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1,001 questions about the ASTB (post your scores & ask your questions here!)
- Thread starter edato
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Austin-Powers
Powers By Name, Powers By Reputation
Thanks man!
browntown
Member
How old are you? If you're not pushing the age limit, take your time with studying. I studied for probably 3 months in my spare time and it helped a lot (60 9/9/8), especially since I hadn't done anything math-related in years.
Your OAR score can be generated immediately after testing without doing the NATFI part yet, so that's not a factor for that part. So I'd say it's unlikely that's what sunk you overall, but maybe it had an effect on the ASTB portion.
Honestly this forum (and thread) is a goldmine of information. Take your time and don't rush into a retake unless there are age limit concerns.
Austin-Powers
Powers By Name, Powers By Reputation
I am 21 and I will do so. Thanks for your help guys, it means a lot.
rfitzpatrick321
New Member
I took the ASTB on Feb 14th and got a 63 8/7/8. I wanted to say thanks for all the help that this message board provided and allowed me to do well!
Tips for those who are taking the test soon: ( speaking from my experience)
Math: Algebra 2 is going to be the majority of what is on this test. There was also some Rate=Distance * Time problems. I was kicked out ( or rather finished) with about 25 minutes left so I was able to run through this pretty quick but the problems were hard. A lot of variable and numbers were involved. Studying for the GRE math section is a good reference point to do well and ensure that you aren't leaving anything major potential areas unstudied.
Reading: Do a few practice problems so you get the idea of what is going on but in the end there isn't a way to really study this section. The correct answer is the sentence that can be written using info derived from the given prompt alone ( don't bring in your own outside knowledge or intuition).
Mechanical: I studied physics in college so this section wasn't to rough for me but in general you want to focus on newtons laws and really understanding them. Levels are big. Pulley systems and gears were also common. Know basic electrical mechanics: voltage, current, resistance, capacitance.
ANIT: I read a lot on this message board that history was going to be a big part of this test but for me it wasn't. I was prepared with naval and aviation history but it didn't come up to much.( still study it because it still came up) I read the FAA pilots handbook and it was beyond helpful!!!! A HUGE majority of my questions came from reading this so I would 100% recommend reading this.
Personality test: It was hard to pick and very annoying because it felt so long but just get through it!
UAV Test: People will say use the compass trick but that often is fumbly and takes a long time. For me I did a lot of practice with different flash cards and just used a trick i read about on here. 1) determine where your north is. so if you if the arrow is pointing toward the bottom left corner then your north is to your back right. SO the back right parking lot is north 2) from there just use your knowledge of a compass to click the correct one. It takes some muscle memory to get good at this but just find your north and go from there is the fastest and most effective way. This test is also very stressful because it tells you right away if you got it correct or wrong with a noise and then tells you how long it took to click.
Spacial Appreciation: This part was very hard for me but just try to focus on what is going on in that moment. The listening wasn't to bad along and each throttle and joystick test along weren't so bad. It was once we started to do them all at the same time that it got much harder. IN general try and focus on the listening as the primary focus and then the throttle and joystick as secondary. WRITE DOWN THE EMERGENCY PROCEDURES. This part is easy enough if you just write down the emergency procedures.
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
For all those pilots out there, I have a question: My recruiter says that because my FOFAR score is higher than my PFAR I should put NFO as my first choice and Pilot as my second chance to increase my chances of being selected. Is this true, will my chances of being selected be hindered by putting pilot as my number one? Any feedback of advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!!
Tips for those who are taking the test soon: ( speaking from my experience)
Math: Algebra 2 is going to be the majority of what is on this test. There was also some Rate=Distance * Time problems. I was kicked out ( or rather finished) with about 25 minutes left so I was able to run through this pretty quick but the problems were hard. A lot of variable and numbers were involved. Studying for the GRE math section is a good reference point to do well and ensure that you aren't leaving anything major potential areas unstudied.
Reading: Do a few practice problems so you get the idea of what is going on but in the end there isn't a way to really study this section. The correct answer is the sentence that can be written using info derived from the given prompt alone ( don't bring in your own outside knowledge or intuition).
Mechanical: I studied physics in college so this section wasn't to rough for me but in general you want to focus on newtons laws and really understanding them. Levels are big. Pulley systems and gears were also common. Know basic electrical mechanics: voltage, current, resistance, capacitance.
ANIT: I read a lot on this message board that history was going to be a big part of this test but for me it wasn't. I was prepared with naval and aviation history but it didn't come up to much.( still study it because it still came up) I read the FAA pilots handbook and it was beyond helpful!!!! A HUGE majority of my questions came from reading this so I would 100% recommend reading this.
Personality test: It was hard to pick and very annoying because it felt so long but just get through it!
UAV Test: People will say use the compass trick but that often is fumbly and takes a long time. For me I did a lot of practice with different flash cards and just used a trick i read about on here. 1) determine where your north is. so if you if the arrow is pointing toward the bottom left corner then your north is to your back right. SO the back right parking lot is north 2) from there just use your knowledge of a compass to click the correct one. It takes some muscle memory to get good at this but just find your north and go from there is the fastest and most effective way. This test is also very stressful because it tells you right away if you got it correct or wrong with a noise and then tells you how long it took to click.
Spacial Appreciation: This part was very hard for me but just try to focus on what is going on in that moment. The listening wasn't to bad along and each throttle and joystick test along weren't so bad. It was once we started to do them all at the same time that it got much harder. IN general try and focus on the listening as the primary focus and then the throttle and joystick as secondary. WRITE DOWN THE EMERGENCY PROCEDURES. This part is easy enough if you just write down the emergency procedures.
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
For all those pilots out there, I have a question: My recruiter says that because my FOFAR score is higher than my PFAR I should put NFO as my first choice and Pilot as my second chance to increase my chances of being selected. Is this true, will my chances of being selected be hindered by putting pilot as my number one? Any feedback of advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!!
wnader
Member
The NRC will see you as being more competitive for NFO just because the FOFAR is one point higher. That being said, you have competitive scores for both so you should be fine with either. My NFO rating was higher but I went with SNA because I really wanted to be a pilot, and got the pro rec Y for it. Basically the choice is yours.
browntown
Member
I have a communications degree, didn't take any physics classes past the lowest level one in high school, and got a D in college algebra (which I took 7 years before the ASTB). I somehow managed to pull off a 60 9/9/8. You'll be fine. Study hard and don't get discouraged. The information in this forum is incredibly helpful. I also highly recommend brushing up on math and physics with Khan Academy.
Thank you for the encouragement, I found the information on this forum is incredibly useful. It's a big relief after hearing back from you. If you have any suggestion on anything feel free to throw at me.
FormerRecruitingGuru
Making Recruiting Great Again
It depends on what you’re applying for.
Hey everyone, just sharing my experience. Took astb today and scored a 60 7/6/7. First time taking it, and studied any and all material I could find on here for about 2 weeks. I also bought a book but honestly think digging through everything on these pages is way more helpful. I have a bs in biomedical engineering with 3.7 gpa, and a masters in chemical biology, and Applying for pilot. Recruiter tells me I’m competitive so hoping for the best!
FormerRecruitingGuru
Making Recruiting Great Again
Check out the previous aviation threads to find your answer.
Long time lurker, first time poster. Took the OAR on Tuesday and scored a 65. Really surprised and happy with my score because I truly thought I bombed the reading. I was more nervous for this exam than anything in my life and I wanted to share some details to try to make some non-STEM majors feel more confident going in. For those wondering, I am a political science major with a 3.42 GPA hoping to be selected SWO. (This is just my experience with the OAR)
Pre-exam: Starting out, I didn't even understand what D=R*T meant. I studied and researched a lot for this exam. As many people said before me, make sure you look through countless threads on this forum because they are invaluable to your success. I ordered the Trivium book which helped a lot in the mechanical comprehension portion but the math was just ok. DO NOT get the Mometrix book, it's a waste of money. Essentially, everything you need is right in this forum. I printed out every practice exam on AR and went over each question at least 3-4 times. I don't have a background in math or engineering so I focused most of my time understanding the concepts and making sure I could do any problem the exam threw at me.
Math: Every question I had, I had seen before one way or another. I had a couple probability problems, D=RT where one person was going 8 mph and had 6 miles left in a race and another person was going 10 mph and had 8 miles left - find the time between the two finishes, one log that was logx(√2)= 1/6, one multiplying matrices, perfect numbers, and how many cones can fit inside a cylinder (they give you the formulas). Know your exponent rules and system of equations. I didn't take the full 40 minutes and it kicked me out with 6-7 minutes left. The harder the questions get, the better you are doing.
Reading: Like I said before, the reading was pretty tough. The answers can go either way so I suggest reading the passage twice through then answering. One thing I wasn't aware of was the format of the answers. The test is just a passage and then A,B,C, and D. There's no "what's the main idea..." or "the topic of this passage is..." leading into the answers. Maybe I didn't know because I really didn't focus much on this section. I forget where, but someone mentioned writing ABCD on your scrap paper and eliminating answers which actually helped and made things less confusing. Time expired for me here.
Mechanical: This goes by really quick. Only three answers to choose from, which was nice. Honestly, I don't remember specific questions but I know I had to apply Newton's Laws a couple times. Make sure you focus on understanding pressure and pistons. Know how to get the Mechanical Advantage for all simple machines and know gears in and out. Ended on a nuclear question which I think is floating around in this thread somewhere.
Overall, I really think this exam is confidence and preparation. My goal going in was around a 50 and I got a score I didn't even think I was capable of. If anybody wants to pick my brain about the exam, I'd be happy to share more. Hopefully I get to meet all of you along the way.
Pre-exam: Starting out, I didn't even understand what D=R*T meant. I studied and researched a lot for this exam. As many people said before me, make sure you look through countless threads on this forum because they are invaluable to your success. I ordered the Trivium book which helped a lot in the mechanical comprehension portion but the math was just ok. DO NOT get the Mometrix book, it's a waste of money. Essentially, everything you need is right in this forum. I printed out every practice exam on AR and went over each question at least 3-4 times. I don't have a background in math or engineering so I focused most of my time understanding the concepts and making sure I could do any problem the exam threw at me.
Math: Every question I had, I had seen before one way or another. I had a couple probability problems, D=RT where one person was going 8 mph and had 6 miles left in a race and another person was going 10 mph and had 8 miles left - find the time between the two finishes, one log that was logx(√2)= 1/6, one multiplying matrices, perfect numbers, and how many cones can fit inside a cylinder (they give you the formulas). Know your exponent rules and system of equations. I didn't take the full 40 minutes and it kicked me out with 6-7 minutes left. The harder the questions get, the better you are doing.
Reading: Like I said before, the reading was pretty tough. The answers can go either way so I suggest reading the passage twice through then answering. One thing I wasn't aware of was the format of the answers. The test is just a passage and then A,B,C, and D. There's no "what's the main idea..." or "the topic of this passage is..." leading into the answers. Maybe I didn't know because I really didn't focus much on this section. I forget where, but someone mentioned writing ABCD on your scrap paper and eliminating answers which actually helped and made things less confusing. Time expired for me here.
Mechanical: This goes by really quick. Only three answers to choose from, which was nice. Honestly, I don't remember specific questions but I know I had to apply Newton's Laws a couple times. Make sure you focus on understanding pressure and pistons. Know how to get the Mechanical Advantage for all simple machines and know gears in and out. Ended on a nuclear question which I think is floating around in this thread somewhere.
Overall, I really think this exam is confidence and preparation. My goal going in was around a 50 and I got a score I didn't even think I was capable of. If anybody wants to pick my brain about the exam, I'd be happy to share more. Hopefully I get to meet all of you along the way.
Briannacaoili
Naval Reactors Engineer, OAR Tutor
In the figure above, the number of complete turns the vise handle must make to fully close the jaws is
14
16
18
20
They give the answer as 18, but wouldn't this be 16?
I know this post is old, but I found it while looking up this question and think it is important to point out that there is a typo in this question. According to the solution explanation for this question, it is supposed to read 2 1/4 inches for the gap width, which would correspond to the answer 18.
So, as the questions reads with 2", the answer would be 16 turns.