
MCT (Mechanical Comprehension Test)
I saw the usual range of questions discussed here on Air Warriors including pulley systems, guys jumping off boats onto docks (don't recommend that on small boats), blocks on ramps, shit falling out of the sky, and a few nuclear (conceptual) flavored questions. Oddly, I was asked one question about superconducting, which seemed a bit unusual based on the other questions I saw.
Unfortunately, I do not remember if I ran out the clock on this portion of the exam or it ended early.
ANIT (Aviation and Nautical Information Test)
I feel like I got off easy here. I had one history-type question that asked about a class of fighter plane from WW2. Other than that, it was a standard range of questions including, but not limited to, parts of the airplane such as the elevators, ailerons, and rudder, parts of a ship, including the beam, draft, and deck, and the standard layout of airports.
As I mentioned earlier, my light review of my book before the exam proved useful as I covered the aforementioned parts and then received multiple questions on those topics. Dumb luck.
NATFI (Naval Aviation Trait Facet Battery)
As was said by another posted, "You do not take the
NATFI, the
NATFI takes you." I moved through this section fairly quickly, doing my best to answer each pair of options by instinct. I did give some thought to some.
PBM (Performance Based Measures Battery)
I found this section challenging in a fun way. The fact that I am not going for pilot made it easy for me to relax a little during this section. The UAV section took me a bit of time to warm-up to, but felt dialed in after the first 8-10. My times were not particularly speedy, though.
The dichotic listening test was pretty straight forward. Tracking the plane in 1D (up and down) was also straight forward, but tricky. Tracking the plane in 2D (across the plane) was hard. Doing everything all together was madness, but oddly enjoyable compared to doing it all separately. I did the best that I could, but felt pretty all over the place.
Advice/Remarks
Looking back on my test experience, I strongly recommend that you should review everything, rather than be selective like I was. While most of the math questions asked were pretty simple, I hadn't done simple calculations in a while, so I was slower than I could have been, definitely botched one or two.
On the reading pieces I received, I let myself get bogged down in how dull they were and I did not study for the
RCT at all. DO NOT DO THIS. Even if it is just a little bit, review for this section. Success depends on being able to choose the
best answer and you will often be given answers that are similar. Practice on dry, shitty documents, wherever you can find them.
For the
NAFTI, just plug away by instinct. Don't let those questions bog you down or psyche you out, especially since they come right before the
PBM, and you want to be in a focused, but relaxed frame of mind for that.
For the
PBM, give yourself a few minutes to feel out your controls and understand how they handle and what condition they are in. Mine were somewhat loose, so I knew to expect that, but I did not notice until I was using them that the suction cups on the bottom of them did not work...
While studying, remember that understanding the ASTB and how its subsections work and are weighted as well as general test taking strategy will all be as important, if not slightly more important, than the amount of material you actually know. I am not saying to study or know less material, but that you should not neglect sharpening your test taking skills or understanding of the ASTB itself.
If your computer starts acting funny, lagging, or just being weird, don't let it phase you; just plug away at your section and grab your recruiter if it gets bad or crashes. Do not look for patterns in the kind of questions you get. Yes, it is a CAT system, but just focus on answering questions. I let this little behavior get the better of me during the
RCT and I think it negatively impacted my performance. I squared myself off moving into the next sections; you can, too.
And of course, get the best sleep you possibly can, eat some kind of breakfast, and avoid caffeine/energy drinks/stimulants if at all possible, especially if you know they make you jittery.
Anyway, if you made it this far, thanks for reading, and best of luck on your exam and with your package! You got this!
P.S. Yes, yes, no TL;DR. Just skim it, friend.
